{"title":"Perceived indicators of climate change in Tanzania: insights from the university of Dodoma students.","authors":"Rosemary Peter Mramba, Pensia Elias Mapunda","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02336-w","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02336-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Understanding local communities' knowledge and insights is essential for developing effective mitigation and adaptation strategies for climate change. The young generation often brings new perspectives on climate change, demonstrating a growing awareness of its impacts and innovative ideas for sustainable solutions. By engaging youth in climate action we foster future leadership, empowering them as active participants in shaping long-term climate resilience. Higher education plays a pivotal role in raising awareness about climate change and fostering environmentally responsible behaviour among citizens. Thus, the study assessed climate change indicators in Tanzania by gathering insights from university students, leveraging their understanding of the local challenges posed by climate change.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Out of the 486 sampled students, 80% were aware of climate change and could identify its indicators in their home regions. The primary perceived indicators of climate change reported by the respondents included increasing temperatures, crop failures, and the disappearance of native plant species. Respondents from the coastal zone ranked rising temperatures and increased rainfall as the most significant indicators, while those from the Kilimanjaro region emphasised crop failure. Additionally, respondents from the central zone highlighted the disappearance of native plant species. Conversely, respondents from the arid central zone believed that climate change has resulted in reduced rainfall and an increase in drought occurrences. Furthermore, socio-demographic factors such as gender, home region, and academic year influenced students' awareness of climate change. A lower proportion (0.78) of male students demonstrated knowledge of climate change compared to female students (0.91) (p = 0.001). Additionaly, a lower proportion (0.71) of students from urban areas demonstrated knowledge of climate change compared to students from rural areas (0.85) (p < 0.001). Moreover, students in their final year of study exhibited greater awareness of climate change than those in lower years, highlighting the significance of the formal education system in imparting knowledge about climate change.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study underscores the role of higher education in fostering climate awareness and youth engagement through education and outreach. Additionally, it supports SDG 13: \"Climate Action\" and SDG 4: \"Quality Education by promoting informed participation and sustainable solutions among young people\".</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"149"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11667940/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142886615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Noela Samwel Hello, Rosemary Peter Mramba, Doreen Jeremiah Mrimi
{"title":"Evaluation of the social-economic impacts of hyena attacks on humans and livestock in the Nyang'whale district of Tanzania.","authors":"Noela Samwel Hello, Rosemary Peter Mramba, Doreen Jeremiah Mrimi","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02335-x","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02335-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) is one of the carnivore species that frequently comes into conflict with humans. These conflicts are attributed to their scavenging foraging behaviour and their ability to occupy habitats close to human settlements. In Tanzania, the Geita region has recently experienced an increase in livestock and human attacks by hyenas. However, there are limited studies examining the extent of these attacks and the associated social-economic impacts. Thus, this study evaluated the social impacts and economic losses due to spotted hyena attacks in the Nyang'whale district in the Geita region.</p><p><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>The study was carried out in three villages in the Nyang'whale district, namely Wavu, which is close to the Mienze Forest Reserve; Bukungu, which is far from the forest but surrounded by many hills; and Izunya, which is far from the forest and the hills. Data collection was done through household surveys, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. A Chi-square test assessed the association between hyena fear and daily activities across villages. Poisson regression compared the number of livestock attacked by hyenas by village and species. Linear regression analysis compared financial losses due to livestock attacks and reductions in working time due to hyena fear across villages.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>There was a significant variation in the frequency of livestock and human attacks between the villages. The frequency of livestock attacks was lower in Bukungu village, but human attacks were highest in this village. The Wavu village, which is close to the forest, had the highest livestock number and attacks, but no human attacks were reported. The hyena attacks had created fear, which had changed the daily routines of the villagers. The village with the most human attacks reported a high rate of school dropouts, while the one with the most livestock attacks reported a reduction in sleeping time at night to watch livestock. Economic losses due to livestock attacks averaged $300.5 per household per year, while losses due to reduced working time were equivalent to $285.6 per household per year.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Given that villages with a large number of livestock experienced more livestock attacks and fewer human attacks, this suggests that hyenas may target humans when their food resources are limited. Therefore, conducting further studies to assess the hyena population and the availability of their natural prey is crucial for formulating effective intervention strategies. Additionally, villagers should be educated on ways to control human and livestock attacks based on the animals' ecology and behaviour.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"147"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11653812/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142857270","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ning Wang, Qiang Li, Pan Wu, Shijie Yi, Hongliang Ji, Xiao Liu, Tongli He
{"title":"Response strategies of five common warm temperate plant species to insect defoliation.","authors":"Ning Wang, Qiang Li, Pan Wu, Shijie Yi, Hongliang Ji, Xiao Liu, Tongli He","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02334-y","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02334-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Under the background of global climate change, climate warming has led to an increase in insect herbivory, which significantly affects the growth, survival, and regeneration of forest plants in the warm temperate zone of China. Plants can adopt defense responses to adapt to insect defoliation. Therefore, field experiments were conducted on five common warm temperate species, Quercus acutissima, Quercus serrata, Quercus aliena, Quercus dentata, and Robinia pseudoacacia. We measured the leaf traits of healthy trees and insect defoliated trees, to explore the response strategies of common species in warm temperate zones to insect defoliation. Our results showed that native species stored more carbon in extreme environments for survival rather than growth, while the alien species R. pseudoacacia tended to adopt active resource acquisition strategies and were more inclined towards growth. The content of tannins and flavonoids in the alien species R. pseudoacacia did not significantly increase after leaf damage, while the content of secondary metabolites such as tannins, flavonoids, and total phenols in the native species Q. acutissima, Q. serrata, Q. aliena, Q. dentata increased significantly after leaf damage. This indicated that compared to alien species, native species invested more resources in defense, which might reduce resource allocation for growth. Thus, the native Quercus species have stronger resistance than the alien species R. pseudoacacia after insect defoliation.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"146"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11613790/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142775608","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Experimental evolution reveals evolutionary bias and its causes.","authors":"Haoyuan Wu, Yonghua Wu","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02331-1","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02331-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Species generally exhibits evolutionary bias, adapting towards a specific direction rather than others, yet the underlying causes remains unknown.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Here, we investigated evolutionary bias and its causes by conducting experimental evolution on Escherichia coli. We introduced an E. coli strain (lac-), initially unable to utilize lactose due to a frameshift mutation, into two different culture media: one medium (L) containing ample sodium acetate and lactose as carbon sources, and the other medium (G) containing abundant glucose and lactose as carbon sources. After 20 days of experimental evolution, our findings revealed that all L-populations underwent parallel evolution through reverse mutation to utilize lactose (lac+), resulting in a relatively higher fitness gain compared to utilizing sodium acetate. In contrast, all G-populations did not transition towards lactose utilization but instead continued to utilize glucose, which provides a higher fitness gain than utilizing lactose. These results demonstrate that our experimental populations in L and G media respectively exhibit biased evolution towards utilizing different carbon sources, yet all trajectories converge towards higher fitness gains. When lac+ (lactose-eater) and lac- (acetate-eater) were co-cultured in L medium, all lac- individuals were eventually eliminated, while lac + individuals were consistently selected and retained.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our findings indicate that species tend to evolve with a bias towards directions that offer higher fitness gains, partly because high-fitness-gain directions competitively exclude low-fitness-gain directions.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"145"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11613857/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142775677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hugo Pereira, Nayden Chakarov, Barbara A Caspers, Marc Gilles, William Jones, Tafitasoa Mijoro, Sama Zefania, Tamás Székely, Oliver Krüger, Joseph I Hoffman
{"title":"The gut microbiota of three avian species living in sympatry.","authors":"Hugo Pereira, Nayden Chakarov, Barbara A Caspers, Marc Gilles, William Jones, Tafitasoa Mijoro, Sama Zefania, Tamás Székely, Oliver Krüger, Joseph I Hoffman","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02329-9","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02329-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Evolutionary divergence and genetic variation are often linked to differences in microbial community structure and diversity. While environmental factors and diet heavily influence gut microbial communities, host species contributions are harder to quantify. Closely related species living in sympatry provide a unique opportunity to investigate species differences without the confounding effects of habitat and dietary variation. We therefore compared and contrasted the gut microbiota of three sympatric plover species: the widespread Kittlitz's and white-fronted plovers (Anarhynchus pecuarius and A. marginatus) and the endemic and vulnerable Madagascar plover (A. thoracicus).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found no significant differences in the beta diversity (composition) of the gut microbiota of the three species. However, A. thoracicus exhibited higher intraspecific compositional similarity (i.e. lower pairwise distances) than the other two species; this pattern was especially pronounced among juveniles. By contrast, microbial alpha diversity varied significantly among the species, being highest in A. pecuarius, intermediate in A. marginatus and lowest in A. thoracicus. This pattern was again stronger among juveniles. Geographical distance did not significantly affect the composition of the gut microbiota, but genetic relatedness did.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>While patterns of microbial diversity varied across species, the lack of compositional differences suggests that habitat and diet likely exert a strong influence on the gut microbiota of plovers. This may be enhanced by their precocial, ground-dwelling nature, which could facilitate the horizontal transmission of microbes from the environment. We hypothesise that gut microbiota diversity in plovers primarily reflects the ecological pool of microbiota, which is subsequently modified by host-specific factors including genetics. The reduced microbial and genetic diversity of the endemic A. thoracicus may hinder its ability to adapt to environmental changes, highlighting the need for increased conservation efforts for this vulnerable species.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"144"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11580620/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142689983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alfredo Escanciano Gómez, Charlotte Ipenburg, Ulrika Candolin
{"title":"Greater risk-taking by non-native than native shrimp: an advantage in a human-disturbed environment?","authors":"Alfredo Escanciano Gómez, Charlotte Ipenburg, Ulrika Candolin","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02330-2","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02330-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The invasion of non-native species into ecosystems is a growing human-induced problem. To control their spread and population growth, knowledge is needed on the factors that facilitate or impede their invasions. In animals, traits often associated with invasion success are high activity, boldness, and aggression. However, these traits also make individuals susceptible to predation, which could curb population growth. We investigated if a recent invader into the Baltic Sea, the shrimp Palaemon elegans, differs in risk-taking from a native shrimp, P. adspersus. We recorded activity, habitat choice, and response to perceived predation threat of both species.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found the invading shrimp to take greater risks than the native one; while the native shrimp adjusted its behaviour to habitat structure and exposure to a perceived predator, the non-native shrimp did not, and it resumed normal activity sooner after a perceived predation threat. Despite the greater risk taking by the non-native shrimp, its population has grown rapidly during the last two decades in the investigated area and is now larger than that of the native shrimp.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>We discuss plausible explanations for the population growth of the invader, including the recent decline in predatory fishes that could have reduced the cost of risk-taking, and anthropogenic eutrophication that has increased food abundance could have allowed the population growth. These results stress the need to assess the optimality of the behaviours of both native and non-native species when investigating the factors that influence invasion success in human-disturbed environments.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"143"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11574993/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142670108","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
József Garay, Inmaculada López, Zoltán Varga, Villő Csiszár, Tamás F Móri
{"title":"Survival cost sharing among altruistic full siblings in Mendelian population.","authors":"József Garay, Inmaculada López, Zoltán Varga, Villő Csiszár, Tamás F Móri","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02317-z","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02317-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>We focus on Haldane's familial selection in monogamous families in a diploid population, where the survival probability of each sibling is determined by altruistic food sharing with its siblings during starvation. An autosomal recessive-dominant or intermediate allele pair uniquely determines the altruistic or selfish behavior, which are coded by homozygotes. We focus on the case when additive cost and benefit functions determine the survival probability of each full sibling.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We provide conditions for the existence of the altruistic and selfish homozygote. We show that the condition of evolutionary stability of altruism depends on the genotype-phenotype mapping. Furthermore, if the offspring size increases then the condition of evolutionary stability of altruism becomes stricter. Contrary to that, for the evolutionary stability of selfish behavior it is enough if the classical Hamilton's rule does not hold. Moreover, when the classical Hamilton's rule holds and the condition of evolutionary stability of altruism does not hold, then the selfish and altruistic phenotypes coexist.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In summary, the classical Hamilton's rule is a sufficient condition for the existence of altruism, but it alone does not imply the evolutionary stability of the pure altruistic homozygote population when the altruistic siblings share the cost of altruism.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"142"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11572324/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142670109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Next-generation phylogeography reveals unanticipated population history and climate and human impacts on the endangered floodplain bitterling (Acheilognathus longipinnis).","authors":"Keisuke Onuki, Ryosuke K Ito, Tappei Mishina, Yasuyuki Hashiguchi, Koki Ikeya, Kazuhiko Uehara, Masaki Nishio, Ryoichi Tabata, Seiichi Mori, Katsutoshi Watanabe","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02326-y","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02326-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Floodplains harbor highly biodiverse ecosystems, which have been strongly affected by both past climate change and by recent human activities, resulting in a high prevalence of many endangered species in these habitats. Understanding the history of floodplain species over a wide range of timescales can contribute to effective conservation planning. We reconstructed the population formation history of the Itasenpara bitterling Acheilognathus longipinnis, an endangered floodplain fish species in Japan, over a broad timescale based on phylogenetic analysis, demographic modeling, and historical demographic analysis using mitogenome and whole-genome sequences. A genome sequence was newly assembled as a reference for the resequencing analysis. This bitterling is distributed in three plains separated by high mountain ranges and exhibits ecological characteristics well adapted to floodplain environments.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Our analyses revealed an unexpected population branching pattern, gene flow, and timing of the differentiation that occurred within a few hundred thousand years, i.e., long after the mountain uplift that was assumed to be the primary geological cause of the population differentiation. The analyses also showed that all local populations experienced a severe decline during the last glacial and post-glacial periods.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our results suggest that the floodplain bitterling was able to disperse through unknown routes after mountain uplift and that its populations were strongly influenced by climatic and geographic changes in glacial-interglacial cycles and subsequent human activities, probably related to its floodplain-dependent ecology. The genomic data highlight the unanticipated distribution process of this species and the magnitude of the impact of human activities, with important implications for its conservation.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"141"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11555866/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142634237","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
María Recuerda, Julio César Hernández Montoya, Guillermo Blanco, Borja Milá
{"title":"Repeated evolution on oceanic islands: comparative genomics reveals species-specific processes in birds.","authors":"María Recuerda, Julio César Hernández Montoya, Guillermo Blanco, Borja Milá","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02320-4","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02320-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding the interplay between genetic drift, natural selection, gene flow, and demographic history in driving phenotypic and genomic differentiation of insular populations can help us gain insight into the speciation process. Comparing patterns across different insular taxa subjected to similar selective pressures upon colonizing oceanic islands provides the opportunity to study repeated evolution and identify shared patterns in their genomic landscapes of differentiation. We selected four species of passerine birds (Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs/canariensis, Red-billed Chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, House Finch Haemorhous mexicanus and Dark-eyed/island Junco Junco hyemalis/insularis) that have both mainland and insular populations. Changes in body size between island and mainland populations were consistent with the island rule. For each species, we sequenced whole genomes from mainland and insular individuals to infer their demographic history, characterize their genomic differentiation, and identify the factors shaping them. We estimated the relative (F<sub>st</sub>) and absolute (d<sub>xy</sub>) differentiation, nucleotide diversity (π), Tajima's D, gene density and recombination rate. We also searched for selective sweeps and chromosomal inversions along the genome. All species shared a marked reduction in effective population size (N<sub>e</sub>) upon island colonization. We found diverse patterns of differentiated genomic regions relative to the genome average in all four species, suggesting the role of selection in island-mainland differentiation, yet the lack of congruence in the location of these regions indicates that each species evolved differently in insular environments. Our results suggest that the genomic mechanisms involved in the divergence upon island colonization-such as chromosomal inversions, and historical factors like recurrent selection-differ in each species, despite the highly conserved structure of avian genomes and the similar selective factors involved. These differences are likely influenced by factors such as genetic drift, the polygenic nature of fitness traits and the action of case-specific selective pressures.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"140"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11545622/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142634252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kenneth Otieno Onditi, Noé U de la Sancha, Simon Musila, Esther Kioko, Xuelong Jiang
{"title":"Unravelling spatial scale effects on elevational diversity gradients: insights from montane small mammals in Kenya.","authors":"Kenneth Otieno Onditi, Noé U de la Sancha, Simon Musila, Esther Kioko, Xuelong Jiang","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02328-w","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02328-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Montane ecosystems play crucial roles as global biodiversity hotspots. However, climatic changes and anthropogenic pressure increasingly threaten the stability of montane community dynamics, such as diversity-elevation interactions, creating a challenge in understanding species biogeography and community ecology dynamics in these crucial conservation areas. We examined how varying sampling spatial grains influence small mammal diversity patterns within Kenya's tallest montane ecosystems.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Employing a combination of multidimensional alpha diversity metrics and multisite beta diversity characteristics (species richness, phylogenetic and functional diversity and divergence, and multisite beta diversity) alongside spatial generalized additive multivariate regression analyses, we tested how spatial scaling influences elevational diversity gradient patterns and their associations with environmental and human activity variables.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The diversity-elevation associations were generally homogeneous across spatial grains; however, idiosyncratic patterns emerged across mountains. The total (taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional) beta diversity, nestedness, and turnover resultant components monotonically increased or decreased with varying spatial grains. The associations between the diversity patterns and the environmental and human footprint variables increased with spatial grain size but also presented variations across mountains and indices. Species richness and phylogenetic and functional richness indices were more strongly influenced by spatial scale variations than were the divergence and community structure indices in both the diversity distribution patterns and their associations with the environmental and human variables.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The diversity-elevation and diversity-environment (including human activity pressure) relationships across spatial grains suggest that montane small mammal diversity patterns portray subtle but systematic sensitivity to sampling spatial grain variation and underscore the importance of geographical context in shaping these elevational diversity gradients. For improved effectiveness, conservation efforts should consider these spatial effects and the unique geographical background of individual montane ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"139"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11545329/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142634268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}