Mathilde Jeanbille, Sana Romdhane, Marie-Christine Breuil, David Bru, Stefan Geisen, Arnaud Mounier, Aymé Spor, Laurent Philippot
Highly diverse and abundant organisms coexist in soils. However, the contribution of biotic interactions between soil organisms to microbial community assembly remains to be explored. Here, we assess the extent to which soil fauna can shape microbial community assembly using an exclusion experiment in a grassland field to sort soil biota based on body size. After 1 year, the exclusion of larger fauna favoured phagotrophic protists, with increases up to 32% in their proportion compared to the no-mesh treatment. In contrast, members of the bacterial community and to a lesser extent of the fungal community were negatively impacted. Shifts in bacterial but not in fungal communities were best explained by the response of the protistan community to exclusion. Our findings provide empirical evidence of top–down control on the soil microbial communities and underline the importance of integrating higher trophic levels for a better understanding of the soil microbiome assembly.
{"title":"Size exclusion experiment in a grassland field unravels top–down control of the soil fauna on microbial community assembly","authors":"Mathilde Jeanbille, Sana Romdhane, Marie-Christine Breuil, David Bru, Stefan Geisen, Arnaud Mounier, Aymé Spor, Laurent Philippot","doi":"10.1111/ele.14442","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.14442","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Highly diverse and abundant organisms coexist in soils. However, the contribution of biotic interactions between soil organisms to microbial community assembly remains to be explored. Here, we assess the extent to which soil fauna can shape microbial community assembly using an exclusion experiment in a grassland field to sort soil biota based on body size. After 1 year, the exclusion of larger fauna favoured phagotrophic protists, with increases up to 32% in their proportion compared to the no-mesh treatment. In contrast, members of the bacterial community and to a lesser extent of the fungal community were negatively impacted. Shifts in bacterial but not in fungal communities were best explained by the response of the protistan community to exclusion. Our findings provide empirical evidence of top–down control on the soil microbial communities and underline the importance of integrating higher trophic levels for a better understanding of the soil microbiome assembly.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"27 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141282464","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Interspecific competition can hinder populations from evolutionarily adapting to abiotic environments, particularly by reducing population size and niche space; and feedback may arise between competitive ability and evolutionary adaptation. Here we studied populations of two model bacterial species, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas fluorescens, that evolved in monocultures and cocultures for approximately 2400 generations at three temperatures. The two species showed a reversal in competitive dominance in cocultures along the temperature gradient. Populations from cocultures where they had been competitively dominant showed the same magnitude of fitness gain as those in monocultures. However, competitively inferior populations in cocultures showed limited abiotic adaptation compared with those in monocultures. The inferior populations in cocultures were also more likely to evolve weaker interspecific competitive ability, or go extinct. The possible competitive ability-adaptation feedback may have crucial consequences for population persistence.
{"title":"Suffering makes you weaker: Limited evolutionary adaptation in competitively inferior populations","authors":"Nan Chen, Quan-Guo Zhang","doi":"10.1111/ele.14457","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.14457","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Interspecific competition can hinder populations from evolutionarily adapting to abiotic environments, particularly by reducing population size and niche space; and feedback may arise between competitive ability and evolutionary adaptation. Here we studied populations of two model bacterial species, <i>Escherichia coli</i> and <i>Pseudomonas fluorescens</i>, that evolved in monocultures and cocultures for approximately 2400 generations at three temperatures. The two species showed a reversal in competitive dominance in cocultures along the temperature gradient. Populations from cocultures where they had been competitively dominant showed the same magnitude of fitness gain as those in monocultures. However, competitively inferior populations in cocultures showed limited abiotic adaptation compared with those in monocultures. The inferior populations in cocultures were also more likely to evolve weaker interspecific competitive ability, or go extinct. The possible competitive ability-adaptation feedback may have crucial consequences for population persistence.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"27 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141282465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Zihui Wang, Geneviève Lajoie, Yuan Jiang, Minhua Zhang, Chengjin Chu, Yongfa Chen, Shuai Fang, Guangze Jin, Mingxi Jiang, Juyu Lian, Yanpeng Li, Yu Liu, Keping Ma, Xiangcheng Mi, Xiujuan Qiao, Xihua Wang, Xugao Wang, Han Xu, Wanhui Ye, Li Zhu, Yan Zhu, Fangliang He, Steven W. Kembel
Host specialization plays a critical role in the ecology and evolution of plant–microbe symbiosis. Theory predicts that host specialization is associated with microbial genome streamlining and is influenced by the abundance of host species, both of which can vary across latitudes, leading to a latitudinal gradient in host specificity. Here, we quantified the host specificity and composition of plant–bacteria symbioses on leaves across 329 tree species spanning a latitudinal gradient. Our analysis revealed a predominance of host-specialized leaf bacteria. The degree of host specificity was negatively correlated with bacterial genome size and the local abundance of host plants. Additionally, we found an increased host specificity at lower latitudes, aligning with the high prevalence of small bacterial genomes and rare host species in the tropics. These findings underscore the importance of genome streamlining and host abundance in the evolution of host specificity in plant-associated bacteria along the latitudinal gradient.
{"title":"Host specificity of plant-associated bacteria is negatively associated with genome size and host abundance along a latitudinal gradient","authors":"Zihui Wang, Geneviève Lajoie, Yuan Jiang, Minhua Zhang, Chengjin Chu, Yongfa Chen, Shuai Fang, Guangze Jin, Mingxi Jiang, Juyu Lian, Yanpeng Li, Yu Liu, Keping Ma, Xiangcheng Mi, Xiujuan Qiao, Xihua Wang, Xugao Wang, Han Xu, Wanhui Ye, Li Zhu, Yan Zhu, Fangliang He, Steven W. Kembel","doi":"10.1111/ele.14447","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.14447","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Host specialization plays a critical role in the ecology and evolution of plant–microbe symbiosis. Theory predicts that host specialization is associated with microbial genome streamlining and is influenced by the abundance of host species, both of which can vary across latitudes, leading to a latitudinal gradient in host specificity. Here, we quantified the host specificity and composition of plant–bacteria symbioses on leaves across 329 tree species spanning a latitudinal gradient. Our analysis revealed a predominance of host-specialized leaf bacteria. The degree of host specificity was negatively correlated with bacterial genome size and the local abundance of host plants. Additionally, we found an increased host specificity at lower latitudes, aligning with the high prevalence of small bacterial genomes and rare host species in the tropics. These findings underscore the importance of genome streamlining and host abundance in the evolution of host specificity in plant-associated bacteria along the latitudinal gradient.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"27 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.14447","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141282463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Yan-song Zhang, Scott J. Meiners, Yani Meng, Qi Yao, Kun Guo, Wen-Yong Guo, Shao-peng Li
Grime's competitive, stress-tolerant, ruderal (CSR) theory predicts a shift in plant communities from ruderal to stress-tolerant strategies during secondary succession. However, this fundamental tenet lacks empirical validation using long-term continuous successional data. Utilizing a 60-year longitudinal data of old-field succession, we investigated the community-level dynamics of plant strategies over time. Our findings reveal that while plant communities generally transitioned from ruderal to stress-tolerant strategies during succession, initial abandonment conditions crucially shaped early successional strategies, leading to varied strategy trajectories across different fields. Furthermore, we found a notable divergence in the CSR strategies of alien and native species over succession. Initially, alien and native species exhibited similar ruderal strategies, but in later stages, alien species exhibited higher ruderal and lower stress tolerance compared to native species. Overall, our findings underscore the applicability of Grime's predictions regarding temporal shifts in CSR strategies depending on both initial community conditions and species origin.
{"title":"Temporal dynamics of Grime's CSR strategies in plant communities during 60 years of succession","authors":"Yan-song Zhang, Scott J. Meiners, Yani Meng, Qi Yao, Kun Guo, Wen-Yong Guo, Shao-peng Li","doi":"10.1111/ele.14446","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.14446","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Grime's competitive, stress-tolerant, ruderal (CSR) theory predicts a shift in plant communities from ruderal to stress-tolerant strategies during secondary succession. However, this fundamental tenet lacks empirical validation using long-term continuous successional data. Utilizing a 60-year longitudinal data of old-field succession, we investigated the community-level dynamics of plant strategies over time. Our findings reveal that while plant communities generally transitioned from ruderal to stress-tolerant strategies during succession, initial abandonment conditions crucially shaped early successional strategies, leading to varied strategy trajectories across different fields. Furthermore, we found a notable divergence in the CSR strategies of alien and native species over succession. Initially, alien and native species exhibited similar ruderal strategies, but in later stages, alien species exhibited higher ruderal and lower stress tolerance compared to native species. Overall, our findings underscore the applicability of Grime's predictions regarding temporal shifts in CSR strategies depending on both initial community conditions and species origin.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"27 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2024-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141174054","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
João C. S. Nascimento, Fernando Blanco, M. Soledad Domingo, Juan L. Cantalapiedra, Mathias M. Pires
Linking the species interactions occurring at the scale of local communities to their potential impact at evolutionary timescales is challenging. Here, we used the high-resolution fossil record of mammals from the Iberian Peninsula to reconstruct a timeseries of trophic networks spanning more than 20 million years and asked whether predator–prey interactions affected regional extinction patterns. We found that, despite small changes in species richness, trophic networks showed long-term trends, gradually losing interactions and becoming sparser towards the present. This restructuring of the ecological networks was driven by the loss of medium-sized herbivores, which reduced prey availability for predators. The decrease in prey availability was associated with predator longevity, such that predators with less available prey had greater extinction risk. These results not only reveal long-term trends in network structure but suggest that prey species richness in ecological communities may shape large scale patterns of extinction and persistence among predators.
{"title":"The reorganization of predator–prey networks over 20 million years explains extinction patterns of mammalian carnivores","authors":"João C. S. Nascimento, Fernando Blanco, M. Soledad Domingo, Juan L. Cantalapiedra, Mathias M. Pires","doi":"10.1111/ele.14448","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.14448","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Linking the species interactions occurring at the scale of local communities to their potential impact at evolutionary timescales is challenging. Here, we used the high-resolution fossil record of mammals from the Iberian Peninsula to reconstruct a timeseries of trophic networks spanning more than 20 million years and asked whether predator–prey interactions affected regional extinction patterns. We found that, despite small changes in species richness, trophic networks showed long-term trends, gradually losing interactions and becoming sparser towards the present. This restructuring of the ecological networks was driven by the loss of medium-sized herbivores, which reduced prey availability for predators. The decrease in prey availability was associated with predator longevity, such that predators with less available prey had greater extinction risk. These results not only reveal long-term trends in network structure but suggest that prey species richness in ecological communities may shape large scale patterns of extinction and persistence among predators.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"27 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2024-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141174055","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Suzanne L. Chmilar, Amanda C. Luzardo, Priyanka Dutt, Abbe Pawluk, Victoria C. Thwaites, Robert A. Laird
When subjected to dietary caloric restriction (CR), individual animals often outlive well-fed conspecifics. Here, we address whether CR also extends lifespan in plants. Whereas caloric intake in animals comes from ingestion, in plants it derives from photosynthesis. Thus, factors that reduce photosynthesis, such as reduced light intensity, can induce CR. In two lab experiments investigating the aquatic macrophyte Lemna minor, we tracked hundreds of individuals longitudinally, with light intensity—and hence, CR—manipulated using neutral-density filters. In both experiments, CR dramatically increased lifespan through a process of temporal scaling. Moreover, the magnitude of lifespan extension accorded with the assumptions that (a) light intensity positively relates to photosynthesis following Michaelis–Menten kinetics, and (b) photosynthesis negatively relates to lifespan via a power law. Our results emphasize that CR-mediated lifespan extension applies to autotrophs as well as heterotrophs, and suggest that variation in light intensity has quantitatively predictable effects on plant aging trajectories.
当受到饮食热量限制(CR)时,动物个体的寿命往往会超过吃得好的同种动物。在这里,我们将探讨食物热量限制是否也能延长植物的寿命。动物的热量摄入来自摄取,而植物的热量摄入则来自光合作用。因此,减少光合作用的因素(如降低光照强度)会诱发 "逆境生长"。在研究水生大型藻类 Lemna minor 的两个实验室实验中,我们纵向追踪了数百个个体,利用中性密度滤光片调节光照强度,从而调节 CR。在这两项实验中,CR 通过时间缩放过程显著延长了寿命。此外,寿命延长的幅度符合以下假设:(a) 光照强度与光合作用呈正相关,遵循迈克尔-门顿动力学;(b) 光合作用与寿命呈负相关,遵循幂律。我们的研究结果强调,CR 介导的寿命延长既适用于自养生物,也适用于异养生物,并表明光照强度的变化对植物衰老轨迹具有可预测的定量影响。
{"title":"Caloric restriction extends lifespan in a clonal plant","authors":"Suzanne L. Chmilar, Amanda C. Luzardo, Priyanka Dutt, Abbe Pawluk, Victoria C. Thwaites, Robert A. Laird","doi":"10.1111/ele.14444","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.14444","url":null,"abstract":"<p>When subjected to dietary caloric restriction (CR), individual animals often outlive well-fed conspecifics. Here, we address whether CR also extends lifespan in plants. Whereas caloric intake in animals comes from ingestion, in plants it derives from photosynthesis. Thus, factors that reduce photosynthesis, such as reduced light intensity, can induce CR. In two lab experiments investigating the aquatic macrophyte <i>Lemna minor</i>, we tracked hundreds of individuals longitudinally, with light intensity—and hence, CR—manipulated using neutral-density filters. In both experiments, CR dramatically increased lifespan through a process of temporal scaling. Moreover, the magnitude of lifespan extension accorded with the assumptions that (a) light intensity positively relates to photosynthesis following Michaelis–Menten kinetics, and (b) photosynthesis negatively relates to lifespan via a power law. Our results emphasize that CR-mediated lifespan extension applies to autotrophs as well as heterotrophs, and suggest that variation in light intensity has quantitatively predictable effects on plant aging trajectories.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"27 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2024-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.14444","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141174053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Odd T. Jacobson, Brendan J. Barrett, Susan E. Perry, Genevieve E. Finerty, Kate M. Tiedeman, Margaret C. Crofoot
Recent proliferation of GPS technology has transformed animal movement research. Yet, time-series data from this recent technology rarely span beyond a decade, constraining longitudinal research. Long-term field sites hold valuable historic animal location records, including hand-drawn maps and semantic descriptions. Here, we introduce a generalised workflow for converting such records into reliable location data to estimate home ranges, using 30 years of sleep-site data from 11 white-faced capuchin (Cebus imitator) groups in Costa Rica. Our findings illustrate that historic sleep locations can reliably recover home range size and geometry. We showcase the opportunity our approach presents to resolve open questions that can only be addressed with very long-term data, examining how home ranges are affected by climate cycles and demographic change. We urge researchers to translate historical records into usable movement data before this knowledge is lost; it is essential to understanding how animals are responding to our changing world.
{"title":"A new approach to geostatistical synthesis of historical records reveals capuchin spatial responses to climate and demographic change","authors":"Odd T. Jacobson, Brendan J. Barrett, Susan E. Perry, Genevieve E. Finerty, Kate M. Tiedeman, Margaret C. Crofoot","doi":"10.1111/ele.14443","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.14443","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Recent proliferation of GPS technology has transformed animal movement research. Yet, time-series data from this recent technology rarely span beyond a decade, constraining longitudinal research. Long-term field sites hold valuable historic animal location records, including hand-drawn maps and semantic descriptions. Here, we introduce a generalised workflow for converting such records into reliable location data to estimate home ranges, using 30 years of sleep-site data from 11 white-faced capuchin (<i>Cebus imitator</i>) groups in Costa Rica. Our findings illustrate that historic sleep locations can reliably recover home range size and geometry. We showcase the opportunity our approach presents to resolve open questions that can only be addressed with very long-term data, examining how home ranges are affected by climate cycles and demographic change. We urge researchers to translate historical records into usable movement data before this knowledge is lost; it is essential to understanding how animals are responding to our changing world.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"27 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2024-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.14443","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141156820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Joshua C. Fowler, Shaun Ziegler, Kenneth D. Whitney, Jennifer A. Rudgers, Tom E. X. Miller
Species' persistence in increasingly variable climates will depend on resilience against the fitness costs of environmental stochasticity. Most organisms host microbiota that shield against stressors. Here, we test the hypothesis that, by limiting exposure to temporally variable stressors, microbial symbionts reduce hosts' demographic variance. We parameterized stochastic population models using data from a 14-year symbiont-removal experiment including seven grass species that host Epichloë fungal endophytes. Results provide novel evidence that symbiotic benefits arise not only through improved mean fitness, but also through dampened inter-annual variance. Hosts with “fast” life-history traits benefited most from symbiont-mediated demographic buffering. Under current climate conditions, contributions of demographic buffering were modest compared to benefits to mean fitness. However, simulations of increased stochasticity amplified benefits of demographic buffering and made it the more important pathway of host–symbiont mutualism. Microbial-mediated variance buffering is likely an important, yet cryptic, mechanism of resilience in an increasingly variable world.
{"title":"Microbial symbionts buffer hosts from the demographic costs of environmental stochasticity","authors":"Joshua C. Fowler, Shaun Ziegler, Kenneth D. Whitney, Jennifer A. Rudgers, Tom E. X. Miller","doi":"10.1111/ele.14438","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.14438","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Species' persistence in increasingly variable climates will depend on resilience against the fitness costs of environmental stochasticity. Most organisms host microbiota that shield against stressors. Here, we test the hypothesis that, by limiting exposure to temporally variable stressors, microbial symbionts reduce hosts' demographic variance. We parameterized stochastic population models using data from a 14-year symbiont-removal experiment including seven grass species that host <i>Epichloë</i> fungal endophytes. Results provide novel evidence that symbiotic benefits arise not only through improved mean fitness, but also through dampened inter-annual variance. Hosts with “fast” life-history traits benefited most from symbiont-mediated demographic buffering. Under current climate conditions, contributions of demographic buffering were modest compared to benefits to mean fitness. However, simulations of increased stochasticity amplified benefits of demographic buffering and made it the more important pathway of host–symbiont mutualism. Microbial-mediated variance buffering is likely an important, yet cryptic, mechanism of resilience in an increasingly variable world.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"27 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.14438","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141086277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
E. Beccari, P. Capdevila, R. Salguero-Gómez, C. P. Carmona
Mammalian life history strategies can be characterised by a few axes of variation, conforming a space where species are positioned based on the life history strategies favoured in the environment they exploit. Yet, we still lack global descriptions of the diversity of realised mammalian life history and how this diversity is shaped by the environment. We used six life history traits to build a life history space covering worldwide mammalian adaptation, and we explored how environmental realms (land, air, water) influence mammalian life history strategies. We demonstrate that realms are tightly linked to distinct life history strategies. Aquatic and aerial species predominantly adhere to slower life history strategies, while terrestrial species exhibit faster life histories. Highly encephalised terrestrial species are a notable exception to these patterns. Furthermore, we show that different mode of life may play a significant role in expanding the set of strategies exploitable in the terrestrial realm. Additionally, species transitioning between terrestrial and aquatic realms, such as seals, exhibit intermediate life history strategies. Our results provide compelling evidence of the link between environmental realms and the life history diversity of mammals, highlighting the importance of differences in mode of life to expand life history diversity.
{"title":"Worldwide diversity in mammalian life histories: Environmental realms and evolutionary adaptations","authors":"E. Beccari, P. Capdevila, R. Salguero-Gómez, C. P. Carmona","doi":"10.1111/ele.14445","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.14445","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Mammalian life history strategies can be characterised by a few axes of variation, conforming a space where species are positioned based on the life history strategies favoured in the environment they exploit. Yet, we still lack global descriptions of the diversity of realised mammalian life history and how this diversity is shaped by the environment. We used six life history traits to build a life history space covering worldwide mammalian adaptation, and we explored how environmental realms (land, air, water) influence mammalian life history strategies. We demonstrate that realms are tightly linked to distinct life history strategies. Aquatic and aerial species predominantly adhere to slower life history strategies, while terrestrial species exhibit faster life histories. Highly encephalised terrestrial species are a notable exception to these patterns. Furthermore, we show that different mode of life may play a significant role in expanding the set of strategies exploitable in the terrestrial realm. Additionally, species transitioning between terrestrial and aquatic realms, such as seals, exhibit intermediate life history strategies. Our results provide compelling evidence of the link between environmental realms and the life history diversity of mammals, highlighting the importance of differences in mode of life to expand life history diversity.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"27 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.14445","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141086278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}
Elena L. Zvereva, Bastien Castagneyrol, Mikhail V. Kozlov
Variation in herbivore pressure has often been predicted from patterns in plant traits considered as antiherbivore defences. Here, we tested whether spatial variation in field insect herbivory is associated with the variation in plant quality by conducting a meta-analysis of 223 correlation coefficients between herbivory levels and the expression of selected plant traits. We found no overall correlation between herbivory and either concentrations of plant secondary metabolites or values of physical leaf traits. This result was due to both the large number of low correlations and the opposing directions of high correlations in individual studies. Field herbivory demonstrated a significant association only with nitrogen: herbivore pressure increased with an increase in nitrogen concentration in plant tissues. Thus, our meta-analysis does not support either theoretical prediction, i.e., that plants possess high antiherbivore defences in localities with high herbivore pressure or that herbivory is low in localities where plant defences are high. We conclude that information about putative plant defences is insufficient to predict plant losses to insects in field conditions and that the only bottom-up factor shaping spatial variation in insect herbivory is plant nutritive value. Our findings stress the need to improve a theory linking plant putative defences and herbivory.
{"title":"Does spatial variation in insect herbivory match variations in plant quality? A meta-analysis","authors":"Elena L. Zvereva, Bastien Castagneyrol, Mikhail V. Kozlov","doi":"10.1111/ele.14440","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ele.14440","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Variation in herbivore pressure has often been predicted from patterns in plant traits considered as antiherbivore defences. Here, we tested whether spatial variation in field insect herbivory is associated with the variation in plant quality by conducting a meta-analysis of 223 correlation coefficients between herbivory levels and the expression of selected plant traits. We found no overall correlation between herbivory and either concentrations of plant secondary metabolites or values of physical leaf traits. This result was due to both the large number of low correlations and the opposing directions of high correlations in individual studies. Field herbivory demonstrated a significant association only with nitrogen: herbivore pressure increased with an increase in nitrogen concentration in plant tissues. Thus, our meta-analysis does not support either theoretical prediction, i.e., that plants possess high antiherbivore defences in localities with high herbivore pressure or that herbivory is low in localities where plant defences are high. We conclude that information about putative plant defences is insufficient to predict plant losses to insects in field conditions and that the only bottom-up factor shaping spatial variation in insect herbivory is plant nutritive value. Our findings stress the need to improve a theory linking plant putative defences and herbivory.</p>","PeriodicalId":161,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Letters","volume":"27 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2024-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.14440","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141079457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}