scholarly journals Where the grass is greenest in seagrass seascapes depends on life history and simple species traits of fish

2022 ◽  
pp. 107738
Author(s):  
Linda Eggertsen ◽  
Whitney Goodell ◽  
Cesar A.M.M. Cordeiro ◽  
Damboia Cossa ◽  
Marcos de Lucena ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Species Traits

Evaluating life-history strategies of reef corals from species traits

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 1378-1386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily S. Darling ◽  
Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip ◽  
Thomas A. Oliver ◽  
Timothy R. McClanahan ◽  
Isabelle M. Côté
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Life History Strategies ◽  
Reef Corals

scholarly journals Multi-scale environmental filters and niche partitioning govern the distributions of riparian vegetation guilds

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nate W Hough-Snee ◽  
Brian Laub ◽  
David M. Merritt ◽  
A. Lexine Long ◽  
Lloyd L. Nackley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Life History Strategies ◽  
Rooting Depth ◽  
Environmental Filters ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Channel Form ◽  
Riparian Plant

Across landscapes, riparian plant communities assemble under varying levels of disturbance, environmental stress, and resource availability, leading to the development of distinct riparian life-history guilds. Identifying the environmental filters that exert selective pressures and favor specific vegetation guilds within riverscapes is a critical step in setting baseline expectations for how riparia may respond to the environmental conditions anticipated under future global change scenarios. In this study, we ask (1) what functional riparian plant guilds exist across two major North American river basins? (2) What environmental filters shape riparian guild distributions? (3) Does resource partitioning between guilds influence guild distributions and co-occurrence? We identified riparian plant guilds, examining relationships between regional climate and watershed hydrogeomorphic characteristics, stream channel form, and co-occurring riparian guilds. Woody species composition was measured at 703 streams and each species’ traits were extracted from a database in five functional areas: life form, persistence and growth, reproduction, and resource use. We clustered species into guilds by morphological characteristics and attributes related to environmental tolerances, modeling guild distributions as a product of environmental filters (stressors and resources) and guild co-existence. We identified five guilds, i) a tall, deeply rooted, long-lived, evergreen tree guild, ii) a xeric disturbance tolerant shrub guild, iii) a hydrophytic, thicket-forming shrub guild, iv) a low-statured, shade-tolerant, understory shrub guild and v) a flood tolerant, mesoriparian shrub guild. Guilds were most strongly discriminated by one another species’ rooting depth, canopy height and potential to resprout and grow following biomass-removing disturbance. Hydro-climatic variables including precipitation, watershed area, water table depth, and channel form attributes reflective of hydrologic regime were predictors of guilds whose life history strategies had affinity or aversion to flooding, drought, and fluvial disturbance. Biotic interactions excluded guilds with divergent life history strategies and/or allowed for the co-occurrence of guilds that partition resources differently in the same environment. We conclude that riparian guilding provides a useful framework for assessing how disturbance and bioclimatic gradients shape riparian functional plant diversity. Multiple processes should be considered when the riparian response guilds framework is to be used as a land-use decision-support tool framework

scholarly journals Mammalian body size is determined by interactions between climate, urbanization, and life history traits

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maggie Hantak ◽  
Bryan McLean ◽  
Daijiang Li ◽  
Robert Guralnick
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Body Size ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Size Change ◽  
Resource Availability Hypothesis ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
Thermal Buffering ◽  
Urbanization Gradients

Anthropogenically-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 urbanization, and their interactions with species traits, impact body size. We tested three hypotheses of body size change across urbanization gradients; urban heat island effects, fragmentation, and resource availability. Our results unexpectedly demonstrate urbanization is more tightly linked with body size changes than temperature, most often leading to larger individuals, thus supporting the resource availability hypothesis. In addition, life history traits, such as thermal buffering, activity time, and average body size play critical roles in mediating the effects of both climate and urbanization on intraspecific body size trends. This work highlights the value of using digitized, natural history data to track how human disturbance drives morphological change.

scholarly journals Susceptibility of European freshwater fish to climate change: species profiling based on life-history and environmental characteristics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Jarić ◽  
Robert J. Lennox ◽  
Gregor Kalinkat ◽  
Gorčin Cvijanović ◽  
Johannes Radinger
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life History ◽  
Freshwater Fish ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Population Declines ◽  
Promising Tool ◽  
Local Extinctions ◽  
Management Priorities ◽  
Promising Source

AbstractClimate change is expected to strongly affect freshwater fish communities. Combined with other anthropogenic impacts, the impacts will alter species distributions and contribute to population declines and local extinctions. To provide timely management and conservation of fishes, it is relevant to identify species that will be most impacted by climate change and those that will be resilient. Species traits are considered a promising source of information on characteristics that influence resilience to various environmental conditions and impacts. We collated life history traits and climatic niches of 443 European freshwater fish species and compared those identified as susceptible to climate change to those that are considered to be resilient. Significant differences were observed between the two groups in their distribution, life-history and climatic niches, with climate-change susceptible species being distributed more southwardly within Europe, and being characterized by higher threat levels, lower commercial relevance, lower vulnerability to fishing, smaller body size and warmer thermal envelopes. We establish a list of species revealed to be of highest priority for further research and monitoring regarding climate change susceptibility within Europe. The presented approach represents a promising tool, to quickly assess large groups of species regarding their susceptibility to climate change and other threats, and to identify research and management priorities.

scholarly journals Life-history traits matter for dispersal into semi-open habitat corridors:

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Estève Boutaud ◽  
Dorothea Nolte ◽  
Claudia Drees ◽  
Thorsten Assmann
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Body Size ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Small Body ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Open Habitat ◽  
Habitat Specialisation ◽  
Generalized Linear Modelling ◽  
Dispersal Success

Biodiversity face ever-increasing threats from the consequences of various human activities Conservation corridors have long been considered a viable solution to help counteract biodiversity loss. However, corridors simultaneously increase fragmentation for non-target habitats. To overcome this challenge, semi-open habitats, which are a mixture of open and woodland habitats, have been proposed as they may enable simultaneous dispersal of both stenotopic open and woodland species. Despite the fact that they could be used by a great range of species, strong interspecific variability exists with regards to the number of individuals effectively recorded in such environment. Consequently, generalisation about their effectiveness remains difficult. Life-history traits such as body size, hibernation stage, trophic guild, and habitat specialisation could be successfully used to enhance prediction with regards to dispersal success. We used generalized linear modelling to study the relationship of ground beetles species traits and dispersal success into semi-open habitat in two regions of Germany. Our preliminary results indicate that larger species, as well as species overwintering as larvae, tend to be more successful when dispersing into semi-open habitat than smaller species or species overwintering as adult. In addition, species locally abundant are also recorded in higher number. In the light of these results, semi-open corridors do not appear to be the best strategy to increase connectivity for species with small body size or overwintering as adult. For such species, priority should be given to traditional corridors whenever possible. Source habitats need also attention as population size will strongly determine the usefulness of such corridors.

scholarly journals Response and Effect Traits of Coral Reef Fish

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeneen Hadj-Hammou ◽  
David Mouillot ◽  
Nicholas A. J. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Coral Reef ◽  
Reef Fish ◽  
Coral Reef Fish ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Ecosystem Processes ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Diel Activity ◽  
Functional Richness

The response-and-effect framework is a trait-based approach that seeks to break down the mechanistic links between ecosystem disturbances, species' traits, and ecosystem processes. We apply this framework to a review of the literature on coral reef fish traits, in order to illustrate the research landscape and structure a path forward for the field. Traits were categorized into five broad groupings: behavioral, life history, morphological, diet, and physiological. Overall, there are fewer studies linking effect traits to ecosystem processes (number of papers on herbivory, n = 14; predation, n = 12; bioerosion, n = 2; nutrient cycling, n = 0) than there are linking response traits to disturbances (climate change, n = 26; fishing, n = 20; pollution, n = 4). Through a network analysis, we show that the size and diet of fish are two of the most common response and effect traits currently used in the literature, central to studies on both ecosystem disturbances and processes. Behavioral and life history traits are more commonly shown to respond to disturbances, while morphological traits tend to be used in capturing ecosystem processes. Pearson correlation coefficients quantifying the strength of the relationships between the most commonly studied process, herbivory, and key effect traits (size, gregariousness, and diel activity) are provided. We find that the most popular cluster of traits used in functional diversity metrics (e.g., functional richness, functional dispersion) is comprised of size, diet, space use/position in the water column, diel activity, gregariousness, and mobility, which encompass three of the broad trait categories. Our assessment of the literature highlights that more research is needed to support an evidence-based selection of traits to understand and predict ecosystem functioning. In synthesizing the literature, we identify research gaps and provide an avenue toward a more robust trait-selection process.

scholarly journals Multi-scale environmental filters and niche partitioning govern the distributions of riparian vegetation guilds

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nate Hough-Snee ◽  
Brian Laub ◽  
David M. Merritt ◽  
A. Lexine Long ◽  
Lloyd L. Nackley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Life History Strategies ◽  
Rooting Depth ◽  
Environmental Filters ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Channel Form ◽  
Riparian Plant

Across landscapes, riparian plant communities assemble under varying levels of disturbance, environmental stress, and resource availability, leading to the development of distinct riparian life-history guilds. Identifying the environmental filters that exert selective pressures and favor specific vegetation guilds within riverscapes is a critical step in setting baseline expectations for how riparia may respond to the environmental conditions anticipated under future global change scenarios. In this study, we ask (1) what functional riparian plant guilds exist across two major North American river basins? (2) What environmental filters shape riparian guild distributions? (3) Does resource partitioning between guilds influence guild distributions and co-occurrence? We identified riparian plant guilds, examining relationships between regional climate and watershed hydrogeomorphic characteristics, stream channel form, and co-occurring riparian guilds. Woody species composition was measured at 703 streams and each species’ traits were extracted from a database in five functional areas: life form, persistence and growth, reproduction, and resource use. We clustered species into guilds by morphological characteristics and attributes related to environmental tolerances, modeling guild distributions as a product of environmental filters (stressors and resources) and guild co-existence. We identified five guilds, i) a tall, deeply rooted, long-lived, evergreen tree guild, ii) a xeric disturbance tolerant shrub guild, iii) a hydrophytic, thicket-forming shrub guild, iv) a low-statured, shade-tolerant, understory shrub guild and v) a flood tolerant, mesoriparian shrub guild. Guilds were most strongly discriminated by one another species’ rooting depth, canopy height and potential to resprout and grow following biomass-removing disturbance. Hydro-climatic variables including precipitation, watershed area, water table depth, and channel form attributes reflective of hydrologic regime were predictors of guilds whose life history strategies had affinity or aversion to flooding, drought, and fluvial disturbance. Biotic interactions excluded guilds with divergent life history strategies and/or allowed for the co-occurrence of guilds that partition resources differently in the same environment. We conclude that riparian guilding provides a useful framework for assessing how disturbance and bioclimatic gradients shape riparian functional plant diversity. Multiple processes should be considered when the riparian response guilds framework is to be used as a land-use decision-support tool framework

scholarly journals Phylogenetic signal in primate behaviour, ecology and life history

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1618) ◽  
pp. 20120341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason M. Kamilar ◽  
Natalie Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Phylogenetic Signal ◽  
Analytical Techniques ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Evolutionary Context ◽  
Biological Similarity

Examining biological diversity in an explicitly evolutionary context has been the subject of research for several decades, yet relatively recent advances in analytical techniques and the increasing availability of species-level phylogenies, have enabled scientists to ask new questions. One such approach is to quantify phylogenetic signal to determine how trait variation is correlated with the phylogenetic relatedness of species. When phylogenetic signal is high, closely related species exhibit similar traits, and this biological similarity decreases as the evolutionary distance between species increases. Here, we first review the concept of phylogenetic signal and suggest how to measure and interpret phylogenetic signal in species traits. Second, we quantified phylogenetic signal in primates for 31 variables, including body mass, brain size, life-history, sexual selection, social organization, diet, activity budget, ranging patterns and climatic variables. We found that phylogenetic signal varies extensively across and even within trait categories. The highest values are exhibited by brain size and body mass, moderate values are found in the degree of territoriality and canine size dimorphism, while low values are displayed by most of the remaining variables. Our results have important implications for the evolution of behaviour and ecology in primates and other vertebrates.

scholarly journals Predicting amphibian intraspecific diversity with machine learning: Challenges and prospects for integrating traits, geography, and genetic data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa N. Barrow ◽  
Emanuel Masiero da Fonseca ◽  
Coleen E. P. Thompson ◽  
Bryan C. Carstens
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Life History ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Phylogenetic Signal ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Intraspecific Diversity ◽  
Northern Latitudes ◽  
Demographic Processes ◽  
Salamander Species

AbstractThe growing availability of genetic datasets, in combination with machine learning frameworks, offer great potential to answer long-standing questions in ecology and evolution. One such question has intrigued population geneticists, biogeographers, and conservation biologists: What determines intraspecific genetic diversity? This question is challenging to answer because many factors may influence genetic variation, including life history traits, historical influences, and geography, and the relative importance of these factors varies across taxonomic and geographic scales. Furthermore, interpreting the influence of numerous, potentially correlated variables is difficult with traditional statistical approaches. To address these challenges, we combined repurposed data with machine learning and investigated predictors of genetic diversity, focusing on Nearctic amphibians as a case study. We aggregated species traits, range characteristics, and >42,000 genetic sequences for 299 species using open-access scripts and various databases. After identifying important predictors of nucleotide diversity with random forest regression, we conducted follow-up analyses to examine the roles of phylogenetic history, geography, and demographic processes on intraspecific diversity. Although life history traits were not important predictors for this dataset, we found significant phylogenetic signal in genetic diversity within amphibians. We also found that salamander species at northern latitudes contain lower genetic diversity. Data repurposing and machine learning provide valuable tools for detecting patterns with relevance for conservation, but concerted efforts are needed to compile meaningful datasets with greater utility for understanding global biodiversity.

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