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The effects of morphology, phylogeny and prey availability on trophic resource partitioning in an anuran community Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-11-27 Matheus de Toledo Moroti; Philip Teles Soares; Mariana Pedrozo; Diogo B. Provete; Diego José Santana
Several factors influence the partitioning of trophic resources in ecological communities, such as morphology, evolutionary history, and resource availability. Although the effects of morphology, phylogeny, and resource availability on trophic ecology have long been explored by theoretical studies, little has been done to empirically test these relationships. Here, we tested whether phylogenetic and
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Forest cover and heterogeneous pastures shape the diversity of predatory rove beetles in tropical riparian habitats Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-12-16 Diana María Méndez-Rojas; Federico Escobar; Fabiola López-Barrera
In tropical landscapes, forest remnants have been reduced to narrow strips of vegetation along rivers and streams surrounded by agricultural land that affects biodiversity, depending on the habitat and landscape characteristics. To assess the effect of riparian forest loss on the diversity of Staphylininae predatory rove beetles, we considered two habitat conditions (river sites with riparian vegetation
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Plant productivity is a key driver of soil respiration response to climate change in a nutrient-limited soil. Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-12-19 Catriona A. Macdonald; Ian C. Anderson; Amit Khachane; Bhupinder P. Singh; Craig V.M. Barton; Remko A. Duursma; David S. Ellsworth; Brajesh K. Singh
Despite knowledge of the interaction between climate change factors significant uncertainty exists concerning the individual and interactive effects of elevated carbon dioxide (eCO2) and elevated temperature (eT) on the soil microbiome and function. Here we examine the individual and interactive effects of eCO2 and eT on tree growth, soil respiration (Rsoil), biomass, structural and functional composition
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Pollen diets and niche overlap of honey bees and native bees in protected areas Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-12-16 Brittany Elliott; Rachele Wilson; Alison Shapcott; Alexander Keller; Ryan Newis; Chris Cannizzaro; Chris Burwell; Tobias Smith; Sara D. Leonhardt; Wiebke Kämper; Helen M. Wallace
The decline of both managed and wild bee populations has been extensively reported for over a decade now, with growing concerns amongst the scientific community. Also, evidence is growing that both managed and feral honey bees may exacerbate threats to wild bees. In Australia, there are over 1600 native bee species and introduced European honey bees (Apis mellifera) have established throughout most
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Macroecological patterns of resource use in resident and migratory hummingbirds Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2021-01-08 J.A. Hazlehurst; D.T. Rankin; C.J. Clark; Q.S. McFrederick; E.E. Wilson-Rankin
Hummingbirds (Family Trochilidae) are key pollinators in several biodiversity hotspots, including the California Floristic Province in North America. Relatively little is known about how hummingbird diets change throughout the year, especially with regard to how migratory hummingbirds affect resident hummingbirds at stopover sites. In this study, we examine how hummingbird species, migratory status
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Plant identity strongly structures the root-associated fungal community in a diverse subtropical forest Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2021-01-08 Xing-Chun Li; Xin Qian; Cheng Gao; Steffen Seitz; Thomas Scholten; Yong-Long Wang; Hui Yao; Hui-Yun Gan; Liang-Dong Guo
Revealing the relationship between plants and root-associated fungi is very important in understanding diversity maintenance and community assembly in ecosystems. However, the community assembly of root-associated fungi of focal plant species along a subtropical plant species diversity gradient is less documented. Here, we examined root-associated fungal communities associated with five ectomycorrhizal
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Temperature affects both the Grinnellian and Eltonian dimensions of ecological niches – A tale of two Arctic wolf spiders Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2021-01-04 Bernhard Eitzinger; Tomas Roslin; Eero J. Vesterinen; Sinikka I. Robinson; Eoin J. O'Gorman
To better understand the consequences of global warming for species and their distribution, we need studies quantifying how environmental change affects communities and interaction networks. Where studies to date have mainly focused on climatic effects on species distribution (the Grinnellian dimension of the niche), recent research has emphasised how the environment shapes ecological interactions
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Bee communities in restored prairies are structured by landscape and management, not local floral resources Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-12-16 Sean R. Griffin; Bethanne Bruninga-Socolar; Jason Gibbs
Restored habitats require long-term management to maintain biodiversity and ensure ecosystem functions. Management strategies are often developed for plant communities, including through seeding and disturbance management, but these actions are taken with a focus on plant dynamics and with little knowledge of the effects on non-plant organisms. Wild bees are often expected to respond to such management
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Organic carbon and nutrients drive prokaryote and metazoan communities in a floodplain aquifer Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-12-28 Jürgen Marxsen; Nora K. Rütz; Susanne I. Schmidt
In an alluvial aquifer in the River Fulda Valley (Germany) the influence of agricultural inputs on the subterranean physical, chemical and biological relationships was examined. A 40-year-old (1977-1981) comprehensive data set on the groundwater microbiome plus metazoa was now analysed for the first time in full (measurements for up to 4 years: hydrological, chemical, physical, prokaryote, and metazoa
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Tree-tree interactions and crown complementarity: the role of functional diversity and branch traits for canopy packing Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-12-17 Michaela Hildebrand; Maria D. Perles-Garcia; Matthias Kunz; Werner Härdtle; Goddert von Oheimb; Andreas Fichtner
Previous studies have shown that tree species richness increases forest productivity by allowing for greater spatial complementarity of tree crowns (crown complementarity), which in turn results in more densely packed canopies. However, the mechanisms driving crown complementarity in tree species mixtures remain unclear. Here, we take advantage of a high-resolution, three-dimensional terrestrial laser
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Building food networks from molecular data: Bayesian or fixed-number thresholds for including links Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-11-28 Alyssa R. Cirtwill; Peter Hambäck
DNA metabarcoding of faeces or gut contents has greatly increased our ability to construct networks of predators and prey (food webs) by reducing the need to observe predation events directly. The possibility of both false positives and false negatives in DNA sequences, however, means that constructing food networks using DNA requires researchers to make many choices as to which DNA sequences indicate
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Pollen dispersal is driven by pollinator response to plant disease and plant spatial aggregation Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-11-05 Klára Koupilová; Jakub Štenc; Zdeněk Janovský
Most plant species are pollinated by animals, mainly insects, who adjust their foraging behaviour to the spatial distribution of rewards. Any changes in rewards of individual plants could then affect pollen dispersal at the level of plant patches or populations. Such change in floral rewards often results from infection by plant pathogens, for example by anther smuts (i.e. no pollen and reduced nectar
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Feeding rate and efficiency in an apex soil predator exposed to short-term temperature changes Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-11-27 Divya Ramachandran; Zoë Lindo; Matthew L. Meehan
As extreme climate events become more frequent and intense, short-term temperature responses of ectothermic organisms can lead to decreased performance and survival. However, organisms may acclimate to these conditions through behavioural and physiological mechanisms as exposure time increases. We used a reciprocal temperature (16 °C and 24 °C) transplant experiment to determine how feeding rate and
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The potential role of synzoochory in the naturalization of almond tree Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-11-28 R. Balaguer-Romano; A. Barea-Marquez; F.J. Ocaña-Calahorro; J.M. Gomez; E.W. Schupp; J. Zhang; R. Rubio de Casas
Domesticated plants can occasionally naturalize, becoming feral elements of natural communities. This is only possible if crops overcome the abiotic and biotic barriers that restrict their dispersal and recruitment. The naturalization of almond trees (Prunus dulcis, (Mill.) D.A. Webb) was recently reported in SE Spain, but the mechanisms driving it remain to be established. In this study, we begin
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Trends in monthly abundance and species richness of carabids over 33 years at the Kaiserstuhl, southwest Germany Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-11-19 Carl J. Skarbek; Angelika Kobel-Lamparski; Carsten F. Dormann
Recent studies hint at consistent declines of insect abundance across taxa. However, detailed data from long-term surveys are rare in ecological studies, and yet are required in order to accurately infer trends and their causes. In the following, we analyse a dataset from pitfall traps sampled at a monthly resolution over a 33-year period (1979–2011) to investigate the activity density and species
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Acceptance of near-natural greenspace management relates to ecological and socio-cultural assigned values among European urbanites Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-10-31 Jussi Lampinen; Maria Tuomi; Leonie K. Fischer; Lena Neuenkamp; Josu G. Alday; Anna Bucharova; Laura Cancellieri; Izaskun Casado-Arzuaga; Natálie Čeplová; Lluïsa Cerveró; Balázs Deák; Ove Eriksson; Mark D.E. Fellowes; Beatriz Fernández de Manuel; Goffredo Filibeck; Adrián González-Guzmán; M. Belen Hinojosa; Ingo Kowarik; Valentin H. Klaus
Grasslands are widespread elements of urban greenspace providing recreational, psychological and aesthetic benefits to city residents. Two urban grassland types of contrasting management dominate urban greenspaces: frequently mown, species-poor short-cut lawns and less intensively managed, near-natural tall-grass meadows. The higher conservation value of tall-grass meadows makes management interventions
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First screening of bacterial communities of Microdon myrmicae and its ant host: do microbes facilitate the invasion of ant colonies by social parasites? Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-11-30 Giulia Scarparo; Paul Rugman-Jones; Marco Gebiola; Andrea Di Giulio; Quinn S. McFrederick
Many studies have highlighted how numerous bacteria provide their hosts essential nutrients or protection against pathogens, parasites and predators. Nevertheless, the role of symbiotic microorganisms in the interactions between social insects and their parasites is still poorly known. Microdon (Diptera, Syrphidae) is a peculiar fly genus whose larvae are able to successfully infiltrate ant colonies
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Drivers of within-tree leaf trait variation in a tropical planted forest varying in tree species richness Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-12-02 Tobias Proß; Helge Bruelheide; Catherine Potvin; Maria Sporbert; Stefan Trogisch; Sylvia Haider
In plant ecology, community-weighted trait means are often used as predictors for ecosystem functions. More recently, also within-species trait variation has been confirmed to contribute to ecosystem functioning. We here go even further and assess within-individual trait variation, assuming that every leaf in a plant individually adjusts to its micro-environment. Using forest plots varying in tree
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Biotic interactions with mycorrhizal systems as extended nutrient acquisition strategies shaping forest soil communities and functions Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-10-31 Tarquin Netherway; Jan Bengtsson; Eveline J. Krab; Mohammad Bahram
Plant nutrient acquisition strategies involving ectomycorrhizal (EcM) and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) associations, are key plant functional traits leading to distinct carbon (C) and nutrient dynamics in forests. Yet, little is known about how these strategies influence the structure and functioning of soil communities, and if such mycorrhizal effects may be more or less pronounced depending on the
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Changes amid constancy: Flower and leaf microbiomes along land use gradients and between bioregions Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-10-30 Paul Gaube; Robert R. Junker; Alexander Keller
Microbial communities inhabiting above-ground parts of plants affect their host's development, fitness and function. Although studies on plant-associated microbes are of growing interest, environmental drivers of flower microbiomes in particular are poorly characterized. In this study, we investigated flower and leaf epiphytic bacterial microbiomes of Ranunculus acris and Trifolium pratense using metabarcoding
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A fungal endophyte of an annual weed reduces host competitive ability and confers associational protection to wheat Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-10-08 Pablo Adrián García-Parisi; Sebastián Aníbal Gavilán; Cecilia Casas; Pedro Emilio Gundel; Marina Omacini
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Ecological community dynamics: 20 years of moth sampling reveals the importance of generalists for community stability Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-11-18 Mathew Seymour; Nigel Brown; Gary R Carvalho; Courtney Wood; Sarah Goertz; Nathan Lo; Mark de Bruyn
Species diversity is presently declining and homogenizing globally due to human land use changes and climate change effects. However, the causes of these declines are difficult to determine due to complex ecological interactions. Lepidopterans are a diverse and ecologically important group of insects that are declining in Britain and other parts of Europe. Long-term monitoring data made available in
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Bird community changes associated with cattle raising management in the delta forests of the Paraná River Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-10-02 Antonio E. Frutos; Pamela M.L. Leiva; Carlos I. Piña
Riparian forests and environments close to watercourses support high biodiversity, which may be modified by human activities. In the Paraná River Delta region, cattle raising is one of the activities with the greatest impact, altering vegetation structure. These changes are reflected in bird communities that inhabit these environments. We hypothesize that the absence of large herbivores (whether cows
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Variations in leaf morphological and chemical traits in response to life stages, plant functional types, and habitat types in an old-growth temperate forest Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-10-02 Dina Oktavia; Guangze Jin
Intraspecific leaf trait variations are becoming a topic of interest for many ecologists because individual-based traits are essentially the drivers of variations at the community level. Six coexisting major tree species in an old-growth temperate forest, Northeast China (i.e., Abies nephrolepis, Pinus koraiensis, Acer mono, Fraxinus mandshurica, Tilia amurensis, and Ulmus laciniata) were sampled,
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Seasonal variation in the diet of the serotine bat (Eptesicus serotinus): A high-resolution analysis using DNA metabarcoding Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-09-22 Julia Tiede; Melanie Diepenbruck; Jürgen Gadau; Bernd Wemheuer; Rolf Daniel; Christoph Scherber
Bats play an important role as predators of insect populations but are threatened by a variety of factors, including the loss of foraging habitat and insect declines. Knowledge on trophic interactions, foraging strategies, and hunting areas is key to understanding the ecology of bat species, to assess their impact on ecosystems and to optimize conservation strategies. We investigated seasonal trends
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Intermediate disturbance promotes diversity and the conservation of dung beetles (Scarabaeoidea: Scarabaeidae and Aphodiidae) in the Eastern Cape, South Africa Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-11-01 Claudia Tocco; J.M. Midgley; Martin H. Villet
Environmental fluctuations, such as changes in climate, agricultural management and anthropogenic land-use patterns can affect the diversity of organisms inhabiting an area. Losses of biodiversity alter ecosystems processes, eroding their capacity to deliver ecosystem services. Dung beetles are critical ecosystem service providers, making them an ideal ecological indicator to explore the effects of
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Putative roles of bacteria in the carbon and nitrogen cycles in a tropical peat swamp forest Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-10-21 Chin Chin Too; Kuan Shion Ong; Catherine M. Yule; Alexander Keller
Tropical peat swamp forests are waterlogged, acidic, anoxic and oligotrophic ecosystems. They are important terrestrial carbon pools that help mitigating global warming through carbon sequestration in peat. This study aimed at investigating putative roles of bacteria in the carbon and nitrogen cycles in North Selangor peat swamp forest, Malaysia. Whole-genome sequencing was performed on four bacterial
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Are species lists derived from modeled species range maps appropriate for macroecological studies? A case study on data from BIEN Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-08-29 Hong Qian
Because survey-based species lists for fine-scale areas are generally lacking, ecologists have been using species lists derived from modeled range maps in macroecological studies. Here I evaluate whether it is appropriate to use species lists derived from modeled range maps in macroecological studies. I compared species lists derived from about 90,000 range maps in the Botanical Information and Ecology
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A first assessment of the land management effect on the ecological role of large trees as habitat refuges for desert small mammals Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-09-19 Carolina R. Szymañski; Juan A. Alvarez; Claudia M. Campos; Solana Tabeni
Large old trees are keystone organisms that generate a highly connected network of interactions because they provide refuge and feeding sites to mammals with different habitat requirements through their under canopy structure and deadwood. In dry woodlands, these keystone trees are found within agricultural landscapes, where grazing and deadwood removal are the main subsistence activities carried out
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Competitive dominance mediates the effects of topography on plant richness in a mountain grassland Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-09-19 Goffredo Filibeck; Marta G. Sperandii; Luca Bragazza; Alessandro Bricca; Stefano Chelli; Simona Maccherini; Camilla Wellstein; Antonio L. Conte; Marta Di Donatantonio; T'ai G.W. Forte; Lorenzo Lazzaro; Tania Macchiavelli; Samuele Maestri; Roberta Marchesini; Michela Marignani; Gabriele Midolo; Ludovica Oddi; Leonardo Rosati; Laura Cancellieri
Small-scale landforms influence plant species richness, but their mechanisms and effects in semi-natural dry grasslands have been poorly investigated. In this study we compared vascular plant richness, species composition, plant traits, soil properties and biomass nutrient content of convex (hillocks) and concave (hollows) karst landforms in a mountain pasture of the Central Apennines (Italy), at a
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Insect abundance in managed forests benefits from multi-layered vegetation Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-09-09 Anna Katharina Knuff; Michael Staab; Julian Frey; Carsten F. Dormann; Thomas Asbeck; Alexandra-Maria Klein
Retention forestry intends to promote biodiversity by retaining deadwood and tree-related microhabitats. Simultaneously, production forests undergo major structural changes by conversion into near-natural forests. As insect biomass is declining, it is important to understand how insect communities respond to management-related changes in forest structure. While some structural elements, such as deadwood
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Functional-structural plant models to boost understanding of complementarity in light capture and use in mixed-species forests Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-09-19 Franca J. Bongers
Positive relationships between tree species richness and productivity have been observed in both natural and experimental forests. Complementarity in resource capture and use has been put forward as one important mechanism for the positive richness-productivity relationship. However, inference that complementarity drives this relationship is often based on statistical modelling or the use of functional
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Arthropod functional traits shaped by landscape-scale field size, local agri-environment schemes and edge effects Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-09-18 Róbert Gallé; Costanza Geppert; Rita Földesi; Teja Tscharntke; Péter Batáry
Agri-environment scheme (AES) approaches can be classified according to whether they prescribe management in non-productive areas, such as field boundaries and wildflower strips, or in productive areas, such as arable crops. Here we tested the ecological effectiveness of two popular AESs in Germany: wildflower strips next to winter wheat fields as off-field management and organic farming on winter
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Nutrient status not secondary metabolites drives herbivory and pathogen infestation across differently mycorrhized tree monocultures and mixtures Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-09-28 Olga Ferlian; Esther-Marie Lintzel; Helge Bruelheide; Carlos A. Guerra; Heike Heklau; Stephanie Jurburg; Paul Kühn; Ainhoa Martinez-Medina; Sybille B. Unsicker; Nico Eisenhauer; Martin Schädler
Research aimed at understanding the mechanisms underlying the relationship between tree diversity and antagonist infestation is often neglecting resource-use complementarity among plant species. We investigated the effects of tree species identity, species richness, and mycorrhizal type on leaf herbivory and pathogen infestation. We used a tree sapling experiment manipulating the two most common mycorrhizal
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Seasonal variation of Drosophilidae communities in viticultural landscapes Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-08-10 Lionel Delbac; Adrien Rusch; Delphine Binet; Denis Thiéry
Studies at the landscape scale are important to understand insect population and community dynamics. Despite numerous studies on the effects of landscape context on phytophagous insect communities, few studies were conducted on fruit flies and the seasonal variation in the effects of landscape context remains poorly explored. Here, we investigate how landscape composition affects Drosophilidae communities
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Forest fragments influence pollination and yield of soybean crops in Chaco landscapes Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-09-09 Pablo Y. Huais; Gabriel Grilli; Leonardo D. Amarilla; Carolina Torres; Lisandro Fernández; Leonardo Galetto
Habitat remnants act as a source of pollinators potentially relevant for crop pollination and yield. This work analyzes how habitat loss influences pollinators, effective pollination and yield of soybean crops. The study area comprises ten sites adjacent to forest patches surrounded by a soybean matrix in central Argentina (eight sites in the season 2014–2015 and two sites in the season 2015–2016)
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Grazing and aridity have contrasting effects on the functional and taxonomic diversity of ants Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-07-24 David J. Eldridge; Ian Oliver; James Val; Samantha K. Travers; Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo
Ants are one of the most abundant and ubiquitous organisms on Earth and play critical roles in multiple ecosystem services such as seed dispersal and nutrient cycling. Despite this, the effects of climatic and land use stressors on particular species or groups of ants are poorly known. We conducted a regional field survey across 108 locations in south-eastern Australia, using correlation network analysis
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Assemblage-level responses of Neotropical bats to forest loss and fragmentation Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-09-06 Santiago Gamboa Alurralde; M. Mónica Díaz
Habitat loss and fragmentation are the most important causes of biological diversity loss, changing the properties of the remaining environment. The Neotropical Region is one of the most affected areas due to the conversion of natural habitats into agricultural activities and deforestation. In this region, bats represent almost 50% of all mammal species, reaching the highest taxonomic and functional
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Water deprivation drives intraspecific variability in lizard heat tolerance Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-08-10 Salvador Herrando-Pérez, Josabel Belliure, Francisco Ferri-Yáñez, Matthijs P. van den Burg, Wouter Beukema, Miguel B. Araújo, John S. Terblanche, David R. Vieites
Quantifying intraspecific variation in heat tolerance is critical to understand how species respond to climate change. In a previous study, we recorded variability in critical thermal maxima (CTmax) by 3 °C among populations of small Iberian lizard species, which could substantially influence predictions of climate-driven activity restriction. Here, we undertake experiments to examine whether we could
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Landscape and habitat affect frequency of artificial duck nest predation by native species, but not by an alien predator Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-07-29 Sari Holopainen, Veli-Matti Väänänen, Anthony D. Fox
Annual Finnish breeding duck surveys over the last 30 years show declining abundance among several species and greater declines on eutrophic waters than oligotrophic lakes. It has been suggested that habitat-related differences in the rate of increase in predation pressure is a potential explanation for contrasting duck population trajectories between habitats. We assessed potential duck nest predation
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Leaf litter age regulates the effect of native and exotic tree species on understory herbaceous vegetation of riparian forests Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-07-29 Paloma de las Heras, Silvia Medina-Villar, M.Esther Pérez-Corona, Beatriz R. Vázquez-de-Aldana
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Removing understory vegetation in oil palm agroforestry reduces ground-foraging ant abundance but not species richness Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-07-16 Amelia S.C. Hood, Andreas D. Advento, Jake Stone, Tom M. Fayle, Alice L.M. Fairnie, Helen S. Waters, William A. Foster, Jake L. Snaddon, Sudharto Ps, Jean-Pierre Caliman, Mohammad Naim, Edgar C. Turner
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Distribution of amphibians along an elevation gradient in the Eastern Himalaya, india Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-07-14 Basundhara Chettri, Bhoj Kumar Acharya
Distribution of biodiversity along the elevation gradient have been a subject of curiosity and a much argued topic in macroecology. Despite considerable attention, there is a lack of consensus on the pattern and the causal factors across regions and taxa. We studied amphibian distribution along the elevational gradient in Sikkim, Eastern Himalaya, part of a globally significant biodiversity hotspot
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Effects of traffic-regulated street lighting on nocturnal insect abundance and bat activity Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-07-03 Janine Bolliger, Tom Hennet, Beat Wermelinger, Ruedi Bösch, Robert Pazur, Stephan Blum, Jörg Haller, Martin K. Obrist
New technological developments modulate the light levels of LED street luminaires according to traffic volumes: light levels are increased given traffic and reduced in its absence. Such dimming of street lights reduces the level of artificial light at night (ALAN) and may thus contribute to mitigate light pollution. To quantify the impact of traffic-driven dimming of street lights on nocturnal insect
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An agro-environmental mowing regime favors the number of inflorescences and flower-visiting insects but not ground beetles of herbaceous boundaries of arable fields Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-06-27 Clémence Chaudron, Rémi Perronne, Pascal Bonnin, Thierry Rattier
Herbaceous boundaries adjacent to arable fields can deliver ecosystem services not sufficiently provided at the field scale, as well as disservices such as increased weed pressure. The levels of services and disservices depend on the management regime implemented in these boundaries. Our study was conducted in Western France, where herbaceous boundaries of many arable fields constitute the road verge
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Mustard plants distant from forest fragments receive a lower diversity of flower-visiting insects Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-06-24 Kedar Devkota, Charles Fernando dos Santos, Betina Blochtein
Mustard fields (Brassica campestris: Brassicaceae) are mass flowering crops attracting a wide diversity of flower-visiting insects. Many studies have shown that the diversity of insects is higher near forest fragments than farther away from the forest edge and that Apis-bees numerically dominate such ecosystems. In this study, we investigated how insect diversity changes with distance from the forest
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The role of predators in driving warming-prey diversity relationships: An invertebrate perspective Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-06-10 Madhav P. Thakur
Climate warming is one of the key driving forces of biodiversity loss. Yet, our understanding of underlying factors that link warming-biodiversity relationships at both local and regional spatial scales is limited. Here, I review how warming could change local-scale diversity of invertebrate animals. Specifically, I examine whether warming-prey diversity relationships are modulated by changes in predation
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Changes in the roles of spatial and environmental processes in the structuring of rodent metacommunities Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-06-06 Massa Carolina, Teta Pablo, Cueto Gerardo Ruben
We studied the role of spatial (regional) and environmental (local) processes in the structuring of rodent metacommunities in three contiguous ecoregions that share the same species pool. The two northern ecoregions are mainly affected by anthropogenic processes (agriculture and urbanization) while the southern one is mainly affected by natural processes (flood and drought pulses). Local communities
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Long-term heightened larval production in nursery-bred coral transplants Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-05-23 Yael B. Horoszowski-Fridman, Ido Izhaki, Baruch Rinkevich
The ‘gardening coral reefs’ method is part of the approaches proposed for counteracting the substantial impacts of global climate change on the survival of coral reefs. It incorporates ecosystem engineering strategies for coral nursery farming and coral colonies out-planting. This study explores the reproductive output of three sets of nursery-grown Stylophora pistillata colonies along eight reproductive
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Patterns and drivers of fungal disease communities on Arabica coffee along a management gradient Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-05-17 Beyene Zewdie, Ayco J.M. Tack, Girma Adugna, Sileshi Nemomissa, Kristoffer Hylander
Plants, including those managed by humans, are often attacked by multiple diseases. Yet, most studies focus on single diseases, even if the disease dynamics of multiple species is more interesting from a farmers’ perspective. Moreover, most studies are from single management systems, although it is valuable to understand how diseases are distributed across broad management gradients, especially in
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Hedgerows support rich communities of harvestmen (Opiliones) in upland agricultural landscape Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-05-16 Slavomír Stašiov, Andrea Diviaková, Marek Svitok, Milan Novikmec, Martin Dovciak
Hedgerows play important roles in agricultural landscapes and they increase biodiversity by providing habitat refugia for species sensitive to agricultural disturbance. We have studied the characteristics of the communities of harvestmen (Opiliones) inhabiting hedgerows. Harvestmen are terrestrial arachnids associated with soil surface and subsurface and sensitive to land-use and disturbance. We were
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Shared enemies exert differential mortality on two competing parasitic wasps Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-05-15 Dhaval K. Vyas, Ryan L. Paul, Michael W. Gates, Tristan Kubik, Jeffery A. Harvey, Boris C. Kondratieff, Paul J. Ode
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How does oak mast seeding affect the feeding behavior of sympatric red and roe deer? Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-05-14 Julien Barrere, Vincent Boulanger, Catherine Collet, Emily Walker, Vivien Siat, Laurence Henry, Sonia Saïd
Oak reproduction is characterized by mast seeding with high inter-annual fluctuations in fruit production. Such resource pulses can greatly affect ecosystem functioning and may cause seed consumers to alter their mobility, demography, or diet. Consequences of mast seeding for seed consumers remain poorly understood as their long timescale makes them difficult to study. We investigated impacts of oak
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Positive effect of catastrophic winds on reptile community recovery in pine plantations Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-04-30 J. Javier Jiménez-Albarral, Juan M. Pleguezuelos, Xavier Santos
The greatest threat to biodiversity is the alteration and destruction of habitats, and one of the causes is tree plantation, which normally are monospecific and unnatural high-density forest stands. In Spain these contain mainly Pinus species, and cover 25% of the forested area. Due to their dense canopy cover, these monocultures harbor poor communities in terms of species richness and abundance of
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A first assessment of the impact of the extreme 2018 summer drought on Central European forests Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-04-29 Bernhard Schuldt, Allan Buras, Matthias Arend, Yann Vitasse, Carl Beierkuhnlein, Alexander Damm, Mana Gharun, Thorsten E.E. Grams, Markus Hauck, Peter Hajek, Henrik Hartmann, Erika Hiltbrunner, Günter Hoch, Meisha Holloway-Phillips, Christian Körner, Elena Larysch, Torben Lübbe, Daniel B. Nelson, Ansgar Kahmen
In 2018, Central Europe experienced one of the most severe and long-lasting summer drought and heat wave ever recorded. Before 2018, the 2003 millennial drought was often invoked as the example of a “hotter drought”, and was classified as the most severe event in Europe for the last 500 years. First insights now confirm that the 2018 drought event was climatically more extreme and had a greater impact
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Saved by the pulse? Separating the effects of total and temporal food abundance on the growth and reproduction of bumble bee microcolonies Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-04-27 Jeremy Hemberger, Agathe Frappa, Grant Witynski, Claudio Gratton
The loss of flower-rich habitat in agricultural landscapes is a key factor contributing to bumble bee declines across Europe and North America. Yet, agricultural intensification has not only altered flower abundance in the landscape, but also affected when flowers are available during the season (e.g., mass-flowering crops). While we know that both total pollen and nectar as well as temporal availability
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Increased canopy seed-storage in post-fire pine invaders suggests rapid selection mediated by fire Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-04-26 Ramiro R. Ripa, Jorgelina Franzese, Andrea C. Premoli, Estela Raffaele
Exotic species storing seeds in the canopy (serotinous species) can experience a clear advantage in fire-prone communities that lack native taxa with such fire-resistant traits. In addition, selection in the new environment can potentially increase the frequency of fire-adapted characteristics such as serotiny. We studied the potential role of fire favoring the serotinous, non-native conifer Pinus
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Local habitat measures derived from aerial pictures are not strong predictors of amphibian occurrence or abundance Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-04-24 Sam S. Cruickshank, Benedikt R. Schmidt, Christian Ginzler, Ariel Bergamini
Species monitoring plays an important role in determining whether conservation targets are being met. However, monitoring programs can be costly and logistically demanding. When site characteristics are strongly linked to species’ status, managers may instead choose to monitor the site characteristics themselves as a surrogate of species status. In this study, we modelled the occupancy status and abundance
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Wildflower-pollinator interactions: Which phytochemicals are involved? Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-04-22 Stefano Benvenuti, Marco Mazzoncini, Pier Luigi Cioni, Guido Flamini
The intensification of agricultural practices contributes to the decline of many taxa, such as insects and weeds. Wildflower species have an important environmental impact on rural biodiversity since plant-pollinator networks play a key role in both landscape aesthetics and environmental functionality. Due to their scarcity and/or disappearance in conventional agroecosystems, wildflowers are now being
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Ecological preferences of neotropical cave bats in roost site selection and their implications for conservation Basic Appl. Ecol. (IF 3.156) Pub Date : 2020-04-09 Jennifer de Sousa Barros, Enrico Bernard, Rodrigo Lopes Ferreira
Bats frequently use caves as roosts due to higher environmental stability and protection. However, species-specific ecological and physiological requirements and conditions of roosts and their surroundings can influence species presence. Little is known on cave choice by bats in the Neotropics, a species- and cave-rich region. Understanding how bats, cave charac