Search results for "LAND"
showing 10 items of 9939 documents
Accounting for species interactions is necessary for predicting how arctic arthropod communities respond to climate change
2021
Species interactions are known to structure ecological communities. Still, the influence of climate change on biodiversity has primarily been evaluated by correlating individual species distributions with local climatic descriptors, then extrapolating into future climate scenarios. We ask whether predictions on arctic arthropod response to climate change can be improved by accounting for species interactions. For this, we use a 14-year-long, weekly time series from Greenland, resolved to the species level by mitogenome mapping. During the study period, temperature increased by 2 degrees C and arthropod species richness halved. We show that with abiotic variables alone, we are essentially un…
Conservation and people: Towards an ethical code of conduct for the use of camera traps in wildlife research
2020
International audience; Abstract 1. Camera trapping is a widely employed tool in wildlife research, used to estimate animal abundances, understand animal movement, assess species richness and understand animal behaviour. In addition to images of wild animals, research cameras often record human images, inadvertently capturing behaviours ranging from innocuous actions to potentially serious crimes. 2. With the increasing use of camera traps, there is an urgent need to reflect on how researchers should deal with human images caught on cameras. On the one hand, it is important to respect the privacy of individuals caught on cameras, while, on the other hand, there is a larger public duty to re…
Coexistence and resource competition.
2000
How large numbers of species coexist on a seemingly limited number of different resources is a classic problem in ecology1, and attempts have been made to solve it experimentally. But we are not convinced that Huisman and Weissing's2 proposal to add non-stationary dynamics in species abundance to the list of possible explanations offers any new insight into this biodiversity enigma.
Analysis of spatial patterns informs community assembly and sampling requirements for Collembola in forest soils
2018
Abstract The relative importance of niche separation, non-equilibrial and neutral models of community assembly has been a theme in community ecology for many decades with none appearing to be applicable under all circumstances. In this study, Collembola species abundances were recorded over eleven consecutive years in a spatially explicit grid and used to examine (i) whether observed beta diversity differed from that expected under conditions of neutrality, (ii) whether sampling points differed in their relative contributions to overall beta diversity, and (iii) the number of samples required to provide comparable estimates of species richness across three forest sites. Neutrality could not…
Species-level selection reduces selfishness through competitive exclusion.
2007
Adaptation does not necessarily lead to traits which are optimal for the population. This is because selection is often the strongest at the individual or gene level. The evolution of selfishness can lead to a ‘tragedy of the commons’, where traits such as aggression or social cheating reduce population size and may lead to extinction. This suggests that species-level selection will result whenever species differ in the incentive to be selfish. We explore this idea in a simple model that combines individual-level selection with ecology in two interacting species. Our model is not influenced by kin or trait-group selection. We find that individual selection in combination with competitive ex…
Synchronous attack is advantageous: mixed genotype infections lead to higher infection success in trematode parasites
2011
Co-infecting parasite genotypes typically compete for host resources limiting their fitness. The intensity of such competition depends on whether parasites are reproducing in a host, or using it primarily as a transmission vehicle while not multiplying in host tissues (referred to as ‘competition hypothesis’). Alternatively, simultaneous attack and co-infection by several parasite genotypes might facilitate parasite infection because such a diverse attack could present an additional challenge to host immune defence (referred to as ‘facilitation hypothesis’). We tested the competition hypothesis by comparing the production of transmission stages (cercariae) from snails infected with one or …
Resource polymorphism in European whitefish: Analysis of fatty acid profiles provides more detailed evidence than traditional methods alone
2019
Published version, licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. , available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221338 Resource polymorphism—whereby ancestral generalist populations give rise to several specialised morphs along a resource gradient—is common where species colonise newly formed ecosystems. This phenomenon is particularly well documented in freshwater fish populations inhabiting postglacial lakes formed at the end of the last ice age. However, knowledge on how such differential exploitation of resources across contrasting habitats might be reflected in the biochemical compositions of diverging populations is still limited, though such patterns might be expected. Here, we aimed to assess …
Accounting for preferential sampling in species distribution models
2019
D. C., A. L. Q. and F. M. would like to thank the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spain) for financial support (jointly financed by the European Regional Development Fund) via Research Grants MTM2013‐42323‐P and MTM2016‐77501‐P, and ACOMP/2015/202 from Generalitat Valenciana (Spain). Species distribution models (SDMs) are now being widely used in ecology for management and conservation purposes across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine realms. The increasing interest in SDMs has drawn the attention of ecologists to spatial models and, in particular, to geostatistical models, which are used to associate observations of species occurrence or abundance with environmental covariates in a fi…
Taxonomy 2.0: computer-aided identification tools to assist Antarctic biologists in the field and in the laboratory
2020
Species inventories are essential to the implementation of conservation policies to mitigate biodiversity loss and maintain ecosystem services and their value to the society. This is particularly topical with respect to climate change and direct anthropogenic effects on Antarctic biodiversity, with the identification of the most at-risk taxa and geographical areas becoming a priority. Identification tools are often neglected and considered helpful only for taxonomists. However, the development of new online information technologies and computer-aided identification tools provides an opportunity to promote them to a wider audience, especially considering the emerging generation of scientists…
Degradation in landscape matrix has diverse impacts on diversity in protected areas.
2017
Introduction: A main goal of protected areas is to maintain species diversity and the integrity of biological assemblages. Intensifying land use in the matrix surrounding protected areas creates a challenge for biodiversity conservation. Earlier studies have mainly focused on taxonomic diversity within protected areas. However, functional and especially phylogenetic diversities are less studied phenomena, especially with respect to the impacts of the matrix that surrounds protected areas. Phylogenetic diversity refers to the range of evolutionary lineages, the maintenance of which ensures that future evolutionary potential is safeguarded. Functional diversity refers to the range of ecologic…