Reindeer grazing has contrasting effect on species traits in Vaccinium vitis-idaea L. and Bistorta vivipara (L.) Gray

AbstractThe knowledge of biotic and abiotic drivers that put non-native invasive fishes at a disadvantage to native ones is necessary for suppressing invasions, but the knowledge is scarce, particularly when abiotic changes are fast. In this study, we increased this knowledge by an analysis of the biomass of most harmful Prussian carp Carassius gibelio in a river reviving from biological degradation. The species' invasion followed by the invasion's reversal occurred over only two decades and were documented by frequent monitoring of fish biomass and water quality. An initial moderate improvement in water quality was an environmental filter that enabled Prussian carp’s invasion but prevented the expansion of other species. A later substantial improvement stimulated native species’ colonization of the river, and made one rheophil, ide Leuciscus idus, a significant Prussian carp’s replacer. The redundancy analysis (RDA) of the dependence of changes in the biomass of fish species on water quality factors indicated that Prussian carp and ide responded in a significantly opposite way to changes in water quality in the river over the study period. However, the dependence of Prussian carp biomass on ide biomass, as indicated by regression analysis and analysis of species traits, suggests that the ecomorphological similarity of both species might have produced interference competition that contributed to Prussian carp’s decline.

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Biological and extrinsic correlates of extinction risk in Chinese lizards

Current Zoology ◽

10.1093/cz/zoab040 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Yuxi Zhong ◽

Chuanwu Chen ◽

Yanping Wang

Keyword(s):

Body Size ◽

Extinction Risk ◽

Species Traits ◽

Geographic Range ◽

Range Size ◽

Habitat Specialization ◽

Mean Annual Precipitation ◽

Mean Annual Temperature ◽

Small Range ◽

Extrinsic Factors

Abstract China is a country with one of the most species rich reptile faunas in the world. However, nearly a quarter of Chinese lizard species assessed by the China Biodiversity Red List are threatened. Nevertheless, to date, no study has explicitly examined the pattern and processes of extinction and threat in Chinese lizards. In this study, we conducted the first comparative phylogenetic analysis of extinction risk in Chinese lizards. We addressed the following three questions: 1) What is the pattern of extinction and threat in Chinese lizards? 2) Which species traits and extrinsic factors are related to their extinction risk? 3) How can we protect Chinese lizards based on our results? We collected data on ten species traits (body size, clutch size, geographic range size, activity time, reproductive mode, habitat specialization, habitat use, leg development, maximum elevation, and elevation range) and seven extrinsic factors (mean annual precipitation, mean annual temperature, mean annual solar insolation, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), human footprint, human population density, and human exploitation). After phylogenetic correction, these variables were used separately and in combination to assess their associations with extinction risk. We found that Chinese lizards with small geographic range, large body size, high habitat specialization, and living in high precipitation areas were vulnerable to extinction. Conservation priority should thus be given to species with the above extinction-prone traits so as to effectively protect Chinese lizards. Preventing future habitat destruction should also be a primary focus of management efforts because species with small range size and high habitat specialization are particularly vulnerable to habitat loss.

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Mammalian body size is determined by interactions between climate, urbanization, and ecological traits

Communications Biology ◽

10.1038/s42003-021-02505-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Maggie M. Hantak ◽

Bryan S. McLean ◽

Daijiang Li ◽

Robert P. Guralnick

Keyword(s):

Body Size ◽

Resource Availability ◽

Critical Role ◽

Size Variation ◽

Ecological Factors ◽

Species Traits ◽

Body Size Variation ◽

Resource Availability Hypothesis ◽

Urban Heat ◽

Thermal Buffering

AbstractAnthropogenically-driven climate warming is a hypothesized driver of animal body size reductions. Less understood are effects of other human-caused disturbances on body size, such as urbanization. We compiled 140,499 body size records of over 100 North American mammals to test how climate and human population density, a proxy for urbanization, and their interactions with species traits, impact body size. We tested three hypotheses of body size variation across urbanization gradients: urban heat island effects, habitat fragmentation, and resource availability. Our results demonstrate that both urbanization and temperature influence mammalian body size variation, most often leading to larger individuals, thus supporting the resource availability hypothesis. In addition, life history and other ecological factors play a critical role in mediating the effects of climate and urbanization on body size. Larger mammals and species that utilize thermal buffering are more sensitive to warmer temperatures, while flexibility in activity time appears to be advantageous in urbanized areas. This work highlights the value of using digitized, natural history data to track how human disturbance drives morphological variation.

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Effects of temperature on the behaviour and metabolism of an intertidal foraminifera and consequences for benthic ecosystem functioning

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-83311-z ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Noémie Deldicq ◽

Dewi Langlet ◽

Camille Delaeter ◽

Grégory Beaugrand ◽

Laurent Seuront ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Temperature ◽

Ecosystem Functioning ◽

Photosynthetic Activity ◽

Species Traits ◽

Biogeochemical Cycles ◽

Variable Environment ◽

Sediment Reworking ◽

Temperature Regimes ◽

Slow Moving ◽

Effects Of Temperature

AbstractHeatwaves have increased in intensity, duration and frequency over the last decades due to climate change. Intertidal species, living in a highly variable environment, are likely to be exposed to such heatwaves since they can be emerged for more than 6 h during a tidal cycle. Little is known, however, on how temperature affects species traits (e.g. locomotion and behaviour) of slow-moving organisms such as benthic foraminifera (single-celled protists), which abound in marine sediments. Here, we examine how temperature influences motion-behaviour and metabolic traits of the dominant temperate foraminifera Haynesina germanica by exposing individuals to usual (6, 12, 18, 24, 30 °C) and extreme (high; i.e. 32, 34, 36 °C) temperature regimes. Our results show that individuals reduced their activity by up to 80% under high temperature regimes whereas they remained active under the temperatures they usually experience in the field. When exposed to a hyper-thermic stress (i.e. 36 °C), all individuals remained burrowed and the photosynthetic activity of their sequestered chloroplasts significantly decreased. Recovery experiments subsequently revealed that individuals initially exposed to a high thermal regime partially recovered when the hyper-thermic stress ceased. H. germanica contribution to surface sediment reworking substantially diminished from 10 mm3 indiv−1 day−1 (usual temperature) to 0 mm3 indiv−1 day−1 when individuals were exposed to high temperature regimes (i.e. above 32 °C). Given their role in sediment reworking and organic matter remineralisation, our results suggest that heatwaves may have profound long-lasting effects on the functioning of intertidal muddy ecosystems and some key biogeochemical cycles.

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Testing the Likeable, Therefore Abundant Hypothesis: Bird Species Likeability by Urban Residents Varies Significantly with Species Traits

Land ◽

10.3390/land10050487 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 487

Author(s):

Lillian Collins ◽

Grant D. Paton ◽

Sara A. Gagné

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Species Conservation ◽

Bird Species ◽

Bird Community ◽

Species Traits ◽

Community Change ◽

Habitat Availability ◽

Urban Residents ◽

Behavioral Traits

The urbanization of landscapes filters bird communities to favor particular species traits, driven in part by the changes that homeowners make to the amount and quality of habitat in yards. We suggest that an ultimate driver of these proximate mechanisms underlying bird community change with respect to urbanization is the likeability of species traits by urban residents. We hypothesize that bird species likeability, modulated by species traits, influences the degree to which homeowners alter the availability and quality of habitat on their properties and thereby affects species population sizes in urbanized landscapes. We refer to this new hypothesis as the Likeable, therefore Abundant Hypothesis. The Likeable, therefore Abundant Hypothesis predicts that (1) bird species likeability varies with species morphological and behavioral traits, (2) homeowners use trait-based likeability as a motivator to modify habitat availability and quality on their properties, and (3) residential habitat availability and quality influences species populations at landscape scales. We tested the first prediction of the Likeable, therefore Abundant Hypothesis using a survey of 298 undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who were asked to rank their preferences for 85 forest generalist and edge/open country songbird species grouped according to 10 morphological and behavioral traits. Survey respondents preferred very small, primarily blue or black species that are insectivorous, aerial or bark foragers, residents, and culturally unimportant. On the other hand, respondents disliked large or very large, primarily yellow or orange species that forage on the ground and/or forage by flycatching, are migratory, and are culturally important. If the Likeable, therefore Abundant Hypothesis is true, natural resource managers and planners could capitalize on the high likeability of species that are nevertheless negatively affected by urbanization to convince homeowners and residents to actively manage their properties for species conservation.

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Species functional traits and abundance as drivers of multiplex ecological networks: first empirical quantification of inter-layer edge weights

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2020.2127 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 287 (1939) ◽

pp. 20202127

Author(s):

S. Hervías-Parejo ◽

C. Tur ◽

R. Heleno ◽

M. Nogales ◽

S. Timóteo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Species Traits ◽

Abundant Species ◽

Modular Organization ◽

Vertebrate Species ◽

Multilayer Network ◽

Functional Roles ◽

Different Types ◽

Seed Dispersers ◽

Natural Communities

Many vertebrate species act as both plant pollinators and seed-dispersers, thus interconnecting these processes, particularly on islands. Ecological multilayer networks are a powerful tool to explore interdependencies between processes; however, quantifying the links between species engaging in different types of interactions (i.e. inter-layer edges) remains a great challenge. Here, we empirically measured inter-layer edge weights by quantifying the role of individually marked birds as both pollinators and seed-dispersers of Galápagos plant species over an entire year. Although most species (80%) engaged in both functions, we show that only a small proportion of individuals actually linked the two processes, highlighting the need to further consider intra-specific variability in individuals' functional roles. Furthermore, we found a high variation among species in linking both processes, i.e. some species contribute more than others to the modular organization of the multilayer network. Small and abundant species are particularly important for the cohesion of pollinator seed-dispersal networks, demonstrating the interplay between species traits and neutral processes structuring natural communities.

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