Acta Oecologica-International Journal of Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Effects of simulated nitrogen deposition on the decomposition of leaf litter and release of nutrients in a cold temperate coniferous forest in the Jiaozi Snow Mountains National Nature Reserve in southwest China","authors":"Jiyou Yuan ,&nbsp;Yirong Su ,&nbsp;Yun Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104079","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104079","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The decomposition of litter is a key process of nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. It is an important part of the global carbon budget and deeply affected by the global atmospheric N deposition. However, the effects of different forms of N addition on litter decomposition and nutrient release are unclear in a cold temperate coniferous forest in a subtropical Chinese plateau. Three N sources (NH₄)₂SO₄, NaNO₃, and NH₄NO₃ were used in the gradient N deposition method. Each N source was divided into four treatments, which included the CK (control 0 kg N·hm⁻²·a⁻¹), low N (low-N 5 kg N·hm⁻²·a⁻¹), medium N (medium-N 15 kg N·hm⁻²·a⁻¹), and high N (high-30 kg N·hm⁻²·a⁻¹). The results showed that the average residual rates of dry matter in the leaves litters treated with (NH₄)₂SO₄, NaNO₃, and NH₄NO₃ were 41.78 %, 48.56 %, and 38.78 % after two years of decomposition, respectively. After two years, the litter decomposition rates of low and medium NH₄NO₃ treatments were the quickest compared with the control, while those of the high and low treatments of NaNO₃ were the slowest. Under the same N deposition conditions, the litter decomposition rates of low N treatments were higher than high N treatments. The order of litter decomposition rates was NH₄NO₃ &gt; (NH₄)₂SO₄ &gt; NaNO₃. N deposition promoted the release of nutrient element C in the litter leaves but slightly increased the contents of N and P. The changes in P over time were more complex than those of C and N. Greater amounts of C, N, and P were released in litter leaves than those that were enriched. These results indicate that treatment with N can promote the decomposition of leaves in the litter leaves and thereby release C, N, and P as nutrients in a cold temperate coniferous forest on a subtropical Chinese plateau.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55564,"journal":{"name":"Acta Oecologica-International Journal of Ecology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104079"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143835274","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"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":"Competition for resources: What factors lead honey bees to outcompete other insect competitors?","authors":"Hossam F. Abou-Shaara","doi":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104077","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104077","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The foraging activity of managed honey bees, <em>Apis mellifera</em>, is crucial for collecting food supplies for colonies. Beekeepers place their colonies temporarily in selected flowering areas for the pollination of specific crops (e.g., almonds) or for the production of valuable bee products such as honey and pollen, or for both purposes. However, competition between honey bee foragers and other flower-visiting insects can arise in these chosen areas. This rivalry can have a negative impact on the efficiency of honey bees as pollinators and reduce productivity from colonies. Various factors can help forager bees temporarily overcome their competitors during the blossom period. Understanding these factors is crucial for optimizing foraging efficiency to ensure high productivity from colonies or achieve targeted pollination efficiently. This mini-review examines recent literature on resource competition between honey bees and other flower-visiting insects, as well as related topics on honey bee foraging behavior on floral resources. It aims to explore and discuss the key factors that enable honey bee foragers to temporarily outcompete other rivals. The article underscores the importance of landscape structure, honey bee subspecies, and colony health in managing floral resources. Moreover, it highlights the critical role of colony numbers and their distribution. Considerations regarding the behavioral plasticity of honey bees in response to other floral visitors have been discussed, alongside the examination of favorable foraging conditions. This article provides a valuable overview of the management of honey bee foraging ecology, identifying knowledge gaps and suggesting future research avenues.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55564,"journal":{"name":"Acta Oecologica-International Journal of Ecology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104077"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143823332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"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":"No need for niches in new ecology","authors":"C.J.M. Musters ,&nbsp;Geert R. de Snoo","doi":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104075","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104075","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The concept of ‘niche’ has been extensively used to explain ecological patterns. However, the concept has been defined differently and is continuously under discussion. Does the concept truly help ecology become the predictive science we urgently need to stop the decline of biodiversity? To find an answer to this question, we discuss recent developments in ecological thinking based on agency, information, and complexity.</div><div>The ecological agent, usually referred to as an organism, continuously and autonomously decides how to act based on processing information that it collects from within—its experience and current state—and from its environment. The collective decisions of all organisms in a community together result in ecological patterns. These patterns may not always align with the patterns that humans perceive in the environment. This new approach to ecology implies a non-deterministic view of ecosystems, which are constantly changing at all levels of scale.</div><div>Community ecology would become an explanatory science if it could predict ecological patterns based on the information available to organisms and how these decide to act based on that information.</div><div>We argue that the concept of the niche is tied to traditional thinking rooted in a deterministic worldview about static ecosystems, which includes a fixed distribution of organisms in space and time. In the new ecological approach, the niche is no longer useful for accurate predictions of ecological patterns. However, we believe that new developments in machine learning – AI - may be helpful, given the vast amount of information involved in these predictions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55564,"journal":{"name":"Acta Oecologica-International Journal of Ecology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104075"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143746662","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"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":"Rainfall influences plant richness and predicts birds phylogenetic signal in bird-fruit interactions across the globe","authors":"Luís Paulo Pires ,&nbsp;Adriano Marcos da Silva ,&nbsp;Paulo Vitor Alves Ribeiro ,&nbsp;Camila Teixeira ,&nbsp;Wesley Dáttilo ,&nbsp;Celine de Melo","doi":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104074","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104074","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Interactions between frugivorous birds and plants derive from current ecological contingencies and species’ evolutionary history, yet disentangling the relative role of these drivers in assembling biotic communities is challenging. As species usually inherit functional traits from a common ancestor, the interactions between fruit-eating birds and plants may show strong phylogenetic signals (i.e. closely related bird species share similar plant partners). However, we are still largely unaware of how climatic factors may influence the phylogenetic signals in bird-fruit interactions. Here, we investigated whether higher precipitation and temperature (i.e. higher primary productivity), together with climatic stability (i.e. lower precipitation and temperature seasonality), increase plant richness and promote stronger phylogenetic signals of both birds and plants. We found annual rainfall and temperature stability predicted plant richness. Birds phylogenetic signal was associated with mean annual precipitation, but the phylogenetic signal of plant species was not associated with any climatic predictor. We suggest that higher rainfall facilitates the coexistence among frugivorous birds by providing more fruits, which allows closely related birds to use similar resources. Understanding how ecological and evolutionary contingencies act to shape bird-fruit interactions at large spatial scales may help us predict macroecologial patterns that generate and maintain biodiversity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55564,"journal":{"name":"Acta Oecologica-International Journal of Ecology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104074"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143686680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"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":"What do we know about seed dispersal by Carnivorans in Brazil?","authors":"Amanda Zica Calixto ,&nbsp;Fernando A.O. Silveira ,&nbsp;Rodrigo Lima Massara","doi":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104073","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104073","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Seed dispersal plays a key role in resource provision and climate regulation, yet this interaction is threatened by habitat fragmentation, species loss and population declines. Carnivoran mammals contribute substantially to ecosystem functioning through various roles such as predators, but their role as seed dispersers is not well-understood. We assessed the state-of-knowledge and identified gaps regarding seed dispersal by omnivorous Carnivora that occur in Brazil. A systematic literature review was conducted to examine Carnivora–fruit interactions across four stages of the dispersal loop, namely: 1) frugivory and diet; 2) seed passage through the digestive tract; 3) patterns of seed deposition; and 4) their impact on seedling establishment. Based on 53 papers we found that three species (<em>Cerdocyon thous</em>, <em>Nasua nasua</em> and <em>Potos flavus</em>) concentrated more than 60 % of the studies, with the remaining eight species received less attention. Studies were largely concentrated in the Atlantic Forest, in most populated urban areas, with no studies conducted in the Pantanal biome. Still, large areas remained unexplored. Despite increasing interest in Carnivora–fruit interactions in the last years, only one study addressed the four stages of the dispersal loop, preventing us to compare seed dispersal effectiveness across species. Carnivorans interacted with 132 plant species, dispersing seeds from 0.35 to 340 m, with average seed germination of 48 %. We discussed potential explanations for the identified knowledge gaps and propose ways to fill this biodiversity shortfall, emphasizing the need for more comprehensive studies to establish a robust foundation of the role played by Carnivora in seed dispersal ecology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55564,"journal":{"name":"Acta Oecologica-International Journal of Ecology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104073"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143686681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"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":"Should I stay or should I go? Comparison of movement patterns of a flightless bush-cricket in sparse versus dense grassland","authors":"Szabolcs Varga ,&nbsp;Zoltán Kenyeres","doi":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104072","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104072","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We investigated the movement patterns of a large-bodied flightless bush-cricket, <em>Isophya costata,</em> occurring in a site that had an area of mainly short sparse grasses and an adjacent area of mainly taller grass with complete cover. In each of the two types of grassland, 10 males and 10 females were released and followed for 15 days. The field data showed that the grassland type did not significantly affect the daily movement activity of females; they moved 6–7 m/day in both types of habitat. However, the daily movement of males was significantly higher (11–12 m/day) in the short grassland patches than in tall patches (6 m/day). The shape and the area of the movement patterns showed that both males and females migrated from short vegetation towards high vegetation. However, the shape of the movement pattern of high grassland is nearly circular for both sexes, which indicates that the movement is almost a random walk. In the short grassland patch, males moved over a larger distances than females, while in the area covered by tall grass, both sexes moved over the same distances. Using the average daily movements of males and females, the random walk model can describe the observed movement patterns for releases in both the short and tall grass areas.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55564,"journal":{"name":"Acta Oecologica-International Journal of Ecology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104072"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143577450","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"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":"Ecological niche modelling and future scenarios of Cordia oncocalyx - A species of restricted distribution","authors":"Marlete Moreira Mendes Ivanov ,&nbsp;Maria João Martins","doi":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104064","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104064","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Climate change involves changes in environmental conditions and can lead to the displacement or extinction (local or range-wide). So, would it be possible for a species with a restricted distribution to persist under climate change scenarios? Our objective was, through niche mapping and modeling, to describe the suitable environmental conditions for <em>Cordia oncocalyx</em>, a native species that occurs predominantly in the northeast of Brazil, whose abundance has resulted in the proposal of a new typology for classifying the <em>Caatinga</em> – a seasonally dry tropical forest. The potential distribution of this species in the context of future scenarios is also presented. Six climatic variables that could affect and limit species distributions were considered, and species niche as a 3-dimensional convex hull was estimated. The HadGEM2-ES model under scenario RCP 8.5 was used to predict the bioclimatic variables in Brazil for 2050. High temperatures, low annual precipitation and very low precipitation in the driest quarter characterize the climate in the areas where the species currently occurs. Future scenarios point to the possibility of changes in the environmental suitability and distribution of this species. Protected areas may not be able to preserve the species in the face of climate change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55564,"journal":{"name":"Acta Oecologica-International Journal of Ecology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 104064"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143487738","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"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":"Taxonomic identity, but not evolutionary relatedness, determines the carbon stock and uptake of tropical forests trees","authors":"Alisson Borges Miranda Santos ,&nbsp;Cléber Rodrigo de Souza ,&nbsp;Fernanda Coelho de Souza ,&nbsp;Natália de Aguiar-Campos ,&nbsp;Vinicius Andrade Maia ,&nbsp;Nathalle Cristine Alencar Fagundes ,&nbsp;Aurélio de Jesus Rodrigues Pais ,&nbsp;Gabriela Gomes Pires ,&nbsp;Mariana Caroline Moreira Morelli ,&nbsp;Jean Daniel Morel ,&nbsp;Rubens Manoel dos Santos","doi":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104065","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104065","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Carbon stock and uptake are among the main ecosystem services provided by tropical forests. Understanding the role of different drivers in current patterns of carbon stock and uptake is critical to predicting tropical forest responses to environmental changes. That said, taxonomic identity and evolutionary relatedness among <em>taxa</em> may synthesize intrinsic functional characteristics and provide insight into these patterns. Here we investigated the main ecological drivers (taxonomic vs. environmental effects) and the evolutionary legacy on the expression of two important variables: carbon stock and carbon uptake. The dataset used are composed by tropical forests sites located in the southeast of Brazil along a climatic gradient including evergreen forests, semideciduous forests and deciduous forests. Relying on forest inventory data from 30 tropical forest sites (33.86 ha), we calculated individual tree carbon stocks and obtained two variables at the population level (species <em>per</em> site): average carbon stock (ton/ha) and average carbon uptake (ton/ha/year). These variables were used joint to phylogenetic trees and analysis to evaluate the main factors explained the variables variation and the evolutionary fingerprint on them. Variations in carbon stock and uptake by individual trees were mostly determined by taxonomic identity (28.7% and 26.7%, respectively) rather than environmental factors (7.1% and 8.9%, respectively), but evolutionary relatedness did not predict similarity among species. Our results indicate that the ability of species to store and absorb carbon depend on their intrinsic characteristics, although these are not shared among closely related <em>taxa</em>. Climate projections predict the loss of species unable to adapt to novel conditions, which, in light of our results, could impact tropical carbon dynamics. Although evolutionary relatedness does not predict similarity in terms of function at the scale of our study (suggesting lability of traits related to carbon storage), species losses indicate that environmental changes are beyond species’ ability to adapt to changes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55564,"journal":{"name":"Acta Oecologica-International Journal of Ecology","volume":"126 ","pages":"Article 104065"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143421113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"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":"Warming climate impacts on elevational shifts in expansive native synanthropic plants along the roads: Examples of four species","authors":"Jiří Dostálek ,&nbsp;Tomáš Frantík","doi":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104063","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104063","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Roads are known to support the dispersal of plant species, especially along elevational gradients. We compared the elevational distributions of four expansive native synanthropic plant species along roadsides in the Orlické hory Mountains (Czech Republic) over a 40-year period. Two species (<em>Anthriscus sylvestris</em> and <em>Chaerophyllum aromaticum</em>) have distribution optima in lowlands and foothills, whereas the other two psychrophilic species (<em>Anthriscus nitidus</em> and <em>Chaerophyllum hirsutum</em>) have distribution optima at relatively high elevations. We found that the average elevation of these species, except for <em>Anthriscus sylvestris</em>, rose by 23–74 m. The maximum occurrence elevation of all the species rose by 98–248 m, except for <em>Chaerophyllum hirsutum</em>, which was limited by the maximum elevation of the studied area. On the other hand, the presence of psychrophilic <em>Anthriscus nitidus</em> and <em>Chaerophyllum hirsutum</em> in lower elevations stagnated or even decreased. This shift cannot be attributed only to changes in traffic frequency and appears to be consistent with changes associated with a warming climate.</div><div>Our results suggest that climate change may in some cases influence the spread of synanthropic expansive plants, and that roadsides of mountain roads may serve as early detection sites for shifts in species distributions, which can be attributed to changes in climate.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55564,"journal":{"name":"Acta Oecologica-International Journal of Ecology","volume":"126 ","pages":"Article 104063"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143421114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"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":"Composition of breeding bird communities under different intensities of human activity: A case study in Jiulingshan Nature Reserve in eastern China","authors":"Bo Zhou ,&nbsp;Gang Yang ,&nbsp;Mingxiao Di ,&nbsp;Ping Lu ,&nbsp;Xiaodong Weng ,&nbsp;Jiuheng Xu ,&nbsp;Yong Tang ,&nbsp;Yong Peng ,&nbsp;Xinyu Tao","doi":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104061","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actao.2025.104061","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Anthropogenic landscape changes are a major contributor to biodiversity loss; however, some species can adapt to this selection pressure and coexist with humans. To successfully produce offspring, wild animals tend to select habitats with fitness advantages which resulting in heterogeneity of biodiversity. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effects of different intensities of human activity on the composition of forest-breeding bird communities. To this end, we used the transect method to investigate bird diversity in different breeding months, under different intensities of human activity, and at different elevation intervals in the Jiulingshan National Nature Reserve in eastern China. We recorded 79 breeding bird species on Jiulingshan, including 11 protected species and 1 species endemic to China. The composition of bird communities varied greatly inside and outside the nature reserve, with more bird species and higher densities outside the reserve. As the elevation increased, the number and density of bird species decreased. However, the compositions of bird communities at adjacent elevation intervals were similar. The density of birds in July (breeding month) was more than twice that in April (settlement month). In the same mountainous area, farmlands with human activity had higher bird richness and abundance than forests without human activity. Therefore, zones outside the nature reserve and at low-elevation intervals should be monitored and protected. Our results provide a comprehensive picture of the dynamics of local breeding bird resources.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55564,"journal":{"name":"Acta Oecologica-International Journal of Ecology","volume":"126 ","pages":"Article 104061"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143378846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"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}