Results
- Showing results for:
- Reset all filters
Search results
-
Journal articleCavan EL, Mackay N, Hill SL, et al., 2024,
Antarctic krill sequester similar amounts of carbon to key coastal blue carbon habitats
, Nature Communications, Vol: 15, ISSN: 2041-1723The carbon sequestration potential of open-ocean pelagic ecosystems is vastly under-reported compared to coastal vegetation ‘blue carbon’ systems. Here we show that just a single pelagic harvested species, Antarctic krill, sequesters a similar amount of carbon through its sinking faecal pellets as marshes, mangroves and seagrass. Due to their massive population biomass, fast-sinking faecal pellets and the modest depths that pellets need to reach to achieve sequestration (mean is 381 m), Antarctic krill faecal pellets sequester 20 MtC per productive season (spring to early Autumn). This is equates USD$ 4 − 46 billion depending on the price of carbon, with krill pellet carbon stored for at least 100 years and with some reaching as far as the North Pacific. Antarctic krill are being impacted by rapid polar climate change and an expanding fishery, thus krill populations and their habitat warrant protection to preserve this valuable carbon sink.
-
Journal articleStocker B, Dong N, Perkowski EA, et al., 2024,
Empirical evidence and theoretical understanding ofecosystem carbon and nitrogen cycle interactions
, New Phytologist, ISSN: 0028-646X -
Journal articleJeong S, Ryu Y, Gentine P, et al., 2024,
Persistent global greening over the last four decades using novel long-term vegetation index data with enhanced temporal consistency
, Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol: 311, ISSN: 0034-4257Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite observations have provided the longest global daily records from 1980s, but the remaining temporal inconsistency in vegetation index datasets has hindered reliable assessment of vegetation greenness trends. To tackle this, we generated novel global long-term Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Near-Infrared Reflectance of vegetation (NIRv) datasets derived from AVHRR and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). We addressed residual temporal inconsistency through three-step post processing including cross-sensor calibration among AVHRR sensors, orbital drifting correction for AVHRR sensors, and machine learning-based harmonization between AVHRR and MODIS. After applying each processing step, we confirmed the enhanced temporal consistency in terms of detrended anomaly, trend and interannual variability of NDVI and NIRv at calibration sites. Our refined NDVI and NIRv datasets showed a persistent global greening trend over the last four decades (NDVI: 0.0008 yr−1; NIRv: 0.0003 yr−1), contrasting with those without the three processing steps that showed rapid greening trends before 2000 (NDVI: 0.0017 yr−1; NIRv: 0.0008 yr−1) and weakened greening trends after 2000 (NDVI: 0.0004 yr−1; NIRv: 0.0001 yr−1). These findings highlight the importance of minimizing temporal inconsistency in long-term vegetation index datasets, which can support more reliable trend analysis in global vegetation response to climate changes.
-
Journal articleMorales-Castilla I, Davies TJ, Legault G, et al., 2024,
Phylogenetic estimates of species-level phenology improve ecological forecasting
, Nature Climate Change, Vol: 14, Pages: 989-995, ISSN: 1758-678XThe ability to adapt to climate change requires accurate ecological forecasting. Current forecasts, however, have failed to capture important variability in biological responses, especially across species. Here we present a new method using Bayesian hierarchical phylogenetic models and show that species-level differences are larger than the average differences between cues. Applying our method to phenological experiments manipulating temperature and day length we show an underlying phylogenetic structure in plant phenological responses to temperature cues, whereas responses to photoperiod appear weaker, more uniform across species and less phylogenetically constrained. We thus illustrate how a focus on certain clades can bias prediction, but that predictions may be improved by integrating information on phylogeny to better estimate species-level responses. Our approach provides an advance in ecological forecasting, with implications for predicting the impacts of climate change and other anthropogenic forces on ecosystems.
-
Journal articleDechant B, Kattge J, Pavlick R, et al., 2024,
Intercomparison of global foliar trait maps reveals fundamental differences and limitations of upscaling approaches
, Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol: 311, ISSN: 0034-4257Foliar traits such as specific leaf area (SLA), leaf nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) concentrations play important roles in plant economic strategies and ecosystem functioning. Various global maps of these foliar traits have been generated using statistical upscaling approaches based on in-situ trait observations. Here, we intercompare such global upscaled foliar trait maps at 0.5° spatial resolution (six maps for SLA, five for N, three for P), categorize the upscaling approaches used to generate them, and evaluate the maps with trait estimates from a global database of vegetation plots (sPlotOpen). We disentangled the contributions from different plant functional types (PFTs) to the upscaled maps and quantified the impacts of using different plot-level trait metrics on the evaluation with sPlotOpen: community weighted mean (CWM) and top-of-canopy weighted mean (TWM). We found that the global foliar trait maps of SLA and N differ drastically and fall into two groups that are almost uncorrelated (for P only maps from one group were available). The primary factor explaining the differences between these groups is the use of PFT information combined with remote sensing-derived land cover products in one group while the other group mostly relied on environmental predictors alone. The maps that used PFT and corresponding land cover information exhibit considerable similarities in spatial patterns that are strongly driven by land cover. The maps not using PFTs show a lower level of similarity and tend to be strongly driven by individual environmental variables. Upscaled maps of both groups were moderately correlated to sPlotOpen data aggregated to the grid-cell level (R = 0.2–0.6) when processing sPlotOpen in a way that is consistent with the respective trait upscaling approaches, including the plot-level trait metric (CWM or TWM) and the scaling to the grid cells with or without accounting for fractional land cover. The impact of using TWM or CWM was relevant
-
Journal articleFlo V, Joshi J, Sabot M, et al., 2024,
Incorporating photosynthetic acclimation improves stomatal optimisation models
, Plant, Cell and Environment, Vol: 47, Pages: 3478-3493, ISSN: 0140-7791Stomatal opening in plant leaves is regulated through a balance of carbon and water exchange under different environmental conditions. Accurate estimation of stomatal regulation is crucial for understanding how plants respond to changing environmental conditions, particularly under climate change. A new generation of optimality-based modelling schemes determines instantaneous stomatal responses from a balance of trade-offs between carbon gains and hydraulic costs, but most such schemes do not account for biochemical acclimation in response to drought. Here, we compare the performance of six instantaneous stomatal optimisation models with and without accounting for photosynthetic acclimation. Using experimental data from 37 plant species, we found that accounting for photosynthetic acclimation improves the prediction of carbon assimilation in a majority of the tested models. Photosynthetic acclimation contributed significantly to the reduction of photosynthesis under drought conditions in all tested models. Drought effects on photosynthesis could not accurately be explained by the hydraulic impairment functions embedded in the stomatal models alone, indicating that photosynthetic acclimation must be considered to improve estimates of carbon assimilation during drought.
-
Journal articleHeath BE, Suzuki R, LePenru NP, et al., 2024,
Spatial ecosystem monitoring with a Multichannel Acoustic Autonomous Recording Unit (MAARU)
, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, Vol: 15, Pages: 1568-1579, ISSN: 2041-210X1. Multi-microphone recording adds spatial information to recorded audio with emerging applications in ecosystem monitoring. Specifically placing sounds in space can improve animal count accuracy, locate illegal activity like logging and poaching, track animals to monitor behaviour and habitat use and allow for ‘beamforming’ to amplify sounds from target directions for downstream classification. Studies have shown many advantages of spatial acoustics, but uptake remains limited as the equipment is often expensive, complicated, inaccessible or only suitable for short-term deployments.2. With an emphasis on enhanced uptake and usability, we present a low-cost, open-source, six-channel recorder built entirely from commercially available components which can be integrated into a solar-powered, online system. The MAARU (Multichannel Acoustic Autonomous Recording Unit) works as an independent node in long-term autonomous, passive and/or short-term deployments. Here, we introduce MAARU's hardware and software and present the results of lab and field tests investigating the device's durability and usability.3. MAARU records multichannel audio with similar costs and power demands to equivalent omnidirectional recorders. MAARU devices have been deployed in the United Kingdom and Brazil, where we have shown MAARUs can accurately localise pure tones up to 6 kHz and bird calls as far as 8 m away (±10° range, 100% and >60% of signals, respectively). Louder calls may have even further detection radii. We also show how beamforming can be used with MAARUs to improve species ID confidence scores.4. MAARU is an accessible, low-cost option for those looking to explore spatial acoustics accurately and easily with a single device, and without the formidable expenses and processing complications associated with establishing arrays. Ultimately, the added directional element of the multichannel recording provided by MAARU allows for enhanced recording
-
Journal articleLi J, Prentice IC, 2024,
Global patterns of plant functional traits and their relationships to climate
, Communications Biology, ISSN: 2399-3642 -
Journal articleCoathup M, Savolainen V, 2024,
Ecological speciation in sympatric palms: 5. Evidence for pleiotropic speciation genes using gene knockout and high-throughput phenotyping
, Evolutionary Journal of the Linnean SocietyTheoretical models predict that sympatric, ecological speciation may be facilitated more readily when so-called ‘magic traits’ are present, linking traits under divergent selection with assortative mating. Such traits might be encoded by pleiotropic genes, that is, genes that affect multiple, apparently unrelated, phenotypes. However, few convincing examples of sympatric speciation exist, and empirical evidence for the role of magic traits in driving such speciation is rare. One of the strongest cases of sympatric speciation is the Howea palms of Lord Howe Island, Australia, comprising the sister species H. belmoreana and H. forsteriana, which have diverged due to soil substrate preferences and flowering time displacement. By carrying out high-throughput phenotyping experiments using 1,830 Arabidopsis thaliana plants with knockouts of candidate Howea ‘speciation genes’, here we investigate the role that pleiotropy may have played in the speciation process. We identify several genes that show signatures of adaptive divergence between the Howea species and demonstrate pleiotropic roles in soil stress tolerance and flowering time, consistent with the Howea speciation scenario – notably, Howea orthologs of the A. thaliana loci At2-MMP, DCL1, RCD1, SAL1, and SIZ1. Empirical evidence is provided, therefore, for a range of pleiotropic genes with the potential to have driven sympatric speciation by generating magic traits which link divergent selection to non-random mating.
-
Journal articleHaas O, Keeping T, Gomez-Dans J, et al., 2024,
The global drivers of wildfire
, Frontiers in Environmental Science, ISSN: 2296-665XChanges in wildfire regimes are of growing concern and raise issues about how well we can model risks in a changing climate. Process-based coupled fire-vegetation models, used to project future wildfire regimes, capture many aspects of wildfire regimes poorly. However, there is now a wealth of information from empirical studies on the climate, vegetation, topography and human activity controls on wildfire regimes. The measures used to quantify these controls vary among studies, but certain variables consistently emerge as the most important: gross primary production as a measure of fuel availability, vegetation cover as a measure of fuel continuity, and atmospheric humidity as a measure of fuel drying. Contrary to popular perception, ignitions are generally not a limiting factor for wildfires. In this review, we describe how empirical fire models implement wildfire processes, synthesise current understanding of the controls on wildfire extent and severity, and suggest ways in which fire modelling could be improved.• Empirical analyses of the controls on wildfires consistently identify vegetation properties associated with fuel availability and continuity and climate factors associated with fuel drying as the most important influences on wildfire extent and severity. • Ignitions, whether anthropogenic or natural, are generally not limiting.• Fire size, burnt area and fire intensity are influenced by different factors; current relationships between these aspects of wildfire could become decoupled in an altered climate. • Some hypotheses embedded in 'process-based' fire-vegetation models are inconsistent with empirical evidence, implying a need for a re-design.
-
Journal articleBoyle MJW, Sharp AC, Barclay MV, et al., 2024,
Tropical beetles more sensitive to impacts are less likely to be known to science
, Current Biology, Vol: 34, Pages: R770-R771, ISSN: 0960-9822Insects are posited to be declining globally. This is particularly pertinent in tropical forests, which exhibit both the highest levels of biodiversity and the highest rates of biodiversity loss. However, for the hyper-diverse tropical insects there are scant data available to evidence declines. Understanding tropical insect diversity and its response to environmental change has therefore become a challenge, but it is estimated that 80% of tropical insect species remain undescribed1. Insect biodiversity predictions are based mostly on well-studied taxa and extrapolated to other groups, but no one knows whether resilience to environmental change varies between undescribed and described species. Here, we collected staphylinid beetles from unlogged and logged tropical forests in Borneo and investigated their responses to environmental change. Out of 252 morphospecies collected, 76% were undescribed. Undescribed species showed higher community turnover, reduced abundance and decreased probability of occurrence in logged forests. Thus the unknown components of tropical insect biodiversity are likely more impacted by human-induced environmental change. If these patterns are widespread, how accurate will assessments of insect declines in the tropics be?
-
Journal articleSavolainen V, Bezeng BS, 2024,
An African perspective to biodiversity conservation in the 21st century
, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, ISSN: 0962-8436Africa boasts high biodiversity while also being home to some of the largest and fastest-growing human populations. Although the current environmental footprint of Africa is low compared to other continents, the population of Africa is estimated at around 1.5 billion inhabitants, representing nearly 18% of the world's total population. Consequently, Africa’s rich biodiversity is under threat, yet only 19% of the landscape and 17% of the seascape are under any form of protection. To effectively address this issue and align with the Convention on Biological Diversity's ambitious ‘30 by 30’ goal, which seeks to protect 30% of the world's land and oceans by 2030, substantial funding and conservation measures are urgently required. In response to this critical challenge, as scientists and conservationists working in Africa, we propose five recommendations for future directions aimed at enhancing biodiversity conservation for the betterment of African society: (i) accelerate data collection, data sharing and analytics for informed policy and decision making; (ii) innovate education and capacity building for future generations; (iii) enhance and expand protected areas, ecological networks, and foundational legal frameworks; (iv) unlock creative funding channels for cutting-edge conservation initiatives; and (v) integrate indigenous and local knowledge into forward-thinking conservation strategies. By implementing these recommendations, we believe Africa can make significant strides towards preserving its unique biodiversity, while fostering a healthier society, and contributing to global conservation efforts.
-
Journal articleMills MB, Both S, Jotan P, et al., 2024,
From tree to plot: investigating stem CO2 efflux and its drivers along a logging gradient in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.
, New PhytolStem respiration constitutes a substantial proportion of autotrophic respiration in forested ecosystems, but its drivers across different spatial scales and land-use gradients remain poorly understood. This study quantifies and examines the impact of logging disturbance on stem CO2 efflux (EA) in Malaysian Borneo. EA was quantified at tree- and stand-level in nine 1-ha plots over a logging gradient from heavily logged to old-growth using the static chamber method. Tree-level results showed higher EA per unit stem area in logged vs old-growth plots (37.0 ± 1.1 vs 26.92 ± 1.14 g C m-2 month-1). However, at stand-level, there was no difference in EA between logged and old-growth plots (6.7 ± 1.1 vs 6.0 ± 0.7 Mg C ha-1 yr-1) due to greater stem surface area in old-growth plots. Allocation to growth respiration and carbon use efficiency was significantly higher in logged plots. Variation in EA at both tree- and stand-level was driven by tree size, growth and differences in investment strategies between the forest types. These results reflect different resource allocation strategies and priorities, with a priority for growth in response to increased light availability in logged plots, while old-growth plots prioritise maintenance and cell structure.
-
Journal articleSethi S, Bick IA, Chen M-Y, et al., 2024,
Large-scale avian vocalization detection delivers reliable global biodiversity insights
, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA, Vol: 121, ISSN: 0027-8424Tracking biodiversity and its dynamics at scale is essential if we are to solve global environmental challenges. Detecting animal vocalizations in passively recorded audio data offers an automatable, inexpensive, and taxonomically broad way to monitor biodiversity. However, the labor and expertise required to label new data and fine-tune algorithms for each deployment is a major barrier. In this study, we applied a pretrained bird vocalization detection model, BirdNET, to 152,376 h of audio comprising datasets from Norway, Taiwan, Costa Rica, and Brazil. We manually listened to a subset of detections for each species in each dataset, calibrated classification thresholds, and found precisions of over 90% for 109 of 136 species. While some species were reliably detected across multiple datasets, the performance of others was dataset specific. By filtering out unreliable detections, we could extract species and community-level insight into diel (Brazil) and seasonal (Taiwan) temporal scales, as well as landscape (Costa Rica) and national (Norway) spatial scales. Our findings demonstrate that, with relatively fast but essential local calibration, a single vocalization detection model can deliver multifaceted community and species-level insight across highly diverse datasets; unlocking the scale at which acoustic monitoring can deliver immediate applied impact.
-
Journal articleWayman JP, Sadler JP, Martin TE, et al., 2024,
Unravelling the complexities of biotic homogenization and heterogenization in the British avifauna.
, J Anim EcolBiotic homogenization is a process whereby species assemblages become more similar through time. The standard way of identifying the process of biotic homogenization is to look for decreases in spatial beta-diversity. However, using a single assemblage-level metric to assess homogenization can mask important changes in the occupancy patterns of individual species. Here, we analysed changes in the spatial beta-diversity patterns (i.e. biotic heterogenization or homogenization) of British bird assemblages within 30 km × 30 km regions between two periods (1988-1991 and 2008-2011). We partitioned the change in spatial beta-diversity into extirpation and colonization-resultant change (i.e. change in spatial beta-diversity within each region resulting from both extirpation and colonization). We used measures of abiotic change in combination with Bayesian modelling to disentangle the drivers of biotic heterogenization and homogenization. We detected both heterogenization and homogenization across the two time periods and three measures of diversity (taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional). In addition, both extirpation and colonization contributed to the observed changes, with heterogenization mainly driven by extirpation and homogenization by colonization. These assemblage-level changes were primarily due to shifting occupancy patterns of generalist species. Compared to habitat generalists, habitat specialists had significantly (i) higher average contributions to colonization-resultant change (indicating heterogenization within a region due to colonization) and (ii) lower average contributions to extirpation-resultant change (indicating homogenization from extirpation). Generalists showed the opposite pattern. Increased extirpation-resultant homogenization within regions was associated with increased urban land cover and decreased habitat diversity, precipitation, and temperature. Changes in extirpation-resultant heterogenization and col
-
Journal articleEwers RM, 2024,
An audacious approach to conservation.
, Trends Ecol EvolNew digital and sensor technology provides a huge opportunity to revolutionise conservation, but we lack a plan for deploying the technologies effectively. I argue that environmental research should be concentrated at a small number of 'super-sites' and that the concentrated knowledge from super-sites should be used to develop holistic ecosystem models. These, in turn, should be morphed into digital twin ecosystems by live connecting them with automated environmental monitoring programmes. Data-driven simulations can then help select pathways to achieve locally determined conservation goals, and digital twins could revise and adapt those decisions in real-time. This technology-heavy vision for 'smart conservation' provides a map toward a future defined by more flexible, more responsive, and more efficient management of natural environments.
-
Journal articleConnolly JB, Burt A, Christophides G, et al., 2024,
Publisher Correction: Considerations for first field trials of low-threshold gene drive for malaria vector control
, Malaria Journal, Vol: 23, ISSN: 1475-2875 -
Journal articleChik HYJ, Mannarelli M-E, Dos Remedios N, et al., 2024,
Adult telomere length is positively correlated with survival and lifetime reproductive success in a wild passerine
, Mol Ecol, Vol: 33, ISSN: 0962-1083Explaining variation in individual fitness is a key goal in evolutionary biology. Recently, telomeres, repeating DNA sequences capping chromosome ends, have gained attention as a biomarker for body state, physiological costs, and senescence. Existing research has provided mixed evidence for whether telomere length correlates with fitness, including survival and reproductive output. Moreover, few studies have examined how the rate of change in telomere length correlates with fitness in wild populations. Here, we intensively monitored an insular population of house sparrows, and collected longitudinal telomere and life history data (16 years, 1225 individuals). We tested whether telomere length and its rate of change predict fitness measures, namely survival, lifespan and annual and lifetime reproductive effort and success. Telomere length positively predicted short-term survival, independent of age, but did not predict lifespan, suggesting either a diminishing telomere length-survival correlation with age or other extrinsic factors of mortality. The positive association of telomere length with survival translated into reproductive benefits, as birds with longer telomeres produced more genetic recruits, hatchlings and reared more fledglings over their lifetime. In contrast, there was no association between telomere dynamics and annual reproductive output, suggesting telomere dynamics might not reflect the costs of reproduction in this population, potentially masked by variation in individual quality. The rate of change of telomere length did not correlate with neither lifespan nor lifetime reproductive success. Our results provide further evidence that telomere length correlates with fitness, and contribute to our understanding of the selection on, and evolution of, telomere dynamics.
-
Journal articleGaboriau T, Tobias JA, Silvestro D, et al., 2024,
Exploring the Macroevolutionary Signature of Asymmetric Inheritance at Speciation.
, Syst BiolPopular comparative phylogenetic models such as Brownian Motion, Ornstein-Ulhenbeck, and their extensions, assume that, at speciation, a trait value is inherited identically by two descendant species. This assumption contrasts with models of speciation at a micro-evolutionary scale where descendants' phenotypic distributions are sub-samples of the ancestral distribution. Different speciation mechanisms can lead to a displacement of the ancestral phenotypic mean among descendants and an asymmetric inheritance of the ancestral phenotypic variance. In contrast, even macro-evolutionary models that account for intraspecific variance assume symmetrically conserved inheritance of ancestral phenotypic distribution at speciation. Here we develop an Asymmetric Brownian Motion model (ABM) that relaxes the assumption of symmetric and conserved inheritance of the ancestral distribution at the time of speciation. The ABM jointly models the evolution of both intra- and inter-specific phenotypic variation. It also infers the mode of phenotypic inheritance at speciation, which can range from a symmetric and conserved inheritance, where descendants inherit the ancestral distribution, to an asymmetric and displaced inheritance, where descendants inherit divergent phenotypic means and variances. To demonstrate this model, we analyze the evolution of beak morphology in Darwin finches, finding evidence of displacement at speciation. The ABM model helps to bridge micro- and macro-evolutionary models of trait evolution by providing a more robust framework for testing the effects of ecological speciation, character displacement, and niche partitioning on trait evolution at the macro-evolutionary scale.
-
Journal articleMartins LP, Stouffer DB, Blendinger PG, et al., 2024,
Birds optimize fruit size consumed near their geographic range limits.
, Science, Vol: 385, Pages: 331-336Animals can adjust their diet to maximize energy or nutritional intake. For example, birds often target fruits that match their beak size because those fruits can be consumed more efficiently. We hypothesized that pressure to optimize diet-measured as matching between fruit and beak size-increases under stressful environments, such as those that determine species' range edges. Using fruit-consumption and trait information for 97 frugivorous bird and 831 plant species across six continents, we demonstrate that birds feed more frequently on closely size-matched fruits near their geographic range limits. This pattern was particularly strong for highly frugivorous birds, whereas opportunistic frugivores showed no such tendency. These findings highlight how frugivore interactions might respond to stressful conditions and reveal that trait matching may not predict resource use consistently.
-
Journal articleSimpson EG, Fraser I, Woolf H, et al., 2024,
Variation in near-surface soil temperature drives plant assemblage differentiation across aspect.
, Ecol Evol, Vol: 14, ISSN: 2045-7758Quantifying assemblage variation across environmental gradients provides insight into the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that differentiate assemblages locally within a larger climate regime. We assessed how vascular plant functional composition and diversity varied across microenvironment to identify ecological differences in assemblages in a mountainous fieldsite in northeastern Utah, USA. Then, we looked at how life-history strategies and information about phylogenetic differences affect the relationship between functional metrics and environment. We found less functionally dispersed assemblages that were shorter and more resource-conservative on south-facing slopes where intra-annual soil temperature was hotter and more variable. In contrast, we found more functionally dispersed assemblages, that were taller and more resource-acquisitive on north-facing slopes where intra-annual temperature was cooler and less variable. Herbaceous and woody perennials drove these trends. Additionally, including information about phylogenetic differences in a dispersion metric indicated that phylogeny accounts for traits we did not measure. At this fieldsite, soil temperature acts as an environmental filter across aspect. If soil temperature increases and becomes more variable, intra-annually, the function of north- versus south-facing assemblages may be at risk for contrasting reasons. On south-facing slopes, assemblages may not have the variance in functional diversity needed to respond to more intense, stressful conditions. Conversely, assemblages on north-facing slopes may not have the resource-conservative strategies needed to persist if temperatures become hotter and more variable intra-annually. Given these results, we advocate for the inclusion of aspect differentiation in studies seeking to understand species and assemblage shifts in response to changing climate conditions.
-
Journal articleEwers RM, Orme CDL, Pearse WD, et al., 2024,
Thresholds for adding degraded tropical forest to the conservation estate.
, Nature, Vol: 631, Pages: 808-813Logged and disturbed forests are often viewed as degraded and depauperate environments compared with primary forest. However, they are dynamic ecosystems1 that provide refugia for large amounts of biodiversity2,3, so we cannot afford to underestimate their conservation value4. Here we present empirically defined thresholds for categorizing the conservation value of logged forests, using one of the most comprehensive assessments of taxon responses to habitat degradation in any tropical forest environment. We analysed the impact of logging intensity on the individual occurrence patterns of 1,681 taxa belonging to 86 taxonomic orders and 126 functional groups in Sabah, Malaysia. Our results demonstrate the existence of two conservation-relevant thresholds. First, lightly logged forests (<29% biomass removal) retain high conservation value and a largely intact functional composition, and are therefore likely to recover their pre-logging values if allowed to undergo natural regeneration. Second, the most extreme impacts occur in heavily degraded forests with more than two-thirds (>68%) of their biomass removed, and these are likely to require more expensive measures to recover their biodiversity value. Overall, our data confirm that primary forests are irreplaceable5, but they also reinforce the message that logged forests retain considerable conservation value that should not be overlooked.
-
Journal articleDunning J, Sanchez-Tojar A, Girndt A, et al., 2024,
Extrapair paternity alongside social reproduction increases male lifetime fitness
, Animal Behaviour, Vol: 213, Pages: 117-123, ISSN: 0003-3472Within breeding years, male birds vary in their reproductive strategy. While some maintain monogamy with a social partner, others also engage with extrapair partners, while others forgo monogamy altogether in favour of exclusively seeking extrapair paternity. Although theory predicts that extrapair paternity is beneficial to males, which sire extrapair offspring without investing in costly parental care, empirical examples from wild populations are sparse. We used 17 years of data from a closed population of house sparrows, Passer domesticus, with a complete genetic pedigree, to test the hypothesis that extrapair paternity increases male lifetime reproductive success. We compared a mixed strategy of within-pair (or social) and extrapair paternity with total genetic monogamy and total extrapair paternity. We demonstrate that males who combine within-pair and extrapair paternity have increased reproductive success against the other two groups. Our results also suggest that males that exclusively seek extrapair paternity have the lowest lifetime fitness. Overall, we provide an empirical demonstration of the theory, showing that where males can sire extrapair offspring alongside within-pair offspring, extrapair paternity is beneficial to male lifetime fitness.
-
Journal articleHowes B, Gonzalez-Suarez M, Banks-Leite C, et al., 2024,
A global latitudinal gradient in the proportion of terrestrial vertebrate forest species
, GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY, Vol: 33, ISSN: 1466-822X -
Journal articleSaranholi BH, Franca FM, Vogler AP, et al., 2024,
Testing and optimizing metabarcoding of iDNA from dung beetles to sample mammals in the hyperdiverse Neotropics
, MOLECULAR ECOLOGY RESOURCES, Vol: 24, ISSN: 1755-098X -
Journal articleMoreno-Contreras I, Jokimäki J, Kaisanlahti-Jokimäki M-L, et al., 2024,
Disentangling the drivers of urban bird diversity in the non-breeding season: A general synthesis.
, Glob Chang Biol, Vol: 30Current knowledge about the impacts of urbanisation on bird assemblages is based on evidence from studies partly or wholly undertaken in the breeding season. In comparison, the non-breeding season remains little studied, despite the fact that winter conditions at higher latitudes are changing more rapidly than other seasons. During the non-breeding season, cities may attract or retain bird species because they offer milder conditions or better feeding opportunities than surrounding habitats. However, the range of climatic, ecological and anthropogenic mechanisms shaping different facets of urban bird diversity in the non-breeding season are poorly understood. We explored these mechanisms using structural equation modelling to assess how urbanisation affects the taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity of avian assemblages sampled worldwide in the non-breeding season. We found that minimum temperature, elevation, urban area and city age played a critical role in determining taxonomic diversity while a range of factors-including productivity, precipitation, elevation, distance to coasts and rivers, socio-economic (as a proxy of human facilitation) and road density-each contributed to patterns of phylogenetic and functional diversity. The structure and function of urban bird assemblages appear to be predominantly shaped by temperature, productivity and city age, with effects of these factors differing across seasons. Our results underline the importance of considering multiple hypotheses, including seasonal effects, when evaluating the impacts of urbanisation on biodiversity.
-
Journal articleFu Z, Ciais P, Wigneron J-P, et al., 2024,
Global critical soil moisture thresholds of plant water stress.
, Nat Commun, Vol: 15During extensive periods without rain, known as dry-downs, decreasing soil moisture (SM) induces plant water stress at the point when it limits evapotranspiration, defining a critical SM threshold (θcrit). Better quantification of θcrit is needed for improving future projections of climate and water resources, food production, and ecosystem vulnerability. Here, we combine systematic satellite observations of the diurnal amplitude of land surface temperature (dLST) and SM during dry-downs, corroborated by in-situ data from flux towers, to generate the observation-based global map of θcrit. We find an average global θcrit of 0.19 m3/m3, varying from 0.12 m3/m3 in arid ecosystems to 0.26 m3/m3 in humid ecosystems. θcrit simulated by Earth System Models is overestimated in dry areas and underestimated in wet areas. The global observed pattern of θcrit reflects plant adaptation to soil available water and atmospheric demand. Using explainable machine learning, we show that aridity index, leaf area and soil texture are the most influential drivers. Moreover, we show that the annual fraction of days with water stress, when SM stays below θcrit, has increased in the past four decades. Our results have important implications for understanding the inception of water stress in models and identifying SM tipping points.
-
Journal articleDelhaye G, van der Linde S, Bauman D, et al., 2024,
Ectomycorrhizal fungi are influenced by ecoregion boundaries across Europe
, Global Ecology and Biogeography, Vol: 33, ISSN: 1466-822XAimEcoregions and the distance decay in community similarity are fundamental concepts in biogeography and conservation biology that are well supported across plants and animals, but not fungi. Here we test the relevance of these concepts for ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi in temperate and boreal regions.LocationEurope.Time Period2008–2015.Major Taxa StudiedEctomycorrhizal fungi.MethodsWe used a large dataset of ~24,000 ectomycorrhizas, assigned to 1350 operational taxonomic units, collected from 129 forest plots via a standardized protocol. We investigated the relevance of ecoregion delimitations for ECM fungi through complementary methodological approaches based on distance decay models, multivariate analyses and indicator species analyses. We then evaluated the effects of host tree and climate on the observed biogeographical distributions.ResultsEcoregions predict large-scale ECM fungal biodiversity patterns. This is partly explained by climate differences between ecoregions but independent from host tree distribution. Basidiomycetes in the orders Russulales and Atheliales and producing epigeous fruiting bodies, with potentially short-distance dispersal, show the best agreement with ecoregion boundaries. Host tree distribution and fungal abundance (as opposed to presence/absence only) are important to uncover biogeographical patterns in mycorrhizas.Main ConclusionsEcoregions are useful units to investigate eco-evolutionary processes in mycorrhizal fungal communities and for conservation decision-making that includes fungi.
-
Journal articleChristman ME, Spears LR, Burchfield EK, et al., 2024,
Bumble bee responses to climate and landscapes: Investigating habitat associations and species assemblages across geographic regions in the United States of America.
, Glob Chang Biol, Vol: 30Bumble bees are integral pollinators of native and cultivated plant communities, but species are undergoing significant changes in range and abundance on a global scale. Climate change and land cover alteration are key drivers in pollinator declines; however, limited research has evaluated the cumulative effects of these factors on bumble bee assemblages. This study tests bumble bee assemblage (calculated as richness and abundance) responses to climate and land use by modeling species-specific habitat requirements, and assemblage-level responses across geographic regions. We integrated species richness, abundance, and distribution data for 18 bumble bee species with site-specific bioclimatic, landscape composition, and landscape configuration data to evaluate the effects of multiple environmental stressors on bumble bee assemblages throughout 433 agricultural fields in Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia from 2018 to 2020. Distinct east versus west groupings emerged when evaluating species-specific habitat associations, prompting a detailed evaluation of bumble bee assemblages by geographic region. Maximum temperature of warmest month and precipitation of driest month had a positive impact on bumble bee assemblages in the Corn Belt/Appalachian/northeast, southeast, and northern plains regions, but a negative impact on the mountain region. Further, forest land cover surrounding agricultural fields was highlighted as supporting more rich and abundant bumble bee assemblages. Overall, climate and land use combine to drive bumble bee assemblages, but how those processes operate is idiosyncratic and spatially contingent across regions. From these findings, we suggested regionally specific management practices to best support rich and abundant bumble bee assemblages in agroecosystems. Results from this study contribute to a better understanding of climate and landscape factors affecting bumble bees and their habit
-
Journal articleRiva F, Haddad N, Fahrig L, et al., 2024,
Principles for area-based biodiversity conservation
, ECOLOGY LETTERS, Vol: 27, ISSN: 1461-023X
This data is extracted from the Web of Science and reproduced under a licence from Thomson Reuters. You may not copy or re-distribute this data in whole or in part without the written consent of the Science business of Thomson Reuters.