OecologiaPub Date : 2025-05-21DOI: 10.1007/s00442-025-05727-y
Haiyang Gao, Di Zhu
{"title":"Cropland encroachment on global protected areas and its national-level drivers.","authors":"Haiyang Gao, Di Zhu","doi":"10.1007/s00442-025-05727-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-025-05727-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cropland encroachment on protected areas (PAs) impedes the achievement of global biodiversity conservation goals. However, the extent and expansion of cropland in PAs as well as regional and protection level differences on timescale, and national drivers thereof remains unassessed. We analyzed the land cover composition of global PAs to identify cropland changes from 1985 to 2020 and visualized cropland encroachment degree of PA patches by calculating cropland grid density (CGD) which is defined as the amount of cropland grids per square kilometer. We further identified nations' economic and agricultural development indicators as the primary drivers of cropland encroachment through correlation analysis and GLM method. The results indicate that cropland encroachment on PAs occurs worldwide with significant different level at both regional and protection levels. In western Europe, southern Latin America, central Africa, and southern Asia, a proportion of PA patches have high CGDs. CGDs of Asia and Pacific, Europe and Latin America, and Caribbean PA patches declined, whereas the indices increased in Africa and West Asia. CGDs of PAs with high protection levels are lower than that of PAs with low protection levels. At the national scale, economic development, agricultural development level, and cropland encroachment degree show negative correlations, whereas positively correlated with poverty stress and rural population percentage. The optimal model suggests the GDP per capita, arable land and permanent cropland percentage are significant factors influencing cropland encroachment on PAs. This study highlights the challenges to balance agricultural development and ecological protection and call for a stricter protection on PAs.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 6","pages":"87"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144111489","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 : 2025-05-21DOI: 10.1007/s00442-025-05712-5
Yoko Wada, Keiji Iwasaki, Yoichi Yusa
{"title":"Effects of adult and egg predators on hatching plasticity of the pulmonate limpet.","authors":"Yoko Wada, Keiji Iwasaki, Yoichi Yusa","doi":"10.1007/s00442-025-05712-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-025-05712-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In response to predation threats during the embryonic period, prey from diverse taxonomic groups exhibit plasticity in their hatching timing. In theory, predators of adult prey, as well as predators of eggs or embryos, can influence hatching timing. Similarly, not only embryos but also parents of prey can regulate hatching timing. However, research on the influence of adult predators and adult prey on hatching timing in species with separate predators for adults and eggs remains limited. To the best of our knowledge, no study has investigated this phenomenon in marine invertebrates under natural conditions. In this study, we investigated the effects of life-stage-specific predators (i.e., adult and egg predators) on the hatching timing of the pulmonate limpet (Siphonaria sirius), which undergoes planktonic development on an intertidal rocky shore. The presence of adult predators before and after egg-laying did not affect the hatching timing. Furthermore, while the egg predators present before egg-laying did not influence hatching timing, those present after egg-laying accelerated it. The results indicate that embryos, rather than their parents, determine hatching timing in response to their own predation risk. This finding highlights a strategy in which organisms with planktonic development rely on embryonic plasticity to mitigate strong predation risks during the egg stage. To understand how predation risk shapes predator-prey dynamics, it is critical to identify how predators, specific to each life-history stage of prey (such as adult and egg), interact with prey at different life-history stages during key events like reproduction.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 6","pages":"86"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12095334/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144111490","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 : 2025-05-16DOI: 10.1007/s00442-025-05706-3
Corli Coetsee, Benjamin J Wigley, Steven I Higgins
{"title":"Do savanna trees mast? Phenological dynamics of flowering and fruiting in savanna tree species.","authors":"Corli Coetsee, Benjamin J Wigley, Steven I Higgins","doi":"10.1007/s00442-025-05706-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-025-05706-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A priori, it is not clear if masting should be expected in savannas and few studies have attempted to detect masting in savannas. We tracked the flower and fruiting phenology of 18 savanna woody species on a monthly basis in Kruger National Park for 8 years. We used multiple metrics to detect masting including phenological intensity and its CV, phenological volatility, synchrony and the proportion of failure years. Additionally, we used a process-based model of plant growth to test whether resource matching could explain the observed phenological behaviour. Overall, the measured masting metrics provided no unequivocal evidence for masting. For 4 of the 18 study species, the fruiting CV, synchrony and volatility were consistent with masting. The process-based model of plant growth could reproduce observed flowering and fruiting behaviour, suggesting that resource matching could explain the observed phenological behaviour of the species. We propose that future research should explore the possibility that masting may not be selected for in savannas due to the prevalence of generalist pollinators, dispersal agents and seed predators. Although masting does not appear to be a prevalent phenological strategy in savannas, we detected large between species variation in reproductive phenology, which is likely to have consequences for the trophic dynamics of the study system.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 6","pages":"85"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12084283/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144079340","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 : 2025-05-15DOI: 10.1007/s00442-025-05681-9
Phaedra Budy, Casey A Pennock, Sarah Messenger, Hunter Pehrson, Emily Adler, Gary P Thiede, Natasha R Christman, Byron C Crump, Anne E Giblin, George W Kling
{"title":"Rapid recovery of an arctic lake ecosystem from a pulse disturbance caused by thermokarst failure.","authors":"Phaedra Budy, Casey A Pennock, Sarah Messenger, Hunter Pehrson, Emily Adler, Gary P Thiede, Natasha R Christman, Byron C Crump, Anne E Giblin, George W Kling","doi":"10.1007/s00442-025-05681-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-025-05681-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Due to rapid climate change, arctic ecosystems are experiencing an increase in disturbances including localized land-surface failures caused by melting ground ice (thermokarst failures). These failures result in the mass transport of sediment and organic materials into surface waters, with the potential to dramatically alter aquatic ecosystem function and biotic interactions. We coupled direct comparisons and long-term data of a suite of abiotic and biotic variables in a thermokarst-impacted lake and nearby reference lake to assess the impacts of thermokarst failure. After the thermokarst failure and relative to long-term averages, water transparency was substantially reduced. We hypothesized there would be subsequent changes to lower trophic levels and profound declines in fish foraging efficiency. However, these characteristics were within the range of natural variability and/or rapidly recovered to values within the range of long-term variability. In addition, although there was limited evidence of taxa-specific changes, we did not observe any strong changes in the total relative densities, growth rates, or composition of the bacterioplankton and zooplankton communities, benthic macroinvertebrates, or changes in fish diet, that could be attributed statistically to the thermokarst event. In sum, the thermokarst disturbance had substantial effects on water transparency and some lower trophic levels, which surprisingly were not manifested in higher trophic levels. Overall, the lake ecosystem appeared resistant to thermokarst disturbance with rapid recovery within two years after the disturbance.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 6","pages":"82"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12081580/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144078723","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 : 2025-05-15DOI: 10.1007/s00442-025-05719-y
Joel Trexler
{"title":"Announcing winners of the Ehleringer and Hanski Prizes for outstanding papers published by student authors in Oecologia in 2023.","authors":"Joel Trexler","doi":"10.1007/s00442-025-05719-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-025-05719-y","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 6","pages":"83"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144079339","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 : 2025-05-15DOI: 10.1007/s00442-025-05704-5
Philippa R Alvarez, Rosalie J Harris, Alicia M Cook, Verónica F Briceño, Adrienne B Nicotra, Andrea Leigh
{"title":"Native Australian seedlings exhibit novel strategies to acclimate to repeated heatwave events.","authors":"Philippa R Alvarez, Rosalie J Harris, Alicia M Cook, Verónica F Briceño, Adrienne B Nicotra, Andrea Leigh","doi":"10.1007/s00442-025-05704-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-025-05704-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Heatwaves are becoming more intense and frequent. Plant photosystem thermal thresholds can vary with species, but also shift in response to environmental triggers. Both upper and lower thresholds can acclimate to repeated heatwaves through ecological stress memory, where prior exposure primes them for subsequent events. The extent to which acclimation to repeated heat stress events varies among environmental origin and/or species is unknown. Different acclimation strategies might reflect biome of origin, or may be species-specific. For 12 species from two contrasting biomes-extreme desert and benign coastal temperate-we investigated responses to two simulated heatwaves, via shifts in upper and lower critical temperatures of photosystem II, and the difference between these thresholds, thermal tolerance breadth (TTB). Biome of origin had no effect on thermal tolerance. Observed differences among species following heat events suggested two possible acclimatory strategies. In some cases, species increased thermal thresholds during the first heatwave, but at the cost of reduced thermal tolerance during the second heatwave, a sprinter strategy. Other species acclimated to the first heatwave and further increased thermal tolerance to a second heatwave, indicative of ecological stress memory, a marathoner strategy. Synthesis: these among-species responses to heatwaves could suggest distinct vulnerabilities and resilience to repeat heat stress events, with some species having limited capacity to tolerate consecutive heatwaves, possibly as the cost of acclimation is too great, with other species having the advantage of increased tolerance via stress memory, helping them survive future stress, at least in the short-term.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 6","pages":"84"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12081561/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144078227","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 : 2025-05-14DOI: 10.1007/s00442-025-05723-2
Guang-Jie Zhou, Eeva-Riikka Vehniäinen, Minna Hiltunen, Cyril Rigaud, Sami Taipale
{"title":"Effects of microplastics and natural particles on the aquatic invertebrate Daphnia magna under different dietary quality scenarios.","authors":"Guang-Jie Zhou, Eeva-Riikka Vehniäinen, Minna Hiltunen, Cyril Rigaud, Sami Taipale","doi":"10.1007/s00442-025-05723-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-025-05723-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Natural and synthetic particles co-occur in the aquatic environment. However, little information is available about the effects of natural particles on freshwater animals and how these effects differ from those of synthetic particles, especially under the scenarios of decreasing dietary quality and increasing cyanobacteria in the aquatic environment. Therefore, this study evaluated apical and molecular effects of polypropylene (PP) microplastics (MPs) and three natural non-food particles (i.e., kaolin, peat, and sediment) on the freshwater invertebrate Daphnia magna fed either a green alga or a mixture of green alga and cyanobacterium. After the 21-d chronic exposure of 10 mg/L PP when using the green alga Acutodesmus sp. as diet, the size of D. magna was significantly reduced, and the molting time was significantly extended compared with the control. However, the chronic effects of PP were masked when the cyanobacterium Pseudanabaena sp. was added to their diet. The natural particles kaolin, peat, and sediment posed insignificant effects on D. magna regardless of dietary quality. The expression of molting-related genes (e.g., ecr-a) and oxidative stress-related genes (e.g., sod2) was significantly upregulated in D. magna with the exposure of both natural and synthetic particles. The predicted no-effect concentration of PP was derived as 0.025 mg/L, raising concerns relating to their toxicity and risks in the contaminated aquatic environment. This study will improve our understanding of the effects and risks of natural and synthetic particles in freshwater environments, as well as facilitate ecoenvironmental authorities to make informed decisions on the appropriate management of MPs.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 6","pages":"81"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144079341","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 : 2025-05-08DOI: 10.1007/s00442-025-05724-1
Tingyue Yang, Lan Zhu, Dan Yu, Chunling Wang, Masami Fujiwara, Qinghua Cai, Huanzhang Liu
{"title":"Scale dependent niche conservatism in fish communities of the largest freshwater lake in China.","authors":"Tingyue Yang, Lan Zhu, Dan Yu, Chunling Wang, Masami Fujiwara, Qinghua Cai, Huanzhang Liu","doi":"10.1007/s00442-025-05724-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-025-05724-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Two major theoretical concepts of niche evolution lead to conflicting predictions in ecological studies: the competitive exclusion principle (CEP) predicts that closely-related species should be sufficiently divergent to coexist, whereas niche conservatism (NC) suggests that closely-related species should be more ecologically similar. Here, we test this conundrum by employing stable isotope ratios (δ<sup>13</sup>C, δ<sup>15</sup>N) to estimate trophic niches and test niche evolution in fish communities of Poyang Lake, central China. At a broad phylogenetic scale involving 57 species, we examined the relationships between trophic niche differences along genetic distances and tested phylogenetic signals. We found that trophic differences were positively associated with genetic distances when genetic distances were less than 0.24, showing strong phylogenetic signal, but not when larger than 0.24. We then focused on seven Cultrinae species coexisting at a local scale and compared trophic niche differences within and between sister species, closely-related species, and distantly-related species. We found that trophic differences between distantly-related species were significantly larger than those between closely-related species at a broad spatial scale, supporting NC. However, trophic differences between sister species were larger than those between closely-related species at a small local scale (individual sampling sites), suggesting the importance of CEP not NC. Hence, our findings suggest that niche evolution operates in a scale-dependent manner: in a phylogenetic scale (time scale), NC predictions were met well below a certain range, not above that range; at a spatial scale, CEP predictions were met for coexisting sister species, however the other species followed the NC predictions.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 5","pages":"80"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144006861","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 : 2025-05-06DOI: 10.1007/s00442-025-05722-3
Colin D MacLeod, Lien T Luong
{"title":"Risk of predation increases susceptibility to parasitism via trait-mediated indirect effects.","authors":"Colin D MacLeod, Lien T Luong","doi":"10.1007/s00442-025-05722-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-025-05722-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The presence of natural enemies can cause organisms to change habitat use, foraging behavior, and/or resource allocation in response to a perceived risk, responses that may come at the cost of other fitness-related traits. Since most species encounter multiple natural enemies in nature, defensive behaviors against one attacker may make the focal organism more vulnerable to attack by a different natural enemy. Anti-predator behaviors can lead to trait-mediated indirect effects, such as an increased risk of parasitism and vice versa. Few empirical studies have examined the response of a single focal species to the risk of attack by multiple species. Our experiments provided the cactiphilic fly Drosophila nigrospiracula with opportunities to prioritize either anti-predator (e.g., reduced activity) or anti-parasite behavior (e.g., increased activity) at the cost of increased infection or predation, respectively. We experimentally show that when flies were exposed to ectoparasitic mites, in the presence of predator (jumping spider) cues, flies incurred increased levels of infection compared to flies without predator cues. The mean infection prevalence increased by 80% and the infection intensity increased by 180%. However, the presence of parasite cues had no analogous effect on predation rates, which suggests that flies prioritized predation risk over parasite defense at the cost of increased infection. We provide empirical evidence that the presence of multiple threats can lead to trait-mediated indirect effects, with important consequences for host-parasite and food web dynamics, and the ecology of fear.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 5","pages":"79"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144032824","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 : 2025-05-05DOI: 10.1007/s00442-025-05710-7
Adrienne B Keller, Richard P Phillips
{"title":"Assessing carbon and nitrogen economics in temperate forests through the relationship between foliar nutrient resorption and root production.","authors":"Adrienne B Keller, Richard P Phillips","doi":"10.1007/s00442-025-05710-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00442-025-05710-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Plants both respond to and influence their immediate soil environment, which can yield divergent predictions regarding plant economics and trait coordination. Tree species with high foliar nitrogen (N) resorption efficiency (NRE)-an important N conservation strategy-may invest less carbon (C) belowground to acquire soil-derived N. This \"tree perspective\" hypothesis predicts a negative relationship between NRE and root production. Alternatively, high NRE reduces litter N concentrations, which can reduce soil N availability, requiring trees to invest more C belowground to get N. This \"soil perspective\" hypothesis predicts a positive relationship between NRE and root production. We test these hypotheses and then examine how NRE relates to foliar and litter N in three natural forests (~ 80-120-year-old trees; 12 species) and one common garden (~ 25-year-old trees; 9 species) in the eastern U.S. NRE was weakly and positively related to root production at the common garden, supporting our \"soil perspective\" hypothesis that litter-soil nutrient feedbacks drive a positive relationship between NRE and root production. There was no relationship between NRE and root production at the natural forest sites, providing no evidence for our \"tree perspective\" hypothesis, which purports that NRE is negatively related to root production given competition between roots and leaves for C. NRE was positively related to foliar N but negatively related to litter N, illustrating that NRE is an important physiological trait linking aboveground nutrient use with litter-soil nutrient feedbacks. These findings suggest that plant economics and the cost of soil N acquisition contribute to local-scale nutrient cycling in temperate forests.</p>","PeriodicalId":19473,"journal":{"name":"Oecologia","volume":"207 5","pages":"78"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144045444","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}