Ecological Applications最新文献

{"title":"Large, isolated trees have higher mortality than smaller trees in forest fragments across a tropical pastoral landscape","authors":"Cristina Barber,&nbsp;Jennyffer Cruz,&nbsp;Sarah J. Graves,&nbsp;Stephanie A. Bohlman,&nbsp;Pieter A. Zuidema,&nbsp;Gregory P. Asner,&nbsp;Aaron Carignan,&nbsp;Vicente Vasquez,&nbsp;Jodi Brandt,&nbsp;T. Trevor Caughlin","doi":"10.1002/eap.70046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.70046","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Agricultural tree cover is declining globally, including the loss of large, scattered trees that function as keystone structures. Understanding the drivers of agricultural tree loss could help prevent further declines. However, the drivers of agricultural tree mortality vary across scales, from individual trees to landscapes, complicating efforts to quantify mortality risk. We applied high-resolution remote sensing and multi-method occupancy models to test hypotheses of drivers of tree mortality in a pastoral landscape of Southwestern Panama. Our approach enabled us to identify individual tree mortality across a &gt;20,000 ha area, encompassing a wide range of land use intensity. Neighboring tree cover was the strongest predictor of mortality, with a higher probability of death for isolated trees relative to trees with many neighbors. Landscape-level covariates also predicted mortality risk, including higher mortality closer to roads and in parcels with larger area. These results implicate land use intensity as a primary driver of agricultural tree loss in our study area. At the individual tree level, we found that larger trees were more likely to die than smaller trees. Our study suggests that the trees with high ecosystem service value in a fragmented landscape—large, isolated trees—also face the highest mortality risk. Supporting agricultural practices that maintain trees in pastures is likely to decrease tree mortality in our study site, broadly representative of cattle ranching landscapes across Latin America. Our workflow could be implemented in other landscapes globally to prioritize agricultural tree conservation, paving the way for increased tree survival and improved ecosystem services.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"35 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144255935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Method matters: Comparing habitat- and process-based approaches for favorability assessment","authors":"Galen Holt,&nbsp;Georgia K. Dwyer,&nbsp;Rebecca E. Lester","doi":"10.1002/eap.70060","DOIUrl":"10.1002/eap.70060","url":null,"abstract":"<p>It is common to use environmental conditions combined with habitat delineations as proxies for ecological outcomes, such as inundation of particular wetland habitats as a proxy for vegetation persistence. An alternative is to include physical environmental conditions as drivers in process-based models that capture important events in a life cycle, thereby accounting for the environmental and biological conditions that enable those events to occur. Each approach has benefits and drawbacks and is likely to give a different assessment of the state of the target ecological responses. We modeled four iconic species of woody vegetation in the Murray–Darling Basin and considered two approaches to identifying areas favorable for each species: “habitat-based,” the area of inundation in wetland types associated with each species, and “process-based,” a model of the life cycle dependent on the amount, timing, and sequence of inundation and soil moisture. Calculating favorable area using inundation of identified wetland types in a habitat-based approach provided a fundamentally different assessment to using a small number of life-cycle processes (i.e., a process-based approach). Further, favorable areas often did not overlap in space, with many locations found to be favorable using one method but not the other. There may be useful information to be gleaned from comparing the two, such as identifying locations of possible contraction or expansion of the species in the future. However, it is clear that the two approaches are not equivalent and care is needed in selecting an appropriate method for a given application.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"35 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eap.70060","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144237724","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}

{"title":"Return of diversity: Wetland plant community recovery following purple loosestrife biocontrol","authors":"Stacy B. Endriss,&nbsp;Victoria Nuzzo,&nbsp;Bernd Blossey","doi":"10.1002/eap.70064","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.70064","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Spread of non-native species can be important drivers of biodiversity declines, leading to precautionary management based on assumptions that (1) non-native biota have negative impacts and are “guilty” of causing harm and (2) reducing a non-native species' abundance will reduce these negative impacts, in turn, benefiting native species. However, we frequently lack data to gauge both negative impacts of non-native species and success or failure of chosen management interventions to benefit native species. Addressing these knowledge gaps is critical to improving management outcomes for native species while maintaining public trust to sustain funding of management activities. Here, we investigated the response of <i>Lythrum salicaria</i> (purple loosestrife) and associated plant communities to implementation of biological control in more than 10 wetland sites in New York State for up to 28 years. Introduced to North America from Europe in the 1800s, <i>L. salicaria</i> is a prime example of a non-native species with a continent-wide distribution that could not be suppressed by mechanical and chemical treatments. In the 1980s, waterfowl biologists, wetland managers, and conservationists alike worried about the loss of diverse wetland plant communities associated with the rapid expansion of <i>L. salicaria.</i> In response, after careful assessments of safety, and potential costs and benefits, four highly host-specific insect herbivores were released in North America in the early 1990s to reduce <i>L. salicaria</i> abundance and its negative ecological impacts. In a companion paper, Blossey et al. documented reduced <i>L. salicaria</i> occupancy and stem densities following insect releases over time (i.e., biological success), irrespective of site-specific differences in starting plant communities or <i>L. salicaria</i> abundance. Here, we show that reduced abundance of <i>L. salicaria</i> leads to the ultimate goal of non-native plant management: increased cover, abundance, and diversity of species, often of native species (i.e., ecological success). We also conduct analyses to provide inference about which plant species are most sensitive to <i>L. salicaria</i>, including changes in <i>L. salicaria</i> stem density. Overall, we provide an important conservation success story: our findings emphasize that biocontrol of non-native plants can be effective and safe, allowing native species to recover as a dominant non-native species gradually declines.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"35 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eap.70064","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144232314","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}

{"title":"Estimating occupancy and nest survival of cliff-nesting raptors in an open population framework","authors":"Jeremy D. Mizel,&nbsp;Melanie J. Flamme","doi":"10.1002/eap.70051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.70051","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Nest survival is a key demographic parameter for assessing the viability of bird populations and is frequently responsive to management. While nest survival is often monitored alone, its joint monitoring with abundance permits a more thorough understanding of breeding productivity and the mechanisms of population change. However, nests are subject to a time-to-event process that presents a challenge for joint modeling of these processes. That is, availability for detection is conditional on nest survival until the survey occasion, which, if ignored, results in negatively biased estimates of nest abundance or presence/absence (breeding occupancy). Cliff-nesting raptor abundance and reproductive success have been the subject of intense conservation concern with the recognition of widespread population declines and manifold persecution. Inferences about changes in cliff-nesting raptor abundance and reproductive success are often based on the unadjusted occupancy rates and apparent nest success. Here, we developed methods for joint estimation of breeding occupancy and nest survival in these populations, thereby extending occupancy models to the case in which the occupancy states are subject to an explicit time-to-event process. Our approach accommodates false negatives in the occupancy data due to nest failure prior to the sampling occasions. A simulation study with varied detection probability, nest success, and Markov properties in occupancy showed our model to generally have low to moderate bias. We applied the model to data from American Peregrine Falcon (<i>Falco peregrinus anatum</i>) monitoring in Alaska (1987–2021) with conspicuous observer and stage-specific heterogeneity. Breeding occupancy increased over time while nest success decreased, suggesting potential density-dependent effects. Our approach will allow the discarding of the untenable assumption of constant detectability common to cliff-nesting raptor studies while also helping preserve spatial replication through more efficient sampling. The capacity to explicitly estimate nest success together with breeding occupancy should lead to improved understanding of breeding productivity and the mechanisms of population change.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"35 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144197372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Landscape heterogeneity and pesticide reduction favor predation, but also grape infestation by Lobesia botrana","authors":"Axelle Tortosa,&nbsp;Aude Vialatte,&nbsp;Fabien Laroche,&nbsp;Adrien Rusch,&nbsp;Martin H. Entling,&nbsp;Brice Giffard","doi":"10.1002/eap.70045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.70045","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Biological pest control is a major ecosystem service and is known to depend on landscape heterogeneity. The composition and configuration of landscapes can affect natural enemy communities, trophic interactions, and pest density within agroecosystems. However, local agricultural management can interfere with natural enemy activity, so the positive effects of landscape heterogeneity may be disrupted by farming practices. Here, we studied the influence of landscape context and management options on the biological control of <i>Lobesia botrana</i>, one of the main insect pests of grapes. We focused on two complementary measures: predation rates, which reflect part of biological control potential, and plant damage, which reflects pest density and the associated infestation. We used a set of sentinel prey (eggs, caterpillars, pupae) to quantify predation rates across different developmental stages of the pest. The study was carried out in a landscape-scale experimental set-up consisting of 38 vineyards in Southwestern France. Using structural equation models, we show that predation rates on sentinel prey were affected by both landscape heterogeneity and local management practices. Higher pest predation rates were observed in landscapes with smaller vineyards and in vineyards with low applications of synthetic pesticides. We observed limited relationships between predation rates and grape infestation levels. However, our results suggest that predation rates at the pest pupae stage are significantly shaping infestation levels. Additionally, pest damage in spring and summer was primarily influenced by the intensity of local pesticide use and the grass cover in the field and exacerbated by the decreasing size of vineyards, while semi-natural habitats had no effect on pest damage. We conclude that links between <i>L. botrana</i> infestation and biological control potential appear tenuous in our study region. This is likely due to the high local management intensity, as evidenced by the negative association observed between pesticide applications and predation rates. Nevertheless, both predation and infestation respond to landscape or field heterogeneity and pesticide use. Reducing the use of pesticides should be combined with multi-scale diversification measures at field and landscape levels to amplify the predation potential.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"35 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eap.70045","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144197496","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}

{"title":"Elevated fish growth yet postponed maturation during intense marine heatwaves","authors":"R. Claire Rosemond,&nbsp;Melissa A. Head,&nbsp;Scott A. Heppell","doi":"10.1002/eap.70033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.70033","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the last decade, the northeast Pacific Ocean has experienced new climatic extremes with the occurrence of several marine heatwaves (MHWs), prolonged periods of warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures, likely as a result of anthropogenic climate change. The temperature-size rule is used to contextualize the impacts of climate change on fish maturity and growth, and predicts earlier maturation, faster growth of juveniles, and smaller adult body sizes with increasing temperatures. We investigated the temporal dynamics of fish reproductive development, maturity, and growth from 2014 to 2021, during intense and less intense MHW conditions. We estimated length and age at 50% maturity with histological sections of ovarian tissue samples collected from 644 female Black Rockfish (<i>Sebastes melanops</i>) caught off the Pacific Coast of the United States (42° N–49° N) and estimated von Bertalanffy growth function parameters with length-at-age data for a subset of 302 females. During intense MHWs, maturation was postponed, reproductive success was lower by a third, and parasite prevalence in ovaries was nominally higher. Younger females were larger at age during intense MHWs, and throughout the last decade, growth rate coefficients were higher than what is typically expected for slower-growing fishes, like rockfishes. The increase in juvenile growth during intense MHW conditions may be explained by the temperature-size rule, but our observation of postponed maturation contradicts theoretical predictions. Our work reveals that MHWs can induce shifts in fish growth and maturation, but that the temperature-size rule may not provide an adequate framework to predict how increasing temperatures associated with climate change may influence reproductive development and maturity for fishes with complex reproductive strategies. An understanding of how anomalous environmental conditions interact with fish life histories may help predict population vulnerability, which will be critical for future fisheries management under climate change.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"35 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eap.70033","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144206730","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}

{"title":"Biotic resistance across a nutrient gradient in experimental wetland mesocosms","authors":"Clementina Calvo,&nbsp;Kenneth J. Elgersma,&nbsp;Deborah E. Goldberg,&nbsp;William S. Currie,&nbsp;Evan Batzer,&nbsp;Jason P. Martina","doi":"10.1002/eap.70029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.70029","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Anthropogenic degradation of wetlands often leads to regional biotic homogenization and reduced plant diversity. This reduction is often attributed to the proliferation and dominance of a few generalist, often non-native, species. Biotic resistance from natives can sometimes impede the growth and spread of colonizers, but its dependence on environmental conditions is poorly understood. Based on field and modeling studies, we tested the predictions that (1) biotic resistance declines at higher nitrogen loading and (2) size influences colonization success. In a five-growing season mesocosm experiment, we grew three cattail taxa: <i>Typha latifolia</i> (native, large), <i>Typha angustifolia</i> (non-native, invasive, smallest), and <i>Typha</i> × <i>glauca</i> (hybrid, most invasive, large) as potential colonizers in the presence or absence of pre-established resident vegetation. At two sites differing in climate and growing season length, biotic resistance treatments were crossed with 12 nitrogen levels (inflows 0–45 g N m⁻² year⁻¹). Each treatment combination was replicated twice, totaling 48 mesocosms per site. Without residents, colonizers (as total biomass of all three cattail taxa) persisted and expanded clonally across all nitrogen levels. However, their expansion was generally lower when colonizing a pre-established resident community compare to bare ground. The magnitude of biotic resistance, measured as the effect of residents on colonizers' biomass, and its interaction with nitrogen differed between sites. As predicted, biotic resistance decreased with high nitrogen at the northern site, but at the southern site, residents nearly eliminated colonizers. As anticipated, smaller <i>T. angustifolia</i> was a poorer colonizer than the other taxa, while <i>T.</i> × <i>glauca</i> was the strongest colonizer, especially under high nitrogen conditions where biotic resistance was minimal. Our findings partially support the hypothesis that biotic resistance declines with nitrogen loading, indicating that additional research on the factors influencing the magnitude of biotic resistance is needed. Importantly, when combined with our finding that <i>Typha</i> can persist at all nutrient levels when natives are absent, this information could help identify wetlands particularly vulnerable to invasion, especially in environments experiencing concurrent nutrient enrichment and disturbances that expose bare ground.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"35 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144206731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Decadal change in seabird-driven isotopes on islands with differing invasion histories","authors":"Penelope P. Pascoe,&nbsp;Mitchell Bartlett,&nbsp;Justine Shaw,&nbsp;Rowan Trebilco,&nbsp;Christine K. Weldrick,&nbsp;Holly P. Jones","doi":"10.1002/eap.70030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.70030","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Invasive mammal eradications are commonplace in island conservation. However, post-eradication monitoring beyond the confirmation of target species removal is rarer. Seabirds are ecosystem engineers on islands and are negatively affected by invasive mammals. Following an invasive mammal eradication, the recovery of seabird populations can be necessary for wider ecosystem recovery. Seabirds fertilize islands with isotopically heavy nitrogen, which means that nitrogen stable isotope analysis (δ¹⁵N) could provide a useful means for assessing corresponding change in ecosystem function. We quantified decadal changes in δ¹⁵N on eight temperate New Zealand islands subject in pairs to distinct mammal invasion and seabird restoration histories: invaded, never-invaded, invader-eradicated, and undergoing active seabird restoration. First, we investigated long-term changes in δ¹⁵N values on individual islands. Second, we used a space-for-time analysis to determine whether δ¹⁵N levels on islands from which invaders had been removed eventually recovered to values typical of never-invaded islands. On each island, soil, plants (<i>Coprosma repens</i>, <i>Coprosma robusta</i>, and <i>Myrsine australis</i>), and spiders (Porrhothelidae) were sampled in 2006/2007 and 2022, allowing δ¹⁵N change on individual islands over 16 years to be assessed. Combined, the samples from invader-eradicated islands provided a 7- to32-year post-eradication dataset. Change in δ¹⁵N was only detected on one island across the study period, following the unexpected recolonization of seabirds to an invaded island. Invader-eradicated islands generally had higher δ¹⁵N values than invaded islands; however, they were still lower than never-invaded islands, and there was no trend in δ¹⁵N with time since eradication. This, and the measurable increase in δ¹⁵N following seabird recolonization on one island, may suggest that δ¹⁵N change occurs rapidly following invader eradication but then slows, with δ¹⁵N values staying relatively constant in the time period studied here. Isotope and seabird population studies need to be coupled to ascertain whether plateauing in δ¹⁵N reflects a slowing of seabird population growth and subsequent basal nutrient input or whether the baseline nutrients are entering the ecosystem but then not propagating up the food web.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"35 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eap.70030","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144197281","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}

{"title":"Multidisciplinary monitoring and stakeholder engagement support large carnivore restoration in human-dominated landscape","authors":"Miha Krofel,&nbsp;Urša Fležar,&nbsp;Rok Černe,&nbsp;Lan Hočevar,&nbsp;Marjeta Konec,&nbsp;Aleksandra Majić Skrbinšek,&nbsp;Tomaž Skrbinšek,&nbsp;Seth Wilson,&nbsp;Bernarda Bele,&nbsp;Jaka Črtalič,&nbsp;Tomislav Gomerčić,&nbsp;Tilen Hvala,&nbsp;Jakub Kubala,&nbsp;Pavel Kvapil,&nbsp;Meta Mavec,&nbsp;Anja Molinari-Jobin,&nbsp;Paolo Molinari,&nbsp;Elena Pazhenkova,&nbsp;Hubert Potočnik,&nbsp;Teodora Sin,&nbsp;Magda Sindičić,&nbsp;Ira Topličanec,&nbsp;Teresa Oliveira","doi":"10.1002/eap.70052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.70052","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Translocations are central to large carnivore restoration efforts, but inadequate monitoring often inhibits effective conservation decision-making. Extinctions, reintroductions, illegal killings, and high inbreeding levels of the Central European populations of Eurasian lynx (<i>Lynx lynx</i>) typify the carnivore conservation challenges in the Anthropocene. Recently, several conservation efforts were initiated to improve the genetic and demographic status but were met with variable success. Here, we report on successful, stakeholder-engaged translocation efforts across three countries aimed to: (1) reinforce the Dinaric lynx population that was suffering from high inbreeding levels and (2) create a new stepping-stone subpopulation in the neighboring Southeastern Alps to help connect the Dinaric and Alpine populations. To evaluate the success of these efforts, we used multidisciplinary and internationally coordinated monitoring using systematic camera trapping, non-invasive genetic sampling, GPS tracking, recording of reproductive events and interspecific interactions, as well as the simultaneous tracking of the public and stakeholders' support of lynx conservation before, during, and after the translocations. Among the 22 translocated wild-caught Carpathian lynx, 68% successfully integrated into the population and local ecosystems, and at least 59% reproduced. The probability of dispersing from the release areas was three times lower with the soft-release method than with hard-release method. Translocated individuals had substantially lower natural mortality and higher reproductive success, while their ecological impact was similar compared to the lynx from the remnant population. Cooperation with local hunters and protected area managers enabled us to conduct multi-year camera-trapping and non-invasive genetic monitoring across a 12,000-km² transboundary area. Results indicate a reversal in population decline, as the lynx abundance increased for &gt;40% during the 4-year translocation period. Effective inbreeding decreased from 0.32 to 0.08–0.19, suggesting a twofold to fourfold increase in fitness. Furthermore, the successful establishment of a new stepping-stone subpopulation represents an important step toward restoring the Central European lynx metapopulation. Robust partnerships with local communities and hunters, coupled with transparent communication, helped maintain high public and stakeholder support for lynx conservation throughout the translocation efforts. Lessons learned about the importance of stakeholder involvement and multidisciplinary monitoring conducted across several countries provide a successful example for further efforts to restore large carnivores in human-dominated ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"35 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eap.70052","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144135600","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}

{"title":"Plant traits reveal that biotic resistance to invasibility is shaped by slope aspect","authors":"Sarah Kimball,&nbsp;Monica A. Nguyen,&nbsp;Jennifer L. Funk,&nbsp;Megan Lulow,&nbsp;Gregory Vose,&nbsp;Travis E. Huxman","doi":"10.1002/eap.70048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.70048","url":null,"abstract":"<p>During community assembly, species' traits interact with environmental conditions and influence biotic interactions. Learning how traits of non-native species enable them to successfully navigate these interacting biotic and abiotic filters informs invasion dynamics. Here we test how plant traits relate to invasion resistance under differing degrees of abiotic stress based on slope aspect in a large restoration project in Southern California. The site was dominated by non-native annual plants but was restored to coastal sage scrub and grassland with mixtures of native shrubs, grasses, and forbs on two different slope aspects. Abiotic filters may be stronger than biotic filters on slopes exposed to greater solar radiation (S-facing at our study site) resulting in decreased soil moisture and increased abiotic stress. We measured subsequent establishment and performance by the three most abundant non-native species (<i>Brassica nigra</i> in year 1, <i>Salsola tragus</i> and <i>Sonchus oleraceus</i> in year 3) on N- and S-facing slopes to investigate relationships between traits, abiotic environment, native community composition, and invasibility in the context of community assembly. We evaluated which measures of community functional diversity best predicted invader performance and tested whether relationships between invader performance and community-weighted trait values varied by slope aspect. Plots with slow-growing native shrubs contained less of the fast-growing invasive, <i>Brassica nigra</i>. Invasibility was greatest in native communities restored with native grass and on N-facing slopes. Correlations among individual species traits indicated strong biotic filtering, but only in certain environments. For instance, the abundance of <i>Phacelia cicutaria</i>, a native annual with traits similar to <i>Brassica nigra</i>, was negatively correlated with that invasive on N-facing slopes. Community-weighted trait metrics were also related to invasibility and differed by slope aspect, though relationships varied based on specific functional trait, community-weighted trait measure (mean or dispersion), and invader. The native functional group most effective at preventing invasion (native shrubs) was different from the species that most prevented invasion (native forb). In restoration planning, functional groups and individual native species traits may be more predictive of invasion resistance than community-weighted trait metrics. Combining perennials with an under-story of fast-growing annuals worked well to prevent invasion by non-native annuals. Understanding the role of lifespan effects in biotic filtering is essential for interpreting complex community-weighted trait responses to environmental variation across space and time.</p>","PeriodicalId":55168,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Applications","volume":"35 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eap.70048","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144135602","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}