Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, a group of widespread fungal symbionts of crops, could be important in driving crop yield across crop rotations through plant‐soil feedbacks (PSF). However, whether preceding crops have legacy effect on the AM fungi of the subsequent crop is poorly known. We set up an outdoor mesocosm crop rotation experiment that consisted of a first phase growing either one of four

Improved monitoring and associated inferential tools to efficiently identify declining bird populations, particularly of rare or sparsely distributed species, is key to informed conservation and management across large spatio‐temporal regions. We assess abundance trends for 106 bird species in a network of eight forested national parks located within the northeast U.S.A. from 2006‐2019 using a novel

As urbanization increases worldwide, investments in nature‐based solutions that aim to mitigate urban stressors and counter the impacts of global climate change are also on the rise. Tree planting on degraded urban lands—or afforestation—is one form of nature‐based solution that has been increasingly implemented in cities around the world. The benefits of afforestation are, however, contingent on the

Variation in the spatial ecology of animals influences the transmission of infections and so understanding host behavior can improve the control of diseases. Despite the global distribution of free‐ranging domestic dogs Canis familiaris and their role as reservoirs for zoonotic diseases, little is known about the dynamics of their space use. We deployed GPS loggers on owned but free‐ranging dogs from

Innovative techniques, such as environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding, are now promoting broader biodiversity monitoring at unprecedented scales, because of the reduction in time, presumably lower cost, and methodological efficiency. Our goal was to assess the efficiency of established inventory techniques (live‐trapping grids, pitfall traps, camera trapping, mist netting) as well as eDNA for detecting

Poaching is a global problem causing the decline of species worldwide. Optimizing the efficiency of ranger patrols to deter poaching activity at the lowest possible cost is crucial for protecting species with limited resources. We applied decision analysis and spatial optimization algorithms to allocate efforts of ranger patrols throughout a national park. Our objective was to mitigate poaching activity

In degraded landscapes, recolonization by pioneer vegetation is often halted by the presence of persistent environmental stress. When natural expansion does occur, it is commonly due to the momentary alleviation of a key environmental variable previously limiting new growth. Thus, studying the circumstances in which expansion occurs can inspire new restoration techniques, wherein vegetation establishment

Nonnative plant pests cause billions of dollars in damages. It is critical to prevent or reduce these losses by intervening at various stages of the invasion process, including pathway risk management (to prevent pest arrival), surveillance and eradication (to counter establishment), and management of established pests (to limit damages). Quantifying benefits and costs of these interventions is important

Soil microbial community functions are essential indicators of ecosystem multifunctionality in managed land‐use systems. Going forward, the development of adaptation strategies and predictive models under future climate scenarios will require a better understanding of how both land‐use and climate disturbances influence soil microbial functions over time. Between March and November 2018, we assessed

The increasing impacts of climate change on forest ecosystems have triggered multiple model‐based impact assessments for the future, which typically focused either on a small number of stand‐scale case studies or on large scale analyses (i.e., continental to global). Therefore, substantial uncertainty remains regarding the local impacts over large areas (i.e., regions to countries), which is particularly

Large carnivores are currently disappearing from many world regions because of habitat loss, prey depletion, and persecution. Ensuring large carnivore persistence requires safeguarding and sometimes facilitating the expansion of their populations. Understanding which conservation strategies, such as reducing persecution or restoring prey, are most effective to help carnivores to reclaim their former

The rapid loss of coastal and estuarine biogenic habitats has reduced the delivery of valuable ecosystem services, resulting in calls for increased habitat restoration. Yet, a lack of information on how key habitat characteristics (e.g., area, vertical relief, age) influence the ability of restored habitats to deliver these ecosystem services hinders efforts to maximize the return on restoration investments

Diversity metrics, essential for habitat evaluation in conservation, are often based on occurrences records with little consideration of behavioral ecology. As species use diverse habitats to perform different behaviors, reliance on occurrence records alone will fail to reveal environmental conditions shaping the behavioral importance of habitats with respect to resource exploitation. Here, we integrated

Marine food webs are structured through a combination of top‐down and bottom‐up processes. In coral reef ecosystems, fish size is related to life‐history characteristics and size‐based indicators can represent the distribution and flow of energy through the food web. Thus, size spectra can be a useful tool for investigating the impacts of both fishing and habitat condition on the health and productivity

Geographic profiling, a mathematical model originally developed in criminology, is increasingly being used in ecology and epidemiology. Geographic profiling boasts a wide range of applications, such as finding source populations of invasive species or breeding sites of vectors of infectious disease. The model provides a cost‐effective approach for prioritizing search strategies for source locations

The forest sector can play a significant role in climate change mitigation. We evaluated forest sector carbon trends and potential mitigation scenarios in Vermont using a systems‐based modeling framework that accounts for net emissions from all forest sector components. These components comprise (1) the forest ecosystem, including land‐use change, (2) harvested wood products (HWP), and (3) substitution

During the last decades, the use of bioacoustics as a non‐invasive and cost‐effective sampling method has greatly increased worldwide. For bats, acoustic surveys have long been known to complement traditional mist‐netting, however, appropriate protocol guidelines are still lacking for tropical regions. Establishing the minimum sampling effort needed to detect ecological changes in bat assemblages (e

Outcomes of management efforts to recover or restore populations of harvested species can be highly dependent on environmental and community context. Predator‐prey interactions can alter recovery trajectories, and the timing of management actions within multi‐trophic level harvest scenarios may influence the dynamics of recovery and lead to management trade‐offs. Recent work using a generalist predator‐prey

Understanding the mechanisms contributing to positive relationships between predator diversity and natural pest control is fundamental to inform more effective management practices to support sustainable crop production. Predator body size can provide important insights to better understand and predict such predator‐pest interactions. Yet, most studies exploring the link between predator body size

Pastoral systems are the dominant livestock production system in arid and semiarid regions of sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). They are often the only form of agriculture that can be practised due to unfavourable climate and soil fertility levels that prevent crop cultivation. Pastoralism can have negative impacts on the environment, including land degradation, greenhouse gas emissions and other gases to

Climate change will impact forest productivity worldwide. Forecasting the magnitude of such impact, with multiple environmental stressors changing simultaneously, is only possible with the help of process‐based models. In order to assess their performance, such models require careful evaluation against measurements. However, direct comparison of model outputs against observational data is often not

Climate change is driving ecological shifts in coastal regions of the world, where low topographic relief makes ecosystems particularly vulnerable to sea‐level rise, salinization, storm surge, and other effects of global climate change. The consequences of rising water tables and salinity can penetrate well inland, and lead to particularly dramatic changes in freshwater forested wetlands dominated

Land protection efforts represent large societal investments and are critical to biodiversity conservation. Land protection involves a complex mosaic of areas managed by multiple organizations, using a variety of mechanisms to achieve different levels of protection. We develop an approach to synthesize, describe, and map this land protection diversity over large spatial scales. We use cluster analysis

Ecological models are constrained by the availability of high‐quality data at biologically appropriate resolutions and extents. Modeling a species' affinity or aversion with a particular land cover class requires data detailing that class across the full study area. Data sets with detailed legends (i.e., high thematic resolution) and/or high accuracy often sacrifice geographic extent, while large‐area

Invasive mosquitoes are expanding their ranges into new geographic areas and interacting with resident mosquito species. Understanding how novel interactions can affect mosquito population dynamics is necessary to predict transmission risk at invasion fronts. Mosquito life‐history traits are extremely sensitive to temperature, and this can lead to temperature‐dependent competition between competing

Feral individuals of the cat Felis catus are recognised internationally as a threat to biodiversity. Open, non‐insular systems support a large proportion of the world’s biodiversity, but the population‐level impacts of feral cats in these systems are rarely elucidated. This limits prioritization and assessment of the effectiveness of management interventions. We quantified the predatory impact of feral

Data are currently being used, and reused, in ecological research at an unprecedented rate. To ensure appropriate reuse however, we need to ask the question: “Are aggregated databases currently providing the right information to enable effective and unbiased reuse?” We investigate this question, with a focus on designs that purposefully favour the selection of sampling locations (upweighting the probability

Diversity and nitrogen addition have positive relationships with plant productivity, yet climate‐induced changes in water availability threaten to upend these established relationships. Using long‐term data from three experiments in a mesic grassland (ranging from 17‐34 years of data), we tested how the effects of species richness and nitrogen addition on community‐level plant productivity changed

An ultimate benefit of marine protected areas (MPAs) is to reverse trophic cascades caused by human‐driven collapse of critical ecological interactions. Here we demonstrate, that despite a small‐scale (0.28 km2), and not being fully protected, a MPA with strict fishing management and habitat enhancement by artificial reefs (ARs) in southwest Japan can lead to well‐established macroalgal communities

Natural resources often exhibit large interannual fluctuations in productivity driven by shifting environmental conditions, and this translates to high variability in the revenue resource users earn. However, users can dampen this variability by harvesting a portfolio of resources. In the context of fisheries, this means targeting multiple populations, though the ability to actually build diverse fishing

Modeling wildfire activity is crucial for informing science‐based risk management and understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of fire‐prone ecosystems worldwide. Models help disentangle the relative influences of different factors, understand wildfire predictability, and provide insights into specific events. Here, we develop Firelihood, a two‐component, Bayesian, hierarchically structured, probabilistic

Globally, peatlands have been affected by drainage and peat extraction, with adverse effects on their functioning and services. To restore peat‐forming vegetation, drained bogs are being rewetted on a large scale. Although this practice results in higher groundwater levels, unfortunately it often creates deep lakes in parts where peat was extracted to greater depths than the surroundings. Re‐vegetation

Absence of dissolved oxygen (anoxia) in the hypolimnion of lakes can eliminate habitat for sensitive species and may induce the release of sediment‐bound phosphorus. Lake anoxia generally results from decomposition of organic matter, which is exacerbated by high nutrient loads. Total Phosphorus (TP) in lakes is regulated by static aspects of the lake’s watershed, but lake TP can be readily increased

Winter moth, Operophtera brumata, native to Europe, invaded the northeastern United States in the late 1990s, where it caused widespread defoliation of forests and shade trees ranging from 2,266 to 36,360 ha/yr between 2003 and 2015 in Massachusetts. In 2005, we initiated a biological control effort based on the specialist tachinid parasitoid Cyzenis albicans, which had previously been introduced along

Snakebite envenoming is a major neglected tropical health issue. The high incidence of snakebites in tropical rural communities suggests that venomous snakes and people are often in proximity but quantitative evidence is lacking. I used radio‐telemetry on a population of Russell’s vipers (Daboia russelii), one of the most medically important snakes in the world, to quantify proximity between this venomous

Plastic is pervasive in modern economies and ecosystems. Freshwater fish ingest microplastics (i.e., particles <5 mm), but no studies have examined historical patterns of their microplastic consumption. Measuring the patterns of microplastic pollution in the past is critical for predicting future trends and for understanding the relationship between plastics in fish and the environment. We measured

Monitoring programmes serve to detect trends in the distribution and abundance of species. To do so, monitoring programmes often use static state variables. Dynamic state variables which describe population dynamics might be more valuable because they allow for a mechanistic understanding of the processes which lead to population trends. We fit multistate occupancy models to data from a country‐wide

There is growing need to quantify and communicate how land use and management activities influence soil organic carbon (SOC) at scales relevant to, and in the tangible control of landowners and forest managers. The continued proliferation of publications and growth of datasets, data synthesis and meta‐analysis approaches allows the application of powerful tools to such questions at ever finer scales

Earth observing satellites are a major research tool for spatially explicit ecosystem nowcasting and forecasting. However, there are practical challenges when integrating satellite data into usable real‐time products for stakeholders. The need of forecast immediacy and accuracy means that forecast systems must account for missing data and data latency while delivering a timely, accurate and actionable

People in urban and rural areas are planting habitat patches for pollinators in response to growing public awareness of the risks of pollinator declines; yet research rarely has been undertaken to inform the composition of such patches. Determining which key functional plant traits to prioritize and how plant‐pollinator interaction dynamics operate in these small‐scale, fragmented patches is critical

The contribution of urban greenspaces to support biodiversity and provide benefits for people is increasingly recognized. However, ongoing management practices favor vegetation oversimplification, often limiting greenspaces to lawns and tree canopy rather than multi‐layered vegetation that includes under‐ and midstorey, and the use of nonnative species. These practices hinder the potential of greenspaces

To mitigate the impact of severe wildfire on human society and the environment, prescribed fire is widely used in forest ecosystems to reduce fuel loads and limit fire spread. To avoid detrimental effects on conservation values, it is imperative to understand how prescribed fire affects taxa having a range of different adaptations to disturbance. Such studies will have greatest benefit if they extend

All terrestrial ectotherms are constrained to some degree by their thermal environment and the extent to which they can behaviorally buffer variable thermal conditions. New biophysical modeling methods (NicheMapR) allow the calculation of the body temperature of thermoregulating animals anywhere in the world from first principles, but require detailed observational data for parameterization and testing

There is considerable evidence that keeping propagule pressure low can drastically reduce establishment probability of potential invasive species. Yet, most management plans and research efforts fail to explicitly acknowledge all three of the components of propagule pressure: size, number, and the risk–release relationship. It is unclear how failing to specify one or more of these components can influence

Grassland ecosystems account for approximately 40% of terrestrial biomes globally. These communities are characterized by a large allocation to belowground biomass, often exceeding its aboveground counterpart. However, this biomass investment cannot be entirely attributed to the acquisitive function of roots. Grassland plants also allocate to non‐acquisitive, stem‐derived, belowground organs, such

Although different fisheries can be tightly linked to each other by human and ecosystem processes, they are often managed independently. Synchronous fluctuations among fish populations or fishery catches can destabilize ecosystems and economies, respectively, but the degree of synchrony around the world remains unclear. We analyzed 1,092 marine fisheries catch time series over 60 yr to test for the

Electricity generation from renewable‐energy sources has increased dramatically worldwide in recent decades. Risks associated with wind‐energy infrastructure are not well understood for endangered Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) or other vulnerable Crane populations. From 2010 to 2016, we monitored 57 Whooping Cranes with remote‐telemetry devices in the United States Great Plains to determine potential

Political and economic initiatives intended to increase energy production while reducing carbon emissions are driving demand for solar energy. Consequently, desert regions are now targeted for development of large‐scale photovoltaic solar energy facilities. Where vegetation communities are left intact or restored within facilities, ground‐mounted infrastructure may have negative impacts on desert‐adapted

Ecological compensation is an innovative and effective tool to explore the coordinated development of socioeconomic prosperity and ecological protection, especially for a watershed crossing different regions. It converts the externalities of ecosystem services into practical financial incentives for local stakeholders. This empirical study applies a quantitative policy evaluation approach to evaluate

Quantifying the links between the marine environment, prey‐occurrence, and predator distribution is the first step towards identifying areas of biological importance for marine spatial planning. Events such as marine heatwaves result in an anomalous change in the physical environment, which can lead to shifts in the structure, biomass and distribution of lower trophic levels. As central‐place foragers

Starting in 2010, rapid fire salamander Salamandra salamandra population declines in northwestern Europe heralded the emergence of Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), a salamander‐pathogenic chytrid fungus. Bsal poses an imminent threat to global salamander diversity owing to its wide host range, high pathogenicity and long‐term persistence in ecosystems. While there is a pressing need to develop

Species loss has attracted much attention among scientists for more than half a century. However, we have little information on the trends in phylogenetic and functional changes behind the species loss although this information is always asynchronous and important for conservation and management. We measured community trends in Anatidae (ducks and geese) for the last 50 years to quantify trends in

Organisms are increasingly likely to be exposed to multiple stressors repeatedly across ontogeny as climate change and other anthropogenic stressors intensify. Early life stages can be particularly sensitive to environmental stress, such that experiences early in life can “carry over” to have long‐term effects on organism fitness. Despite the potential importance of these within‐generation carryover

Exposure to agrochemicals can drive rapid phenotypic and genetic changes in exposed populations. For instance, amphibian populations living far from agriculture (a proxy for agrochemical exposure) exhibit low pesticide tolerance, but they can be induced to possess high tolerance following a sublethal pesticide exposure. In contrast, amphibian populations close to agriculture exhibit high, constitutive

Functional ecology has increasingly focused on describing ecological communities based on their traits (measurable features affecting individuals’ fitness and performance). Analyzing trait distributions within and among forests could significantly improve understanding of community composition and ecosystem function. Historically, data on trait distributions are generated by (1) collecting a small

Implementing sustainable weed control strategies is a major challenge in agriculture. Intercropping offers a potential solution to control weed pressure by reducing the resources available for weeds; however, available research on the relationship between crop diversity and weed pressure and its consequences for crop yield is not yet fully conclusive. In this study, we performed an extensive intercropping

Managing ecosystems in the face of complex species interactions, and the associated uncertainty, presents a considerable ecological challenge. Altering those interactions via actions such as invasive species management or conservation translocations can result in unintended consequences, supporting the need to be able to make more informed decisions in the face of this uncertainty. We demonstrate the

Many organisms respond to anthropogenic environmental change through shifts in their phenology. In plants, flowering is largely driven by temperature, and therefore affected by climate change. However, on smaller scales climatic conditions are also influenced by other factors, including habitat structure. A group of plants with a particularly distinct phenology are the understorey herbs in temperate

The relationship between metapopulation stability and connectivity has long been investigated in ecology, however, most of these studies are focused on theoretical species and habitat networks, having limited ability to capture the complexity of real‐world metapopulations. Network analysis became more important in modeling connectivity, but it is still uncertain which network metrics are reliable predictors