Invasive species can be powerful models for studying contemporary evolution in natural environments. As invading organisms often encounter new habitats during colonization, they will experience novel selection pressures. Threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus complex) have recently colonized large parts of Switzerland and are invasive in Lake Constance. Introduced to several watersheds roughly

Apis species are a major component of pollinator faunas in their native and introduced habitats. A widespread concern is that non-native Apis mellifera may have negative effects on native pollinators and on plant reproduction. This is based on the assumptions that natural communities are at capacity, resource competition structures communities, native pollinators are more effective pollinators of native

The natural and old-growth forests and their associated biodiversity continues to fade worldwide due to anthropogenic impact in various forms. The boreal forests in Fennoscandia have been subject to intensive clearfelling forestry since the middle of twentieth century. As a result, only a fraction of forests with long temporal continuity remains at the landscape level. In Sweden, some of these primary

The microbial communities living on and in vertebrate hosts have myriad effects on their hosts, potentially including fitness and speciation. Microbiomes are influenced by both intrinsic (from the host) and extrinsic (from the environment) factors, but the relative contributions of each are unknown for most non-model species. Abiotic environmental factors can influence the microbiome directly but it

Bees decrease in abundance and richness along elevation gradients, while flies replace bees as the dominant flower visitors in higher elevation systems. We reviewed the existing literature to determine if this global phenomenon of pollinator communities switching from bees to flies occurs at the same place along a temperature gradient. Here we examined five studies that have documented this bee-to-fly

Increasingly, strontium (Sr) isotopes are used to distinguish locals and migrants in prehistoric studies, by measuring 87Sr/86Sr in human remains and comparing these values to the distribution of the bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr in the study area, often in surface water. However, it has recently been shown that agricultural lime can have a substantial impact on the 87Sr/86Sr ratio and strontium concentration

Benchmark studies of insect populations are increasingly relevant and needed amid accelerating concern about insect trends in the Anthropocene. The growing recognition that insect populations may be in decline has given rise to a renewed call for insect population monitoring by scientists, and a desire from the broader public to participate in insect surveys. However, due to the immense diversity of

Algal blooms have been reported in some tributary bays since the initial impoundment of Three Gorges Reservoir, which has seriously affected the water ecology and drinking water safety. Hydrodynamics plays a crucial role in algae growth. The recent numerical models of hydrodynamics and water quality are effective to identify the effects of hydrodynamics on phytoplankton and find potential strategies

Dams are among the most prevalent and extreme alterations humans have perpetrated on fluvial systems. The dramatic physical and biological changes caused by dams have been synthesized for many aquatic faunal groups, but not for crayfishes. In addition, invasive crayfish species are an increasing threat to global biodiversity, and dams have both costs and benefits with respect to crayfish invasions

There has been a recent increase in interest on how urbanization affects soil fauna communities. However, previous studies primarily focused on some limited land use types or line transects of urban-rural gradients. At family and higher taxonomic levels, we investigated the changes of soil mesofauna communities (abundance, species richness, and community structure) with urbanization intensity along

The ideal free distribution theory predicts that mobile species distribute themselves among habitat patches so as to optimize their fitness. Changes in land use alter the quality of habitat patches and thereby affect the distribution of species. Following the loss of native habitat, habitat specialists are expected to move to patches where native habitat still remains in order to survive. Competition

Global loss of biodiversity and its associated ecosystem services is occurring at an alarming rate and is predicted to accelerate in the future. Metacommunity theory provides a framework to investigate multi-scale processes that drive change in biodiversity across space and time. Short-term ecological studies across space have progressed our understanding of biodiversity through a metacommunity lens

When developing theories, designing studies, and interpreting the results, researchers are influenced by their perception of tree size. For example, we may compare two trees of the same size belonging to different species, and attribute any differences to dissimilarities between the species. However, the meaning of “same size” depends on the measures of size used. Wood density influences certain measures

Studies of the ecoimmunology of feral organisms can provide valuable insight into how host–pathogen dynamics change as organisms transition from human-managed conditions back into the wild. Honey bees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus) offer an ideal system to investigate these questions as colonies of these social insects often escape management and establish in the wild. While managed honey bee colonies have

Paleoecological investigations using the pollen-plant functional trait linkage are increasing in value as new insights to past ecological function and dynamics are revealed. These retrospective approaches link pollen sequences to plant functional trait measurements to reveal long-term changes in ecosystem properties that are difficult to resolve using traditional paleoecological methods. Despite these

Cytonuclear discordance, commonly detected in phylogenetic studies, is often attributed to hybridization and/or incomplete lineage sorting (ILS). New sequencing technologies and analytical approaches can provide new insights into the relative importance of these processes. Hybridization has previously been reported in the Australian endemic plant genus Adenanthos (Proteaceae). Like many Australian

Perhaps more than any other ecological discipline, invasion biology has married the practices of basic science and the application of that science. The conceptual frameworks of population regulation, metapopulations, supply-side ecology, and community assembly have all to some degree informed the regulation, management, and prevention of biological invasions. Invasion biology needs to continue to adopt

Animals that live in groups may experience positive interactions such as cooperative behavior or negative interactions such as competition from group members depending on group size and similarity between individuals. The effect of group size and phenotypic and ecological similarity on group assembly has not been well-studied. Mixed-species flocks are important subsets of bird communities worldwide

Strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) are commonly used in archeological and forensic studies to assess if humans and fauna are local to the place they were found or not. This approach is largely unexplored for wooden artifacts recovered in archeological contexts, as wood – in the rare instances it does survive – is often poorly preserved. One of the most common ways wood is preserved is through the

Melanin-based color patterns are an emerging model for studying molecular and evolutionary mechanisms driving phenotypic correlations. Extensive literature exists on color patterns and their correlated traits in the family Poeciliidae, indicating that these fishes are tractable models. We review the biology of polymorphic melanic side-spotting patterns characterized by macromelanophores forming irregular

Life-history traits are directly linked to fitness, and therefore, can be highly adaptive. Livebearers have been used as models for understanding the evolution of life histories due to their wide diversity in these traits. Several different selective pressures, including population density, predation, and resource levels, can shape life-history traits. However, these selective pressures are usually

Procambarus clarkii is a worldwide freshwater invasive crustacean from North America and was first introduced into Europe the 1970s. Along with P. clarkii, another invasive alien species was also spreading: Aphanomyces astaci. This pathogen is listed among the 100 World’s worst invasive species and involved in the European native crayfish decline. Although both species live in freshwater ecosystems

Termite colonies, composed of large numbers of siblings, develop an important caste-based division of labor; individuals in these societies interact via intra- or intercaste chemical communications. For more than 50 years, termites have been known to use a variety of pheromones to perform tasks necessary for maintenance of their societies, similar to eusocial hymenopterans. Although trail-following

Many fish form schools and maintain visual contact with their neighbors in a three-dimensional environment. In this study, we assessed whether zebrafish modified their spacing and interaction time in an additive or multiplicative way relative to multiple sources of social information using computer animations. We simultaneously manipulated: (a) the size of the virtual conspecific (as a proxy of social

Experiences in nature benefit humans in a variety of ways, including increasing health and well-being, reducing stress, inspiring creativity, enhancing learning, and fostering environmental stewardship values. These experiences help define the relationship people have with nature which is often correlated with a person’s level of environmental concern as well as their engagement in pro-environmental

Euterpe precatoria is a palm tree belonging to the Arecaceae family, occurring in Western and Central Brazilian Amazonia. Its fruit, which is very appreciated in the Amazon region, produces pulp that is consumed in fresh form. Its production is carried out almost exclusively by extractive farmers. In order to establish adequate strategies to sustain this genetic resource, we need knowledge about the

Chironomid (Diptera: Chironomidae) larvae play an important role in a wide range of aquatic ecosystems. The study focuses on Chironomidae trophic guilds and morphological types as indicator traits in reconstructions of habitat changes in shallow water bodies. Mentum and ventromental plates are important mouthparts whose shape depends on food type and feeding behavior. Chironomidae larvae strongly vary

Colonialism is a significant legacy across most aspects of urban form, the nature and distribution of public green spaces, and tree species composition in many cities of the Global South. However, the legacy effects of colonialism on urban green infrastructure and the uses thereof have only recently come under scrutiny. Here we collate information from South Africa on urban greening and interpret it

As an important way to promote economic growth and to improve ecological environment quality, industrial agglomeration strategy has been widely accepted and implemented in various regions of China. In theory, industrial agglomeration is conducive to reducing pollution emissions. However, this needs to be tested in reality. The purpose of this paper is to test the impacts of manufacturing industry agglomeration

Research across a range of biological subdisciplines and scales, ranging from molecular to ecosystemic, provides ample evidence that living systems generally exhibit both a degree of resistance to disruption and an ability to recover following disturbance. Not only do mechanisms of robustness and resilience exist across and between systems, but those mechanisms exhibit ubiquitous and scalable commonalities

Metabolic symbiosis is a form of symbiosis in which organisms exchange metabolites, typically for mutual benefit. For example, acquired phototrophs like Paramecium bursaria obtain photosynthate from endosymbiotic green algae called Chlorella. In addition to facilitating the persistence of P. bursaria by providing a carbon source that supplements P. bursaria’s heterotrophic digestion of bacteria, symbiotic

Protected areas (PAs) are a key element of global conservation strategies aiming to protect habitats and species from various threats such as non-natives species (NNS) with negative ecological impacts. Yet little is known about the mechanisms by which PAs are colonized by NNS, and more specifically the role of colonizing events from surrounding areas. Here, we compared terrestrial and freshwater non-native

In recent years, large predators have made a comeback across large parts of Europe. However, little is known about the impact that recolonizing predators may have on ecosystems with high degrees of anthropogenic influence. In Scandinavia, wolves (Canis lupus) now inhabit areas affected by intense forestry practices and their main prey, moose (Alces alces), are exposed to significant human hunting pressure

Dam construction is a major threat to terrestrial ecological processes that exhibit spatial variation. As an effective indicator of species movements at large scales, the dynamics of forest landscape connectivity for the dispersal abilities of local species such as primates both upstream and downstream of the Manwan hydropower station were compared in three periods: before, during, and after dam construction

Since in general the surrounding landscape influences the species diversity and abundance in fragments of native vegetation, an amount of native-vegetation cover nearby may also positively affect communities in restored areas, regardless of the sizes of individual habitat patches. We investigated for the first time whether the species richness, total abundance, and density of grassland birds in restoration

Spruce budworm (SBW) outbreaks are a major disturbance in North American forests. In Quebec, Canada, the recent history of SBW outbreaks at the local scale is well-known. Studies at the Québec scale nonetheless remain rare despite the need to better understand the dynamics of SBW outbreaks at a larger scale. This study aimed to reconstruct the spatiotemporal dynamics of SBW outbreaks during the 20th

Degradation characterized by depleted vegetation cover is a serious environmental problem in African rangelands. It poses a serious threat to millions of pastoralists and agropastoralists who depend on livestock as a source of livelihood. Consequently, there has been a growing global interest to consolidate efforts to restore degraded ecosystems. For example, the UN decade of Ecosystem Restoration

The Amazon has the highest richness of freshwater organisms in the world, which has led to a multitude of hypotheses on the mechanisms that generated this biodiversity. However, most of these hypotheses focus on the spatial distance of populations, a framework that fails to provide an explicit mechanism of speciation. Ecological conditions in Amazon freshwaters can be strikingly distinct, as it has

Understanding the linkage between behavioral types and dispersal tendency has become a pressing issue in light of global change and biological invasions. Here, we explore whether dispersing individuals exhibit behavioral types that differ from those remaining in the source population. We investigated a feral population of guppies (Poecilia reticulata) that undergoes a yearly range shift cycle. Guppies

Karst landscapes are among the topographically most complex systems with various microhabitats, where species can persist despite unfavourable macro-environmental changes. These microhabitats can also function as stepping stones during range shifts. Although the enclosed depressions (dolines, sinkholes or tiankengs) of karst landscapes may act as such safe havens, data on the functional diversity of

The research of phenotypic convergence is of increasing importance in adaptive evolution. Locomotory modes play important roles in the adaptive evolution of species in the Euarchontoglires, however, the investigation of convergent evolution of the locomotory modes across diverse Euarchontoglire orders is incomplete. We collected measurements of three phalangeal indices of manual digit III, including

Studies on carnivores are skewed toward larger species in India, limiting ecological information of the smaller ones. Basic ecological understanding like population density, distribution, habitat-use patterns of small carnivores is lacking. This inadequate knowledge has led to disagreement between conservation approaches in different landscapes. Honey badgers (Mellivora capensis) are cryptic carnivores

Members of the family Symbiodiniaceae form symbiotic relationships with several metazoan groups on coral reefs, most notably scleractinian corals. However, despite their importance to the health of coral reefs, their relationship with other host organisms such as bioeroding sponges (Clionaidae) is still relatively understudied. In this study we investigate the presence and identity of Symbiodiniaceae

Human activity around the globe is a growing source of selection pressure on animal behavior and communication systems. Some animals can modify their vocalizations to avoid masking from anthropogenic noise. However, such modifications can also affect the salience of these vocalizations in functional contexts such as competition and mate choice. Such is the case in the well-studied Nuttall's white-crowned

We review a model we developed in 2007 to predict the invasion potential of an introduced population, based on the relationship between juvenile growth (mean total length at age 2) and mean age-at-maturity, and test the model with data from 75 non-native populations of pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus in nine countries of Europe and western Asia. The database used to construct the model was derived from

Climatic oscillations over the Quaternary have had a lasting impact on species’ distribution, evolutionary history, and genetic composition. Many species show dramatic population size changes coinciding with the last glacial period. However, the extent and direction of change vary across biogeographic regions, species-habitat associations, and species traits. Here we use genomic data to assess population

Urban residents and their pets utilize urban greenspaces daily. As urban dog ownership rates increase globally, urban greenspaces are under mounting pressure even as the benefits and services they provide become more important. The urine of dogs is high in nitrogen (N) and may represent a significant portion of the annual urban N load. We examined the spatial distribution and impact of N deposition

Located at the south-western most part of the Balkan peninsula, along an important migration route (the Mediterranean/Black Sea Flyway), the Gialova Lagoon wetland is one of the few remaining Important Bird Areas (IBAs) along the south-west coast of Greece, also designated as a Special Protection Area. The wetland serves as the first suitable stopover for many spring migrants who have flown non-stop

The seagrass Zostera marina is a widespread foundational species in temperate coastal ecosystems that supports diverse communities of epiphytes and grazers. Bacteria link the production of seagrass to higher trophic levels and are thought to influence seagrass biology and health. Yet, we lack a clear understanding of the factors that structure the seagrass microbiome, or whether there is a consistent

Changes in CO2 concentration and climate are likely to alter disturbance regimes and competitive outcomes among tree species, which ultimately can result in shifts of species and biome boundaries. Such changes are already evident in high latitude forests, where waterlogged soils produced by topography, surficial geology, and permafrost are an important driver of forest dynamics. Predicting such effects

Global changes in land use are threatening the diversity of many ecosystems on both the intra- and interspecific levels. Among these ecosystems are the species-rich hay meadows, which have drastically declined in quality and quantity, due to land use intensification or abandonment in recent decades. The remaining genetic resources of their plant species must therefore be protected. To determine the

Biological invasion pose a severe threat to global biodiversity, and studies of bioinvasion patterns and the underlying mechanisms provide critical tests to ecological theories. China is a global hotspot of biodiversity and also biological invasions. The understanding of mechanisms for bioinvasion patterns has been limited by inadequacy of data spatial resolution, and lack of a historical perspective

Recent findings indicate that the utilization of social information, produced inadvertently by other individuals through their spatial location and/or interaction with the environment, may be ubiquitous in the animal kingdom. If so, social information-mediated effects on population growth and interspecies interactions may be more prevalent than previously thought. However, little is known about how

Species in transformed habitats, frequently labeled as environmental generalists, tend to show broader niches than species in natural habitats. However, how population niche expansion translates into changes in the niches of individual organisms remains unclear, particularly in the context of habitat transformation. Niche expansion could be a product of individuals having broader niches, greater distances

Camera traps have become an important research tool for both conservation biologists and wildlife managers. Recent advances in spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) methods have increasingly put camera traps at the forefront of population monitoring programs. These methods allow for benchmark analysis of species density without the need for invasive fieldwork techniques. We conducted a review

Fungus-growing termites (Isoptera: Macrotermitinae) dominate African savannah ecosystems where they play important roles in ecosystem functioning. Their ecological dominance in these ecosystems has been attributed to living in an ectosymbiosis with fungi of the genus Termitomyces (Lyophyllaceae). Evolutionary theory predicts that the transmission mode of a symbiont determines cooperation and conflict

We introduce and test the subhabitat dependence hypothesis (SDH) in biogeography. This hypothesis posits that biogeographic pattern within a region differs when determined with species abundance data from different subhabitat types. It stems from the notion that the main abiotic factors that drive species distribution in different subhabitat types across a biogeographic region often vary differently

Conversion from Amazon forest to low-management pasture or agriculture causes not only degradation of aboveground vegetation but also negative changes in soil properties and ecosystem services. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of physical soil degradation on termite community changes in three contrasting land uses (natural regeneration, rubber plantations, and silvopastoral systems). Soil physical

Debate rages as to whether habitat fragmentation leads to the decline of biodiversity once habitat loss is accounted for. Previous studies have defined fragmentation variously, but research needs to address “fragmentation per se,” which excludes confounding effects of habitat loss. Our study controls for habitat area and employs a mechanistic multi-species simulation to explore processes that may lead

Skeletal remains in archaeological strata are often assumed to be of similar ages. Here we show that combined Sr and O isotope analyses can serve as a powerful tool for assessing fish provenance and even for identifying fossil fish teeth in archaeological contexts. For this purpose, we established a reference Sr and O isotope dataset of extant fish teeth from major water bodies in the Southern Levant