Ecosphere最新文献

{"title":"Landscapes associated with Japanese encephalitis virus in Australia reflect the functional biogeography of waterbirds","authors":"Michael G. Walsh,&nbsp;Cameron Webb,&nbsp;Victoria Brookes","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70404","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70404","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), a zoonotic, mosquito-borne virus, has broad circulation across the Central Indo-Pacific biogeographical region (CIPBR) and has recently expanded dramatically within this region across southeastern Australia over the summer of 2021–2022. Preliminary investigation of the landscape epidemiology of the outbreaks of JEV in Australian piggeries found associations with particular landscape structure as well as ardeid species richness. The ways in which waterbird species from diverse taxonomic pools with substantial functional variation might couple with JEV-associated landscape structure were not explored, and therefore, key questions regarding the landscape epidemiology and disease ecology of JEV remain unanswered. Moreover, given the established presence of JEV within the CIPBR, the extent to which waterbird species pools in JEV-associated landscapes in Australia reflect broader regional patterns in functional biogeography presents a further knowledge gap, particularly with respect to potential virus dispersal via maintenance hosts. This study investigated waterbird species presence, ecological traits, and functional diversity distribution at landscape scale and how these aligned with confirmed JEV detections in eastern Australia and the wider CIPBR. The results showed that waterbird habitat associated with JEV detection in Australia in 2022 and more widely across the CIPBR over the last 20 years reflects a range of species representing eight families in four orders. Increasing waterbird functional diversity (trait-based mean pairwise dissimilarity) was associated with landscapes delineating JEV occurrence. However, after accounting for species richness, this association did not persist for Australia but did persist for the CIPBR as a whole. Only one individual trait, high hand-wing index, was consistently associated with species presence in these JEV-associated landscapes in both Australia and the broader CIPBR. This suggests that dispersal capacity among the waterbird species pools that dominate JEV-associated landscapes might be important. By taking an agnostic approach to JEV maintenance host status, this study indicates a relatively large, CIPBR-wide pool of waterbird families associated with JEV landscapes, challenging the narrow view that JEV maintenance is limited to ardeid birds. In addition, these findings highlight the potential for leveraging functional biogeography in high-risk landscapes across broad geographic extent to guide landscape-specific selection of species for JEV surveillance.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70404","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145317327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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}

{"title":"Monitoring at management scales: Multi-scale trend estimates for bird populations in the western United States","authors":"Jacy S. Bernath-Plaisted,&nbsp;Jennifer M. Timmer,&nbsp;Jessie Reese,&nbsp;Quresh S. Latif,&nbsp;Liza Rossi,&nbsp;Chris E. Latimer,&nbsp;Ian Abernethy,&nbsp;Sarah L. Bullock,&nbsp;Jay D. Carlisle,&nbsp;Melissa Dressen,&nbsp;Ryan L. Healey,&nbsp;Matthew McLaren,&nbsp;Christian Meny,&nbsp;Rebecca E. Newton,&nbsp;Allison Shaw,&nbsp;Matt C. Smith,&nbsp;Rob A. Sparks,&nbsp;Zachary P. Wallace,&nbsp;Chris White,&nbsp;Thomas B. Ryder","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70431","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70431","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Widespread declines in North American birds have elevated the need for proactive conservation planning and delivery to promote recovery. Long-term monitoring at large spatial and temporal extents has been critical to identifying declines, but there is also a need for monitoring designs that can track species at scales relevant to management activities, which often occur within smaller jurisdictions. We highlight Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR), a rigorous monitoring program in the western United States providing population estimates at multiple spatial scales from individual management units to state and region-wide. Additionally, we publicize the availability of program trend estimates to management professionals via the Rocky Mountain Avian Data Center (RMADC). Here, we explore contemporary IMBCR trends in three western states, Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming, and document the continued decline of grassland bird species as well as declines in common generalists. We also provide an example of spatial heterogeneity in trends among management boundaries and discuss potential applications of fine-resolution trend data, such as evaluating the effects of management. Finally, we provide an example application demonstrating the value of regional IMBCR trends in species prioritization efforts by state management agencies as a part of State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) revisions.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70431","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145317120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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}

{"title":"Extracting gradients from community data with multiple stressors and empty plots: A case study and simulations","authors":"Adrienne Kovasi,&nbsp;Bruce McCune,&nbsp;Sarah Jovan","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70394","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70394","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Ecological community data are used to infer levels of environmental stressors; for example, epiphytic lichen communities can be used to estimate levels of air pollutants. If stressors are so severe that the community of interest disappears altogether, then “empty” plots are recorded. The problem compounds when multiple environmental stressors strongly influence the community. We explore this problem using simulated data and a case study of epiphytic lichens in the Sierra Nevada mountains of the United States. This area experiences relatively high amounts of nitrogen (N) deposition that can suppress lichen communities, but this signal is confounded at high elevations where epiphytic lichens become absent. This combination of severe stressors interferes with extracting a lichen community gradient that corresponds with the air quality gradient for the full elevation range in this study area. We evaluated three general approaches: (1) methods of nonmetric multidimensional scaling that allow inclusion or exclusion of empty plots, (2) the “dummy species” method that populates empty plots with a consistent low abundance, and (3) bypassing problematic distance measures by nonparametric regression of the environmental parameter of interest (N deposition) against total abundance. In the simulated gradient, we added stressors at one or both ends of a dataset with a dominant environmental gradient to demonstrate the effect of extreme suppression of communities by environmental conditions. With lichen and simulated data that are “stressed” at one or both ends of the community gradients, Euclidean and Gower distances distorted the primary gradients in a circular manner that weakened relationships with environmental variables. This is similar to the “horseshoe effect” that is recognized as a problem in ordinations of ecological communities. If one excluded empty plots, ordination axes represented the underlying gradients better with quantitative Sørensen (Bray–Curtis) distance than with Euclidean and Gower distances, but this limits the scope of its application in bioindication. The distortion of environmental gradients can be revealed with ordination phase plots, a new method of projecting environmental gradients, whether linear or nonlinear, onto any community ordination space. The regression-based alternative to ordination extracted the strongest relationship between N deposition and lichen community data, and included empty plots.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70394","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145317369","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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}

{"title":"Food or family? How gut microbes respond to diet and phylogeny in two deer species","authors":"Katie L. Anderson,&nbsp;Lisa A. Shipley,&nbsp;Stephanie Galla,&nbsp;Morgan Calahan,&nbsp;Stephanie Berry,&nbsp;Stephanie Fern Hudon,&nbsp;Jennifer Sorenson Forbey","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70435","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70435","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Vertebrate herbivores require symbiotic gastrointestinal (GI) microbes to extract energy and nutrients from fibrous and sometimes toxic plant diets. Because GI microbes vary in their relative abundance, function, and degree of specialization, the microbial community depends on both the characteristics of plants consumed and the anatomical, physiological, and behavioral characteristics of the herbivore host. To tease apart the relative contribution of diet and herbivore phylogeny to the microbiome, we leveraged a unique study system in which mule deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) and white-tailed deer (<i>O. virginianus</i>) had been hand-raised from neonates to adulthood in identical conditions on a pelleted ration, then transitioned over 2 weeks in the spring onto natural plant diets as they foraged together in the same habitats across summer, then transitioned back onto the pelleted ration in late summer. We determined the plant composition and nutritional quality of the deers' diets using bite count techniques and analyzed 16S rRNA genes of their feces to determine microbial diversity and composition. Our experiments demonstrated that the GI microbial community of congeneric deer responded to characteristics of both diet and deer species. Alpha and beta microbial diversity and microbial composition differed when deer consumed the pelleted ration versus natural browse and varied with other dietary characteristics including plant diversity, composition of plant functional groups, and nutritional constituents. Microbial communities of the two deer species responded differently to dietary changes, but most strongly when deer selected different natural plant diets. Despite controlling early experience, innate behavior and physiological differences between species likely influenced the GI microbiome. Our findings underscore the potential disruption in GI microbial communities with rapid diet changes and the importance of diverse, high-quality forages for wild ruminants. A better understanding of how sympatric herbivores use the same available resources is crucial for predicting the consequences of increasing overlap in wildlife distributions with climate change and human disturbances.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70435","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145317045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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}

{"title":"Ancient sedimentary DNA shows more than 5000 years of continuous beaver occupancy in Grand Teton National Park","authors":"D. Nevé Baker,&nbsp;Darren J. Larsen,&nbsp;Emily Fairfax,&nbsp;Amelia P. Muscott,&nbsp;Beth Shapiro,&nbsp;Sarah E. Crump","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70420","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70420","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Beaver-based restoration is emerging as a cost-effective conservation and climate adaptation strategy, but efforts are constrained by limited knowledge of pre-colonial beaver distribution and their long-term ecosystem impacts. Here, we apply sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) techniques to investigate the history of beaver occupancy at three lakes in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, over the last ~10,000 years, as well as interactions with the local plant community. We document a dynamic history of beaver presence in two subalpine lakes (Taggart and Jenny Lakes) and demonstrate no history of beaver occupancy at the higher elevation alpine lake (Lake Solitude). Beavers were first detected at Jenny Lake around 7200 years BP and intermittently thereafter. At nearby Taggart Lake, beavers were first detected at ~5900 years BP and continuously from 5200 years BP onward. Vegetation metabarcoding revealed a shift in plant community coinciding with beaver establishment in these two subalpine lakes, as well as an increase in taxonomic diversity. These changes coincide with regional trends toward wetter conditions. Notably, beavers persist at Taggart Lake during inferred droughts, indicating a potential role in maintaining wetlands through extended periods of climatic stress. Our results demonstrate sedaDNA as a powerful, novel technique for reconstructing robust time series data of historical beaver occupancy dynamics.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70420","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145317003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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}

{"title":"Initial responses of songbird communities to forest reclamation on legacy surface mines","authors":"Rebecca N. Davenport,&nbsp;Christopher Barton,&nbsp;John Cox,&nbsp;Jacquelyn C. Guzy,&nbsp;Lauren Sherman,&nbsp;Jeffery L. Larkin,&nbsp;Todd Fearer,&nbsp;Steven J. Price","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70423","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70423","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Surface coal mining and subsequent reclamation efforts in the Appalachian Mountains, USA, transform the ecological characteristics of natural landscapes. The Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) is a mine reclamation method that emphasizes best management practices in forestry. FRA practices have demonstrated success in establishing native forests and accelerating natural succession on coal mines; however, no studies have empirically examined the effects of the FRA on bird communities. Our study aimed to assess the avian community composition within young forests reclaimed using the FRA after one decade of forest growth. Whereas traditional reclamation practices often support grassland avian guilds, we expected that the FRA would provide habitat for shrubland and young forest avian guilds. Moreover, we sought to determine whether FRA forests would contain known avian indicator species of the native forest land cover. In June 2022, we conducted point count surveys in high-elevation, red spruce-northern hardwood (RS-NH) forests in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern West Virginia, USA. Using Bayesian multispecies occupancy models, we assessed avian guild occupancy and species richness within two FRA forest age classes (2–5 years and 8–11 years). We also examined avian community composition within two older RS-NH reference age classes to predict the future avian composition within FRA forests if reclamation succeeds. We found that the FRA breeding bird community included all of the avian indicator species expected to inhabit a young RS-NH forest. These results suggest that after approximately one decade, legacy mines reclaimed using the FRA are progressing toward a native RS-NH forest that supports associated forest bird communities.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70423","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145272381","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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}

{"title":"Competition and soil microbe-mediated interactions following dieback of a dominant wetland plant","authors":"Joseph Johnston,&nbsp;Aaron E. DeVries,&nbsp;Rodrigo Diaz,&nbsp;Vinson P. Doyle,&nbsp;Tracy Elsey-Quirk,&nbsp;James T. Cronin","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70427","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70427","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Plant invasions can have important consequences for the soil ecosystem which, in turn, can affect interactions with other plant species and impose serious constraints on restoration efforts. In the Mississippi River Delta (MRD), USA, widespread dieback of the dominant wetland plant, <i>Phragmites australis</i>, was followed by the colonization of invasive <i>Colocasia esculenta</i> (taro) in many areas. We conducted a common-garden experiment to investigate the competitive interactions among taro and two <i>P. australis</i> lineages prevalent in the MRD, Delta and European invasive (EU), and the role of taro-soil microbes in mediating those interactions. Plant types were grown alone or together and crossed with a microbial treatment (sterilized or live taro-soil biota). After one growing season, we measured plant above- and belowground biomass. In the absence of taro microbes, Delta and EU had equivalently strong negative effects on each other's biomass and the biomass of taro; whereas, taro had only a small negative effect on the biomass of <i>P. australis</i>. However, taro-soil microbes had a strong legacy effect, reducing Delta and EU biomasses by 30%–33% and taro by 66% when plants were grown without a competitor. Interestingly, when Delta and EU were in competition, the taro-soil legacy resulted in EU being a better competitor—total biomass of Delta and EU was reduced by 90% and 68%, respectively, in comparison with no-microbe/no-competitor controls. Overall, the effects of competition and the taro-soil legacy on Delta and EU were determined to be additive. In contrast, taro microbes and <i>P. australis</i> competitors acted antagonistically to affect taro's biomass, resulting in only a 67% (with Delta) or 48% (with EU) reduction in taro biomass relative to experimental controls. We conclude that restoration of <i>P. australis</i> in the MRD may require manipulating the soil community to mitigate taro legacy effects and choosing the <i>P. australis</i> lineage that is the best competitor in the presence of plant–soil feedbacks.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70427","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145272380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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}

{"title":"A model-based assessment of anthropogenic disturbance on lotic macroinvertebrate assemblages","authors":"Darin A. Kopp,&nbsp;John L. Stoddard,&nbsp;Philip R. Kaufmann,&nbsp;Alan T. Herlihy,&nbsp;Ryan A. Hill,&nbsp;Meredith M. Brehob,&nbsp;Robert D. Sabo","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70361","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70361","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Traditionally, the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on biological assemblages are elucidated by comparing an assemblage observed at a site to one that represents a minimally disturbed state. Unfortunately, defining a minimally disturbed state is extremely challenging because of the extent of human disturbance. We use a national scale dataset and a model-based approach to assess how benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages at 1748 sites would change if common anthropogenic disturbances were removed from in-stream physiochemical variables. First, we used random forest models and current landscape data to predict physiochemical conditions and then infer abiotic condition in the absence of disturbance. Second, we combined these estimates with joint species distribution models to predict the assemblage that could occur in these undisturbed conditions. Random forest models explained 48%–75% of the variation in log-transformed total nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfate, chloride, and substrate diameter. Generally, nutrient and salinity concentrations were higher, and substrates were finer than predicted to be without disturbances. Using these physiochemical data, joint species distribution models, fitted to nine separate ecoregions, accurately explained genus richness (<i>R</i>² = 0.73–0.85) and composition (Jaccard similarity index = 0.48–0.55). Depending on the ecoregion, we found that genus richness could increase or decrease at 26%–61% of sites if disturbance was removed. For example, with anthropogenic disturbance, occurrence probabilities for Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera decreased at 5%–26% of sites, while occurrence probabilities for Mollusca and other noninsect, non-arthropod taxa increased at 5%–33% and 11%–24% of sites, respectively. Importantly, our innovative framework provides a foundation for evaluating the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on macroinvertebrate assemblages without identifying reference sites.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70361","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145228012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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}

{"title":"Metapopulation-scale resilience to disease-induced mass mortality in a keystone predator: From stasis to instability","authors":"Sarah A. Gravem,&nbsp;Bruce A. Menge","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70426","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70426","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Mass mortality from disease epidemics challenges the resistance and resilience of populations and communities. Assessing the impacts and consequences of such events is crucially dependent on long-term datasets. In 2013–2016, sea star wasting disease (SSWD) caused population-wide crashes of the archetypal keystone species, the sea star <i>Pisaster ochraceus</i>, along the North American west coast. We used two long-term datasets to assess the resilience of <i>Pisaster</i> populations to this perturbation in Oregon: a 16-year time series (2007–2023) of annual predation rate at seven sites and a 23-year time series (2001–2024) of density and size of <i>Pisaster</i> at eight sites. In spring 2015, a novel and massive <i>Pisaster</i> recruitment event occurred at all sites, averaging 3.00 ± 0.57 recruits m⁻² (±SE), an 8100% increase compared to Pre-SSWD. Elevated but spatiotemporally variable recruitment has persisted over the subsequent decade. As expected, SSWD drove predation rates to near-zero. This persisted for 3–8 years depending on site, and as of 2024, predation rates at two sites remain unrecovered. Before SSWD, population size structure was relatively stable, consisting mostly of large adults with virtually no recruitment. After the outbreak, density, average size, and biomass density declined at most sites, while SSWD persisted at low levels, averaging ~4% symptomatic per year. As of the Current period (2021–2024), density and biomass density had recovered at all sites and often overshot prior levels, but average body size recovered at only three of seven sites. However, the 2014 crash and the post-2014 recruitment events apparently destabilized the populations; density remains more variable among years at all but two sites. To test the return of populations to Pre-SSWD structure, we developed a novel ‘recovery index’ based on density and size structure and found that only half the sites had recovered. This index tests the classic “ball and cup” stability heuristic and suggests that the epidemic shifted the prior adult-dominated state into an alternate persistent state characterized by pulses of recruits and juveniles. However, the system is clearly recovering, and if a causal link exists between the adult crash and the recruitment boom, this metapopulation may be resilient to mass mortality.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70426","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145228014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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}

{"title":"Coordinated movements of multiple pied-billed grebes in association with an American alligator","authors":"Alexander S. Romer,&nbsp;Hannah O'Carroll,&nbsp;Edison D. Bonilla-Liberato,&nbsp;Frank J. Mazzotti,&nbsp;Sergio A. Balaguera-Reina","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70416","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70416","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Interspecific associations can arise when one species benefits from the presence or behavior of another, often during foraging. Here, we describe a previously undocumented behavioral interaction between pied-billed grebes (<i>Podilymbus podiceps</i>) and an American alligator (<i>Alligator mississippiensis</i>) in a freshwater wetland in South Florida. Across a ~10-min observation period, two grebes consistently followed behind an alligator, adjusting their speed and trajectory in concert with its movements and maintaining close spatial proximity. Although the grebes approached the alligator closely and repeatedly followed its trajectory, one bird exhibited a rapid escape response when the alligator turned and approached directly, indicating an active assessment of predation risk. This behavior aligns with nuclear follower foraging associations in other taxa, where follower species exploit prey flushed by a larger nuclear species. While grebes are not currently known to form such associations, this instance suggests that they may opportunistically do so, such as under favorable ecological conditions. The observation contributes to a growing body of work recognizing the ecological significance of facultative interspecific associations in shaping foraging behavior and predator–prey dynamics. We discuss possible explanations for the behavior and its placement within interspecific interaction frameworks.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70416","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145228010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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}