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Relative to its size, tropical Asia is likely to be the richest region in terms of biodiversity. However, the factors of species diversity formation and maintenance in Southeast (SE) Asia and neighboring regions remain poorly understood. Here we infer the evolutionary relationships within psilodercid spiders by incorporating fossil information into a robust, unprecedentedly complete species‐level phylogeny of 202 extant species to explore potential abiotic drivers and ecological features underlying their stable diversification history. The combination of extant and extinct historical biogeographic data indicates that in situ speciation is the predominant form of diversification in tropical Asia but diverse Cretaceous psilodercids in Myanmar ambers were replaced by other biogeographical lineages during the northward movements of the Burma Terrane. Furthermore, our diversification analyses show no diversification rate changes through time and across geographic space in this family, but the genus Althepus displays an accelerated rate of species diversification driven by the remarkable expansion of leg length. Trait evolution analysis shows that ecological trait divergence contributes to the diversification and accumulation of tropical spiders by facilitating species coexistence. These findings provide empirical evidence that the ecological trait divergence over evolutionary time scales is key to forming species diversity hotspots in SE Asia. Thus, this study integrating molecular evidence and paleontological interpretation provides a new framework for understanding the evolution of tropical species diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in phenology are a common response to climate change, but their impact on population dynamics is often ambiguous and at‐risk species are omitted from most analyses.We assessed the relationship between change in abundance and change in phenology for 114 butterfly populations of 31 at‐risk species from five families in 10 US states. We used data from Pollard‐walk and similar monitoring programmes for which count data were collected on multiple occasions per year. We also collected information from managers on site‐level management interventions.To estimate abundance, we first fit separate smoothing splines for each species at each site. Yearly abundance was estimated as the area under the activity curve for that year, and from this, we estimated abundance trends over the period for which we had population data. Phenological shifts were measured as the changes in median activity date, beginning of flight season, duration of flight season and phenological constancy (negative of the magnitude of trends in median activity date). We also evaluated the association of ecological traits (voltinism, diet breadth, position within geographic range, ecoregion, overwintering stage and seasonality) and management (proportion of years with interventions) with trends in abundance and in phenology.Across all populations, the estimated trend in abundance was −0.085, equivalent to an 8.1% decline/year. Positive trends in abundance were associated with smaller shifts in the median flight date (higher constancy). We also found strong associations between trends in abundance and management interventions, with increased management associated with increasing abundance trends. In general, ecological traits were not strongly associated with trends in phenology or trends in abundance.Synthesis and applications: Populations with less phenological constancy are more likely to be rapidly declining and populations with more frequent management interventions are increasing. These results suggest that one key outcome of management interventions may be to mitigate some of the impacts of climate change, which in turn may contribute to higher population growth. These results also imply that managers may need to alter the timing of appropriate management to synchronize with activities of at‐risk species as species shift their phenology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unsustainable wildlife consumption and illegal wildlife trade (IWT) threaten biodiversity worldwide. Although publicly accessible data sets are increasingly used to generate insights into IWT, little is known about their potential bias. We compared three typical and temporally corresponding data sets (4204 court verdicts, 926 seizure news reports, and 219 bird market surveys) on traded birds native to China and evaluated their possible species biases. Specifically, we evaluated bias and completeness of sampling for species richness, phylogeny, conservation status, spatial distribution, and life‐history characteristics among the three data sets when determining patterns of illegal trade. Court verdicts contained the largest species richness. In bird market surveys and seizure news reports, phylogenetic clustering was greater than that in court verdicts, where songbird species (i.e., Passeriformes) were detected in higher proportions in market surveys. The seizure news data set contained the highest proportion of species of high conservation priority but the lowest species coverage. Across the country, all data sets consistently reported relatively high species richness in south and southwest regions, but markets revealed a northern geographic bias. The species composition in court verdicts and markets also exhibited distinct geographical patterns. There was significant ecological trait bias when we modeled whether a bird species is traded in the market. Our regression model suggested that species with small body masses, large geographical ranges, and a preference for anthropogenic habitats and those that are not nationally protected were more likely to be traded illegally. The species biases we found emphasize the need to know the constraints of each data set so that they can optimally inform strategies to combat IWT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public donations are an important form of fundraising for zoos and are used to support conservation activities. Understanding what influences zoo animal sponsorship by the public is crucial if zoos are to optimize strategies for increasing income from sponsors. Using sponsorship data obtained from seven diverse zoos within the UK, we used a phylogenetically informed approach to investigate predictors of the number of sponsors a species receives. We found no support for an effect of body mass, conservation status, solitary versus group housing, phylogenetic distance from humans, daily activity patterns, or the diet of the species on the number of sponsors a species attracts. However, we found strong phylogenetic signal, suggesting that particular groups of animals attract disproportionate sponsorship attention (but the specific species within these groups is of limited importance). Moreover, we found support for species with common names that are found toward the start of the alphabet having more sponsors. This is likely driven by the common practice of listing species that can be sponsored in alphabetical order when presenting them to potential sponsors (with people being more likely to choose species near the start of a list). Interestingly, the lack of effect of body mass, phylogenetic distance, and conservation status contrast with previous work on non‐zoo conservation preferences, suggesting possible differences between motivations of zoo and non‐zoo conservation donors, or between animal sponsorship and other forms of conservation involvement. We suggest two strategies for maximizing sponsorship for zoo animals. If zoos manage sponsorship income as a collective pool then allowing sponsorship of a range of species within particularly well‐sponsored animal groups should improve uptake. Alternatively, if zoos allocate sponsorship income to the specific species sponsored, then funding may be effectively diverted to priority species simply by altering the order of lists of animals which can be sponsored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how human‐modified landscapes maintain biodiversity and provide ecosystem services is crucial for establishing conservation practices. Given that responses to land‐use are species‐specific, it is crucial to understand how land‐use changes may shape patterns of species diversity and persistence in human‐modified landscapes. Here, we used a comprehensive data set on bird distribution from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest to understand how species richness and individual occurrences of frugivorous bird species responded to land‐use spatial predictors and, subsequently, assess how ecological traits and phylogeny modulated these responses. Using Bayesian hierarchical modeling, we reveal that the richness of frugivorous birds was positively associated with the amount of native forest and negatively with both agriculture and pasture amount at the landscape scale. Conversely, the effect of these predictors on species occurrence and ecological traits was highly variable and presented a weak phylogenetic signal. Furthermore, land‐use homogenization (i.e., the conversion of forest to pasture or agriculture) led to pervasive consequences for forest‐dependent bird species, whereas several generalist species thrived in deforested areas, replacing those sensitive to habitat disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phylogeographic congruence among co‐distributed taxa is regarded as an inherent inference to vicariance events. Nonetheless, incongruent patterns of contemporary lineage divergence among taxa indicated that species differ in their response to common past events. To investigate the role of past events, ecological traits and lineage diversification time in shaping the contemporary phylogeographic patterns, comparative analyses were conducted for Tibetan stone loaches in the Himalayas using three gene markers and two ecological traits (depth of caudal peduncle in their length and presence/absence of posterior chamber of the air bladder). By a thorough sampling in two flanks of the Himalayas, the authors detected that phylogenetic breaks were spatially discordant and divergences of populations were also temporally asynchronous in co‐distributed loaches. Estimated divergence time using fossil‐calibrated node dating indicated that the Tibetan stone loaches colonised into the south flank of the Himalayas until the Pleistocene. The demographic expansions were also disconcerted between populations in north and south flanks, or east and west Himalayas. Ongoing gene flows between populations in north and south sides implied that the Himalayas do not strictly impede dispersal of cold‐adapted species. The results highlight that the quaternary climatic oscillation, in conjunction with ecological traits and lineage diversification time, shaped contemporary phylogenetic patterns of stone loaches in the Himalayas and provide new insights into the biodiversity and composition of species in the Himalayas and surrounding region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To investigate spatial variations in the ecological trait structure of breeding bird assemblages on oceanic islands. To test the hypothesis that native and naturalized alien bird species are filtered by different processes, leading to diverging associations between traits and insular environmental gradients. Location: Oceanic islands worldwide. Time Period: Current. Major Taxa Studied: Terrestrial breeding birds. Methods: We assessed the composition of breeding terrestrial bird assemblages from the extent‐of‐occurrence maps of 3170 native and 169 naturalized alien species on 4660 oceanic islands. We quantified their ecological trait structures with respect to diet, mobility and body mass as the standardized distance between a mean pairwise trait distance index and its expectation from a null model. We used spatial generalized additive models to relate trait structures to proxies of environmental conditions and human impact on land, accounting for all species, native species only and alien species only. Results: Diet and mobility traits tended to be more diverse than expected by a null model, while body mass tended towards clustering. Trait‐environment associations were idiosyncratic, but environmental variables tended to explain trait structures better than human impacts on habitats. Islands invaded by alien species had similar trait structures as noninvaded ones, although they hosted assemblages with more clustered body masses. However, trait‐environment relationships diverged when considering all islands and all species, invaded islands only or alien species only. Main Conclusions: Despite their ecosystem‐level influences, alien species have a limited effect on the global patterns of trait structures in the breeding bird assemblages of the world's islands, either because they account for a low proportion of species or because successful invaders and native species have similar trait suites. Trait‐environment associations suggest that filters related to the conditions of alien species' introductions explain their distributions in island assemblages better than the constraints associated with isolated environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On oceanic islands, strong human impacts on habitats, combined with introductions of exotic species, modify the composition of terrestrial bird assemblages and threaten their ecological functions. In La Réunion, an oceanic island located in the Madagascan region, a national park was established in 2007 to counter the ecosystem‐level effects of three centuries of habitat conversion, native species destruction and exotic species introductions. Here, we investigated how bird assemblages were structured in these human‐modified landscapes, 10 years before the national park set out its first conservation measures. We used a combination of multivariate statistics and generalized additive models to describe variations in the taxonomic and functional composition and diversity of 372 local bird assemblages, encompassing 20 species, along gradients of habitat composition and configuration. We found that native species were tied to native habitats while exotic species were associated with urban areas and man‐modified landscape mosaics, with some overlap at mid‐elevations. Species' trophic preferences were segregated along habitat gradients, but ecological traits had an overall weak role in explaining the composition of species assemblages. Hence, at the time of the survey, native and exotic species in La Réunion formed two spatially distinct species assemblages with contrasting ecological trait suites that benefited from antagonistic habitat compositions and dynamics. We conclude that our results support the analysis of historical data sets to establish reference points to monitor human impacts on insular ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance trade‐offs between competition and colonization can be an important mechanism facilitating regional coexistence of competitors. However, empirical evidence for this trade‐off is mixed, raising questions about the extent to which it shapes diverse ecological communities. Here, we outline a framework that can be used to improve empirical tests of the competition‐colonization trade‐off.We argue that tests of the competition‐colonization trade‐off have been diverted into unproductive paths when dispersal mode and/or competition type have been inadequately defined. To generate comparative predictions of associations between dispersal and competitive performance, we develop a conceptual trait‐based framework that clarifies how dispersal mode and type of competitor shape this trade‐off at the stage of dispersal and establishment in a variety of systems. Our framework suggests that competition‐colonization trade‐offs may be less common for passively dispersing organisms when competitive dominants are those best able to withstand resource depletion (competitive response), and for active dispersers when traits for dispersal performance are positively associated with resource pre‐emption (competitive effect).The framework presented here is designed to provide common ground for researchers working in different systems in order to prompt more effective assessment of this performance trade‐off and its role in shaping community structure. By delineating key system properties that mediate the trade‐off between competitive and colonization performance and their relationship to individual‐level traits, researchers in disparate systems can structure their predictions about this trade‐off more effectively and compare across systems more clearly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural history collections (NHCs) have been indispensable to understanding longer‐term trends of the timing of seasonal events. Massive‐scale digitization of specimens promises to further enable phenological research, especially the ability to move towards a deeper understanding of drivers of change and how trait–environment interactions shape phenological sensitivity.Despite the promise of NHCs to answer fundamental phenology questions, the use of these data resources presents unique and often overlooked challenges requiring specialized workflow steps, such as assembling multisource data, accounting for date imprecision and making decisions about trade‐offs between data density and spatial resolution.We provide a set of key best practice recommendations and showcase these via a case study that utilizes NHC data to test hypotheses about spatiotemporal trends in adult Lepidoptera (i.e. butterflies and moths) flight timing across North America. Our case study is a worked example of these best practices, helping practitioners recognize and overcome potential pitfalls at each step, from data acquisition and cleaning, to delineating spatial units and proper estimation of phenological metrics and associated uncertainty, to building appropriate models.We confirm and extend the critical importance of voltinism and diapause strategy, but less‐so daily activity patterns, for predicting Lepidoptera phenology spatiotemporal trends. Our case study also showcases the unique power of NHC data to test existing hypotheses and generate new insights about temporal phenological trends. Specifically, migratory species and species that enter diapause as adults are advancing the start of flight periods in more recent years, even after accounting for climate context. These results highlight the physiological and adaptive differences between species with different overwintering strategies.We close by noting the value of partnerships between data scientists, museum experts and ecological modellers to fully harness the power of digital data resources to address pressing global change challenges. These partnerships can extend approaches for integrating multiple data types to fully unlock our understanding of the tempo, mode, drivers and outcomes of phenological changes at greater spatial, temporal and taxonomic scales. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enhancement of pest regulation service in crops depends for a large part on the capacity of agroecological practices to increase the presence of key species or functional traits in arthropod communities within fields.We investigated the effects of undestroyed strips of winter cover crops in maize fields on carabid community composition, and on the distribution of three ecological traits: diet, wing status and body size.We found that the community composition and the distribution of ecological traits in the in‐field cover crop strips had commonalities with both adjacent cropped areas and field margins. Some species were recorded mostly or only in the strips indicating that strips could support carabid species and help increase local diversity from the first year of establishment.The activity‐density of Poecilus cupreus and Pterostichus melanarius was higher in the cropped proximity of the strip, and the body size was influenced by the distance from the strip.Our results suggest that carabid communities are shaped by the habitat type, but the influence of such agroecological infrastructures on communities of adjacent crops is minor beyond a distance of 10 m. However, overall species abundance was increased and thus potentially provided enhanced pest regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although vicariant processes are expected to leave similar genomic signatures among codistributed taxa, ecological traits such as habitat and stratum can influence genetic divergence within species. Here, we combined landscape history and habitat specialization to understand the historical and ecological factors responsible for current levels of genetic divergence in three species of birds specialized in seasonally flooded habitats in muddy rivers and which are widespread in the Amazon basin but have isolated populations in the Rio Branco. Populations of the white‐bellied spinetail (Mazaria propinqua), lesser wagtail‐tyrant (Stigmatura napensis) and bicolored conebill (Conirostrum bicolor) are currently isolated in the Rio Branco by the black‐waters of the lower Rio Negro, offering a unique opportunity to test the effect of river colour as a barrier to gene flow. We used ultraconserved elements (UCEs) to test alternative hypotheses of population history in a comparative phylogeographical approach by modelling genetic structure, demographic history and testing for shared divergence time among codistributed taxa. Our analyses revealed that (i) all three populations from the Rio Branco floodplains are genetically distinct from other populations along the Amazon River floodplains; (ii) these divergences are the result of at least two distinct events, consistent with species habitat specialization; and (iii) the most likely model of population evolution includes lower population connectivity during the Late Pleistocene transition (~250,000 years ago), with gene flow being completely disrupted after the Last Glacial Maximum (~21,000 years ago). Our findings highlight how landscape evolution modulates population connectivity in habitat specialist species and how organisms can have different responses to the same historical processes of environmental change, depending on their habitat affinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To sample bee communities, a combination of methods is necessary, the most common being hand netting (HN) and pan traps (PT). However, there has been little exploration into how vertical distribution of PT can improve their sampling efficiency, also taking the temporal variation of floral resources into account.Here, we analysed the properties of bee communities sampled with PT at different heights (1.6 and 4.0 m) compared with PTs close to the ground, HN and large blue bucket trap (BB). In addition, we tested the effect of variation in the availability of floral resources on the performance of each method. Bees were collected in fragments of the Brazilian Caatinga.We captured 60 bee species with PTs, HN and BB, with significant increases in the sample coverage with elevated bowls (BB = 56.7%, HN = 60.0%, PT0.3 m = 23.3%, PT1.6 m = 36.7%, PT4.0 m = 50.0%). Elevating the bowls increased the sampling of bees with larger body size. Considering the three heights, PTs registered similar richness compared to HN and BB, but differed in the composition of species and ecological traits.When floral resource availability was greater, the abundance and richness of bees caught in PTs decreased, however, the elevated PT increased their ecological uniqueness (degree of uniqueness of the samples in terms of community composition). Thus, elevating PTs enables the capture of bees that forage at a specific height when floral resources increase.Our results highlight the importance of the vertical distribution of PT for sampling bees, since it improves their performance and its complementarity with other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial patterns in biodiversity are used to establish conservation priorities and ecosystem management plans. The environmental filtering of communities along urbanization gradients has been used to explain biodiversity patterns but demonstrating filtering requires precise statistical tests to link suboptimal environments at one end of a gradient to lower population sizes via ecological traits. Here, we employ a three‐part framework on observational community data to test: (I) for trait clustering (i.e., phenotypic similarities among co‐occurring species) by comparing trait diversity to null expectations, (II) if trait clustering is correlated with an urbanization graient, and (III) if species' traits relate to environmental conditions. If all criteria are met, then there is evidence that urbanization is filtering communities based on their traits. We use a community of 46 solitary cavity‐nesting bee and wasp species sampled across Toronto, a large metropolitan city, over 3 years to test these hypotheses. None of the criteria were met, so we did not have evidence for environmental filtering. We do show that certain ecological traits influence which species perform well in urban environments. For example, cellophane bees (Hylaeus: Colletidae) secrete their own nesting material and were overrepresented in urban areas, while native leafcutting bees (Megachile: Megachilidae) were most common in greener areas. For wasps, prey preference was important, with aphid‐collecting (Psenulus and Passaloecus: Crabronidae) and generalist spider‐collecting (Trypoxylon: Crabronidae) wasps overrepresented in urban areas and caterpillar‐ and beetle‐collecting wasps (Euodynerus and Symmorphus: Vespidae, respectively) overrepresented in greener areas. We emphasize that changes in the prevalence of different traits across urban gradients without corresponding changes in trait diversity with urbanization do not constitute environmental filtering. By applying this rigorous framework, future studies can test whether urbanization filters other nesting guilds (i.e., ground‐nesting bees and wasps) or larger communities consisting of entire taxonomic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species' geographical distributions and abundances are a central focus of current ecological research. Although multiple studies have been conducted on their elucidation, some important information is still missing. One of them is the knowledge of ecological traits of species responsible for the population density variations across geographical (i.e., total physical area) and ecological spaces (i.e., suitable habitat area). This is crucial for understanding how ecological specialization shapes the geographical distribution of species, and provides key knowledge about the sensitivity of species to current environmental challenges. Here, we precisely describe habitat availability for individual species using fine‐scale field data collected across the entire Czech Republic. In the next step, we used this information to test the relationships between bird traits and country‐scale estimates of population densities assessed in both geographical and ecological spaces. We did not find any effect of habitat specialization on avian density in geographical space. But when we recalculated densities for ecological space available, we found a positive correlation with habitat specialization. Specialists occur at higher densities in suitable habitats. Moreover, birds with arboreal and hole‐nesting strategies showed higher densities in both geographical and ecological spaces. However, we found no significant effects of morphological (body mass and structural body size) and reproductive (position along the slow–fast life‐history continuum) traits on avian densities in either geographical or ecological space. Our findings suggest that ecological space availability is a strong determinant of avian abundance and highlight the importance of precise knowledge of species‐specific habitat requirements. Revival of this classical but challenging ecological topic of habitat‐specific densities is needed for both proper understanding of pure ecological issues and practical steps in the conservation of nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loss of natural habitat through land‐use change threatens bees. Urbanisation is a major, increasing form, of habitat loss, and a novel, pervasive form of disturbance known to impact bee diversity and abundance in a variety of often inconsistent ways.We conducted a comprehensive, semi‐quantitative review, involving 215 studies, on responses of bees to urban landscapes, and local and landscape variables proposed to influence bee abundance and diversity.Urban areas tend to be favourable habitat for bees compared with agricultural ones, but compared with natural areas, urban areas often host more abundant populations yet fewer species.Factors associated with urban landscapes, including changes in foraging resources and nesting substrate types and availability, contribute to changes in abundance, species richness, and composition of native bee assemblages. However, the conclusions of studies vary greatly because of the difference in the ecological traits of bees, habitats surveyed, and geographic region, as well as noise in the data resulting from inconsistencies in sampling methodology, and definitions of 'urban' and 'natural'.Identifying what biotic and abiotic features of cityscapes promote or threaten the persistence of urban bee diversity is critical. We provide a comprehensive evaluation of how bees (both in aggregate and according to their ecological guild) have responded to the urban environment, identify gaps in knowledge in urban bee ecology, and make recommendations to advance our understanding of bees in urban environments to promote conservation of diverse bee communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Pesticide Registration requires a risk assessment (RA) for nontarget organisms according to EU Regulation. European Authorities have developed Guidance Documents (GDs) for RA considering exposure scenarios for the required organisms typical for terrestrial crops. The "Birds and Mammals EFSA GD" allows using multiple sources of information to extract information on species frequency needed in identifying focal species for higher‐tier RA. We developed an analytical framework to calculate species frequency according to availability of species and habitat quantitative data. Since the exposure scenarios reported in the EFSA GD are inconsistent for rice, we tested the method on birds and mammals in a portion of the largest rice‐cultivated area of Europe, the Italian Po floodplain. We derived three lists of focal species: (a) an expert‐based list based on land‐use data only, which can be useful for a preliminary exploration of potential candidate species; (b) a list derived from the interpolation of species data only, which reflects actual species frequency in rice fields; and (c) a list obtained by a species distribution model based on species monitoring and land‐use data, which account for species selectivity for rice crops and are transferable to other contexts. Focal species were identified for crop‐specific diet‐foraging guilds, to build specific exposure scenarios to assess the risk from pesticides application in rice fields. The partial differences between our lists and those previously proposed highlight the need for identifying national lists, which can vary according to study area, biogeographic region and exposure scenarios. The application of the proposed method in European rice‐producing countries should lead to crop‐specific lists, which could then be integrated to obtain a flexible European list applicable to higher‐tier RA. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1020–1034. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). Key Points: We provided an analytical framework for improving selection of focal species for higher‐tier risk assessment of pesticides in rice‐cultivations and any other crop.Expert‐based models should be used for preliminary exploration of focal species, spatial interpolation of species occurrences should be used for local assessment, while species distribution modelling provides information transferable to other contexts.We identified the Black‐winged Stilt and the Northern Lapwing as focal species for water insectivores, the Little Egret for water carnivores, the Moorhen for water herbivorous birds and the Barn swallow and the Northern House‐martin for aerial insectivorous birds.We identified the Eurasian harvest mouse as focal species for water insectivorous and herbivorous mammals, the Eurasian water shrew for water carnivorous and piscivorous mammals, and the Lesser horseshoe bat for aerial insectivorous mammals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the relative contributions of the many factors that shape population genetic structuring is a central theme in evolutionary and conservation biology. Historically, abiotic or extrinsic factors (such as geographic barriers or climatic shifts) have received greater attention than biotic or intrinsic factors (such as dispersal or migration). This focus stems in part from the logistical difficulties in taking a comparative phylogeographic approach that contrasts species that have experienced similar abiotic conditions during their evolution yet differ in the intrinsic attributes that might shape their genetic structure. To explore the effects of intratropical migration on the genetic structuring of Neotropical birds, we chose two congeneric species, the lesser elaenia Elaenia chiriquensis and the plain‐crested elaenia E. cristata, that are largely sympatric, and which have similar plumage, habitat preferences and breeding phenology. Despite these many commonalities, they differ in migratory behavior: E. chiriquensis is an intratropical migratory species while E. cristata is sedentary. We used a reduced representation genomic approach to test whether migratory behavior is associated with increased gene flow and therefore lower genetic population structure. As predicted, we found notably stronger genetic structuring in the sedentary species than in the migratory one. E. cristata comprises genetic clusters with geographic correspondence throughout its distribution, while there are no geographic groups within Brazil for E. chiriquensis. This comparison adds to the growing evidence about how intrinsic traits like migration can shape the genetic structuring of birds, and advances our understanding of the diversification patterns of the understudied, open habitat species from South America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invasive alien species (IAS) are a major threat to insular vertebrates, although the ecological characteristics that make insular communities vulnerable to IAS are poorly understood. After describing the ecological strategies of 6015 insular amphibians, birds, lizards, and mammals, we assessed the functional and ecological features of vertebrates exposed to IAS. We found that at least 50% of insular amphibian functional richness was hosted by IAS‐threatened amphibians and up to 29% for birds. Moreover, all IAS‐threatened groups except birds harbored a higher functional richness than species groups threatened by other threats. Disentangling the ecological strategies threatened by IAS, compared to those associated with other threats, we showed that birds, lizards, and mammals were more likely to be terrestrial foragers and amphibians to have larval development. By contrast, large‐bodied species and habitat specialists were universally threatened. By considering the functional aspect of threatened insular diversity, our work improves our understanding of global IAS impacts. This new dimension proves essential for undertaking relevant and effective conservation actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Species introductions have reshaped island faunas for the last 200 years, often threatening native biodiversity. Approximately equal numbers of native and alien species currently co‐occur in the New Zealand avifauna, but they show distinct habitat use. Antagonistic interactions, habitat affinities and legacies of introduction history may concur to explain their segregation along habitat gradients. To investigate these processes, we explored how habitat, ecological traits and introduction history relate with the current composition of bird assemblages. Location: New Zealand Taxon: Birds Methods: We analysed 917 bird point counts spread along habitat and elevation gradients in the Canterbury region, South Island and related 10 ecological traits to landscape composition using a three‐table ordination method known as "RLQ analysis", accounting for spatial autocorrelation and phylogeny. We tested whether alien species' positions in the RLQ were related to proxies of introduction history. Results: Eighteen endemic, 11 native and 19 alien species were distributed along a gradient from forest to open‐habitat assemblages, in relation to foraging mode, nesting site and body size. A second gradient segregated species between native and exotic forests according to territoriality, sedentarity and diet. Traits accounted for the separation of native and alien bird species in forests, but not in open habitats. Phylogenetic signals emerged from the separation of native and alien species by forest type, and spatial structures suggested a landscape‐level, rather than regional or local determinism. These correlations were independent of introduction history, although open‐habitat assemblages tended to host alien species introduced later in time. Main conclusions: Habitat type and resource availability explain the spatial partitioning of New Zealand bird assemblages between native and alien species more consistently than competitive exclusion. We conclude that trait‐mediated ecological differences among species have likely played a predominant role in species' segregation among landscapes, while maintaining endemic bird assemblages in native forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the role of traits in beetle community assembly and test for consistency in these effects among several bioclimatic regions. We asked (1) whether traits predicted species' responses to environmental gradients (i.e. their niches), (2) whether these same traits could predict co-occurrence patterns and (3) how consistent were niches and the role of traits among study regions. Location: Boreal forests in Norway and Finland, temperate forests in Germany. Taxon: Wood-living (saproxylic) beetles. Methods: We compiled capture records of 468 wood-living beetle species from the three regions, along with nine morphological and ecological species traits. Eight climatic and forest covariates were also collected. We used Bayesian hierarchical joint species distribution models to estimate the influence of traits and phylogeny on species' niches. We also tested for correlations between species associations and trait similarity. Finally, we compared species niches and the effects of traits among study regions. Results: Traits explained some of the variability in species' niches, but their effects differed among study regions. However, substantial phylogenetic signal in species niches implies that unmeasured but phylogenetically structured traits have a stronger effect. Degree of trait similarity was correlated with species associations but depended idiosyncratically on the trait and region. Species niches were much more consistent--widespread taxa often responded similarly to an environmental gradient in each region. Main conclusions: The inconsistent effects of traits among regions limit their current use in understanding beetle community assembly. Phylogenetic signal in niches, however, implies that better predictive traits can eventually be identified. Consistency of species niches among regions means niches may remain relatively stable under future climate and land use changes; this lends credibility to predictive distribution models based on future climate projections but may imply that species' scope for short-term adaptation is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how geographic and environmental heterogeneity drive local patterns of genetic variation is a major goal of ecological genomics and a key question in evolutionary biology. The tropical Andes and inter‐Andean valleys are shaped by markedly heterogeneous landscapes, where species experience strong selective processes. We examined genome‐wide SNP data together with behavioural and ecological traits (mating calls and body size) known to contribute to genetic isolation in anurans in the banana tree‐dwelling frog, Boana platanera, distributed across an environmental gradient in Central Colombia (northern South America). Here, we analysed the relationships between environmentally (temperature and precipitation) associated genetic and phenotypic differentiation and the potential drivers of isolation by environment along an elevation gradient. We identified candidate SNPs associated with temperature and body size, which follow a clinal pattern of genome‐wide differentiation tightly coupled with phenotypic variation: as elevation increases, B. platanera exhibits larger body size and longer call duration with more pulses but lower pulse rate and frequency. Thus, the environmental landscape has rendered a scenario where isolation by environment and candidate loci show concordance with phenotypic divergence in this tropical frog along an elevation gradient in the Colombian Andes. Our study sets the basis for evaluating the role of temperature in the genetic structure and local adaptation in tropical treefrogs and its putative effect on life cycle (embryos, tadpoles, adults) along elevation gradients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conversion of natural ecosystems to agricultural land is one of the most important drivers of biodiversity decline worldwide, particularly in the tropics. Species loss is typically trait‐associated, leading to filtering of disturbance‐resistant species during community assembly, which affects ecosystem functioning and evolutionary potential of communities. To understand the ecological and phylogenetic impact of rainforest conversion to agricultural systems, we combine analysis of nesting habit, feeding habit, colony size, and body size of canopy ants (Formicidae) with a phylogenetic analysis of species collected in four land‐use systems in Sumatra, Indonesia: (1) lowland tropical rainforest, (2) jungle rubber (extensive rubber agroforest), and smallholder plantations of (3) rubber and (4) oil palm. Canopy ant communities in these land‐use systems differed in trait composition, with a larger proportion of generalist nesting and generalist‐omnivore feeding species in oil palm compared to rainforest and a larger proportion of generalist nesters and species with large colonies (>1000 individuals) in rubber than in rainforest. Traits of canopy ant communities in jungle rubber were more similar to those in rainforest than to those in rubber and oil palm plantations. In rainforest, mean pairwise phylogenetic distance was lower than expected for random community assembly, but did not differ from random in the other land‐use systems. Of the traits nesting habit, feeding habit, and colony size, only feeding habit exhibited phylogenetic signal. Our results show that rainforest conversion to agricultural systems is accompanied by shifts in trait composition of canopy ant communities. Further, our results argue against environmental filtering of closely related canopy ant species as the major community assembly mechanism in plantation systems, but suggest that the Sumatran lowland rainforests harbor recently diverged endemic ant species that are particularly vulnerable to rainforest conversion to agricultural systems. Given the importance of ants for tropical ecosystems, the ecological differences among ant communities along the land‐use gradient might have important consequences for ecosystem functioning and services in plantation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morphological alteration of shorelines and eutrophication both affect the biological integrity of European lakes. These pressures, often acting simultaneously, are difficult to tease apart. In this study, we related the number of taxa with specific habitat preference to habitat complexity across lakes of varying nutrient state. Habitat complexity at morphologically altered shorelines was significantly lower than at unaltered sites across trophic categories. A generalised linear mixed‐effects model showed decreased number of taxa with specific mesohabitat preference at morphologically simplified sites in oligotrophic and mesotrophic, but not eutrophic lakes. These results suggest: (1) an antagonistic interaction between the effect of nutrient enrichment and morphological alterations on lake littoral communities and (2) the number of macroinvertebrate habitat specialists could potentially be used to assess the effects of structural simplifications of shorelines in lakes of low to medium nutrient status. We conclude that the use of functional traits approach in aquatic ecology should foster better understanding of stressor–response relationships for combined effect of multiple stressors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effects of insecticides on terrestrial adult life stages of otherwise aquatic insects, such as mayflies (Ephemeroptera), stoneflies (Plecoptera), and caddisflies (Trichoptera), are largely unknown. In the present study, a risk model was used to pinpoint the species most likely to experience effects due to spray drift exposure during the adult life stage. Using data from an earlier case study with lambda‐cyhalothrin, 6 species with different life cycle traits were used to explore how life cycle characteristics may influence vulnerability. In addition, we performed a generic calculation of the potential effect on the terrestrial life stages of 53 species (including 47 species with unknown sensitivity). Our approach incorporated temporal and spatial distribution of both the insect and the insecticide, creating different exposure conditions among species due to variation in the relative proportion of the populations present at the time of insecticide spraying. The Ephemeroptera species represented were least vulnerable due to their extremely short adult life span and relatively short flight period. Based on their life cycle characteristics, Plecoptera and Trichoptera species were more vulnerable. These vulnerable species segregated into 2 distinct groups; one with a long adult life span to emergent period ratio and another with a high overlap between emergent period and spraying season. We therefore recommend that future ecotoxicological tests be done on species with these life cycle characteristics. Environ Toxicol Chem 2021;40:1778–1787. © 2021 SETAC [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic activity underpins the creation of urban ecosystems, often with introduced or invasive species playing a large role in structuring ecological communities. While the effects of urbanization on charismatic taxa such as birds, bees or butterflies have received much attention, the impacts on small and inconspicuous organisms remain poorly understood.Here, we assess how the community structure of leaf litter‐inhabiting microarthropods in city parks varies along an urbanization gradient in Toronto, Canada. At each park, we established paired forest understorey plots which were either dominated by native vegetation or dog‐strangling vine Vincetoxicum rossicum, an invasive species that is spreading throughout northeastern North America and abundant in urban areas. We compared microarthropod richness, abundance and diversity in ecological traits between invaded and non‐invaded plots as well as compositional dissimilarities among plots across the urbanization gradient.We recorded 123 genera and found (a) there was a negative effect of urbanization on microarthropod richness and abundance but only in invaded plots; (b) richness and abundance increased continuously with urbanization in non‐invaded plots, but peaked at intermediate urbanization levels in invaded plots and (c) there was significant turnover with increasing urbanization, with distinct communities represented in highly urbanized areas compared to less urbanized areas, regardless of whether invaded. We also found litter microarthropod richness and abundance increased with soil ammonium and decreased with nitrate. These trends were especially strong for fungivorous microarthropods; however, there was no relationship between soil nutrients and urbanization or invasion.Urbanization and biological invasion drive biodiversity change, and there is a need to disentangle these effects on ecological communities and related ecosystem processes. We show microarthropod communities change with urbanization, with the effects of invasion most prominent in non‐urban areas. Here, there is high richness and abundance but low ecological trait diversity, possibly because certain feeding traits are excluded and others overrepresented.Understanding of urban ecological systems must include knowledge of the microarthropods that interact widely across food webs, form distinct communities in highly urban areas and drive many of the important ecological functions upon which people in cities depend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competition is a widespread interaction among carnivores, ultimately manifested through one or more dimensions of the species' ecological niche. One of the most explicit manifestations of competitive interactions regards spatial displacement. Its interpretation under a theoretical context provides an important tool to deepen our understanding of biological systems and communities, but also for wildlife management and conservation. We used Bayesian multispecies occupancy models on camera‐trapping data from multiple sites in Southwestern Europe (SWE) to investigate competitive interactions within a carnivore guild, and to evaluate how species' ecological traits are shaping coexistence patterns. Seventeen out of 26 pairwise interactions departed from a hypothesis of independent occurrence, with spatial association being twice as frequent as avoidance. Association behaviors were only detected among mesocarnivores, while avoidance mainly involved mesocarnivores avoiding the apex predator (n = 4) and mesocarnivore‐only interactions (n = 2). Body mass ratios, defined as the dominant over the subordinate species body mass, revealed an important negative effect (β^=-0.38;CI95=-0.81to-0.06) on co‐occurrence probability, and support that spatially explicit competitive interactions are mostly expressed by larger species able to dominate over smaller ones, with a threshold in body mass ratios of ~4, above which local‐scale intraguild coexistence is unlikely. We found a weak relationship between pairwise trophic niche overlap and the probability of coexistence (β^=-0.19;CI95=-0.58to0.21), suggesting that competition for feeding resources may not be a key driver of competition, at least at the scale of our analysis. Despite local‐scale avoidance, regional‐scale coexistence appears to be maintained by the spatial structuring of the competitive environment. We provide evidence that SWE ecosystems consist of spatially structured competitive environments, and propose that coexistence among near‐sized species is likely achieved through the interplay of "facultative" and "behavioral" character displacements. Factors influencing carnivore coexistence likely include context‐dependent density and trait‐mediated effects, which should be carefully considered for a sound understanding of the mechanisms regulating these communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lianas are poorly characterized for central African forests. We quantify variation in liana composition, diversity and community structure in different forest types in the Yangambi Man and Biosphere Reserve, Democratic Republic of Congo. These attributes of liana assemblages were examined in 12 1‐ha plots, randomly demarcated within regrowth forest, old growth monodominant forest, old growth mixed forest and old growth edge forest. Using a combination of multivariate and univariate community analyses, we visualize the patterns of these liana assemblage attributes and/or test for their significant differences across forest types. The combined 12 1‐ha area contains 2,638 lianas (≥2 cm diameter) representing 105 species, 49 genera and 22 families. Liana species composition differed significantly across forest types. Taxonomic diversity was higher in old growth mixed forests compared to old growth monodominant and regrowth forests. Trait diversity was higher than expected in the regrowth forest as opposed to the rest of forest types. Similarly, the regrowth forest differed from the rest of forest types in the pattern of liana species ecological traits and diameter frequency distribution. The regrowth forest was also less densely populated in lianas and had lower liana total basal area than the rest of forest types. We speculate that the mechanism of liana competitive exclusion by dominant tree species is mainly responsible for the lower liana species diversity in monodominant compared to mixed forests. We attribute variation in liana community structure between regrowth and old growth forests mostly to short development time of size hierarchies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Anthropogenic environmental change has increased coral reef disturbance regimes in recent decades, altering the structure and function of many coral reefs globally. In this study, we used coral community survey data collected from 1996 to 2015 to evaluate reef-scale coral calcification capacity (CCC) dynamics with respect to recorded pulse disturbances for 121 reef sites in the Main Hawaiian Islands and Mo'orea (French Polynesia) in the Pacific and the Florida Keys Reef Tract and St. John (U.S. Virgin Islands) in the western Atlantic. CCC remained relatively high in the Main Hawaiian Islands in the absence of recorded widespread disturbances; declined and subsequently recovered in Mo'orea following a crown-ofthorns sea star outbreak, coral bleaching, and major cyclone; decreased and remained low following coral bleaching in the Florida Keys Reef Tract; and decreased following coral bleaching and disease in St. John. Individual coral taxa have variable calcification rates and susceptibility to disturbances because of their differing life-history strategies. As a result, temporal changes in CCC in this study were driven by shifts in both overall coral cover and coral community composition. Analysis of our results considering coral lifehistory strategies showed that weedy corals generally increased their contributions to CCC over time while the contribution of competitive corals decreased. Shifts in contributions by stress-tolerant and generalist corals to CCC were more variable across regions. The increasing frequency and intensity of disturbances under 21st century global change therefore has the potential to drive lower and more variable CCC because of the increasing dominance of weedy and some stress-tolerant corals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have compiled a database of functional traits for two widespread and ecologically important groups of protists, Cercozoa and Endomyxa (Rhizaria). The functional traits of microorganisms are crucially important for interpreting results from environmental sequencing surveys. Linking morphological and ecological traits to environmental factors is common practice in studies involving micro‐ and macroorganisms, but is rarely applied to protists. Our database provides functional and ecologically significant traits linked to morphology, nutrition, locomotion and habitats. We discuss how the use of functional traits may help to unveil underlying ecosystem processes. This database is intended as a common reference for the molecular ecology community and will boost the understanding of ecosystem functions, especially those driven by biological interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have tested the combined effect of the threat of predation by fish and low oxygen concentrations on the phenotypic plasticity of Daphnia. These studies assessed the trade‐off between minimising predation risk and the negative effects of oxygen deficiencies in the context of depth selection behaviour. We tested whether this trade‐off also affects physiological and life history traits. We expected an interactive effect between the threat of fish predation and low oxygen concentrations, such, that the net effect of both stressors would be antagonistic (lower than the sum of each of the stressors acting separately), rather than additive (or synergistic) on the majority of traits investigated, but we predicted synergistic effects on heat shock proteins (HSPs).To test this, we performed life table experiments in different oxygen concentrations (normoxia and hypoxia) and levels of predation threat (the presence and absence of fish kairomones) on HSP70 and putative HSP110, haemoglobin concentration and life history traits with small‐bodied Daphnia galeata and large‐bodied Daphnia pulex originating from waterbodies where there were different risks of fish predation.As predicted, the net effect of both stressors was antagonistic for most of the physiological and ecological variables studied. The presence of kairomones resulted in decreased body size of adults, egg size, egg size in relation to brood chamber volume, and in increased clutch size in relation to body size. These effects were weaker in hypoxia than in normoxia, which may suggest an existence of adaptive responses caused by a lower perceived risk in hypoxia than in normoxia, as the foraging abilities of fish are limited by oxygen deficiencies.The presence of kairomones hampered the production of haemoglobin in hypoxia for the clones of larger‐bodied species, which suggests the existence of a trade‐off between reduced visibility under positive‐size selective predation risk and increased efficiency of oxygen transport to body tissues. The presence of kairomones and hypoxia resulted in an increased level of putative HSP110, and the effect of kairomones was stronger in hypoxia than in normoxia. More complex results were obtained for the effect of both stressors on the level of HSP70.The findings of our study provide a new insight on the interactions between planktivorous fish and zooplankton in aquatic food webs. More specifically, these findings suggest the existence of unexplored size‐dependent eco‐physiological trade‐offs between minimising predation risk and mitigating the negative effects of oxygen deficiencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describing the spatial and temporal dynamics of communities is essential for understanding the impacts of global environmental change on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Trait‐based approaches can provide better insight than species‐based (i.e. taxonomic) approaches into community assembly and ecosystem functioning, but comparing species and trait dynamics may reveal important patterns for understanding community responses to environmental change. Here, we used a 33‐year database of fish monitoring to compare the spatio‐temporal dynamics of taxonomic and trait structure in North Sea fish communities. We found that the majority of variation in both taxonomic and trait structure was explained by a pronounced spatial gradient, with distinct communities in the southern and northern North Sea related to depth, sea surface temperature, salinity and bed shear stress. Both taxonomic and trait structure changed significantly over time; however taxonomically, communities in the south and north diverged towards different species, becoming more dissimilar over time, yet they converged towards the same traits regardless of species differences. In particular, communities shifted towards smaller, faster growing species with higher thermal preferences and pelagic water column position. Although taxonomic structure changed over time, its spatial distribution remained relatively stable, whereas in trait structure, the southern zone of the North Sea shifted northward and expanded, leading to homogenization. Our findings suggest that global environmental change, notably climate warming, will lead to convergence towards traits more adapted for novel environments regardless of species composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trait diversity is believed to influence ecosystem dynamics through links between organismal traits and ecosystem processes. Theory predicts that key traits and high trait redundancy—large species richness and abundance supporting the same traits—can buffer communities against environmental disturbances. While experiments and data from simple ecological systems lend support, large‐scale evidence from diverse, natural systems under major disturbance is lacking. Here, using long‐term data from both temperate (English Channel) and tropical (Seychelles Islands) fishes, we show that sensitivity to disturbance depends on communities' initial trait structure and initial trait redundancy. In both ecosystems, we found that increasing dominance by climatically vulnerable traits (e.g., small, fast‐growing pelagics/corallivores) rendered fish communities more sensitive to environmental change, while communities with higher trait redundancy were more resistant. To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating the influence of trait structure and redundancy on community sensitivity over large temporal and spatial scales in natural systems. Our results exemplify a consistent link between biological structure and community sensitivity that may be transferable across ecosystems and taxa and could help anticipate future disturbance impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Diet is key to understanding resource use by species, their relationships with their environment and biotic interactions. We aimed to identify the major strategies that shape the diet space of birds and to investigate their spatial distributions in association with biogeographical, bioclimatic and anthropogenic drivers. Location: Global. Time period: Current. Major taxa studied: Birds. Methods: We analysed score‐based assessments of eight diet categories for 8,937 out of 10,964 extant bird species. We constructed a multivariate diet space by ordinating these data in a principal coordinates analysis and assessed its dimensionality as a balance between the representation of original diet scores and parsimony. We averaged the positions of species along each dimension for 12,705 species assemblages and used quantile regressions to infer the relative contributions of species richness, climate, primary productivity, topography and human footprint to the spatial distribution of the diet space at a global scale. Results: The diet space of birds was structured by four dimensions ordinating species along continua ranging from insectivory to plant‐based strategies, granivory to frugivory, common to rare diets, and nectarivory to carnivory and piscivory. Although orthogonal at the species level, these dimensions were correlated among species assemblages, with regional variation consistent with past climatic and tectonic events. Human footprint packed bird assemblages in the diet space, whereas warm climate, high productivity and high topographic variability were associated with high variability in the prevalence of dietary strategies among assemblages. Main conclusions: The tremendous variability in bird diets can be explained by a few basic ecological continua sustained by morphological and ecophysiological differences among species. Strong biogeographical legacies on top of bioclimatic drivers distribute this diet space in species assemblages through environmental filtering and niche packing. However, these patterns are altered at macroecological scales by human‐mediated functional homogenization, which might, in turn, affect the global distribution of bird functions and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Dispersal is a fundamental ecological process, yet demonstrating the occurrence and importance of long‐distance dispersal (LDD) remains difficult, having rarely been examined for widespread, non‐coastal plants. To address this issue, we integrated phylogenetic, molecular dating, biogeographical, ecological, seed biology and oceanographic data for the inland Urticaceae. We found that Urticaceae originated in Eurasia c. 69 Ma, followed by ≥ 92 LDD events between landmasses. Under experimental conditions, seeds of many Urticaceae floated for > 220 days, and remained viable after 10 months in seawater, long enough for most detected LDD events, according to oceanographic current modelling. Ecological traits analyses indicated that preferences for disturbed habitats might facilitate LDD. Nearly half of all LDD events involved dioecious taxa, so population establishment in dioecious Urticaceae requires multiple seeds, or occasional selfing. Our work shows that seawater LDD played an important role in shaping the geographical distributions of Urticaceae, providing empirical evidence for Darwin's transoceanic dispersal hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Habitat loss and degradation induced by human development are among the major threats to biodiversity worldwide. In this study, we tested our ability to predict the response of bird communities (128 species) to land‐use changes in southern Quebec (~483,100 km2) over the last 30 yr (between 1984–1989 and 2010–2014) by using species distribution models (299,302 occurrences in 30,408 locations) from a hindcasting perspective. Results were grouped by functional guilds to infer potential impacts on ecosystem services, and to relate model transferability (i.e., ability of our models to be generalized to other times and scales) to specific functional and life‐history traits. Overall, our models were able to accurately predict, both in space and time, habitat suitability for 69% of species, especially for granivorous, nonmigrant, tree‐nesting species, and species that are tied to agricultural areas under intensive use. These findings indicate that model transferability depends upon specific functional and life‐history traits, providing further evidence that species’ ecologies affect the ability of models to accurately predict bird distributions. Declining bird species were mostly short‐distance migrants that were associated with open habitats (agricultural and nonproductive forest) with aerial insectivorous or granivorous diets, which may be related to agricultural intensification and land abandonment. Land‐use changes were positive for some forest bird species that were mainly associated with mixed and deciduous forests, generalist diets and tree‐nesting strategies. Yet cavity‐nesting birds have suffered substantial reductions in their distributions, suggesting that cumulative effects of intensive logging and wildfires on mature forests pose a threat for forest‐specialist species. Habitat suitability changes predicted by our coarse‐scale species distribution models partially agreed with the long‐term trends reported by the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Our findings confirm land‐use change as a key driving force for shaping bird communities in southern Quebec, together with the need to explicitly incorporate it into global change scenarios that better inform decision‐makers on conservation and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The composition of local mammalian carnivore communities has far‐reaching effects on terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. To better understand how carnivore communities are structured, we analysed camera trap data for 108 087 trap days across 12 countries spanning five continents. We estimate local probabilities of co‐occurrence among 768 species pairs from the order Carnivora and evaluate how shared ecological traits correlate with probabilities of co‐occurrence. Within individual study areas, species pairs co‐occurred more frequently than expected at random. Co‐occurrence probabilities were greatest for species pairs that shared ecological traits including similar body size, temporal activity pattern and diet. However, co‐occurrence decreased as compared to other species pairs when the pair included a large‐bodied carnivore. Our results suggest that a combination of shared traits and top‐down regulation by large carnivores shape local carnivore communities globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Environmental change has reshuffled communities often causing taxonomic homogenization rather than differentiation. Some studies suggest that this increasing similarity of species composition between communities is accompanied by an increase in similarity of trait composition—functional homogenization—although different methodologies have failed to come to any consistent conclusions. Functional homogenization could have a large effect on ecosystem functioning and stability. Here, we use the general definition of homogenization as “reduced spatial turnover over time” to compare changes in Simpson's beta diversity (taxonomic turnover) with changes in Rao's quadratic entropy beta diversity (functional turnover) in British breeding birds at three spatial scales. Using biotic and climatic variables, we identify which factors may predispose a site to homogenization. The change in turnover measures between two time periods, 20 years apart, was calculated. A null model approach was taken to identify occurrences of functional homogenization and differentiation independent of changes in taxonomic turnover. We used conditional autoregressive models fitted using integrated nested Laplace approximations to determine how environmental drivers and factors relating to species distributions affect changes in spatial turnover of species and functional diversity. The measurement of functional homogenization affects the chance of rejection of the null models, with many sites showing taxonomic homogenization unaccompanied by functional homogenization, although occurrence varies with spatial scale. At the smallest scale, while temperature‐related variables drive changes in taxonomic turnover, changes in functional turnover are associated with variation in growing degree days; however, changes in functional turnover become more difficult to predict at larger spatial scales. Our results highlight the multifactorial processes underlying taxonomic and functional homogenization and that redundancy in species traits may allow ecosystem functioning to be maintained in some areas despite changes in species composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Human activities have caused global changes of atmospheric chemistry resulting in increased temperature especially in the colder regions of the northern hemisphere. Since warming of the environment can have drastic effects on terrestrial ecosystems it is important to experimentally evaluate the extent of such effects in long‐term field‐based experiments. In this study we make use of both recent (short‐term) and long‐term geothermal warming of Icelandic soils to examine the responses of Collembola, an ecologically important group of soil invertebrates, to warming. On the basis of metabolic scaling theory, we hypothesized that species of small size would be more successful in warmed soils than species of larger size. Further we expected that top‐soil‐dwelling species would benefit more from warming than deep‐soil‐dwelling species. In order to test these hypotheses we sampled Collembola along replicated gradients of increasing temperature in areas that had been heated for about 6 years and more than 50 years respectively. Collembola were identified to species level, counted and the community‐weighted mean trait scores for six functional and ecological traits were calculated. Results show that both short‐term and long‐term soil warming caused a shift towards a higher relative abundance of species with small body size. Furthermore, abundance of top‐soil‐dwelling Collembola tended to increase after short‐term warming, but the opposite was observed after long‐term warming. Using trait‐based diversity indices (FRic and RaoQ), we show that functional richness and diversity of Collembola communities was significantly reduced (almost halved) as a result of short‐term soil warming to about 10°C above normal, but this effect was not detected in plots equally warmed for more than 50 years. This indicates that the functional diversity of Collembola communities have high resilience towards soil warming in a long‐term perspective. A plain language summary is available for this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Passeriformes is the largest and most diverse avian order in the world and comprises the Passeri and Tyranni suborders. These suborders constitute a monophyletic group, but differ in their ecology and history of occupation of South America. We investigated the influence of biogeographic history on functional and phylogenetic diversities of Passeri and Tyranni in forest and savanna habitats in the Brazilian Amazon. We compiled species composition data for 34 Passeriformes assemblages, 12 in savannas and 22 in forests. We calculated the functional (Rao's quadratic entropy, FDQ) and phylogenetic diversities (mean pairwise distance, MPD, and mean nearest taxon distance, MNTD), and the functional beta diversity to investigate the potential role of biogeographic history in shaping ecological traits and species lineages of both suborders. The functional diversity of Passeri was higher than for Tyranni in both habitats. The MPD for Tyranni was higher than for Passeri in forests; however, there was no difference between the suborders in savannas. In savannas, Passeri presented higher MNTD than Tyranni, while in forest areas, Tyranni assemblages showed higher MNTD than Passeri. We found a high functional turnover (~75%) between Passeri and Tyranni in both habitats. The high functional diversity of Passeri in both habitats is due to the high diversity of ecological traits exhibited by species of this group, which enables the exploitation of a wide variety of resources and foraging strategies. The higher Tyranni MPD and MNTD in forests is likely due to Tyranni being older settlers in this habitat, resulting in the emergence and persistence of more lineages. The higher Passeri MNTD in savannas can be explained by the existence of a larger number of different Passeri lineages adapted to this severe habitat. The high functional turnover between the suborders in both habitats suggests an ecological strategy to avoid niche overlap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Given the global continuous rise, artificial light at night is often considered a driving force behind moth population declines. Although negative effects on individuals have been shown, there is no evidence for effects on population sizes to date. Therefore, we compared population trends of Dutch macromoth fauna over the period 1985–2015 between moth species that differ in phototaxis and adult circadian rhythm. We found that moth species that show positive phototaxis or are nocturnally active have stronger negative population trends than species that are not attracted to light or are diurnal species. Our results indicate that artificial light at night is an important factor in explaining declines in moth populations in regions with high artificial night sky brightness. Our study supports efforts to reduce the impacts of artificial light at night by promoting lamps that do not attract insects and reduce overall levels of illumination in rural areas to reverse declines of moth populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent decades have seen profound changes in species abundance and community composition. In the marine environment, the major anthropogenic drivers of change comprise exploitation, invasion by nonindigenous species, and climate change. However, the magnitude of these stressors has been widely debated and we lack empirical estimates of their relative importance. In this study, we focused on Eastern Mediterranean, a region exposed to an invasion of species of Red Sea origin, extreme climate change, and high fishing pressure. We estimated changes in fish abundance using two fish trawl surveys spanning a 20-year period, and correlated these changes with estimated sensitivity of species to the different stressors. We estimated sensitivity to invasion using the trait similarity between indigenous and nonindigenous species; sensitivity to fishing using a published composite index based on the species' life-history; and sensitivity to climate change using species climatic affinity based on occurrence data. Using both a meta-analytical method and random forest analysis, we found that for shallow-water species the most important driver of population size changes is sensitivity to climate change. Species with an affinity to warm climates increased in relative abundance and species with an affinity to cold climates decreased suggesting a strong response to warming local sea temperatures over recent decades. This decrease in the abundance of cold-water-associated species at the trailing 'warm' end of their distribution has been rarely documented. Despite the immense biomass of nonindigenous species and the presumed high fishing pressure, these two latter factors seem to have only a minor role in explaining abundance changes. The decline in abundance of indigenous species of cold-water origin indicates a future major restructuring of fish communities in the Mediterranean in response to the ongoing warming, with unknown impacts on ecosystem function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical forest loss can drive the extinction of forest-dependent species. Yet, non-forest species can proliferate in deforested landscapes, thus enabling community-level attributes (e.g. total abundance and richness) to be maintained in the remaining forest patches. Such compensatory dynamics have been, however, poorly investigated regarding the phylogenetic dimension of species diversity. Here, we assessed whether compensatory dynamics can stabilize the phylogenetic richness, divergence and structure of bird communities in response to forest loss in two regions in the Brazilian Atlantic forest, each under with different levels of land use intensification., We surveyed birds in 40 forest sites, and assessed the response of five phylogenetic metrics to forest cover measured in local (600-m radius) landscapes. We separately assessed the entire community, forest-dependent and non-forest-dependent species and used information-theoretic criteria to assess the effect of forest cover on each response variable. In particular, we evaluated the plausibility of four models: a null model (no effect of forest cover), a linear model, a power law model (nonlinear effect) and an analysis of covariance model (to assess whether the effect of forest cover differed between regions)., Forest cover varied from 7% to 98%, and was positively related to the phylogenetic richness of forest-dependent species, but negatively related to the phylogenetic richness and divergence of non-forest birds, particularly in the more disturbed region. As consequence, the phylogenetic richness and divergence of the entire community were weakly related to forest cover., Forest birds were less phylogenetically clustered in sites surrounded by lower forest cover, but the phylogenetic structure of non-forest birds was independent of forest cover., Synthesis and applications. The phylogenetic impoverishment of forest-dependent birds is offset by the phylogenetic enrichment and divergence of non-forest-dependent birds in severely tropical deforested landscapes. These compensatory dynamics suggest that both bird groups are important for safeguarding bird evolutionary diversity in human-modified landscapes. Although deforested landscapes are reservoirs of bird phylogenetic diversity, suggesting that ecosystem functioning may be maintained in these sites, preventing further deforestation is urgently needed to preserve forest birds and their key ecological roles in the ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The native ranges of many species in North America reach their northern extent in southern Canada, which results in several aquatic species with core populations found farther south being assessed as at risk by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and receiving protection under the Species at Risk Act (SARA)., To determine traits that predict at-risk status for freshwater fishes in Canada a classification and regression tree analysis was performed using a suite of ecological and life-history traits, and the species' distributions in Canada., Range-edge distribution in Canada was a significant predictor of a species assessed as at risk by COSEWIC and to be listed as at risk under SARA. Other predictive traits included Balon reproductive guild, reproductive age/maximum age ratio, and lifespan. Species with economic value were also not likely to be assessed as at risk by COSEWIC. Analyses showed greater inconsistency in listing status under SARA than COSEWIC assessment, and a bias toward not listing species, despite predicted at-risk status, was evident., The predictive models may prove useful in making future conservation decisions and highlight species that should have their status (re)assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim Typically, non-indigenous species have been studied in relation to either the invaded (recipient) community or the donor community. However, we still lack a broad understanding of the mechanisms underlying the establishment of non-indigenous species that combines both perspectives. Since the opening of the Suez Canal, hundreds of species have invaded the Mediterranean from the Red Sea, forming a unique system in which the entire species pool (donor, non-indigenous and recipient) is known. Focusing on species ecological traits, we assess the drivers underlying the establishment of non-indigenous species from the onset of the invasion to the present. Location The Mediterranean and Red Seas. Methods We compiled traits for shallow-water hard-bottom-associated fishes in the Mediterranean (recipient community) and the Red Sea (donor community). We compared the multivariate community trait structure of non-indigenous species with the donor and recipient assemblages, using a novel method to objectively assign trait-weights, thereby increasing the robustness of the results. Patterns were contrasted with two types of null models which provide distinct insights into the ecological processes. Results Non-indigenous fishes are very diverse ecologically, substantially increasing the total community trait diversity of the Mediterranean. Trait similarity between non-indigenous and indigenous Mediterranean species was lower than expected, indicating that non-indigenous fishes tend to occupy relatively vacant niches within the Mediterranean. However, we further found that over time non-indigenous species display increased trait similarity to indigenous Mediterranean species. This suggests that trait constraints associated with successful establishment are weakening. Main conclusions Non-indigenous species establish in relatively vacant ecological niches, opening the possibility for predicting establishment using ecological traits. However, the weakening of trait constraints through time suggests that forecasting future establishment may be difficult. Faced with an accelerating pace of invasion, it appears that the Mediterranean is going to be transformed into an extension of the Red Sea in terms of trait and species composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydropower currently accounts for 63% of Canada's total electricity generation and is bound to increase with the energy demands of a growing population. With damming and flow regulation known as major threats to aquatic biodiversity and river and floodplain habitats, an improved understanding of the specific impacts of river regulation is needed for the proper management of these systems., Although interactions among river flow and thermal regimes have been described in the literature, their concurrent influence on fish guild responses has yet to be analysed for temperate rivers. Such an analysis may be used to identify the ecological traits linked with the flow and thermal variables reflecting river regulation., Extensive field surveys were conducted across 25 unregulated and regulated rivers to estimate fish species density and biomass. Fish guild models were developed to characterise morphologic, trophic, reproductive, habitat preferences and behavioural traits, as well as phylogenetic associations. To characterise ecologically relevant components of the flow and thermal regimes of rivers, we calculated indices based on the magnitude, frequency, duration, timing and rate of change in each driver. Model relationships between fish biomass and density estimates were then run using redundancy analyses ( RDA) on each type of guild and dominant patterns of flow and thermal variability., Variables representing the magnitude of summer temperatures and intra-annual flow variability were consistently selected as independent drivers of fish guild responses (>86% of RDA models), clearly showing the importance of integrating thermal regimes in current river hydro-ecological studies., Fish guild density and biomass were significantly explained ( R2Adj = 25-44%) and predicted ( R2CV = 35-76%) by flow and thermal variables characterising regimes across unregulated and regulated rivers, whereas total fish density and biomass were not. Fish guild models based on trait-environmental relationships performed better than those based on phylogeny. Our results also showed that the models describing habitat and trophic guilds had the greatest explanatory power ( R2Adj = 0.44 and R2Adj = 0.41 respectively)., This study identified differences in guild trait-environment relationships across rivers and the guilds most susceptible to changes in flow and temperature conditions resulting from river regulation. In particular, more constant summer temperatures and lower flow variability favoured habitat and trophic guilds over morphologic, reproductive and behavioural guilds., Our results showed that maintaining particular aspects of the flow and thermal regime may be important for ensuring the presence of certain guilds in temperate rivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adaptability of species' climatic niches can influence the dynamics of colonization and gene flow across climatic gradients, potentially increasing the likelihood of speciation or reducing extinction in the face of environmental change. However, previous comparative studies have tested these ideas using geographically, taxonomically and ecologically restricted samples, yielding mixed results, and thus the processes linking climatic niche evolution with diversification remain poorly understood., Focusing on birds, the largest and most widespread class of terrestrial vertebrates, we test whether variation in species diversification among clades is correlated with rates of climatic niche evolution and the extent to which these patterns are modified by underlying gradients in biogeography and species' ecology., We quantified climatic niches, latitudinal distribution and ecological traits for 7657 (˜75%) bird species based on geographical range polygons and then used Bayesian phylogenetic analyses to test whether niche evolution was related to species richness and rates of diversification across genus- and family-level clades., We found that the rate of climatic niche evolution has a positive linear relationship with both species richness and diversification rate at two different taxonomic levels (genus and family). Furthermore, this positive association between labile climatic niches and diversification was detected regardless of variation in clade latitude or key ecological traits., Our findings suggest either that rapid adaptation to unoccupied areas of climatic niche space promotes avian diversification, or that diversification promotes adaptation. Either way, we propose that climatic niche evolution is a fundamental process regulating the link between climate and biodiversity at global scales, irrespective of the geographical and ecological context of speciation and extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The community assembly of macroinvertebrates in streams depends on the regional taxon pool, dispersal limitations, local habitat conditions and biotic interactions. By integrating existing knowledge about these processes from theoretical ecology in a mechanistic model, we can test our mechanistic understanding and disentangle multiple stressor effects on community assembly., To assess to which degree we can predict the community composition of macroinvertebrates, we integrated these processes in the mechanistic food web model Streambugs and tested it on 36 sites in the Glatt catchment on the Swiss plateau. The model predicts the observation probability of taxa from a regional taxon pool at each site taking into account uncertain knowledge on parameters, environmental conditions at the sites and sampling errors., We use allometric scaling according to the metabolic theory of ecology, ecological stoichiometry and autecological data from trait databases that include the current knowledge on habitat requirements of the different taxa to parameterize their growth, respiration and death., Without any calibration, for the majority of taxa at the 36 sites, the difference between the observed and predicted relative frequency of occurrence is <50% when taking prior parameter uncertainty and the uncertainty of environmental conditions into account (79% compared to 61% for the random model). By calibrating taxon-specific modification factors for the growth rate, we can increase the model compliance with data., Analysing the influence of different ecological traits and their corresponding environmental influence factors reveals that feeding types and sensitivity to organic toxicants contribute most to the predictive capabilities of the model in this catchment. The influence of temperature stress and oxygen depletion due to pollution with organic matter on the community composition is negligible. These results confirm our expectations regarding the most important water quality issues of streams on the Swiss plateau. Current velocity plays an intermediate role in this model application., The contribution of the feeding types to model performance highlights the importance of taking biotic interactions (competition for food sources and predator-prey interactions) into account to predict the coexistence of taxa. Better knowledge of the actual feeding links in the food web (e.g. from gut content or stable isotope data) that are currently inferred from feeding types, body size and food availability could further improve this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The introduction of leishmaniasis in a new area requires a well-established population of the sandfly vector species of the parasite. No autochthonous cases of anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis have been detected in southwestern Europe, and Leishmania infantum is the only causative agent of leishmaniasis in this area. Phlebotomus sergenti, the main vector of Leishmania tropica, is commonly found in the Iberian Peninsula at sufficient densities to be able to act as a vector. It is characterised by high genetic diversity and classified in four mitochondrial lineages. Our aim was to analyse the composition and distribution of P. sergenti mitochondrial lineages in southwestern Europe given the possibility of phenotypic differences of biomedical importance between them.Methods: Sandflies were captured in the Iberian Peninsula and on the Canary and Balearic Islands. Mitochondrial lineage identification of 137 P. sergenti was performed using a novel PCR-RFLP that avoids the necessity of gene sequencing.Results: Two lineages were evidenced, the typical Iberian one (lineage I) and another, held in common with North Africa (lineage III), that show a distinctive distribution. P. sergenti lineage I shows a better correlation to the bioclimatic diversity in southwestern Europe. Conversely, P. sergenti lineage III prefers warmer temperatures and less precipitation, which are typical of the Mediterranean.Conclusion: Lineage I seems to have adaptive advantages given its wider tolerance to temperature and altitude than lineage III, and it would seem more suitable to lead a potential geographical expansion towards the rest of Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]