André M. Bellvé, Val J. P. Syverson, Jessica L. Blois, Marta A. Jarzyna
Ecological niche models (ENMs) increasingly leverage the fossil record to understand species' environmental associations and predict their geographic distributions. However, fossils do not occur uniformly through time and space, which can compromise the robustness of ENMs and thus affect ecological conclusions. Here, we assessed how preservation biases in the fossil record impact our ability to reconstruct ecological niches and distributions of North American small mammals during the late Quaternary. First, using small mammal fossil occurrences and associated depositional environment data, we quantified preservation potential (the likelihood that a given environment supports fossil preservation) and the preservation niche (environmental correlates of preservation) for three late Quaternary time periods (the Last Glacial Maximum, the deglacial period, and the Holocene). Second, we imposed the calculated preservation potential on simulated distributions of six virtual species to evaluate its impact on reconstructing species niches and geographic distributions through time. We found that preservation potential was highest in the Holocene and lowest during the deglacial period, with the differences driven by variations in climate and the prevalence of Holocene archaeological sites. In all intervals, warm, wet, and highly seasonal environments exhibited low preservation potential. These spatial and temporal differences in preservation potential significantly influenced niche reconstructions and geographic predictions, particularly impeding model quality when species niches extended beyond the preservation niche. We warn that such distortions can lead to erroneous ecological inferences, including inaccurate predictions of species responses to environmental changes and mischaracterizations of community assembly processes. We propose that our approach to modelling preservation potential can be applied across different regions, time periods, and taxonomic groups to help correct distortions caused by sampling biases through weighted background point selection that reflects these processes. Ultimately, this framework enhances the ability to disentangle true ecological patterns from preservation artifacts, improving the reliability of fossil-based ecological and evolutionary inferences.
{"title":"Preservation biases in the fossil record distort species ecological niche and distribution models","authors":"André M. Bellvé, Val J. P. Syverson, Jessica L. Blois, Marta A. Jarzyna","doi":"10.1002/ecog.08085","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08085","url":null,"abstract":"Ecological niche models (ENMs) increasingly leverage the fossil record to understand species' environmental associations and predict their geographic distributions. However, fossils do not occur uniformly through time and space, which can compromise the robustness of ENMs and thus affect ecological conclusions. Here, we assessed how preservation biases in the fossil record impact our ability to reconstruct ecological niches and distributions of North American small mammals during the late Quaternary. First, using small mammal fossil occurrences and associated depositional environment data, we quantified preservation potential (the likelihood that a given environment supports fossil preservation) and the preservation niche (environmental correlates of preservation) for three late Quaternary time periods (the Last Glacial Maximum, the deglacial period, and the Holocene). Second, we imposed the calculated preservation potential on simulated distributions of six virtual species to evaluate its impact on reconstructing species niches and geographic distributions through time. We found that preservation potential was highest in the Holocene and lowest during the deglacial period, with the differences driven by variations in climate and the prevalence of Holocene archaeological sites. In all intervals, warm, wet, and highly seasonal environments exhibited low preservation potential. These spatial and temporal differences in preservation potential significantly influenced niche reconstructions and geographic predictions, particularly impeding model quality when species niches extended beyond the preservation niche. We warn that such distortions can lead to erroneous ecological inferences, including inaccurate predictions of species responses to environmental changes and mischaracterizations of community assembly processes. We propose that our approach to modelling preservation potential can be applied across different regions, time periods, and taxonomic groups to help correct distortions caused by sampling biases through weighted background point selection that reflects these processes. Ultimately, this framework enhances the ability to disentangle true ecological patterns from preservation artifacts, improving the reliability of fossil-based ecological and evolutionary inferences.","PeriodicalId":51026,"journal":{"name":"Ecography","volume":"98 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2026-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146160807","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}
Charlotte Goeyers, Elie Verleyen, Bart Van de Vijver, Tyler J. Kohler, Petra Klímová, S. Robbert Gradstein, Koen Sabbe
Microorganisms perform essential functions in Arctic terrestrial ecosystems. Yet, their ecology and biogeography are poorly understood, despite being necessary to predict microbial responses to future climate change. Here, we provide the first large-scale floristic and biogeographic study of the moss diatom flora in the tundra regions of the North Atlantic sector of the Arctic. Diatom communities in 284 terrestrial moss samples from herbarium and recent collections (1962–2023) were analysed by light and scanning electron microscopy. Moss diatoms show clear regionalisation across the Arctic, with strong compositional differences between the three biogeographic regions (High Arctic, Low Arctic and Subarctic), reflecting contemporary microclimatic conditions and historical processes. We identified an inverse latitudinal diversity gradient with species richness increasing towards the High Arctic, likely driven by a temperature–moisture gradient. Nearly half of all taxa in our study are currently only observed in and known from the Arctic, and 44% were confined to a single biogeographic region, indicating a high degree of potential endemism. Our results serve as a foundation for future studies on polar diatoms and highlight their potential use as bioindicators for reconstructing and monitoring past, present, and future climate change.
{"title":"Moss diatoms show regional structuring, high potential endemism, and an inverse latitudinal diversity gradient in the Arctic","authors":"Charlotte Goeyers, Elie Verleyen, Bart Van de Vijver, Tyler J. Kohler, Petra Klímová, S. Robbert Gradstein, Koen Sabbe","doi":"10.1002/ecog.08362","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08362","url":null,"abstract":"Microorganisms perform essential functions in Arctic terrestrial ecosystems. Yet, their ecology and biogeography are poorly understood, despite being necessary to predict microbial responses to future climate change. Here, we provide the first large-scale floristic and biogeographic study of the moss diatom flora in the tundra regions of the North Atlantic sector of the Arctic. Diatom communities in 284 terrestrial moss samples from herbarium and recent collections (1962–2023) were analysed by light and scanning electron microscopy. Moss diatoms show clear regionalisation across the Arctic, with strong compositional differences between the three biogeographic regions (High Arctic, Low Arctic and Subarctic), reflecting contemporary microclimatic conditions and historical processes. We identified an inverse latitudinal diversity gradient with species richness increasing towards the High Arctic, likely driven by a temperature–moisture gradient. Nearly half of all taxa in our study are currently only observed in and known from the Arctic, and 44% were confined to a single biogeographic region, indicating a high degree of potential endemism. Our results serve as a foundation for future studies on polar diatoms and highlight their potential use as bioindicators for reconstructing and monitoring past, present, and future climate change.","PeriodicalId":51026,"journal":{"name":"Ecography","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2026-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146153584","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}
Temperate mesophotic ecosystems (TMEs) have the potential to act as climate refugia for shallower benthic species impacted by environmental change. However, the extent to which mesophotic ecosystems might provide an ecological refuge, particularly for key functional groups like sponges, remains poorly known in temperate systems. Our study investigates sponge assemblage structure across a depth gradient at the Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve, New Zealand, to assess the potential for mesophotic depths to act as ecological refuges for species inhabiting shallow water in the scenarios where mesophotic depths avoid shallower disturbances. Using ROV and SCUBA‐based image surveys across three sites, sponge abundance data were collected from depths spanning 5 to 65 m. Assemblage composition, species richness, and depth‐dependent abundance patterns were analysed using nMDS, PERMANOVA, and linear regression. Results revealed high beta diversity across depths, with sponge assemblages strongly structured by depth. The majority of sponge operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were restricted to either shallow (< 30 m) or mesophotic (> 30 m) zones, with between 26.4 and 32.7% of OTUs shared between both, and a total of 18 sponge OTUs found in multiple depths in each zone across all three sites. Depth related abundance patterns tended to be species specific, meaning the potential for any refuge effect will likely also vary between species depending on their local abundance. Our findings highlight the vertical structuring of sponge assemblages and suggest that, while TMEs may offer some refuge potential to specific species in scenarios where mesophotic habitats avoid disturbances experienced by shallow species, the benefits won't apply to entire sponge assemblages.
{"title":"Depth‐structured sponge assemblages offer limited evidence for mesophotic refuge potential under the deep reef refuge hypothesis","authors":"Manon Broadribb, Alice Rogers, James J. Bell","doi":"10.1002/ecog.08250","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08250","url":null,"abstract":"Temperate mesophotic ecosystems (TMEs) have the potential to act as climate refugia for shallower benthic species impacted by environmental change. However, the extent to which mesophotic ecosystems might provide an ecological refuge, particularly for key functional groups like sponges, remains poorly known in temperate systems. Our study investigates sponge assemblage structure across a depth gradient at the Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve, New Zealand, to assess the potential for mesophotic depths to act as ecological refuges for species inhabiting shallow water in the scenarios where mesophotic depths avoid shallower disturbances. Using ROV and SCUBA‐based image surveys across three sites, sponge abundance data were collected from depths spanning 5 to 65 m. Assemblage composition, species richness, and depth‐dependent abundance patterns were analysed using nMDS, PERMANOVA, and linear regression. Results revealed high beta diversity across depths, with sponge assemblages strongly structured by depth. The majority of sponge operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were restricted to either shallow (< 30 m) or mesophotic (> 30 m) zones, with between 26.4 and 32.7% of OTUs shared between both, and a total of 18 sponge OTUs found in multiple depths in each zone across all three sites. Depth related abundance patterns tended to be species specific, meaning the potential for any refuge effect will likely also vary between species depending on their local abundance. Our findings highlight the vertical structuring of sponge assemblages and suggest that, while TMEs may offer some refuge potential to specific species in scenarios where mesophotic habitats avoid disturbances experienced by shallow species, the benefits won't apply to entire sponge assemblages.","PeriodicalId":51026,"journal":{"name":"Ecography","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2026-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146138564","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}
Karel Kaurila, Sanna Kuningas, Antti Lappalainen, Jarno Vanhatalo
Species distribution models (SDM) are key tools in ecology, conservation, and natural resources management. They are traditionally trained with data on direct species observations. However, if collecting species data is difficult or expensive, complementary information sources on species distributions are needed. Expert knowledge has been demonstrated to improve SDM predictions in a number of such applications but there is still no consensus on methods to integrate information from several experts into a single coherent species distribution prediction. Moreover, since expert assessments are inherently subjective and prone to biases, expert‐driven SDMs should calibrate their assessments. We propose a method to tackle these challenges by extending the hierarchical Bayesian integrated species distribution modeling framework to expert informed species distribution modeling. We treated map‐like expert assessments as data and integrated them with calibration data on species recordings. Our integrated SDM has model components to estimate experts' reliability and to adjust for potential biases in their assessments. After integrated inference, we used the model to make predictions over a study area. We tested our approach with an extensive simulation study and a real world case study comprising ten expert assessments and survey data on pikeperch larvae from a coastal area of the Gulf of Finland. Expert assessments significantly improved species distribution predictions compared to predictions conditioned on survey data only. They also improved parameter inference, thus strengthening the ecological interpretation of the results. The skill of the experts, and biases in their assessments, varied considerably in the case study though, emphasizing the importance of formal expert calibration provided by our model. Our results show that expert elicitation can be an efficient tool for improving species distribution model predictions. Our approach is especially useful for applications where any type of species data are expensive to collect but local species experts can easily be reached.
{"title":"Species distribution modeling with expert elicitation and Bayesian calibration","authors":"Karel Kaurila, Sanna Kuningas, Antti Lappalainen, Jarno Vanhatalo","doi":"10.1002/ecog.08173","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08173","url":null,"abstract":"Species distribution models (SDM) are key tools in ecology, conservation, and natural resources management. They are traditionally trained with data on direct species observations. However, if collecting species data is difficult or expensive, complementary information sources on species distributions are needed. Expert knowledge has been demonstrated to improve SDM predictions in a number of such applications but there is still no consensus on methods to integrate information from several experts into a single coherent species distribution prediction. Moreover, since expert assessments are inherently subjective and prone to biases, expert‐driven SDMs should calibrate their assessments. We propose a method to tackle these challenges by extending the hierarchical Bayesian integrated species distribution modeling framework to expert informed species distribution modeling. We treated map‐like expert assessments as data and integrated them with calibration data on species recordings. Our integrated SDM has model components to estimate experts' reliability and to adjust for potential biases in their assessments. After integrated inference, we used the model to make predictions over a study area. We tested our approach with an extensive simulation study and a real world case study comprising ten expert assessments and survey data on pikeperch larvae from a coastal area of the Gulf of Finland. Expert assessments significantly improved species distribution predictions compared to predictions conditioned on survey data only. They also improved parameter inference, thus strengthening the ecological interpretation of the results. The skill of the experts, and biases in their assessments, varied considerably in the case study though, emphasizing the importance of formal expert calibration provided by our model. Our results show that expert elicitation can be an efficient tool for improving species distribution model predictions. Our approach is especially useful for applications where any type of species data are expensive to collect but local species experts can easily be reached.","PeriodicalId":51026,"journal":{"name":"Ecography","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2026-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146129421","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}
A central goal of ecology is to understand spatial patterns of species densities. Habitat suitability estimates from species distribution models (SDMs) could be used to represent species density and overcome the scarcity of density data. However, there is mixed evidence that habitat suitability is a reliable descriptor of density, and it is suggested that local dynamics affect the relationship between habitat suitability and density. We simulated population dynamics for 200 virtual species considering different combinations of factors (demographic stochasticity, dispersal, and intraspecific competition) that affect population sizes and SDMs were trained using different sets of environmental predictors to evaluate when habitat suitability reflects densities. We also examined the generalities of these relationships in nature considering 200 North American bird species sampled by the Breeding Bird Survey. We found that even when population growth rate and demographic stochasticity were the only factors driving population dynamics and SDMs are trained with the two environmental factors that controlled population density, habitat suitability was not consistently related to virtual species densities. Incorporating dispersal dynamics and spatial differences in intraspecific competition had negative effects on the relationship between habitat suitability and density, showing that these factors influence these relationships. Similarly, habitat suitability could not explain the density of North American birds. Together, our results suggest that the use of habitat suitability estimates from SDMs to understand population densities should be avoided as habitat suitability does not relate to density under many scenarios.
{"title":"Demography and dispersal influence the relationship between habitat suitability and population density","authors":"Cleber Ten Caten, Tad Dallas","doi":"10.1002/ecog.08299","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08299","url":null,"abstract":"A central goal of ecology is to understand spatial patterns of species densities. Habitat suitability estimates from species distribution models (SDMs) could be used to represent species density and overcome the scarcity of density data. However, there is mixed evidence that habitat suitability is a reliable descriptor of density, and it is suggested that local dynamics affect the relationship between habitat suitability and density. We simulated population dynamics for 200 virtual species considering different combinations of factors (demographic stochasticity, dispersal, and intraspecific competition) that affect population sizes and SDMs were trained using different sets of environmental predictors to evaluate when habitat suitability reflects densities. We also examined the generalities of these relationships in nature considering 200 North American bird species sampled by the Breeding Bird Survey. We found that even when population growth rate and demographic stochasticity were the only factors driving population dynamics and SDMs are trained with the two environmental factors that controlled population density, habitat suitability was not consistently related to virtual species densities. Incorporating dispersal dynamics and spatial differences in intraspecific competition had negative effects on the relationship between habitat suitability and density, showing that these factors influence these relationships. Similarly, habitat suitability could not explain the density of North American birds. Together, our results suggest that the use of habitat suitability estimates from SDMs to understand population densities should be avoided as habitat suitability does not relate to density under many scenarios.","PeriodicalId":51026,"journal":{"name":"Ecography","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2026-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146122165","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}
Timothy E. Essington, James T. Thorson, Curtis Deutsch
Species' ranges are shifting in response to increasing temperature and decreasing oxygen in coastal oceans. Predicting these shifts is limited by information on physiological oxygen thresholds and how they depend on temperature. Here we collate laboratory-derived measurements of a common oxygen threshold, pcrit, for 148 animal species that span six phyla, and fit a hierarchical model based on taxonomy to impute threshold values for all based on taxonomy, body size, and environmental temperature. As expected, pcrit increased with increasing temperature and body size, and these temperature- and body size effects were broadly similar among species. Generally, variation in pcrit measurements was estimated to be most pronounced at the taxonomic family and species level, although the partitioning of variance was relatively imprecise. We demonstrate application of these estimates for species distribution modeling of six groundfish species that reside in the coastal waters of the US and Canadian Pacific coast, finding that models that used imputed values sometimes – but not always – improved the performance of species distribution models compared to models that use environmental pO2 alone. This modeling framework and data can support species distribution modeling for marine species by providing an alternative way to consider the role of shifting oxygen levels and temperatures on species ranges.
{"title":"Predicting oxygen thresholds of marine taxa to improve ecological forecasts","authors":"Timothy E. Essington, James T. Thorson, Curtis Deutsch","doi":"10.1002/ecog.08374","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08374","url":null,"abstract":"Species' ranges are shifting in response to increasing temperature and decreasing oxygen in coastal oceans. Predicting these shifts is limited by information on physiological oxygen thresholds and how they depend on temperature. Here we collate laboratory-derived measurements of a common oxygen threshold, p<sub>crit</sub>, for 148 animal species that span six phyla, and fit a hierarchical model based on taxonomy to impute threshold values for all based on taxonomy, body size, and environmental temperature. As expected, p<sub>crit</sub> increased with increasing temperature and body size, and these temperature- and body size effects were broadly similar among species. Generally, variation in p<sub>crit</sub> measurements was estimated to be most pronounced at the taxonomic family and species level, although the partitioning of variance was relatively imprecise. We demonstrate application of these estimates for species distribution modeling of six groundfish species that reside in the coastal waters of the US and Canadian Pacific coast, finding that models that used imputed values sometimes – but not always – improved the performance of species distribution models compared to models that use environmental pO<sub>2</sub> alone. This modeling framework and data can support species distribution modeling for marine species by providing an alternative way to consider the role of shifting oxygen levels and temperatures on species ranges.","PeriodicalId":51026,"journal":{"name":"Ecography","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2026-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146098230","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}
Charlotte E. Raven, Andy G. Howe, David C. F. Rentz, Emma J. Mackintosh, Andrew R. Marshall, Helen F. Nahrung
Disturbance-driven changes in rainforest structure and environmental conditions can alter ecosystem functioning, yet the consequences for invertebrate communities – key contributors to decomposition, herbivory, and trophic interactions – are not fully understood, particularly in relation to structural changes in vegetation. We examined how climate, vegetation structure, and associated environmental gradients influence cricket communities (Orthoptera: Ensifera) in disturbed tropical rainforests of North Queensland, Australia. Using richness, abundance-weighted diversity, community ordination, and trait-based analyses, we assessed taxonomic and functional responses to variation in forest structure and climate. We used crickets as a model taxon due to their high local endemism, sensitivity to microhabitat conditions, and value as indicators of environmental change in tropical ecosystems. Species richness increased with precipitation and aboveground biomass, the latter reflecting differences in disturbance and forest recovery, and both explained the greatest variation in community composition. Trait–environment associations showed that flightlessness increased with elevation, tree density, and latitude. Acoustic species were associated with higher aboveground biomass, while smaller, non-acoustic species declined with biomass and elevation. These results show that climate and disturbance-driven changes in vegetation structure can influence invertebrate communities, producing functionally distinct assemblages with altered dispersal and acoustic signalling, and highlight the value of trait-based approaches for understanding biodiversity responses to environmental change.
{"title":"Precipitation and tree biomass correlate with the diversity and functional composition of tropical rainforest cricket assemblages across climate and disturbance gradients","authors":"Charlotte E. Raven, Andy G. Howe, David C. F. Rentz, Emma J. Mackintosh, Andrew R. Marshall, Helen F. Nahrung","doi":"10.1002/ecog.08451","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08451","url":null,"abstract":"Disturbance-driven changes in rainforest structure and environmental conditions can alter ecosystem functioning, yet the consequences for invertebrate communities – key contributors to decomposition, herbivory, and trophic interactions – are not fully understood, particularly in relation to structural changes in vegetation. We examined how climate, vegetation structure, and associated environmental gradients influence cricket communities (Orthoptera: Ensifera) in disturbed tropical rainforests of North Queensland, Australia. Using richness, abundance-weighted diversity, community ordination, and trait-based analyses, we assessed taxonomic and functional responses to variation in forest structure and climate. We used crickets as a model taxon due to their high local endemism, sensitivity to microhabitat conditions, and value as indicators of environmental change in tropical ecosystems. Species richness increased with precipitation and aboveground biomass, the latter reflecting differences in disturbance and forest recovery, and both explained the greatest variation in community composition. Trait–environment associations showed that flightlessness increased with elevation, tree density, and latitude. Acoustic species were associated with higher aboveground biomass, while smaller, non-acoustic species declined with biomass and elevation. These results show that climate and disturbance-driven changes in vegetation structure can influence invertebrate communities, producing functionally distinct assemblages with altered dispersal and acoustic signalling, and highlight the value of trait-based approaches for understanding biodiversity responses to environmental change.","PeriodicalId":51026,"journal":{"name":"Ecography","volume":"90 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2026-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146098232","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}
Charlotte Vanderlocht, Valerio Donini, Andrea Corradini, Simone Dal Farra, Benjamin Robira, Andrea Gazzola, Giorgia Galeotti, Laura Limonciello, Noemi Squillaci, Maël Van Dam, Giada Zeni, Marta Gandolfi, Elisa Iacona, Lucrezia Lorenzetti, Matteo Nava, Federico Ossi, Heidi C. Hauffe, Francesco Ferretti, Luca Corlatti, Luca Pedrotti, Francesca Cagnacci
As wolves recolonise their historical range across Europe, ungulates face predation once more – but in landscapes profoundly altered by human activity. This shift raises crucial questions about their capacity to express adaptive antipredator behaviours. Using a quasi-experimental camera-trap design, we examined diel activity responses of ungulates along the ongoing wolf recolonisation in the south-eastern Alps. Red deer showed higher summer diurnality in sites with a longer history of wolf presence (7% increase over five years, on average) and progressively reduced nocturnality within sites as local wolf establishment advanced (5% decrease per year, on average), also heightening activity overlap with humans. This ‘diel shield effect' disappeared when human hunting occurred. Roe deer and Alpine chamois did not exhibit significant diel activity shifts in relation to wolves, though both species responded to human disturbance, with roe deer adjusting activity to hunting (18% less diurnal, on average) and chamois reducing diurnality in areas of intense outdoor use (up to 38% difference in diurnality between undisturbed and highly disturbed areas). Red deer, too, were less diurnal (up to 27% difference) and more nocturnal (up to 37% difference) in such highly disturbed areas, as well as near human settlements (up to 42% difference in diurnality between remote areas and villages). Our findings show that wolf recovery can induce detectable diel activity shifts in large herbivores over relatively short timescales, yet responses depend on species biology and behavioural plasticity. Importantly, human risk and disturbance can offset or override these behavioural adjustments, potentially altering the ecosystemic effects of returning large carnivores.
{"title":"Alpine ungulates adjust diel activity to the natural return of wolves amid anthropogenic pressures","authors":"Charlotte Vanderlocht, Valerio Donini, Andrea Corradini, Simone Dal Farra, Benjamin Robira, Andrea Gazzola, Giorgia Galeotti, Laura Limonciello, Noemi Squillaci, Maël Van Dam, Giada Zeni, Marta Gandolfi, Elisa Iacona, Lucrezia Lorenzetti, Matteo Nava, Federico Ossi, Heidi C. Hauffe, Francesco Ferretti, Luca Corlatti, Luca Pedrotti, Francesca Cagnacci","doi":"10.1002/ecog.07988","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.07988","url":null,"abstract":"As wolves recolonise their historical range across Europe, ungulates face predation once more – but in landscapes profoundly altered by human activity. This shift raises crucial questions about their capacity to express adaptive antipredator behaviours. Using a quasi-experimental camera-trap design, we examined diel activity responses of ungulates along the ongoing wolf recolonisation in the south-eastern Alps. Red deer showed higher summer diurnality in sites with a longer history of wolf presence (7% increase over five years, on average) and progressively reduced nocturnality within sites as local wolf establishment advanced (5% decrease per year, on average), also heightening activity overlap with humans. This ‘diel shield effect' disappeared when human hunting occurred. Roe deer and Alpine chamois did not exhibit significant diel activity shifts in relation to wolves, though both species responded to human disturbance, with roe deer adjusting activity to hunting (18% less diurnal, on average) and chamois reducing diurnality in areas of intense outdoor use (up to 38% difference in diurnality between undisturbed and highly disturbed areas). Red deer, too, were less diurnal (up to 27% difference) and more nocturnal (up to 37% difference) in such highly disturbed areas, as well as near human settlements (up to 42% difference in diurnality between remote areas and villages). Our findings show that wolf recovery can induce detectable diel activity shifts in large herbivores over relatively short timescales, yet responses depend on species biology and behavioural plasticity. Importantly, human risk and disturbance can offset or override these behavioural adjustments, potentially altering the ecosystemic effects of returning large carnivores.","PeriodicalId":51026,"journal":{"name":"Ecography","volume":"117 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2026-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146098231","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}
Emily McIntyre, Craig Nitschke, Francisco Encinas- Viso, Tony Mitchell, Camille Truong
The mutualistic interaction between truffle-like ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi and mycophagous mammals is fundamental to forest health, supporting fungal dispersal, soil structure, nutrient cycling, and plant community dynamics worldwide. However, climate change may disrupt this mutualism in unprecedented ways by altering truffle-like ECM sporing body production and mycophagous mammal diets, with consequences for fungal spore dispersal and ECM host plant health. As one of the most specialised mycophagous mammals in the world, the endangered marsupial long-footed potoroo Potorous longipes provides a powerful model system to investigate these risks. Using a unique 23-year collection of long-footed potoroo scats from south-eastern Australia, we quantified the diversity and composition of truffle-like ECM fungi in their diet and assessed how it was shaped by intra- and inter-annual shifts in temperature and precipitation. ITS2 metabarcoding of scats revealed a high richness of truffle-like ECM fungi in long-footed potoroo scats, with a total of 38 taxa from 14 genera. The richness of truffle-like ECM fungi consumed by long-footed potoroos was negatively correlated with higher minimum temperatures of the previous quarter and 12 months, and was highest in spring. Seasonality, precipitation, minimum temperature and aridity were the best predictors of truffle-like ECM fungal community composition in long-footed potoroo scats. We found that five truffle-like ECM fungal genera – Mesophellia, Hysterangium, Arcangeliella, Thaxterogaster and Austrogautieria – were associated with specific climate conditions related to temperature and precipitation, providing novel insights into their phenology and dispersal. Our findings suggest that mycophagous mammals may consume far less diverse fungal diets in a warmer and drier future, with a greater reliance on truffle-like ECM fungal genera associated with these conditions such as Mesophellia. These results highlight the sensitivity of this mutualism to climate variability and change, with implications for long-footed potoroo nutrition, dispersal of truffle-like ECM fungi, and ecosystem functioning.
{"title":"Climate variability shapes the mutualistic interaction between truffle-like ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi and a mycophagous mammal","authors":"Emily McIntyre, Craig Nitschke, Francisco Encinas- Viso, Tony Mitchell, Camille Truong","doi":"10.1002/ecog.08410","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08410","url":null,"abstract":"The mutualistic interaction between truffle-like ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi and mycophagous mammals is fundamental to forest health, supporting fungal dispersal, soil structure, nutrient cycling, and plant community dynamics worldwide. However, climate change may disrupt this mutualism in unprecedented ways by altering truffle-like ECM sporing body production and mycophagous mammal diets, with consequences for fungal spore dispersal and ECM host plant health. As one of the most specialised mycophagous mammals in the world, the endangered marsupial long-footed potoroo <i>Potorous longipes</i> provides a powerful model system to investigate these risks. Using a unique 23-year collection of long-footed potoroo scats from south-eastern Australia, we quantified the diversity and composition of truffle-like ECM fungi in their diet and assessed how it was shaped by intra- and inter-annual shifts in temperature and precipitation. ITS2 metabarcoding of scats revealed a high richness of truffle-like ECM fungi in long-footed potoroo scats, with a total of 38 taxa from 14 genera. The richness of truffle-like ECM fungi consumed by long-footed potoroos was negatively correlated with higher minimum temperatures of the previous quarter and 12 months, and was highest in spring. Seasonality, precipitation, minimum temperature and aridity were the best predictors of truffle-like ECM fungal community composition in long-footed potoroo scats. We found that five truffle-like ECM fungal genera – <i>Mesophellia</i>, <i>Hysterangium, Arcangeliella, Thaxterogaster</i> and <i>Austrogautieria</i> – were associated with specific climate conditions related to temperature and precipitation, providing novel insights into their phenology and dispersal. Our findings suggest that mycophagous mammals may consume far less diverse fungal diets in a warmer and drier future, with a greater reliance on truffle-like ECM fungal genera associated with these conditions such as <i>Mesophellia</i>. These results highlight the sensitivity of this mutualism to climate variability and change, with implications for long-footed potoroo nutrition, dispersal of truffle-like ECM fungi, and ecosystem functioning.","PeriodicalId":51026,"journal":{"name":"Ecography","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2026-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146098261","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}
Biodiversity losses and biotic homogenisation associated with human‐induced land‐cover changes are key issues for ecology. However, the effects of human‐caused land‐use changes on biodiversity change at the landscape scale are not well understood. Combining the PREDICTS global biodiversity database with MODIS satellite‐based land cover from 2001 to 2013, we created three landscape modification scenarios – relatively natural, partially modified (mixed, e.g. mixtures of crops and natural remnants) and fully modified (transformed, e.g. urban and plantation mosaics) and estimated the landscape‐scale alpha, beta and gamma diversity associated with each. Our results reveal that landscape‐scale modification from relatively natural landscapes to mixed landscapes increases the variety of ecosystem types and modification levels, hence increasing the variety of ecological communities (beta diversity) and maintaining landscape‐level diversity (gamma), despite reductions in average local‐level diversity (alpha). However, total transformation (from mixed towards completely transformed landscapes) causes a decline in both alpha and gamma diversity. Our results highlight that anthropogenic modification can potentially increase some elements of biodiversity while decreasing others and that high levels of landscape‐scale diversity can be maintained within mixed landscapes.
{"title":"Alpha, beta and gamma diversity in relatively natural, mixed and transformed landscape scenarios","authors":"Shuyu Deng, Colin M. Beale, Chris D. Thomas","doi":"10.1002/ecog.08324","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08324","url":null,"abstract":"Biodiversity losses and biotic homogenisation associated with human‐induced land‐cover changes are key issues for ecology. However, the effects of human‐caused land‐use changes on biodiversity change at the landscape scale are not well understood. Combining the PREDICTS global biodiversity database with MODIS satellite‐based land cover from 2001 to 2013, we created three landscape modification scenarios – relatively natural, partially modified (mixed, e.g. mixtures of crops and natural remnants) and fully modified (transformed, e.g. urban and plantation mosaics) and estimated the landscape‐scale alpha, beta and gamma diversity associated with each. Our results reveal that landscape‐scale modification from relatively natural landscapes to mixed landscapes increases the variety of ecosystem types and modification levels, hence increasing the variety of ecological communities (beta diversity) and maintaining landscape‐level diversity (gamma), despite reductions in average local‐level diversity (alpha). However, total transformation (from mixed towards completely transformed landscapes) causes a decline in both alpha and gamma diversity. Our results highlight that anthropogenic modification can potentially increase some elements of biodiversity while decreasing others and that high levels of landscape‐scale diversity can be maintained within mixed landscapes.","PeriodicalId":51026,"journal":{"name":"Ecography","volume":"78 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2026-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146071762","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}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：