Ecosphere最新文献

{"title":"All you can eat: Artificial feeding sites affect large herbivores and their predator in a human-dominated landscape","authors":"Marco Salvatori,&nbsp;Claudia Pellegrini,&nbsp;Enrico Ferraro,&nbsp;Luca Roner,&nbsp;Alessandro Brugnoli,&nbsp;Federico Ossi,&nbsp;Francesca Cagnacci,&nbsp;Giulia Bombieri","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70368","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70368","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The re-expansion of large mammals in European human-dominated landscapes poses new challenges for wildlife conservation and management practices. Supplementary feeding of ungulates is a widespread practice with several motivations, including hunting, yet the known effects on target and non-target species have yet to be disentangled. According to optimal foraging theory, such concentrated food sources may attract herbivores and carnivores in turn. As such, feeding sites may skew the spatial distribution of wildlife and alter intra-and interspecific interactions, including predator–prey dynamics. Here, we investigated the use of ungulate-specific feeding sites by target and non-target species in a human-dominated and touristic area of the Alps, using systematic camera trapping. We assessed potential temporal segregation between roe deer and red deer at feeding sites and whether these concentrated artificial food sources influenced the occurrence and site use intensity of ungulates and wolves at the broader scale. We found that feeding site frequentation by roe deer was influenced by the presence of red deer, with a higher crepuscular and diurnal activity and a longer time span between visits at feeding stations strongly used by red deer, indicating potential temporal niche partitioning between the two ungulates. We also found that ungulates occurred with a higher probability at shorter distances from feeding sites and used sites with high human outdoor activity less intensively than less disturbed ones. Wolves' site use intensity was higher closer to feeding sites, indicating a potential effect of supplemental feeding sites on both prey's and predators' space use. Our results reveal side effects of artificial feeding sites, thus contributing to a more informed and evidence-based management, with high relevance especially in light of the considerable recovery of large mammals across anthropized regions of Europe and the popularity of artificial feeding of ungulates for hunting or recreational purposes. We thus advise limiting this practice in areas where large herbivores, predators, and humans closely coexist.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70368","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144832748","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":"Extremely large fires shape fire severity patterns across the diverse forests of British Columbia, Canada","authors":"L. Collins,&nbsp;K. Morrison,&nbsp;M. S. Buonanduci,&nbsp;L. Guindon,&nbsp;B. J. Harvey,&nbsp;M.-A. Parisien,&nbsp;S. Taylor,&nbsp;E. Whitman","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70364","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70364","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Warming and drying conditions are driving increases in wildfire size and annual area burned across the forests of British Columbia, Canada. The impact of increasing fire activity on these forests remains unclear as examination of concurrent changes to fire severity is lacking. Here, we assess how fire severity patterns change with the amplification of wildfire size across the bioregions of British Columbia using fire severity mapping from 1986 to 2021. First, we examine trends in extremely large fires (i.e., largest 5% of fires) and their influence on annual area burned; then we examine scaling relationships between wildfire size and fire severity to determine if extremely large fires are more severe than smaller fires. Extremely large fires explained much of the variation in annual area burned and accounted for a large proportion of cumulative area burned (33%–71%) across the study area. Consequently, shifts in the size of extremely large fires, which increased by an order of magnitude over our study period, have driven a substantial increase in annual area burned. Scaling relationships revealed that bigger wildfires consisted of larger and more homogenous patches of high-severity fire than smaller fires, resulting in a greater proportional contribution of high-severity fire to fire extent. Patterns in scaling relationships were qualitatively similar for all bioregions, indicating shifts in fire regimes are widespread across the province. Our results demonstrate that recent increases in the extremes of wildfire size across the forests of British Columbia have driven a sharp increase in area burned, which was associated with a disproportionate increase in the size and extent of patches of high-severity fire.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70364","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144832750","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":"Offspring number, size, and survival: State-dependent optimization of litter size in a long-lived capital breeder","authors":"Marwan Naciri,&nbsp;Jon Aars,&nbsp;Magnus Andersen,&nbsp;Marie-Anne Blanchet,&nbsp;Andrew E. Derocher,&nbsp;Marlène Gamelon,&nbsp;Øystein Wiig,&nbsp;Sarah Cubaynes","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70370","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70370","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Seventy-five years ago, Lack proposed that there should be an optimal clutch size shared by all individuals in a population and favored by natural selection, which maximizes the number of recruited offspring. While some studies support this “common optimum” hypothesis, others have shown that the optimal clutch size depends on maternal state (e.g., age and body condition, “state-dependent optimization”). These contrasting results suggest that the degree of state dependency might itself depend on the ecological context (e.g., capital vs. income breeding). Furthermore, almost all these studies were conducted on fast-living species and have ignored interdependencies among variables such as maternal age and condition. Here, we test whether females share a common optimal litter size or have a state-dependent optimal litter size in a slow-paced capital breeder, the polar bear (<i>Ursus maritimus</i>). To do so, we assess the influences of (1) maternal state on litter size, (2) maternal state and litter size on cub mass, and (3) maternal state, litter size, and cub mass on cub survival, using path analysis to account for interdependencies among variables and capture–recapture modeling to estimate cub survival. We use 34 years (1992–2025) of individual-based data from a polar bear subpopulation in the Svalbard region of Norway. In accordance with the state-dependent optimization hypothesis, litter size varied with maternal age and size. Middle-aged and sized females had the highest probability of having twins. Old and large females more often had triplet litters. Cub mass decreased with increasing litter size, whereas litter mass increased, meaning females with a large litter allocated more resources to reproduction. Cub mass in turn strongly predicted cub survival, indicating that offspring survival was traded against offspring number. In middle-aged and old females, productivity—the number of cubs surviving their first year—increased with litter size, in accordance with the state-dependent optimization hypothesis. Overall, our results are consistent with a state-dependent optimization of litter size in this large, slow-paced mammal producing small litters. State dependence of litter size may be more likely in capital breeders as the amount of energy available for reproduction is known in advance.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70370","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144832749","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":"Ephemeral vegetation drivers of occupancy dynamics of Mojave desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii)","authors":"Seth M. Harju,&nbsp;Scott M. Cambrin,&nbsp;Stefanie Ferrazzano","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70381","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70381","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Understanding the factors associated with the probability of a species occurring across the landscape has become a foundational component of wildlife management and monitoring. Static factors (e.g., plot characteristics that are consistent across time, such as topography or permanent woody vegetation) are often investigated, but changing vegetation factors may also drive apparent occupancy dynamics as energy-minimizing species respond to ephemeral changes in food resources. We analyzed the role of ephemeral forbs and grasses in the occupancy dynamics of Mojave desert tortoises (<i>Gopherus agassizii</i>), expecting higher occupancy when food plants (forbs) were abundant and lower occupancy when non-food plants (grasses) were widespread. We found that none of the static plot-level factors explained initial occupancy in the first year, but vegetation factors did influence interannual occupancy dynamics. Plots that were unoccupied in a given year were 14.4% less likely to become occupied in the following year for every 1% point increase in grass cover within the plot (i.e., a negative effect of grass cover on annual plot occupancy). Conversely, occupied plots were 72.5% less likely to become unoccupied in the subsequent year for every 1% point increase in the cover of forbs, and we unexpectedly found that occupied plots were 76.9% less likely to become unoccupied for every additional grass species present in the plot. However, credible intervals were wide, indicating strong but inconsistent patterns of ephemeral vegetation driving occupancy dynamics of Mojave desert tortoises.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70381","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144832751","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":"Harvest restrictions fail to influence population abundance","authors":"Steven M. Gurney,&nbsp;Sonja A. Christensen,&nbsp;Melissa J. Nichols,&nbsp;Chad M. Stewart,&nbsp;David M. Williams,&nbsp;Sarah L. Mayhew,&nbsp;Neil A. Gilbert,&nbsp;Dwayne R. Etter","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70358","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70358","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Evaluating changes in population abundance is essential to assess the efficacy of conservation actions. Antler point restrictions are a high-profile regulatory action aimed to advance male age structure in cervid populations, but there is a limited understanding of how restrictions affect population size and structure. Our study evaluated population-level effects of an antler point restriction on white-tailed deer (<i>Odocoileus virginianus</i>) abundance and sex and age composition using a before–after control–impact design. Antler point restrictions are intended to increase the abundance of legal-antlered deer, but the impact on the abundance of antlerless deer is less known. By limiting the harvest of yearling males, antler point restrictions may lead hunters to shift harvest toward antlerless deer, potentially increasing female mortality and reducing population fecundity. We conducted camera-trap surveys of deer in zones with and without antler point restrictions before and 3 years after the implementation of restrictions and used N-mixture models to estimate annual abundance by sex and age class. The restriction prohibited the harvest of antlered deer with fewer than four points on a single antler beam (i.e., on one side). Our results suggest that the restrictions did not influence population abundance of deer. The abundance of legal-antlered deer increased in both the restriction zone and the non-restriction zone (opposing predictions), as did the abundance of females, sublegal-antlered deer, and fawns (opposing predictions). Partial controllability, or a failure of the regulation to influence realized harvest, likely explains these results, since antlerless deer harvest did not change throughout the duration of our study while slight but insignificant changes in antlered harvest were observed in the restriction zone. Our results highlight potential limitations of antler point restrictions achieving desired effects for population reduction goals and the importance of independently evaluating conservation and management actions.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70358","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144811006","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":"Focused aquifer regeneration produced outsized gains for a threatened fish in a populated, dryland watershed","authors":"David A. Boughton,&nbsp;Haley A. Ohms","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70376","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70376","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A combination of groundwater pumping and shifting precipitation patterns is drawing down aquifer levels in many of the world's drylands and is predicted to generate widespread loss of perennial streamflows over the next few decades. This process broadly threatens freshwater biota, especially in arid and semiarid regions. Efforts to recharge aquifers and raise water tables could ease this threat, but usually focus on human needs. Here we argue that spatial patterns of groundwater recharge and pumping can be organized to improve river baseflows while sustaining human needs and examine a river where this strategy has been used for 30 years to restore perennial aquatic habitat and recover a valued native fish, the steelhead trout (<i>Oncorhynchus mykiss</i>). The way the strategy was implemented allows us to regard it as an experiment with positive and negative controls. Analysis of subsequent monitoring data shows that the strategy restored surface flows to a large portion of the river and that the steelhead trout successfully exploited this renewed habitat. Spawning activity in the experimental domain was 2.5× higher than in the negative control and matched the positive control. Average recruitment of various life stages of the fish was close to habitat capacity, despite considerable year-to-year variation. Recruitment by life stage was 3.2× to 8.5× higher in the experimental domain than in the negative control and reached 77%–91% of recruitment observed in the positive control. Recruitment of adult migratory steelhead, a primary goal of the pivot in aquifer management, nearly doubled relative to the historical scenario of complete aquifer overdraft. In this system, spatially focused aquifer regeneration produced outsized gains for a valued species and its aquatic ecosystem relative to constraints on human water use.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70376","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144809216","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":"Gene flow of small mammals is inhibited by highways and the urbanized habitat matrix in a large urban forest fragment","authors":"Thomas K. Stevens,&nbsp;Daniella Biffi,&nbsp;Austin S. Chipps,&nbsp;Amanda M. Hale,&nbsp;Dean A. Williams","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70343","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70343","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Urbanization dramatically modifies landscapes, fragments habitats, and is spreading rapidly. Urbanization can inhibit gene flow in a variety of species, but identifying the impact of specific landscape features on gene flow is difficult without prior knowledge of which landscape features may represent barriers to dispersal. We employed a landscape genetics approach to investigate the effects of urbanization on dispersal and gene flow in the swamp rabbit (<i>Sylvilagus aquaticus</i>), a forest-obligate species, within the largest urban forest fragment in the United States, the Great Trinity Forest (GTF) in Dallas, TX. We employed a range of spatially explicit genetic analyses to investigate how landscape features, such as roads and the urban matrix, influence dispersal. We used noninvasive techniques to obtain 367 swamp rabbit fecal DNA samples representing 80 individuals from 2019 to 2021. We used traditional population genetics approaches, including STRUCTURE, <i>F</i>_ST, and genetic spatial autocorrelation, to quantify genetic differentiation within our study population. We then employed a resistance to dispersal mapping landscape genetics approach to link observed genetic differentiation in swamp rabbits to specific landscape features. Global <i>F</i>'_ST (0.182) showed significant subdivision within the population, and spatial autocorrelation analysis showed that individuals were genetically more similar than expected at distances under 3000 m and less similar than expected at distances over 7000 m. An examination of the spatial relationships between isolation by distance (IBD) residuals and urban landscape features revealed that the urban matrix inhibited gene flow, and groups of individuals separated by large highways were less related than expected based on the population's IBD trend. Swamp rabbits in the GTF, a single large and continuous forest fragment, showed equivalent genetic differentiation to other small mammals in widely disparate habitat fragments, revealing that even the largest urban habitat fragments may be unable to conserve urban-avoiding species when they are bisected by highways and surrounded by a dense urban matrix.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70343","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144807528","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":"Effectiveness of temporal matching in ecological niche models: Insights for a low-dispersing species","authors":"Gonzalo E. Pinilla-Buitrago","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70328","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70328","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Ecological niche models, crucial for estimating the potential distribution of species under global change, can face reduced accuracy when the timing of occurrence data does not align with the environmental data. One solution is to ensure a close temporal match between the environment and the observation date. While this approach is typically recommended for highly mobile species, a few findings support its use for species with limited mobility, whose distributions may be responding to climate change via local population changes. Additionally, it remains unclear what specific temporal resolution could improve model performance. This study assesses the effectiveness of temporal matching for a species with low mobility, the Mexican small-eared shrew (<i>Cryptotis mexicanus</i>), by evaluating different temporal resolutions (one-, five-, and ten-year averaged environmental data) against the standard method (30-year). Occurrences between 1981 and 2010 were used for model training and cross-validation, while those outside this range were used for independent evaluation. To address the temporal bias in occurrence data, dates were assigned to all background points through geographic interpolation of observation dates of species that can be captured similarly to the shrew. Based on the omission rate of the independent evaluation occurrences, the approaches that matched environmental data performed better than the standard 30-year average approach, while the rest of validation metrics (for any temporal resolution) were not different. Visual inspection indicated that the geographic predictions resulting from time-matched approaches were as realistic as the one from the standard 30-year approach. The improved prediction of temporally independent occurrence data (not used in model training) with time-matched approaches underscores the practical advantage of this methodology for low-mobility species, enhancing model performance and geographic predictions, which may also improve forecasts for future environmental conditions. Additionally, this approach identifies a potential time lag between climatic changes and population responses in this species. Studies can select the optimal temporal resolution by exploring several or using available information about population responses to climate change.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70328","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145128873","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":"Using imaging spectroscopy and elevation in machine learning to estimate soil salinity in intermittently tidal wetlands","authors":"Germán D. Silva,&nbsp;Dar A. Roberts,&nbsp;Kristin B. Byrd,&nbsp;K. Dana Chadwick,&nbsp;Ian J. Walker,&nbsp;Jennifer Y. King","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70356","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70356","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Coastal soil salinization patterns are changing due to drought, sea level rise (SLR), and changing freshwater inflow. These changes are expected to impact coastal wetland plant health and ecosystem function, such as changes to biomass and productivity. These impacts have led to greater interest in how we monitor soil salinization across spatial and temporal scales. Remote sensing is a promising tool for estimating soil salinity at the spatial scales required for decision making by land managers. However, the development of a remote sensing estimation approach for wetland soil salinity must account for two factors: (1) the high spatial and temporal heterogeneity of coastal wetlands and (2) the fact that soil salinity is the result of multiple historical land use, hydrological, and geomorphic processes. In spring 2022, a combined airborne-field campaign, known as SHIFT, collected a weekly time series of airborne visible to shortwave infrared (VSWIR) image spectroscopy data. This dataset provides a unique opportunity to assess the application of fine spatial (5 m) and temporal (weekly) resolution VSWIR data to estimate root zone soil salinity; when combined with environmental variables such as elevation, these data can account for some of these factors. In this study, we utilized VSWIR and elevation datasets in a random forest regression to predict and map soil salinity in an intermittently tidal estuary, Devereux Slough, located in Santa Barbara County, California. The final model combined spectral indices with elevation to better capture soil salinity dynamics despite lower correlation (<i>r</i> = 0.85) than solely using elevation (<i>r</i> = 0.92). This research demonstrates the utility of remote sensing datasets, namely, elevation and the modified Anthocyanin Reflectance Index (mARI), for predicting root zone soil salinity in intermittently tidal coastal wetlands. These findings are an important step in advancing coastal remote sensing by creating a gridded salinity dataset that can be used for salinity monitoring and other coastal applications, such as modeling change in vegetation communities or ecosystems facing the impacts of climatic variability and change.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70356","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144782615","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":"Impacts of sequential and simultaneous coinfection by major amphibian pathogens on disease outcomes","authors":"Evelyn Faust,&nbsp;Tamilie Carvalho,&nbsp;Francisco De Jesus Andino,&nbsp;Jacques Robert,&nbsp;Timothy Y. James","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70365","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70365","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In natural environments, hosts frequently experience infections from multiple pathogenic species or strains, significantly influencing disease dynamics. Despite shared susceptible hosts and overlapping distributions, the impacts of coinfections by the two most threatening global amphibian pathogens, <i>Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis</i> (Bd) and Ranavirus (Rv), remain largely understudied. This study offers new insights into how simultaneous and sequential exposures to Bd and Rv influence disease outcomes in an amphibian host under controlled experimental conditions. Our findings reveal that the sequence and timing of pathogen exposure can lead to contrasting outcomes. Animals previously exposed to Rv displayed the highest mortality following Bd infection, whereas simultaneous exposure to both pathogens resulted in higher survival than single infections. These findings suggest that priority effects, driven by differences in the timing and order of pathogen exposure, can exacerbate disease severity in amphibian populations, particularly in communities with persistent, sublethal Rv infections. This study highlights the critical role of pathogen interactions in shaping disease dynamics and emphasizes the importance of integrating coinfections into wildlife disease management strategies to mitigate biodiversity crises in amphibians and beyond.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70365","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144782713","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}