Assessing the effects of climate and interspecific relationships on communities is challenging because of the complex interplay between species population dynamics, their interactions, and the need to integrate information across several biological levels (individuals, populations, communities). Usually used to quantify single-species demography, integrated population models (IPMs) have recently been

Compositional multistability is widely observed in multispecies ecological communities. Since differences in community composition often lead to differences in community function, understanding compositional multistability is essential to comprehend the role of biodiversity in maintaining ecosystems. In community assembly studies, it has long been recognized that the order and timing of species migration

Niche Theory is a central framework in ecology based on the recognition that most interactions between organisms are indirect, mediated by the biotic and abiotic dynamical environment these organisms live in. Despite its potential generality, the theory still mostly focuses on how resource–consumer dynamics mediate competition in ecological communities. However, it is being increasingly recognized

Forecasting how climate change will impact biological systems represents a grand challenge for biologists. However, climate change biology lacks an effective framework for anticipating and resolving uncertainty. Here, we introduce the concept of climate change wildcards: biological or bio-climatic processes with a high degree of uncertainty and a large impact on our ability to address the biotic consequences

Sea otter (Enhydra lutris) populations in southwest Alaska declined substantially between about 1990 and the most recent set of surveys in 2015. Here we report changes in the distribution and abundance of sea otters, and co-varying patterns in reproduction, mortality, body size and condition, diet and foraging behavior, food availability, health profiles, and exposure to environmental contaminants

Heat tolerance at the immobile embryonic stage is expected to be critical in determining species vulnerability to climate change. However, how the mean and developmental plasticity of embryonic heat tolerance vary geographically, and how these geographic variations affect species' vulnerability under climate change remain unknown. We experimentally determined the mean and developmental plasticity of

State–space models (SSMs) are an important modeling framework for analyzing ecological time series. These hierarchical models are commonly used to model population dynamics, animal movement, and capture-recapture data, and are now increasingly being used to model other ecological processes. SSMs are popular because they are flexible and they model the natural variation in ecological processes separately

This paleolimnological study aims to investigate how natural processes and anthropogenic land-use changes have affected sedimentary phosphorus (P) forms and primary producers in a small, temperate lake (Lake Fuglsø, Denmark) throughout the Holocene. Our multi-proxy approach uses pollen, X-ray fluorescence scanning, carbon (C) and nitrogen contents and stable isotopes, sequential P extraction, 31P nuclear

The availability of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) controls the flow of carbon (C) among plants, soils, and the atmosphere, thereby shaping terrestrial ecosystem responses to global change. Soil C, N, and P cycles are linked by drivers operating at multiple spatial and temporal scales: landscape-level variation in macroclimate and soil geochemistry, stand-scale heterogeneity in forest composition

Forecasting productivity and stress across an ecosystem is complicated by the multiple interactions between competing species, the unknown levels of intra- and interspecific trait plasticity, and the dependencies between those traits within individuals. Integrating these features into a trait-based quantitative framework requires a conceptual and quantitative synthesis of how multiple species and their

Diatoms are the most recent major algal lineage added to the geological record, appearing more than 200 million years ago. They are stramenopile protists resulting from a secondary endosymbiotic event that yielded the only photosynthetic protistan lineage expressing external siliceous cell wall structures called frustules. Many diatoms also have large internal vacuoles, and a common assumption in the

Interspecific spatial associations (ISA), which include co‐occurrences, segregations, or attractions among two or more species, can provide important insights into the spatial structuring of communities. However, ISA has primarily been examined in the context of understanding interspecific interactions, while other aspects of ISA, including its relations to other biodiversity facets and how it changes

Stable isotope analysis is one of the most widely used techniques to estimate trophic position and provides fundamental insight into the structure and management of ecological communities. To account for the effects of geographic variation in isotope levels, trophic position is typically estimated relative to an isotope “baseline” (i.e., material representing geographic variation) using a methodology

Increased nitrogen (N) deposition threatens global biodiversity, but its effects in arid urban ecosystems are not well studied. In addition to altered N availability, urban environments also experience increases in other pollutants, decreased population connectivity, and altered biotic interactions, which can further impact biodiversity. In deserts, annual plant communities make up most of the plant

Population dynamics can be highly variable in the face of environmental heterogeneity, and understanding this variation is central in the study of ecology. Robust management decisions require that we understand how populations respond to management at a range of scales, and under a broad suite of conditions. Population models are potentially valuable tools in addressing this challenge. However, without

Structured demographic models are among the most common and useful tools in population biology. However, the introduction of integral projection models (IPMs) has caused a profound shift in the way many demographic models are conceptualized. Some researchers have argued that IPMs, by explicitly representing demographic processes as continuous functions of state variables such as size, are more statistically

Host–parasite dynamics often vary over time, brought about by changes in the parasite’s virulence or the host’s ability to resist or tolerate the parasite. Although virulence evolution in microparasites is well studied, we know little about temporal change in the pathogenicity of macroparasites such as blood‐feeding insects. Using data collected over 35 yr, we report a reduction in pathogenicity of

Angiosperms are believed to have emerged initially in the tropics and expanded their distribution range poleward through diverse mechanisms, for example polyploidization‐driven cold tolerance evolution. Reversed expansion from temperate to pan‐tropic climates through a polyploidization‐driven shift in heat tolerance remains largely unknown. Here, we found autopolyploidy in relation to the global expansion

Worldwide, humans are altering the fire regimes (fire‐return intervals, severity, seasonality) of fire‐prone ecosystems, fragmenting natural landscapes, and altering climates. Efforts to restore fire regimes in natural areas are usually guided by fire management plans (FMP) that rely on prescribed burning. Despite the common use of FMPs, limited efforts have gone to assessing vegetative and faunal

Phyllosphere bacterial diversity is shaped through interactions between hosts and microbes. Most studies having focused on pairwise associations between host taxa and their symbionts, little is yet understood about the influence of the host community as a whole in shaping these interactions. Envisioning phyllosphere bacterial communities as a spatially structured network of communities linked by dispersal

Aerial insectivorous birds have experienced alarming population declines in eastern North America. Meanwhile, urbanization continues to increase rapidly, with urban land use comprising 69.4 million acres (1 acre = 0.40 ha), or 3.6% of total land area, in the contiguous United States. Multiple environmental changes are associated with urbanization, including alterations to local climate, changes in

Arid ecosystems are strongly limited by water availability, and precipitation plays a major role in the dynamics of all species in arid regions, as well as the ecosystem processes that occur there. However, understanding how biotic interactions mediate long‐term responses of dryland ecosystems to rainfall remains very fragmented. We report on a unique large‐scale field experiment spanning 25 yr and

Behavioral thermoregulation is an efficient mechanism to buffer the physiological effects of climate change. Thermal ecology studies have traditionally tested how thermal constraints shape thermoregulatory behaviors without accounting for the potential major effects of landscape structure and water availability. Thus, we lack a general understanding of the multifactorial determinants of thermoregulatory

Invasions by alien pest species contribute heavily to global biodiversity decline, with invasive mammals having some of the greatest impacts on endemic biota. Pest management within ecological restorations is therefore critical for conserving threatened biota. Coordinating restoration efforts at global scale requires evidence of the relative efficacy of different pest‐managed restoration approaches

Defenses that target particular consumers often influence community organization, ecosystem function, and diversity maintenance. In coral reef, mangrove, and seagrass ecosystems, sponges affect substratum stability, water clarity, diversity of associated species, and survival of habitat‐providing organisms, key roles not duplicated by other organisms. Whether and how predators control sponges are much

Errata for Bowen, S. H. 1979. A nutritional constraint in detritivory by fishes: the stunted population of Sarotherodon mossambicus in Lake Sibaya, South Africa. Ecological Monographs 49:17–31. It has been discovered that during production an error in the conversion of energy units from calories to Joules occurred, with many units mistakenly divided by 4.184 when they should have been multiplied by

Keystone predation can be a determinant of community structure, including species diversity, but factors underlying “keystoneness” have been minimally explored. Using the system in which the original keystone, the sea star Pisaster ochraceus, was discovered, we focused on two potential (but overlapping) determinants of keystoneness: intrinsic traits or state variables of the species (e.g., size, density)

Predicting species response to climate change is a central challenge in ecology, particularly for species that inhabit large geographic areas. The mountain pine beetle (MPB) is a significant tree mortality agent in western North America with a distribution limited by climate. Recent warming has caused large‐scale MPB population outbreaks within its historical distribution, in addition to migration

Historical data sets can be useful tools to aid in understanding the impacts of global change on natural ecosystems. Resampling of historically sampled sites (“snapshot resampling”) has often been used to detect long‐term shifts in ecological populations and communities, because it allows researchers to avoid long‐term monitoring costs and investigate a large number of potential trends. But recent

Although the importance of edaphic factors and habitat structure for plant growth and survival is known, both are often neglected in favor of climatic drivers when investigating the spatial patterns of plant species and diversity. Yet, especially in mountain ecosystems with complex topography, missing edaphic and habitat components may be detrimental for a sound understanding of biodiversity distribution

Animal coloration is a multifaceted trait with many ecological roles and related to a variety of developmental and physiological processes. Consequently, coloration is often subject to a variety of selective pressures, leading to the evolutionary maintenance of variation. In this study, we investigated hypotheses related to the maintenance of dorsal color variation in wood frogs (Rana sylvatica). First

Improving models of community change is a fundamental goal in ecology and has renewed importance during global change and increasing human disturbance of the biosphere. Using the Mojave Desert (southwestern United States) as a model system, invaded by nonnative plants and subject to wildfire disturbances, we examined models of resilience, alternative stable states, and convergent‐divergent trajectories

The relationship between Indigenous, Local, and Science knowledge systems has been the subject of much debate over the past few decades, especially in ecology and natural resource management. In this monograph, we review available scholarship to develop a pragmatic framework for representation of knowledge systems in general, with specific emphasis on productive engagement between individuals from

Seabirds have long been thought to exploit social information when searching for their prey, the distribution of which is often patchy and variable. The fact that most seabirds breed colonially has led to speculation that colonies serve as “information centers,” allowing their inhabitants to learn about the distribution of food by observing or following other successful foragers, though this hypothesis

Recursive adaptations and counter‐adaptations of plant‐feeding insects are thought to have driven chemical and physical diversity in plant defenses. Among existing theories on defensive diversity, the syndromes hypothesis predicts that plants may evolve suites of covarying defense traits along evolutionary arms races with herbivores. We use the large, phenotypically diverse angiosperm genus Ficus (Moraceae)

Somatic growth exerts strong control on patterns in the abundance of animal populations via effects on maturation, fecundity, and survival rates of juveniles and adults. In this paper, we quantify abiotic and biotic drivers of rainbow trout growth in the Colorado River, Arizona, USA, and the resulting impact on spatial and temporal variation in abundance. Inferences are based on ~10,000 observations

Adaptive developmental plasticity allows individuals to match their phenotype with their environment, increasing fitness where threats are inconsistently present. However, despite clear advantages of plasticity, adaptive traits are not ubiquitously nor infinitely plastic. Trade‐offs between benefits and costs or limits are therefore theoretically necessary to constrain the evolution of plastic responses

The size, frequency, and timing of precipitation events are predicted to become more variable worldwide. Despite these predictions, the importance of changes in precipitation in driving multiple above‐ and belowground ecosystem attributes simultaneously remains largely underexplored. Here, we carried out 3 yr of rainfall manipulations at the DRI‐Grass facility, located in a mesic grassland in eastern

Plant invasions have consistently been shown to cause significant reductions in the diversity of recipient plant communities; an effect that can cascade through ecosystems to impact the stocks and flows of nutrients and energy as well as the diversity of higher trophic levels. However, the manner in which invasive plants alter ecosystem functioning and trophic interactions is highly variable can occur

How, where, and why carbon (C) moves into and out of an ecosystem through time are long‐standing questions in biogeochemistry. Here, we bring together hundreds of thousands of C‐cycle observations at the Harvard Forest in central Massachusetts, USA, a mid‐latitude landscape dominated by 80–120‐yr‐old closed‐canopy forests. These data answered four questions: (1) where and how much C is presently stored

Machine learning has become popular in ecology but its use has remained restricted to predicting, rather than understanding, the natural world. Many researchers consider machine learning algorithms to be a black box. These models can, however, with careful examination, be used to inform our understanding of the world. They are translucent boxes. Furthermore, the interpretation of these models can be

Conventional approaches for the assessment of population abundance or trends are usually based on a single source of information, such as counts or changes in demographic parameters. However, these approaches usually neglect some of the information needed to properly understand the population as a whole, such as assessments of the non‐breeding proportion of the population and the drivers of population

Charles Darwin posited two alternative hypotheses to explain the success of nonnative species based on their relatedness to natives: nonnative species that are closely related to native species could experience (1) higher invasion success because of an increased probability of habitat suitability (conferred by trait similarity) or (2) lower invasion success due to biotic interference, such as competition

Many temperate herbs now flower earlier than a few decades ago. Little is known about other phenological events, despite the importance of life history integration for plant fitness. This study addresses the hypothesis that temporal shifts of multiple phenological events in herbs are concordant with temporal changes in weather. Explicitly showing that changes in timing of annual life cycle events are

Much of our understanding of natural invasions is retrospective, based on data acquired after invaders become established. As a consequence, we know little about the characteristics of the early population growth and habitat use of the invaders during establishment. Here we report on experimental introductions of guppies into natural streams in which we conducted monthly censuses of each population

Rapid environmental change can decouple previously reliable cues from important resources, causing specialized recognition systems to result in maladaptive behaviors. For native herbivorous insects, such evolutionary traps are often imposed by attractive invasive plants that prove harmful to their offspring. Despite the costs of ovipositing on a poor‐quality host, evolutionary traps are expected to

Many animals improve offspring survival through parental care. Research on coevolution between parents has provided key insight into the genesis and maintenance of biparental care. However, understanding family dynamics more broadly requires assessing potential male–female coevolutionary processes in the more widespread and common context of uniparental care. Here, we explore how pre‐zygotic maternal

Flowering plants predominantly conduct water in tubes known as vessels, with vessel diameter playing a crucial role in plant adaptation to climate and reactions to climate change. The importance of vessels makes it essential to understand how and why vessel diameter, plant height, and other ecological factors are interrelated. Although shoot length is by far the main driver of variation in mean vessel

Predators typically are larger than their prey, and consequently, trophic level should increase with body size. Whereas this relationship has helped in developing predictions about food web structure and dynamics in mesocosms and simple communities, a trophic‐level–body‐size relationship may not exist for all kinds of communities or taxa, especially those with many non‐carnivorous species. Moreover

Over the past three decades, there has been a concerted effort to study the long‐term dynamics of tropical forests throughout the world. Data regarding temporal trends in species diversity, species composition, and species‐specific demographic rates have now been amassed. Such data can be utilized to test predictions regarding the roles the environment and demographic stochasticity play in driving

The decomposition of leaf litter constitutes a major pathway of carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Though it is well established that litter decomposition varies among species, most leaf litter decomposes not alone, but in mixture with litter from heterospecifics. The consequences of this mixing, and of the role of multiple dimensions of plant biodiversity, for litter decomposition

The unique traits of large animals often allow them to fulfill functional roles in ecosystems that small animals cannot. However, large animals are also at greater risk from human activities. Thus, it is critical to understand how losing large animals impacts ecosystem function. In the oceans, selective fishing for large animals alters the demographics and size structure of numerous species. While

There is growing evidence that anthropogenic landscapes can strongly influence the evolution of dispersal, particularly through fragmentation, and may drive organisms into an evolutionary trap by suppressing dispersal. However, the influence on dispersal evolution of anthropogenic variation in habitat patch turnover has so far been largely overlooked. In this study, we examined how human‐driven variation

Fires shape the biogeochemistry and functioning of many ecosystems, and fire frequencies are changing across much of the globe. Frequent fires can change soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) storage by altering the quantity and chemistry of plant inputs through changes in plant biomass and composition as well as the decomposition of soil organic matter. How decomposition rates change with shifting inputs

Mangroves sequester large quantities of carbon (C) that become significant sources of greenhouse gases when disturbed through land‐use change. Thus, they are of great value to incorporate into climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. In response, a global network of mangrove plots was established to provide policy‐relevant ecological data relating to interactions of mangrove C stocks with

Climate and land use change modify surface water availability in African savannas. Surface water is a key resource for both wildlife and livestock and its spatial and temporal distribution is important for understanding the composition of large herbivore assemblages in savannas. Yet, the extent to which ungulate species differ in their water requirements remains poorly quantified. Here, we infer the

The input of senescent terrestrial leaf litter into soil and aquatic ecosystems is one of the most massive cyclic subsidies on Earth, particularly within forested ecosystems. For freshwater systems embedded within forests, litter inputs provide a vital source of energy and nutrients that allows greater production than in situ resources can provide. In return, freshwater food webs can provide an enormous

In urban areas, anthropogenic drivers of ecosystem structure and function are thought to predominate over larger‐scale biophysical drivers. Residential yards are influenced by individual homeowner preferences and actions, and these factors are hypothesized to converge yard structure across broad scales. We examined soil total C and total δ13C, organic C and organic δ13C, total N, and δ15N in residential