Trends in ecology & evolution最新文献

All species host a rich community of microbes. This microbiome is dynamic, and displays seasonal, daily, and even hourly changes, but also needs to be resilient to fulfill important roles for the host. In evolutionary ecology, the focus of microbiome dynamism has been on how it can facilitate host adaptation to novel environments. However, an hitherto largely overlooked issue is that the host needs to keep its microbiome in check, which is costly and leads to trade-offs with investing in other fitness-related traits. Investigating these trade-offs in natural vertebrate systems by collecting longitudinal data will lead to deeper insight into the evolutionary mechanisms that shape host-microbiome interactions.

Ontogenetic niche shifts are widespread and play a crucial role in ecosystems coupling. However, their interactions with climate change and the resulting impact on cross-ecosystem energy pathways should be better investigated. I address ecological and evolutionary responses of ontogenetic niche shifts to climate change.

Introducing new genes and new species into ecosystems where they have not previously existed presents opportunities and complex, multivalue decisions for conservation biologists and the public. Both synthetic biology and conservation introductions offer potential benefits, such as avoiding extinctions and restoring ecological function, but also carry risks of unintended ecological consequences and raise social and moral concerns. Although the conservation community has attempted to establish guidelines for each new tool, there is a need for comprehensive principles that will enable conservation managers to navigate emerging technologies. Here, we combine biological, legal, social, cultural, and ethical considerations into an inclusive set of principles designed to facilitate the efforts of managers facing high-consequence conservation decisions by clarifying the stakes of inaction and action, along with the use of decision frameworks to integrate multiple considerations.

Extinctions occur when enough individual plants die without replacement to extirpate a population, and all populations are extirpated. While the ultimate drivers of plant extinctions are known, the proximate mechanisms at individual and population level are not. The fossil record supports climate change as the major driver until recently, with land-use change dominating in recent millennia. Climate change may regain its leading role later this century. Documented recent extinctions have been few and concentrated among narrow-range species, but population extirpations are frequent. Predictions for future extinctions often use flawed methods, but more than half of all plants could be threatened by the end of this century. We need targeted interventions tailored to the needs of each threatened species.

Natural debris deposited by the sea is essential for the functioning of the beach ecosystem. As tourist demands on the coast grow, aesthetic values become more important, and the indiscriminate cleaning of debris spreads from urban to natural beaches. A change in beach debris management is needed to ensure that organic debris plays its role where the sea has deposited it.

Long-term fieldwork is essential for ecology and conservation, but is hindered by institutional barriers, such as the publish-or-perish culture of academia, and funding limitations. Here, we discuss these challenges and propose strategies to overcome them, such as broadening evaluation metrics and supporting inclusivity, to advance scientific insight and societal equity.

Coastal ecosystems face salinization and rising temperatures. In coastal ectotherms, salinity and temperature affect metabolism, tolerance, infections, growth, behavior, and survival. Overall, the combined effects of salinity and temperature on species distribution, community structure, invasive species, and ecosystem functioning need to be fully assessed to understand impacts from these stressors.

Water provisioning is common in arid and semi-arid African ecosystems, but its effects on carnivore communities are not understood. Recently, Morin et al. documented the unexpectedly contrasting space-use patterns of dominant and subordinate carnivores around water sources, with dominant carnivores facilitating subordinate carnivores.

Biodiversity and nature assessments such as the US National Nature Assessment assess the state of biodiversity and the contributions of nature to humans.. Using three species relevant to public health, the economy, and ecosystem services, we illustrate here how socioeconomics relate to biodiversity data availability. Inequities in biodiversity records could risk inaccurate ecological assessments and hamper equitable policies.

Hotspots - sites with high temperatures - are expected to favor heat-tolerant organisms. Lachs et al. tested this assumption with Palau corals. Surprisingly, heat-tolerant individuals originated in both hotspots and cool refugia, with energy reserves giving a tolerance boost. Protecting ecological networks across environmental gradients can maintain high thermal trait diversity.