Annual wintertime water‐level drawdowns are a common management strategy in recreational lakes; however, few studies have estimated their relative impact on lake littoral habitat among a set of typically co‐occurring anthropogenic stressors including lakeshore development and herbicide application. Within 21 Massachusetts, USA lakes that represented a drawdown magnitude gradient (0.07–2.26 m), we assessed

Fire and fuel management is a high priority in North American sagebrush ecosystems where the expansion of piñon and juniper trees and the invasion of nonnative annual grasses are altering fire regimes and resulting in loss of sagebrush species and habitat. We evaluated 10‐yr effects of woody fuel treatments on sagebrush recruitment and plant functional group interactions using Sagebrush Steppe Treatment

Assessments of patterns of animal movements are important for understanding their spatial ecology. Geostatistical models of stable isotope (SI) landscapes (isoscapes) provide a complementary tool to telemetry for assessing and predicting animal movements, but are rarely applied to riverine species. Often single‐isotope gradients in freshwater environments are insufficiently variable to provide high

Effective conservation of animal populations depends on the availability of reliable data derived from rigorous monitoring protocols, which allows us to assess trends and understand the processes they are governed by. Nevertheless, population monitoring schemes are hampered by multiple sources of errors resulting from specific logistical and survey constraints. Two common complications are the non‐visitation

Advances in remote sensing technologies offer new means to monitor habitats of importance on large scales. Florida rosemary scrub is one such threatened habitat, found in patches across the landscape in relatively elevated areas, and is often characterized by shrub‐less areas (gaps) among the dominant shrubs, which provide favorable microhabitats for many endemic and endangered plants and animals.

Ecologists employ a diverse body of theory to help explain patterns and processes in ecological systems, with the consistency of ecological theories tested against an increasingly altered world. The global redistribution of species is a prominent impact of climate change and human‐mediated biological invasions and often results in negative impacts to ecosystems. Recently, a species of colonial tunicate

Sand and gravel mining creates novel ecosystems along the Platte, Loup, and Elkhorn rivers in Nebraska, USA. Piping plovers and least terns are state and/or federally threatened and endangered species, respectively, that nest and raise young at these sites and their derivatives. Despite hosting relatively large numbers of piping plovers and least terns for decades, an important question that has largely

Increased fire activity due to climate change may impact the successional dynamics of boreal forests, with important consequences for caribou habitat. Early successional forests have been shown to support lower quantities of caribou forage lichens, but geographic variation in, and controls on, the rates of lichen recovery has been largely unexplored. In this study, we sampled across a broad region

Ecosystem responses to external inputs of nutrients and organisms are highly variable. Theory predicts that ecosystem traits will determine the responses to spatial subsidies, but evidence for how vegetation structure can modulate those effects is lacking. We investigated how vegetation structure (i.e., leaf area index [LAI] and vegetation height) influenced the ecosystem and community responses to

The production of novel hybrid zones is an ecologically important consequence of globally increasing rates of species introductions and invasions. Interspecific hybridization can facilitate gene flow between parent species or produce novel taxa that may alter invasion dynamics or ecosystem services. The coastal sand dunes of the U.S. Pacific Northwest coast are densely populated by two non‐native,

Increases in drought frequency in combination with overgrazing may result in degradation of (semi‐) arid ecosystems. Facilitative interactions between plants are a key mechanism in preventing degradation, but it is poorly understood how they respond to increased stress by combined drought and herbivory. In this study, we used an ecohydrological model, to simulate the plant growth of two plant species

Spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem)) is the main defoliator in the boreal forest of North America, and its outbreaks have major ecological and economic consequences and represent a challenge for forest management. Numerous studies have addressed the effects of this defoliator on mature trees, whereas the effects of spruce budworm on regeneration remain elusive. Furthermore, intensive exploitation

Competition between organisms interfere in host and pathogen dynamics in ways that are difficult to predict. By one side, competitors can reduce the food supply and cause nutritional stress. Such stress could further modulate the susceptibility to infection by altering immune response or metabolic rate of the host. Alternatively, competitors may trap pathogens before they reach the focal host, and

Impact assessment is an important and cost‐effective tool for assisting in the identification and prioritization of invasive alien species. With the number of alien and invasive alien species expected to increase, reliance on impact assessment tools for the identification of species that pose the greatest threats will continue to grow. Given the importance of such assessments for management and resource

Anthropogenic foods such as agricultural crops have potential to give large impacts on wildlife populations. However, few studies have addressed the impact of anthropogenic food consumption on the individual performance and then population of long‐lived mammals such as large herbivores. In this study, we investigated the effect of agricultural crop consumption on the physical characteristics and reproductive

Water level (WL) fluctuations substantially alter the fauna, flora, and microbial community of nearshore aquatic ecosystems. Water level management therefore has the potential to strongly influence a wide variety of ecosystem processes. Many northern temperate lake food webs experience substantial methylmercury contamination, which is partially mediated by the action of sulfate‐reducing bacteria occurring

Ecological stoichiometry provides a framework to predict how animals regulate nutritional balances within their tissue and, as a result, how animal biomass affects ecosystem processes through nutrient cycling. However, most interspecific and developmental stoichiometric studies in animals focus on invertebrates, and the few vertebrate studies are largely fish‐centric. Larval anurans are ideal vertebrates

Gradients in elevation impose changes in environmental conditions, which in turn modulate species distribution and abundance as well as the interactions they maintain. Along the gradient, interacting species (e.g., predators, parasitoids) can respond to changes in different ways. This study aims to investigate how egg parasitism of a forest pest, the pine processionary moth (PPM), Thaumetopoea pityocampa

With escalating anthropogenic alteration of landscapes worldwide, managed forests are increasingly important as providers of ecosystem services and wildlife habitat. Therefore, it is crucial to maintain a balance between producing forest products and biodiversity conservation. Several studies have reported negative effects of forest management on terrestrial plethodontid salamanders, but fewer have

Because ectotherm activity and metabolism are sensitive to temperature, terrestrial arthropods may be especially responsive to ongoing climatic warming. Here, we quantified responses of arthropod abundance to two years of warming in an outdoor temperature manipulation experiment at Duke Forest, North Carolina, USA. Nine open‐top chambers were individually heated year‐round from 1.5° to 5.5°C above

This study examined tree species diversity, distribution, and community differentiation patterns along an elevation gradient in pine–oak forest in the Sierra Norte mountains in Oaxaca, Mexico. Pine and oak are ecologically and economically valuable both locally and globally, but their dynamics are poorly understood in seasonally dry montane forests. This is a biome that is both widespread, with high

Deforestation precipitates spillover of enzootic, vector‐borne viruses into humans, but specific mechanisms for this effect have rarely been investigated. Expansion of oil palm cultivation is a major driver of deforestation. Here, we demonstrate that mosquito abundance decreased over ten stepwise distances from interior forest into conterminous palm plantations in Borneo. Diversity in interior plantation

In the context of widespread ecological changes, land managers and policymakers confront the need to prioritize ecosystem restoration and fuel management activities across large areas to sustain ecosystem services. Reference conditions inform prioritization efforts by providing a baseline from which to measure where and how vegetation and fuels have changed, but until recently the USA lacked a complete

The impacts of warming on communities and ecosystems are predicted to be significant in mountain ecosystems because physiological processes, including rates of carbon (C) cycling, are often more temperature‐sensitive in colder environments. Plant biodiversity can also influence C exchange, yet few studies integrate how biotic and abiotic factors may directly or interactively impact ecosystem C flux

Worldwide, several countries have established coherent, representative, and large‐scale networks of marine reserves to conserve biodiversity. Very few have, however, published systematic assessments of the ecological responses to this network protection, hindering broad understanding of their generality, utility, and efficacy. We present data collected from systematic sampling of rocky reef fish assemblages

Altered climate, including weather extremes, can cause major shifts in vegetative recovery after disturbances. Predictive models that can identify the separate and combined temporal effects of disturbance and weather on plant communities and that are transferable among sites are needed to guide vulnerability assessments and management interventions. We asked how functional group abundance responded

Disturbances within many communities are common, but the recovery of riverine fish assemblages from anthropogenic fish kills is often not well documented. Quantification of fish community recovery is needed to assess how rapidly or whether recovery occurs without mitigation. To address this need, we evaluated the temporal dynamics of six streams located in central Illinois, including systems impacted

Native saltbush, Atriplex polycarpa, shrub populations are widely diminished and fragmented in the southern San Joaquin Desert of California due to habitat conversion and invasion by exotic annual grasses of mostly Mediterranean origin. The role these grasses play in saltbush population demography is not well understood. We hypothesized that saltbush seedling recruitment and growth is limited by the

The loss of long‐tongued pollinator species and dominance of a few short‐tongued generalist species, related to agricultural intensification in recent decades, may have consequences for the quality, quantity, and stability of yields in insect‐pollinated crops. Interestingly, the changes in pollinator community coincide with an increase in poor and variable seed yield in red clover, an important crop

Soil microarthropods are essential for nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems as they are integral components of decomposer food webs. They channel carbon and nutrients from leaf litter and roots to higher trophic levels; however, knowledge on the relative importance of different channels and on their variation with forest type is lacking. Although the importance of root‐derived inputs for sustaining

Lethal and nonlethal effects of predation are likely to impact phenotypic traits of potential prey that elude capture. Nonlethal effects of predation on prey can include alterations in behavior or morphology in response to predation risk which may impair prey growth and fitness. The application of pesticide in mosquito control during aquatic stages can interact with predation stress and alter density

Despite the importance of species–area relationships (SARs) to conservation, SARs in human‐fragmented rivers have received little attention. Our aim was to test for the presence and strength of SARs for littoral fish assemblages of an extensively dammed river in south‐central Ontario, Canada, and to examine long‐running hypotheses for the drivers of SARs. Twenty‐six navigational dams with locks built

As a cause of ecosystem disturbances, phytophagous insects are known to directly influence the element and organic matter (OM) cycling in ecosystems by their defoliation and excretion activity. This study focuses on the interplay between short‐term, insect herbivory, plant responses to feeding activity, rhizosphere processes, and belowground nutrient availability under nutrient‐poor soil conditions

Climate change has the potential to reduce the abundance and distribution of species and threaten global biodiversity, but it is typically not listed as a threat in classifying species conservation status. This likely occurs because demonstrating climate change as a threat requires data‐intensive demographic information. Moreover, the threat from climate change is often studied in specific biomes,

The boreal forest is the largest intact forest in the world, and a refuge for species experiencing range retractions as a consequence of climate and landscape change. Yet, large tracts of the boreal forest are threatened by the cumulative impacts of climate change, natural resource extraction, agriculture, and urbanization, perhaps warranting a shift in focus from biodiversity conservation in intact

A key assumption in species distribution modeling (SDM) with presence‐background (PB) methods is that sampling of occurrence localities is unbiased and that any sampling bias is proportional to the background distribution of environmental covariates. This assumption is rarely met when SDM practitioners rely on federated museum records from natural history collections for geo‐located occurrences due

Residential gardens in urban areas offer substantial opportunities for biodiversity conservation. To realize this opportunity, a comprehensive understanding of which species prosper in gardens, which mechanisms promote their use of these green spaces and how these mechanisms can be manipulated by residents to achieve conservation outcomes, is needed. While substantial progress has been made in evaluating

Understanding the effects of contemporary cattle grazing on herbaceous perennial communities in big sagebrush steppe is important for managing for wildlife habitat, plant diversity, and productivity, yet potentially complicated by legacy impacts of historic, often higher intensity, livestock grazing. Here, we evaluate whether recovery of herbaceous communities in eastern Oregon, USA, after the cessation

Researchers often use gridded datasets to develop statistical relationships between climate and natural resources at locations that are distant from weather stations. These gridded datasets may provide inaccurate estimates of temperature at sites with elevations that differ significantly from the elevation assigned to the corresponding grid cell. We assess the accuracy of three gridded climate datasets

How multiple, interacting components of complex soil communities assemble within forefields of receding glaciers is still largely unknown, especially at high‐elevation sites (>5000 m a.s.l.) where plant succession is very slow. To examine succession of soil communities across different trophic levels, we investigated four major soil groups: bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and other non‐fungal non‐nematode

Trophic interactions are central in understanding ecosystem processes and the management of natural ecosystems but are frequently complex to estimate. To address this issue, body size has been shown to be a useful trait to reconstruct species interactions, particularly in aquatic ecosystems. An allometric niche model (aNM) considering body size as a niche trait is proposed to predict trophic interactions

Deciphering how environmental heterogeneity affects population dynamics in migratory species is complicated by the redistribution of individuals in time and space across the annual cycle. Approaches that tackle this problem require information about how migratory species respond to ecological factors across time and space, and how they are linked across migratory periods. Using high spatial resolution

Eucalyptus plantations have replaced other (agro)ecosystems over 5.6 Mha in Brazil. While these plantations rapidly accumulate carbon (C) in their biomass, the C storage in living forest biomass is transient, and thus, longer‐term sustainability relies on sustaining soil organic matter (SOM) stocks. A significant amount of harvest residues (HR) is generated every rotation and can yield SOM if retained

In the Rocky Mountains, bighorn sheep restoration has been only marginally effective; this iconic wilderness species currently exists at a fraction of their historic abundance and often in fragmented and small populations. To inform bighorn sheep conservation and restoration efforts, it is critical to understand sources of variation in key vital rates. Our objectives were to characterize the spatiotemporal

Climate change is projected to significantly affect the vulnerability of forests across the western United States to wildfires, insects, disease, and droughts. Here, we provide recent mortality estimates for large trees for 53 species across 48 ecological sections using an analysis of 23,215 Forest Inventory plots and a Random Forest classification model. Models were also used to predict mortality

In coastal systems, marine‐protected areas (MPAs) have been shown to increase the diversity, abundance, and biomass of wildlife assemblages as well as their resilience to climate change. The effectiveness of pelagic MPAs is less clear, with arguments against their establishment typically based on the highly mobile nature of pelagic taxa. We used mid‐water stereo‐baited remote underwater video systems

Wild pig (Sus scrofa) populations in the United States are expanding and increasing in distribution and abundance and are known to reservoir a variety of pathogens that can have economic and agricultural impacts. We examined wild pigs for exposure to Brucella spp. and Francisella tularensis from Oklahoma and Texas to determine their potential role as a regional reservoir for these pathogens since wild

The global rise in temperature and associated changes in climate have led to decline of forests around the globe, across multiple species and ecosystems. Yellow‐cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis) decline is one of the most severe in North America. We found abundant evidence of tree decline and mortality on Haida Gwaii across multiple watersheds and over a range of elevations. This decline on Haida Gwaii

Proliferative kidney disease (PKD) is an emerging disease that recently resulted in a large mortality event of salmonids in the Yellowstone River (Montana, USA). Total PKD fish mortalities in the Yellowstone River were estimated in the tens of thousands, which resulted in a multi‐week river closure and an estimated economic loss of US$500,000. This event shocked scientists, managers, and the public

The maturity of remote sensing and ecosystem restoration science provides new opportunities to monitor and assess ecosystem indicators at finer resolutions and at suitable scales. A key link in joining these fields is creating a framework to apply these rich datasets to ecosystem restoration projects. Savanna woodland ecosystems have discontinuous tree cover that is an important, but potentially highly

Landscape composition can strongly affect the delivery of ecosystem services in agroecosystems. Conserving uncultivated habitats can support ecosystem services, but in Mediterranean biomes, these lands can also increase the area susceptible to wildfires. In the world‐renowned wine‐producing region of Napa Valley, California, wine grape growers install nest boxes to attract American barn owls (Tyto

Grassland ecosystems globally are being negatively impacted by changes in climate, disturbance regimes, nutrient flux, and consumer guilds. Changes in the trophic ecology of consumers can substantially influence local resources, contributing to shifting diversity, community turnover, and other processes of ecosystem change. Small mammals are diverse and abundant within grasslands and yet the impact

Assessing stream restoration remains an on‐going challenge. Conclusions about the effectiveness of stream restoration efforts vary throughout the literature. This uncertainty is likely due, in part, to the spectrum of scales at which restorations have been assessed, the different variables used for assessment, and the varying types of sites used for comparisons. Mitigating such uncertainty with stream

Food webs show the architecture of trophic relationships, revealing the biodiversity and species interactions in an ecosystem. Understanding which factors modulate the structure of food webs offers us the ability to predict how they will change when influential factors are altered. To date, most of the research about food webs has focused on species interactions whereas the influences of surrounding

Recent observational studies report weak or flat temperature − growth relationships for many tree species in temperate forests. In contrast, distribution limits of trees are strongly shaped by temperature, and studies show marked short‐term temperature effects on leaf‐level ecophysiology. To better determine the effects of warming on trees, we planted one‐year‐old seedlings of one lower montane (ponderosa

In a scenario of climate change and intensive land‐use change, the issue of salt marsh degradation caused by global warming and soil salinization is becoming more serious. A climate chamber experiment was conducted to examine the responses of tuber sprouting and seedling growth of Schoenoplectus nipponicus to variations in the temperature regimes (20/10, 25/15, 30/20 and 35/25°C; 12‐h light/dark 12‐h

Sexual segregation has been intensely studied across diverse ecosystems and taxa, but studies are often limited to periods when animals occupy distinct seasonal ranges. Some avian and marine studies have revealed that habitat segregation, when sexes differ spatially or temporally in use of the physical landscape, is common during the migratory period and characterized by sex‐specific differences in

Changing climatic conditions prompt concerns about vegetation response to disturbance under future compared to past conditions. In this long‐term study, we examined soil climate and vegetation differences at lower, mid, and upper elevations in two separate locations in the Great Basin, USA. We hypothesized that soil climate and vegetation associations across the elevational gradient could help predict

Habitat studies that encompass a large portion of a species’ geographic distribution can explain characteristics that are either consistent or variable, further informing inference from more localized studies and improving management successes throughout the range. We identified landscape characteristics at Piping Plover nests at 21 sites distributed from Massachusetts to North Carolina and compared