Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Resilient nekton composition in the face of climate-driven foundation species shifts.","authors":"Herbert Leavitt, Alexander Thomas, Jennifer C Doerr, David S Johnson, James A Nelson","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70397","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70397","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Climate-driven range expansions of individual species are well-documented, but corresponding community shifts are not. This lack of widespread community change may indicate communities can resist wholesale change with the arrival of new species. In the northern Gulf of Mexico, climate change is driving the expansion of black mangroves (Avicennia germinans) into areas traditionally dominated by smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora). This study investigates the effects of these changes on the species composition of animals and habitat structure in Louisiana, USA, with implications for how species expand their range under shifting climactic regimes. Using quantitative nekton sampling and satellite imagery analysis over two decades, we observed a substantial increase in winter temperatures of 3.5°C and a regime shift from marsh to mangrove habitats. Despite these remarkable environmental changes, the composition of nekton remained stable. We expected that warming temperatures and the expansion of black mangroves would shift nekton community composition in our system by favoring warm-adapted species and facilitating the arrival of new climate migrants. However, based on the community temperature index and species-level analysis of relative abundances, thermal tolerance, and latitudinal range, we found no detectable increase in thermal affinity or establishment of new warm-adapted taxa in Port Fourchon since 2002. Given that many systems experiencing comparable climate forcing have undergone marked compositional shifts, our findings suggest that local biotic interactions and species adaptability may buffer this community from the broader range expansions observed elsewhere. Our findings highlight the resilience of estuarine communities to rapid environmental changes and emphasize the need for further research on the indirect effects of habitat shifts on food web dynamics.</p>","PeriodicalId":93986,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 5","pages":"e70397"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148019743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Environmental and demographic mechanisms underlying population dynamics provide relative stability in an island songbird.","authors":"James C Mouton, Mario Pesendorfer, Nathan J Hostetter, Scott A Morrison, T Scott Sillett","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70409","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70409","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding demographic and ecological mechanisms underlying population dynamics is a key goal in population ecology and can inform effective conservation and management. Species may be well adapted to persist under normal ranges of environmental conditions, but increasingly novel conditions due to climate change may strain their demographic buffering mechanisms. Small isolated populations on islands are expected to be especially vulnerable to declines caused by novel environmental conditions, but the ecological drivers of population dynamics on islands are often unknown. We used an integrated population model to (1) examine ecological drivers of population growth and (2) assess global population trends of the Island Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma insularis) from 2009 to 2019. Our results suggest that population size increased slightly over this interval despite declines during severe drought. We also found evidence that density dependence, precipitation, and food availability affected fecundity and the survival of nonbreeding individuals. Breeder survival was relatively stable and had a weak effect on population growth as expected for long-lived species. Overall, our results provide an optimistic snapshot for this species by demonstrating resilience to contemporary drought but also emphasize the species' potential vulnerability due to its small population size.</p>","PeriodicalId":93986,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 5","pages":"e70409"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13681733/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148019754","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":"Unexpected use of marine resources by sika deer in coastal Japan.","authors":"Kei K Suzuki, Hiromi Yamagawa, Taiki Mori","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70422","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70422","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":93986,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 5","pages":"e70422"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148038675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prospecting for informed dispersal: Reappraisal of a widespread but overlooked ecological process.","authors":"Aurore Ponchon","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70411","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70411","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Prospecting for a future breeding site is an essential component of informed natal and breeding dispersal. It allows individuals to reduce the uncertainty of their environment by gathering personal and social information about the local quality of alternative breeding areas and make informed emigration and settlement decisions. Although this process has been studied in territorial and social animal species for decades, it is still understudied and not well understood. Using 124 empirical studies that have explicitly described prospecting in a context of breeding habitat selection in birds, mammals, fish, and invertebrates, I review why, how, when, and which individuals prospect according to various life history traits and sociality. Multiple classes of individuals were identified prospecting, and they do so at different times of the year, depending on whether they immediately use the information gathered for settling in a new breeding area or delay it for a future breeding season. Spatial patterns and occurrence of prospecting were hard to generalize over taxa or even species due to substantial intra and interspecific variability. From this synthesis, I identify persisting knowledge gaps related to the different spatial and temporal scales involved with prospecting and provide key objectives and research directions. I notably propose to examine prospecting at the interface of movement and behavioral ecology. This will be possible by combining different methodologies including tracking and biologging devices, field monitoring surveys, and experimental approaches. Overall, a better understanding of the spatial and behavioral processes underlying prospecting will significantly enhance our ability to predict species responses to environmental changes and inform more effectively management plans for threatened species.</p>","PeriodicalId":93986,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 5","pages":"e70411"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147990597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Light pollution at night impacts monarch butterfly growth and performance.","authors":"Hannah Gurholt, Retna Arun, Andrés López-Sepulcre, Anurag A Agrawal, Swanne Gordon","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70382","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70382","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Artificial light at night (ALAN) can be an anthropogenic stressor, yet its effects on wildlife, especially diurnal insects, remain poorly understood. We test how ALAN influences larval growth, development, and performance of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) reared on two host milkweed species (Asclepias syriaca and A. incarnata). Field experiments with four cohorts over 2 years revealed that exposure to ALAN from white LED streetlights consistently increased caterpillar growth rates by nearly 16% and shortened larval development time, resulting in an 8% increase in adult fresh mass across both plant species. Nonetheless, ALAN had little effect on wing loading (fresh mass to wing surface area) or adult dry mass. Host plant interacted with ALAN to impact wing morphology: butterflies reared on A. syriaca had 7% larger wings under ALAN, while those on A. incarnata were not affected. Seasonality profoundly shaped monarch life history traits, with the migratory generation developing in late summer (August-September) exhibiting slower growth, extended developmental periods, and emerging with 44% less body mass and 30% reduced wing loading capacity compared to early summer (June-July) breeding generations. Finally, a path analysis revealed that ALAN enhanced larval growth, on par with the effects of feeding on A. syriaca compared to A. incarnata, increasing fresh mass and wing size by accelerating investment in early development. Our findings underscore that light pollution at night alters the entire developmental trajectory of these holometabolous insects, highlighting its strong capacity to reshape insect life histories in the Anthropocene.</p>","PeriodicalId":93986,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 5","pages":"e70382"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148019761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Erratum for \"Resource quantity and quality co-limit consumer production in forest streams\".","authors":"","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70337","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70337","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":93986,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 5","pages":"e70337"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147990617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Erratum for \"Bird migration on the edge: Experimental manipulation of corticosterone advances departure dates\".","authors":"","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70335","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70335","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":93986,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 5","pages":"e70335"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13484147/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147984829","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":"Functional properties improve predictions of long-term productivity invariability but not resistance to drought.","authors":"Sierra B Perez, Jennifer A Lau","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70421","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70421","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Identifying the factors mediating the resilience and invariability of plant communities and their associated ecosystem functions is critical to understand the ecological impacts of climate change. Prior work has explored how classic \"community properties\" (characterizing a community by species composition) regulate the resilience and invariability of ecosystem functioning. Mechanistically, community properties influence resilience and invariability via species' traits, and as a result, \"functional properties\" (characterizing a community via functional traits) might better predict these qualities. For example, functional traits associated with conservative resource-use strategies (e.g., short stature, low specific leaf area [SLA], high leaf dry matter content [LDMC]) are expected to promote both resistance to periods of stress or resource limitation and long-term invariability. While there is a strong conceptual basis linking functional traits and functional diversity to resilience and invariability, empirical evidence is thus far mixed, and sourcing accurate functional trait data may be challenging. Therefore, it is important to know if community properties are sufficient for evaluating the resilience and invariability of ecosystem functioning, or if functional properties provide necessary insights. Capitalizing on a decades-long study, we tested the effects of plant functional and community properties on the resistance of ecosystem functioning (a component of resilience) to drought or long-term invariability. Including functional properties did not improve our ability to explain primary productivity resistance to droughts but considerably improved our explanatory power for productivity invariability. Our results supported expectations that conservative trait strategies promote ecosystem functioning resistance to perturbations and temporal invariability. These findings highlight that the utility of functional properties in explaining the resilience and invariability of ecosystem functioning may depend on the attribute under consideration and that functional properties may primarily be useful for identifying the traits promoting resilience and invariability.</p>","PeriodicalId":93986,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 5","pages":"e70421"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147984837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Diversity and functional group composition drive biogeographic patterns in marine biogenic structural complexity.","authors":"Dean S Janiak, Matthew A Whalen, David R Branson, Soledad Álvarez, Gail V Ashton, Nicholas M Bartkowiak, Simon J Brandl, João Canning-Clode, Jordan M Casey, Max C N Castorani, Carolina César-Ávila, Rachel Collin, J Emmett Duffy, Tyrel Froese, Kenneth L Heck, Kevin A Hovel, Maggie D Johnson, Karl Koehler, Jack W Litle, Joshua S Madin, Robert J Miller, Claire E Murphy, Matthew B Ogburn, Jack C Olson, Bradley J Peterson, Francesca B Puerzer, Patrício Ramalhosa, Kelley B Savage, Brittney J Scannell, John J Stachowicz, Kinsey N Tedford-Callahan, Mark Torchin","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70412","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecy.70412","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Biogenic structural complexity is a key driver of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, yet its ecological and environmental determinants remain poorly understood across broad biogeographic scales. Here, we conducted standardized 90-day field experiments at 16 coastal sites, spanning a 41-degree latitudinal gradient, using naturally assembled marine fouling communities on settlement panels. We measured rugosity as our metric of biogenic structural complexity and modeled its relationship with species richness, community composition, community growth rates, and abiotic conditions (salinity and temperature). Species richness increased with temperature and salinity and declined with latitude, with more diverse communities exhibiting greater biogenic complexity due to increased morphological variation. At high-latitude sites, low-diversity communities dominated by arborescent bryozoans also had increased complexity. Structural equation models showed that abiotic conditions influenced growth and composition, which in turn shaped complexity. Warmer, saltier sites promoted richness-driven complexity, while colder conditions favored structurally important dominant taxa. We found that biodiversity is important not only as a beneficiary of complexity but also as a contributor to complexity itself within fouling communities. Our results also demonstrate that both species richness and functional group identity regulate biogenic complexity across environmental gradients, underscoring biodiversity's role in supporting ecosystem structure and resilience in the face of increasing global change. Understanding these relationships is essential for biodiversity conservation and the management of marine ecosystems facing increasing anthropogenic pressures.</p>","PeriodicalId":93986,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 5","pages":"e70412"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148019695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Direct feeding on chitinous siboglinid worm tubes by an osteopeltid limpet (Vetigastropoda: Lepetelloidea).","authors":"Chong Chen, Hiromi Kayama Watanabe","doi":"10.1002/ecy.70392","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70392","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":93986,"journal":{"name":"Ecology","volume":"107 5","pages":"e70392"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148019733","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}