OecologiaPub Date : 2025-01-04DOI: 10.1007/s00442-024-05657-1
Pascal Karitter, Emma Corvers, Marie Karrenbauer, Martí March-Salas, Bojana Stojanova, Andreas Ensslin, Robert Rauschkolb, Sandrine Godefroid, J F Scheepens
{"title":"Evolution of competitive ability and the response to nutrient availability: a resurrection study with the calcareous grassland herb, Leontodon hispidus.","authors":"Pascal Karitter, Emma Corvers, Marie Karrenbauer, Martí March-Salas, Bojana Stojanova, Andreas Ensslin, Robert Rauschkolb, Sandrine Godefroid, J F Scheepens","doi":"10.1007/s00442-024-05657-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-024-05657-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Rapid environmental changes across Europe include warmer and increasingly variable temperatures, changes in soil nutrient availability, and pollinator decline. These abiotic and biotic changes can affect natural plant populations and force them to optimize resource use against competitors. To date, the evolution of competitive ability in the context of changes in nutrient availability remains understudied. In this study, we investigated whether the common calcareous grassland herb Leontodon hispidus recently evolved its competitive ability and response to nutrient availability. We compared ancestors sampled in 1995 and descendants sampled in 2018 and applied a competition treatment in combination with weekly nutrient treatments (no fertilizer, nitrogen, phosphorus, and both). We found evidence for evolution of increased competitive ability, with descendants producing more vegetative biomass than ancestors when grown under competition. Furthermore, supplementing nutrients (especially N) reduced differences in competitive ability between ancestors and descendants, suggesting that nutrients are a limiting factor in interspecific competition, which could be linked to the decreasing nitrogen emissions into the atmosphere since the 1990s. Our study demonstrates rapid contemporary evolution of competitive ability, but also the complexity of the underlying processes of contemporary evolution, and sheds light on the importance of understudied potential selection agents such as nutrient availability.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 1","pages":"17"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11700050/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142927657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
OecologiaPub Date : 2025-01-04DOI: 10.1007/s00442-024-05644-6
Nicolas Joly, Andre Chiaradia, Jean-Yves Georges, Claire Saraux
{"title":"Individual variability in the phenology of an asynchronous penguin species induces consequences on breeding and carry-over effects.","authors":"Nicolas Joly, Andre Chiaradia, Jean-Yves Georges, Claire Saraux","doi":"10.1007/s00442-024-05644-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-024-05644-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Phenology is a major component of animals' breeding, as they need to adjust their breeding timing to match optimal environmental conditions. While the effects of shifting phenology are well-studied on populations, few studies emphasise its ecological causes and consequences at the inter-individual level. Using a 20-year monitoring of more than 2500 breeding events from ~ 500 breeding little penguins (Eudyptula minor), a very asynchronously breeding seabird, we investigated the consequences of late breeding on present and next breeding events. We found that individuals breeding later had reduced breeding success, lighter chicks at fledging, lower probability of laying a second clutch, and decreased parents' post-breeding body condition. Importantly, we found important cycling effects where delayed breeding during a given year led to significantly later laying date, lower breeding probability and lower breeding success when they breed during the next season, suggesting potential carry-over effects from one season to the next. To further understand the causes of such variability in phenology while earlier breeding is associated with better individual fitness, we aimed to assess intrinsic differences amongst individuals. We showed that the heterogeneity in breeding timing was partly fixed, the laying date being a significantly repeatable behaviour (17%), asking for more studies on heritability or early-development effects. This extensive study highlights the combined roles of carry-over effects and intrinsic differences on individual phenology, with important implications on breeding capacity through life.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 1","pages":"16"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142927661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Immigration hides the decline caused by an anthropogenic trap and drives the spectacular increase of a mobile predator.","authors":"Haruki Natsukawa, Giacomo Tavecchia, Óscar Frías, Fabrizio Sergio, Fernando Hiraldo, Guillermo Blanco","doi":"10.1007/s00442-024-05656-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-024-05656-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Accurate identification of decreasing trends is a prerequisite for successful conservation, but can be challenging when immigration compensates local declines in abundance. Here, we show that a potential declining trend driven by low vital rates was overridden and converted into a spectacular increase by massive immigration into the population of a semi-social raptor, the black kite Milvus migrans, breeding in a highly contaminated area near a major landfill. Immigration was promoted by a growing food-base of live prey, coupled with the attraction exerted by the progressive gathering of a large flock of non-breeders at the area, resulting in an \"attraction spiral\" that lured large numbers of breeders to settle into a contaminated population incapable of self-sustenance. Immigration was so prevalent that, in little more than a decade, over 95% of the original population was substituted by immigrants, which showed the enormous potential of immigration as a rescue mechanism. At the same time, immigration may hide cryptic threats, as shown here, and expose some species, especially group-living mobile ones, to rapid attraction to anthropogenic subsidies, whose potential role as evolutionary traps is well known. The dynamics exposed here may become increasingly common, affecting many other species in our growingly anthropogenic world. Our results remark the often overlooked importance of immigration in ecology, evolution, and conservation as a key player for population dynamics and their more realistic forecast.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 1","pages":"15"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142877721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
OecologiaPub Date : 2024-12-20DOI: 10.1007/s00442-024-05648-2
Meghan L Avolio, Sally E Koerner
{"title":"Seven years of chronic fertilization affects how plant functional types respond to drought, but not plant production.","authors":"Meghan L Avolio, Sally E Koerner","doi":"10.1007/s00442-024-05648-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-024-05648-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Nitrogen deposition continues to change grassland plant community composition particularly in more mesic systems; however, whether these altered plant communities will respond differently to other global change factors remains to be seen. Here, we explore how nutrient-altered tallgrass prairie responds to drought. Seven years of nutrient treatments (control, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and N + P) resulted in significantly different plant communities. Within this experimental context we imposed a 3-year drought followed by 3 years of recovery from drought. The response of plant functional types depended on the nutrient treatment. During recovery years, C<sub>4</sub> grasses recovered in the first year in all treatments but the N + P treatment, where instead annual grasses increased. These differential responses during recovery resulted in greater shifts in community composition in the N + P treatment compared with the controls. Despite the effects on community composition, we found no interaction between nutrient treatment and drought treatment on species richness or evenness and standing biomass during drought or recovery. We found drought induced shifts in plant functional groups led to the composition of previously droughted N + P plot becoming more dominated by annual grasses during the recovery years, likely creating a lasting legacy of drought.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 1","pages":"14"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142872570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
OecologiaPub Date : 2024-12-18DOI: 10.1007/s00442-024-05653-5
Colleen Smith, Nick Bachelder, Avery L Russell, Vanessa Morales, Abilene R Mosher, Katja C Seltmann
{"title":"Pollen specialist bee species are accurately predicted from visitation, occurrence and phylogenetic data.","authors":"Colleen Smith, Nick Bachelder, Avery L Russell, Vanessa Morales, Abilene R Mosher, Katja C Seltmann","doi":"10.1007/s00442-024-05653-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-024-05653-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>An animal's diet breadth is a central aspect of its life history, yet the factors determining why some species have narrow dietary breadths (specialists) and others have broad dietary breadths (generalists) remain poorly understood. This challenge is pronounced in herbivorous insects due to incomplete host plant data across many taxa and regions. Here, we develop and validate machine learning models to predict pollen diet breadth in bees, using a bee phylogeny and occurrence data for 682 bee species native to the United States, aiming to better understand key drivers. We found that pollen specialist bees made an average of 72.9% of their visits to host plants and could be predicted with high accuracy (mean 94%). Our models predicted generalist bee species, which made up a minority of the species in our dataset, with lower accuracy (mean 70%). The models tested on spatially and phylogenetically blocked data revealed that the most informative predictors of diet breadth are plant phylogenetic diversity, bee species' geographic range, and regional abundance. Our findings also confirm that range size is predictive of diet breadth and that both male and female specialist bees mostly visit their host plants. Overall, our results suggest we can use visitation data to predict specialist bee species in regions and for taxonomic groups where diet breadth is unknown, though predicting generalists may be more challenging. These methods can thus enhance our understanding of plant-pollinator interactions, leading to improved conservation outcomes and a better understanding of the pollination services bees provide.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 1","pages":"13"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11655600/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142854882","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
OecologiaPub Date : 2024-12-17DOI: 10.1007/s00442-024-05645-5
Jean-François Le Galliard, Malo Jaffré, Thomas Tully, Jean-Pierre Baron
{"title":"Climate warming and temporal variation in reproductive strategies in the endangered meadow viper.","authors":"Jean-François Le Galliard, Malo Jaffré, Thomas Tully, Jean-Pierre Baron","doi":"10.1007/s00442-024-05645-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-024-05645-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Anthropogenic climate change poses a significant threat to species on the brink of extinction. Many non-avian reptiles are endangered, but uncovering their vulnerability to climate warming is challenging, because this requires analyzing the climate sensitivity of different life stages and modeling population growth rates. Such efforts are currently hampered by a lack of long-term life-history data. In this study, we used over 3 decades of mark-recapture data from a natural population of the endangered meadow viper (Vipera ursinii ursinii) to unravel the patterns of temporal variation in reproductive traits, the local climatic determinants of inter-annual variation in reproduction, and the potential buffering effects of life cycle on population growth rate. We found significant inter-annual variation in body growth, gestation length, post-parturition body condition, clutch success, and offspring traits at birth, while reproductive effort showed little temporal variation. Temperature during gestation was the most critical factor, reducing gestation length and increasing both clutch success and post-parturition body condition. In contrast, neither air humidity nor global radiation affected reproductive outcomes. This population had a negative growth rate with minimal temporal variation, indicating a rapid decline largely independent of climatic conditions. Overall, the viper's life-history traits appeared to be buffered against temporal variation in climatic conditions, with this declining population potentially benefiting on the short term from rising local temperatures.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 1","pages":"12"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142838256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Urbanization-induced simplification of isotopic space in birds from a big Neotropical city.","authors":"Eduardo Guimarães Santos, Vinicius Tirelli Pompermaier, Gabriela Bielefeld Nardoto, Helga Correa Wiederhecker, Miguel Ângelo Marini","doi":"10.1007/s00442-024-05654-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-024-05654-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Among the many changes associated with the urbanization process, changes in resource availability can directly impact local wildlife populations. Urban areas suppress native vegetation and convert natural environments into impervious surfaces, modifying the composition and quantity of available food resources. Understanding the food requirements of species is crucial, mainly because it is one of the main elements that characterize their ecological niche and structure local communities. Our aim in this study was to assess the impact of urbanization intensity on the isotopic niche space of birds commonly found in urban areas of Brasília, the capital of Brazil, a big city in central Brazil with approximately 3 million inhabitants. By analyzing the δ<sup>13</sup>C and δ<sup>15</sup>N isotopic metrics of feathers from bird species found along a gradient of urbanization intensity, we evidenced a simplification but not a displacement of the bird assembly isotopic space due to urban intensification. Bird assemblage access similar food resources in the higher urban intensification areas, although less diversified than in lower urban intensification areas. In most cases, the response to urban intensification is more specific than convergent among guild members. The studied species maintain themselves in highly intensified urban areas by restricting, changing, and expanding their access to resources. The trophic dimension is one of the key components of the species' ecological niche, and understanding the urban intensification impacts on this dimension is essential for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services in cities.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 1","pages":"11"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142824113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
OecologiaPub Date : 2024-12-13DOI: 10.1007/s00442-024-05638-4
Elizabeth L Paulus, Peter M Vitousek
{"title":"Does manganese influence grass litter decomposition on a Hawaiian rainfall gradient?","authors":"Elizabeth L Paulus, Peter M Vitousek","doi":"10.1007/s00442-024-05638-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-024-05638-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Plant litter is a well-defined pool of organic matter (OM) in which the influence of manganese (Mn) on decomposition (both decomposition rate and the mix of compounds ultimately transferred to soil OM) has been clearly demonstrated in temperate forests. However, no similar study exists on grasslands and the effect of foliar Mn versus soil-derived Mn on litter decomposition is poorly known. We used a 5-month and 12-month field, and 10-month laboratory experiments to evaluate litter decomposition on the Kohala rainfall gradient (Island of Hawai'i) in areas with different foliar and soil Mn abundances, and on which a single plant species (Pennisetum clandestinum) dominates primary production and the litter pool. The chemical imaging analyses of decomposed litter revealed that Mn<sup>2+</sup> oxidized to Mn<sup>3+</sup> and Mn<sup>4+</sup> on grass litter during decompositions-hallmarks of Mn-driven litter oxidation. However, these transformations and Mn abundance did not predict greater litter mass loss through decomposition. These observations demonstrate that the importance of Mn to an ecosystem's C cycle does not rely solely on the metal's abundance and availability.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 1","pages":"10"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11638400/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142818358","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
OecologiaPub Date : 2024-12-10DOI: 10.1007/s00442-024-05650-8
Kylea Rose Garces, Torrance C Hanley, Ron Deckert, Allison Noble, Christina Richards, Catherine Gehring, A Randall Hughes
{"title":"Bacterial and fungal root endophytes alter survival, growth, and resistance to grazing in a foundation plant species.","authors":"Kylea Rose Garces, Torrance C Hanley, Ron Deckert, Allison Noble, Christina Richards, Catherine Gehring, A Randall Hughes","doi":"10.1007/s00442-024-05650-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-024-05650-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Plants host an array of microbial symbionts, including both bacterial and fungal endophytes located within their roots. While bacterial and fungal endophytes independently alter host plant growth, response to stress and susceptibility to disease, their combined effects on host plants are poorly studied. To tease apart interactions between co-occurring endophytes on plant growth, morphology, physiology, and survival we conducted a greenhouse experiment. Different genotypes of Spartina alterniflora, a foundational salt marsh species, were inoculated with one bacterial endophyte, Kosakonia oryzae, one fungal endophyte, Magnaporthales sp., or co-inoculated. Within the greenhouse, an unplanned herbivory event occurred which allowed insight into the ways bacteria, fungi, and co-inoculation of both endophytic microbes alters plant defense chemicals and changes herbivory. Broadly, the individual inoculation of the bacterial endophyte increased survival, whereas the fungal endophyte increased plant growth traits. Following the herbivory event, the proportion of stems grazed was reduced when plants were inoculated with the individual endophytes and further reduced when both endophytes were present. Across genotypes, anti-herbivore defense chemicals varied by individual and co-inoculation of endophytes. Bacterial inoculation and genotype interactively affected above:below-ground biomass and S. alterniflora survival of ungrazed plants. Overall, our results highlight the variable outcomes of endophyte inoculation on Spartina growth, morphology, phenolics, and survival. This study furthers our understanding of the combined effects of symbionts and plant multitrophic interactions. Further, exploring intra and inter specific effects of plant--microbe symbiosis may be key in better predicting ecosystem level outcomes, particularly in response to global change.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 1","pages":"9"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142807512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Increased temperatures could heighten vulnerability of an ant-plant mutualism.","authors":"Talita Câmara, Nathália Thais Cavalcante, Hiram Marinho Falcão, Esther Santana, Giselle Dos Santos Silva Teixeira, Xavier Arnan","doi":"10.1007/s00442-024-05646-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-024-05646-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mutualisms may be more or less sensitive to environmental conditions depending on the diversity and responses of the species involved. Ants frequently form mutualistic associations with plants bearing extrafloral nectaries (EFNs): the ants protect the plants from herbivores and receive food resources (i.e., nectar) in return. As ectotherms, ants are strongly influenced by temperature, and temperature shifts can affect ant-plant interactions in ways that often depend on species functional traits. In this study, we explored the influence of EFN size and leaf surface temperature on ant-plant interactions in a Caatinga dry forest in Brazil. We observed the ants visiting 14 EFN-bearing plant species at different times of day over 12 sampling months; we also measured leaf surface temperatures during these periods. We next quantified EFN size for 68 individuals from the 14 plant species. The observational data were used to characterize the heat tolerance of the attendant ant species (i.e., based on levels of foraging activity). We then evaluated the mutualism's degree of functional resilience using two indices: functional redundancy (i.e., the number of ant species interacting with a given plant species) and thermal response diversity (i.e., variability in the heat tolerance of the ant species interacting with a given plant species). We found that leaf surface temperature, but not EFN size, had an influence on mutualism functional resilience. As temperatures increased, both functional redundancy and thermal response diversity decreased. This result implies that warmer global temperatures could heighten the vulnerability of facultative ant-plant mutualisms, regardless of plant traits.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 1","pages":"8"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142801830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}