Ecosphere最新文献

{"title":"Building trust amidst barriers: Navigating social and policy challenges in California fire and fuel management projects","authors":"Jordan Thomas,&nbsp;Sierra Lyman,&nbsp;Richard Cobb,&nbsp;Nicholas Williams","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70722","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70722","url":null,"abstract":"<p>To mitigate the increasing threat of catastrophic wildfires in California, policymakers have emphasized the need to accelerate and expand treatment of vegetative fuels, particularly through prescribed burning. This study investigates the sociopolitical barriers that land managers encounter when implementing these treatments. While prescribed burns have proven effective in reducing vegetative fuel loads and lowering the risk of severe wildfires, their deployment is complicated by various regulatory, resource, and social challenges. Focusing on four counties in California's Central Coast Ranges—Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Marin, and Lake—we employ ethnographic methods, including participant observation and interviews with key stakeholders, to examine how these barriers manifest across different socio-ecological contexts. Our findings reveal consistent challenges, such as permitting delays, resource constraints, and public trust issues, yet also highlight unique regional strategies that land managers and communities employ to overcome these obstacles. By examining these adaptive approaches, this study provides insights into how collaborative practices, like community-based prescribed burns, can foster stakeholder trust and enable more effective and equitable fire management across California's diverse landscapes.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"17 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70722","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148753697","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":"The contribution of small trees to carbon stocks along a recovery gradient in the Amazonia","authors":"Luiz Antonio Soares Cardoso,&nbsp;Fernando Elias,&nbsp;Eduardo Queiroz Marques,&nbsp;Lorrayne Aparecida Gonçalves,&nbsp;Joice Nunes Ferreira,&nbsp;Erika Berenguer,&nbsp;Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira,&nbsp;Jos Barlow,&nbsp;Izildinha de Souza Miranda,&nbsp;Marcelo Tabarelli,&nbsp;Rodrigo Oliveira do Nascimento,&nbsp;Luiz Eduardo Oliveira e Cruz de Aragão,&nbsp;Gustavo Schwartz,&nbsp;Divino Vicente Silvério","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70724","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70724","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Most ecological knowledge about carbon recovery during natural regeneration in tropical regions has focused on individuals exceeding 10 cm in diameter. However, the contribution of smaller individuals to aboveground carbon (AGC) across successional gradients remains poorly quantified, despite their potentially substantial role during early stages of forest regeneration. While remote sensing technologies provide powerful tools for large-scale carbon monitoring, their effectiveness in capturing contributions from different size classes across successional gradients requires validation with detailed field data. To understand the role of individuals smaller than 10 cm in diameter in carbon recovery, we conducted two sets of analyses. First, we compared the contribution of small and large individuals along the successional gradient using 126 plots (0.25 ha each) distributed across 16 municipalities in the Eastern Amazon, Brazil. Second, we evaluated the sensitivity of remote sensing-based carbon estimates from the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (ESA CCI-AGB) to capture these variations across size classes and successional gradients. Smaller individuals played a key role in carbon stocks, storing up to 75% of the total carbon in early succession. This contribution declined to 50% after 10 years and to 18% after 25 years. At 10 years of regeneration, the mean total AGC stock was 24.3 ± 2.3 Mg C ha⁻¹ (mean ± SE), increasing to 41.5 ± 2.0 Mg C ha⁻¹ at 25 years, reflecting the progression of ecological succession. The ESA CCI-AGB estimates tended to systematically overestimate AGC stocks, with a mean error of approximately 39 Mg C ha⁻¹. Convergence with field-measured stocks was 33% when all individuals were included, compared with 29% when only large individuals were considered. Our findings highlight the crucial role of small individuals in AGC stocks, emphasizing the need to include them in carbon recovery estimates, especially in younger secondary forests that make up most of the Amazonian regrowth.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"17 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70724","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148704251","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":"Dune grass production is positively associated with marine nutrient subsidies on US Central Atlantic coast foredunes","authors":"Katya R. Jay,&nbsp;Lucas Parvin,&nbsp;Judith Quintana,&nbsp;Sally D. Hacker","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70723","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70723","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Resource subsidies, or the flow of energy across ecosystem boundaries, can influence community structure and function and act as important nutrient sources to less productive ecosystems, particularly in marine and coastal zones. Coastal dunes, connected to the nearshore through sandy beaches, likely depend on the delivery of marine subsidies to regulate the dune building biophysical feedback between vegetation and sand. Here we consider the role of marine subsidies to foliar nitrogen and dune grass production along the US Outer Banks coastline and ask: (1) Do macrophyte wrack biomass and composition, sand nitrate concentration, and dune grass production vary at local and regional scales? (2) Do dune grasses utilize marine-derived nitrogen (¹⁵N) and, if so, how does δ¹⁵N and %N vary across species, foredune profile locations, and islands? and (3) What factors, including macrophyte wrack biomass, sand nitrate, sand supply, and dune morphology, are important to foliar nitrogen (δ¹⁵N and %N) and dune grass production? We found that sand nitrate concentrations increased with latitude along the Outer Banks coastline but were unrelated to macrophyte wrack biomass. Dune grass δ¹⁵N was highest at the foredune toe and decreased landward, suggesting that grasses closer to the beach are using marine-derived nitrogen. Although dune grass %N content and production (density and biomass) did not vary across the foredune profile, they did increase with latitude. Moreover, sites with slightly negative shoreline change rates, steeper backshore slopes, and taller foredunes had greater sand nitrate concentration, foliar %N and δ¹⁵N, and dune grass production at the seaward side of the foredune. At the back dune, foliar δ¹⁵N and dune grass production were not correlated with sand supply or sand nitrates, indicating other factors at play on the landward side of the foredune. Given the important role of dune grasses in sand capture and dune building, any shifts in marine-derived nutrients from changes in ocean productivity or sand flux could have landscape-level consequences for dune building, coastal protection, and carbon storage services.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"17 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70723","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148704262","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":"Comparative foraging ecology of lynx and coyotes in three Gulf of Alaska national parks","authors":"Ellen Dymit,&nbsp;Kelsey Griffin,&nbsp;Ethan Morton,&nbsp;Julie Hower,&nbsp;Taal Levi","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70733","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70733","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Consumers exhibit varying degrees of dietary specialization, with foraging strategies shaped by both evolutionary history and local food availability. In boreal systems, Canada lynx are considered snowshoe hare specialists, whereas coyotes are classically generalist foragers capable of exploiting diverse resources. At the western periphery of the lynx's range in southwestern Alaska, these species co-occur across a mosaic of coastal and interior habitats that differ in prey community composition and landscape structure. We used fecal DNA metabarcoding to characterize and compare the diets of lynx and coyotes in three national parks containing both coastal and interior habitats. We quantified dietary diversity and feeding niche overlap to assess how habitat type influences foraging ecology, interspecific niche partitioning, and species occurrence. Lynx diets were consistently dominated by snowshoe hare, particularly in interior forests, but coastal lynx exhibited niche expansion to consume a wider variety of alternate prey including birds, rodents, and larger mammals, though notably not marine resources. Coyote diets were more diverse overall and included marine-associated prey in coastal areas. Coastal coyotes had the broadest dietary niche, with 55 unique prey taxa and the highest Shannon diversity (<i>H</i>′ = 3.14). Dietary overlap between lynx and coyotes was high in the interior (Pianka's <i>O</i> = 0.86) but lower in coastal habitats (<i>O</i> = 0.51), suggesting increased niche partitioning in coastal regions due to the higher diversity of available prey. These patterns are consistent with the facultative specialist hypothesis and indicate that coastal environments may incite dietary plasticity in both species, particularly in the typically specialized lynx. In addition, we observed highly patchy distributions of both predators in coastal habitats, suggesting that prey availability, dispersal barriers, and carnivore guild structure may constrain coastal occupancy. Our results highlight the importance of prey community structure and habitat context in shaping carnivore foraging strategies, range limits, and interspecific interactions across heterogeneous landscapes.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"17 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70733","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148704392","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":"Decadal effects of fuel treatments and annual grass invasion on sagebrush ecosystem carbon stocks","authors":"Seren H. Bagcilar,&nbsp;Benjamin Rau,&nbsp;Scott E. Shaff,&nbsp;Rory C. O'Connor,&nbsp;Lisa M. Ellsworth,&nbsp;Beth A. Newingham,&nbsp;Matthew C. Reeves,&nbsp;Madelon F. Case","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70729","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70729","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Fuel treatments are implemented across large spatial scales in sagebrush (<i>Artemisia</i> spp.) ecosystems of the US Intermountain West to limit wildfire risk and spread, but treatment effects on ecosystem carbon storage remain poorly understood. Fuel treatments can reduce aboveground carbon storage and may also influence belowground carbon storage either directly through disturbance (e.g., disruption of soil surface) or indirectly through altered plant community composition over time (e.g., increases in invasive annual grasses that can impact plant–soil feedbacks and thus soil carbon storage). We analyzed above and belowground carbon stock estimates before and 10 years after treatment to determine whether woody fuel treatments had measurable effects on ecosystem carbon storage in the Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project (SageSTEP) plot network, which includes both pinyon pine and/or juniper-encroached woodland sites and sagebrush-dominated shrubland sites. We also assessed whether cheatgrass (<i>Bromus tectorum</i> L.) invasion, which occurred throughout the study region, impacted soil organic and inorganic carbon storage in the top meter of soil. In woodland sites, prescribed fire and mechanical treatments reduced live tree carbon stocks by 87%–97% and tree litter carbon stocks by 92%–96% compared to starting values, and increased perennial herbaceous carbon stocks by 146%–169%. Prescribed fire also increased annual herbaceous carbon stocks seven-fold, while mechanical treatments increased shrub carbon stocks by 89% and coarse woody debris carbon stocks five-fold. In shrubland sites, prescribed fire reduced shrub carbon stocks by 66%. Mowing and woody herbicide treatments reduced shrub carbon stocks between 37% and 46% from pre-treatment levels, but changes did not differ from those in untreated controls. Belowground carbon stocks were unaffected by treatment, though additional change may occur over time if differences in perennial or annual vegetation are persistent. Regardless of treatment type, cheatgrass invasion correlated with decreases in deep (30–90 cm) soil organic carbon stocks in woodland sites and deep soil inorganic carbon stocks in shrubland sites. While fuel treatments have clear impacts on carbon storage aboveground, their effects belowground (where most dryland ecosystem carbon is stored) appear small compared to the impacts of cheatgrass invasion.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"17 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70729","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148753380","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":"Warming reduces the quality of forage resources in a Colorado meadow ecosystem","authors":"Kenna E. Rewcastle,&nbsp;Karin L. Rand,&nbsp;Case M. Prager,&nbsp;Taylor H. Ricketts,&nbsp;Nathan J. Sanders,&nbsp;Aimée T. Classen","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70718","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70718","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Rangelands provide ecosystem services that support approximately 30% of the human population. To maintain sustainable forage resources for animals in grasslands, it is essential to manage grazing pressures by adapting to changes in the quantity and nutritional quality of vegetation affected by climate change and subsequent shifts in plant interactions. To investigate how climate change and altered plant composition interact to impact forage quantity and quality, we conducted a field experiment involving warming and dominant plant removal treatments. We measured changes in the abundance and crude protein content of key forage species. Our results showed a 12% reduction in community-level protein content due to warming. In contrast, plant species removal and the interaction between warming and removal treatments had only minor effects on community-level crude protein content. Warming did not significantly affect the total abundance of palatable plant species, but it caused a decline in evenness in the forage plant community. Additionally, the relative cover of the high-value forage species decreased slightly, while low-quality forage species saw a modest increase under warming conditions. To prevent overgrazing and the long-term degradation of rangelands in a warmer world, managers may need to reduce livestock stocking rates if forage nutritional quality declines, even without a reduction in forage quantity. This study highlights how even a single aspect of global change, such as warming, can lead to significant losses in forage quality—an effect that is expected to worsen as these ecosystems continue to dry.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"17 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70718","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148704248","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":"Soil nutrients and microbial community resistant to patch-burn grazing in southwestern North Dakota","authors":"Jonathan W. Spiess,&nbsp;Caley Gasch,&nbsp;Devan Allen McGranahan,&nbsp;Torre Hovick,&nbsp;Marisol Berti,&nbsp;Benjamin Geaumont","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70727","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70727","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Patch-burn grazing uses the interactive effects of prescribed fire and herbivory to increase heterogeneity in aboveground ecosystem properties. Understanding how management that targets aboveground heterogeneity translates to soil properties and processes provides an important whole-system context for practitioners. In this study, we investigated how the combination of patch-burning and livestock grazing aligned with soil nutrients, decomposition activity, and microbial abundance and composition on semi-arid post-Conservation Reserve Program rangelands in southwestern North Dakota. We collected soil samples during the 2018–2020 summer grazing seasons in three patch-burn pastures grazed by cow-calf pairs and three patch-burn pastures grazed by sheep. In each year, we measured ammonium, nitrate, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, total carbon, and total nitrogen. In 2019 and 2020, we measured soil moisture, decomposition activity, and microbial abundance and community composition. We tested for differences between patches with varying time since fire, between grazer type, and between ecological sites using mixed-effect models with Tukey post hoc tests and ordinations with post hoc factor and vector fitting. There were no significant differences in any properties between cattle and sheep pastures. Measured nutrients and microbial abundances were not lower in recently burned patches than not yet burned or patches with three years since fire. Bacterial groups comprised the largest proportion of the microbial community across years, ecological sites, and times since fire. Soil moisture, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, total carbon, total carbon:nitrogen ratio, time since fire, and ecological site were significantly correlated with microbial community composition. The lack of negative responses in soil biota and properties under patch-burn grazing is promising for the continued use of these disturbances in low diversity rangelands.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"17 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70727","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148704249","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":"Large wood supports hydrologically variable floodplain environments and aquatic biodiversity","authors":"Hiromi Uno,&nbsp;Junjiro Negishi,&nbsp;Kentaro Morita,&nbsp;Osamu Kishida,&nbsp;Ellen Wohl","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70700","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70700","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Riparian vegetation and wood play crucial roles in enhancing spatial heterogeneity in rivers. Historical removal of large wood and cutting of streamside forests around the world have simplified rivers and substantially reduced aquatic habitat complexity. To understand how natural rivers sustain geomorphic and hydrologic complexity and support aquatic diversity, we carried out an interdisciplinary field study in a stream flowing through a natural forest in Hokkaido, Japan. We mapped a total of 631 large wood pieces, including 77 log jams, as well as 65 side channels (total 10.1 km) along a 9.2-km length of the main channel. More avulsions (channel divergence) and side channels were present in stream sections with a greater density of large wood and logjams. At flood stage, 90% of the side channels were inundated with through-flowing river water, while the other 10% remained disconnected from the main channel and harbored stagnant water. At base flow, only 20% of the side channels had flow from the mainstem river, 46% contained stagnant water, and 34% were dry. The cumulative areas of permanent, transient, and disconnected side channels were 20%, 9%, and 6% of the main channel area, respectively. We estimated the contribution of each habitat type with different hydrological regimes to the entire population of aquatic animals in the study area. The analysis demonstrated that 4 out of 11fish taxa, 5 out of 26 benthic macroinvertebrate taxa, 3 out of 3 plankton taxa, and 2 out of 2 amphibian taxa primarily utilized transient or disconnected channels. Furthermore, cohort analysis of the dominant fish <i>Salvelinus leucomaenis</i> showed that they exhibit ontogenetic habitat shifts from channels with transient flow as juveniles to channels with permanent flow, indicating the need for both types of habitats and for connectivity between these habitats. Our results demonstrate forms and processes characteristic of the mostly lost and forgotten baseline of rivers in Japan; how geomorphologically and hydrologically complex a natural river can be; and how aquatic organisms rely on such complexity. Large wood potentially plays important roles in sustaining such complexity, and further studies should investigate these mechanisms.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"17 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70700","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148704261","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":"Limited influence of nest site vegetation on female wild turkey survival during incubation","authors":"Nicholas W. Bakner,&nbsp;Allison C. Keever,&nbsp;Bret A. Collier,&nbsp;Michael J. Chamberlain,&nbsp;Bradley S. Cohen","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70728","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70728","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Resource quality in heterogeneous environments directly underlies individual fitness. Gallinaceous birds, such as female eastern wild turkeys (<i>Meleagris gallopavo silvestris</i>), face significant reproductive challenges, particularly predation risk associated with ground nesting. Ground vegetation provides concealment to incubating females but can also impede their ability to detect and escape predators; hence, females must balance the need for concealment with potential risks. We examined nest site selection relative to vegetative characteristics used by female wild turkeys to determine whether nest sites selected by females affected mortality risk during incubation. We monitored 1065 nests from 767 female wild turkeys between 2014 and 2023, documenting a 76% nest failure rate and a 24% mortality rate of females during incubation. Females selected nest sites characterized by lower tree density, increased ground cover, and greater visual obstruction relative to random locations. However, increasing ground cover was associated with lower daily survival during incubation. Daily survival during incubation for juveniles and adults was 0.99 (95% credible interval [CrI] = 0.992–0.999) and 0.99 (95% CrI = 0.993–0.999), respectively, which equated to an incubation survival rate of 0.90 (95% CrI = 0.789–0.964) for juveniles and 0.92 (95% CrI = 0.814–0.979) for adults. Together, these results indicate a trade-off in nest site selection, whereby females select nest sites with greater ground cover despite lower survival. Future research should explore factors affecting female survival during incubation, including behavioral adaptations and vegetative and landscape conditions such as understory structure at multiple spatial scales, habitat configuration, and availability to escape cover to better understand the dynamics of nest site selection and resultant fitness outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"17 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70728","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148704393","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":"Beyond branch lengths: A fuzzy theory of evolutionary distinctiveness","authors":"Carlo Ricotta,&nbsp;Sandrine Pavoine","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70541","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70541","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the face of accelerating biodiversity loss, conservation strategies require effective tools to identify species of high conservation priority. In this context, the index of evolutionary distinctiveness (ED), which quantifies the unique contribution of individual species to the overall phylogenetic diversity of a given assemblage, has played a pivotal role. In this paper, we propose a general mathematical framework for ED based on the notion of specificity, a type of non-probabilistic uncertainty derived from fuzzy set theory. This new perspective allows ED to be extended to other forms of distinctiveness, such as functional distinctiveness, provided that an appropriate pairwise (dis)similarity matrix between species is available. It also enables the development of new measures that capture aspects of species distinctiveness not accounted for by the ED index. Our formulation further connects species-level distinctiveness with traditional community-level metrics, such as alpha and beta diversity. We demonstrate how beta diversity, traditionally used to measure species turnover among sites, can be reframed as the average specificity of the sampled sites. Overall, linking ED to fuzzy specificity opens new directions for biodiversity measurement and conservation planning.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"17 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70541","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148704250","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}