Journal: Nature Ecology & Evolution

Abbreviation

Nat Ecol Evol

Publisher

Nature

Journal Volumes

ISSN

2397-334X

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2018 - 2019182020 - 202563
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Publications 1 - 10 of 81
  • Dairy pastoralism sustained eastern Eurasian steppe populations for 5,000 years
    Item type: Journal Article
    Wilkin, Shevan; Ventresca Miller, Alicia; Taylor, William T.T.; et al. (2020)
    Nature Ecology & Evolution
  • Decadal changes in fire frequencies shift tree communities and functional traits
    Item type: Journal Article
    Pellegrini, Adam F. A.; Refsland, Tyler; Averill, Colin; et al. (2021)
    Nature Ecology & Evolution
    Global change has resulted in chronic shifts in fire regimes. Variability in the sensitivity of tree communities to multi-decadal changes in fire regimes is critical to anticipating shifts in ecosystem structure and function, yet remains poorly understood. Here, we address the overall effects of fire on tree communities and the factors controlling their sensitivity in 29 sites that experienced multi-decadal alterations in fire frequencies in savanna and forest ecosystems across tropical and temperate regions. Fire had a strong overall effect on tree communities, with an average fire frequency (one fire every three years) reducing stem density by 48% and basal area by 53% after 50 years, relative to unburned plots. The largest changes occurred in savanna ecosystems and in sites with strong wet seasons or strong dry seasons, pointing to fire characteristics and species composition as important. Analyses of functional traits highlighted the impact of fire-driven changes in soil nutrients because frequent burning favoured trees with low biomass nitrogen and phosphorus content, and with more efficient nitrogen acquisition through ectomycorrhizal symbioses. Taken together, the response of trees to altered fire frequencies depends both on climatic and vegetation determinants of fire behaviour and tree growth, and the coupling between fire-driven nutrient losses and plant traits.
  • A globally consistent negative effect of edge on aboveground forest biomass
    Item type: Journal Article
    Yang, Gayoung; Crowther, Tom; Lauber, Thomas; et al. (2025)
    Nature Ecology & Evolution
    Because of widespread forest fragmentation, 70% of the world’s forest area lies within 1 km of an edge. Forest biomass density near edges often differs markedly from biomass density in the interior. In some biomes, these ‘edge effects’ are responsible for substantial reductions in forest carbon storage. However, there is little consensus on the direction and magnitude of edge effects on forest biomass across the globe, which hampers their consideration in forest carbon stock accounting. Here we examined eight million forested locations to quantify variability in edge effects on biomass at a global scale. We found negative edge effects across 97% of examined areas, with aboveground biomass density on average 16% lower near edges than in interior forests. Higher temperature, precipitation and proportion of agricultural land were linked to more negative edge effects. Along with differences in the spatial scale of analysis, this variation can explain contrasting observations among previous studies. We estimate that edge effects have reduced the total aboveground biomass of forests by 9%, equivalent to a loss of 58 Pg. These findings underscore the substantial impact of forest fragmentation on global biomass stocks and highlight the critical need to account for edge effects in carbon stock assessments.
  • Species traits, landscape quality and floral resource overlap with honeybees determine virus transmission in plant-pollinator networks
    Item type: Journal Article
    Maurer, Corina; Schauer, Alexandria; Yañez, Orlando; et al. (2024)
    Nature Ecology & Evolution
    Emerging infectious diseases pose a threat to pollinators. Virus transmission among pollinators via flowers may be reinforced by anthropogenic land-use change and concomitant alteration of plant-pollinator interactions. Here, we examine how species' traits and roles in flower-visitation networks and landscape-scale factors drive key honeybee viruses-black queen cell virus (BQCV) and deformed wing virus-in 19 wild bee and hoverfly species, across 12 landscapes varying in pollinator-friendly (flower-rich) habitat. Viral loads were on average more than ten times higher in managed honeybees than in wild pollinators. Viral loads in wild pollinators were higher when floral resource use overlapped with honeybees, suggesting these as reservoir hosts, and increased with pollinator abundance and viral loads in honeybees. Viral prevalence decreased with the amount of pollinator-friendly habitat in a landscape, which was partly driven by reduced floral resource overlap with honeybees. Black queen cell virus loads decreased with a wild pollinator's centrality in the network and the proportion of visited dish-shaped flowers. Our findings highlight the complex interplay of resource overlap with honeybees, species traits and roles in flower-visitation networks and flower-rich pollinator habitat shaping virus transmission.
  • Co-limitation towards lower latitudes shapes global forest diversity gradients
    Item type: Journal Article
    Liang, Jingjing; Gamarra, Javier G.P.; Picard, Nicolas; et al. (2022)
    Nature Ecology & Evolution
    The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) is one of the most recognized global patterns of species richness exhibited across a wide range of taxa. Numerous hypotheses have been proposed in the past two centuries to explain LDG, but rigorous tests of the drivers of LDGs have been limited by a lack of high-quality global species richness data. Here we produce a high-resolution (0.025 degrees x 0.025 degrees) map of local tree species richness using a global forest inventory database with individual tree information and local biophysical characteristics from similar to 1.3 million sample plots. We then quantify drivers of local tree species richness patterns across latitudes. Generally, annual mean temperature was a dominant predictor of tree species richness, which is most consistent with the metabolic theory of biodiversity (MTB). However, MTB underestimated LDG in the tropics, where high species richness was also moderated by topographic, soil and anthropogenic factors operating at local scales. Given that local landscape variables operate synergistically with bioclimatic factors in shaping the global LDG pattern, we suggest that MTB be extended to account for co-limitation by subordinate drivers.
  • Rapid upwards spread of non-native plants in mountains across continents
    Item type: Journal Article
    Iseli, Evelin; Chisholm, Chelsea; Lenoir, Jonathan; et al. (2023)
    Nature Ecology & Evolution
    High-elevation ecosystems are among the few ecosystems worldwide that are not yet heavily invaded by non-native plants. This is expected to change as species expand their range limits upwards to fill their climatic niches and respond to ongoing anthropogenic disturbances. Yet, whether and how quickly these changes are happening has only been assessed in a few isolated cases. Starting in 2007, we conducted repeated surveys of non-native plant distributions along mountain roads in 11 regions from 5 continents. We show that over a 5- to 10-year period, the number of non-native species increased on average by approximately 16% per decade across regions. The direction and magnitude of upper range limit shifts depended on elevation across all regions. Supported by a null-model approach accounting for range changes expected by chance alone, we found greater than expected upward shifts at lower/mid elevations in at least seven regions. After accounting for elevation dependence, significant average upward shifts were detected in a further three regions (revealing evidence for upward shifts in 10 of 11 regions). Together, our results show that mountain environments are becoming increasingly exposed to biological invasions, emphasizing the need to monitor and prevent potential biosecurity issues emerging in high-elevation ecosystems.
  • Better incentives are needed to reward academic software development
    Item type: Other Journal Item
    Merow, Cory; Boyle, Brad; Enquist, Brian J.; et al. (2023)
    Nature Ecology & Evolution
  • Improving pesticide-use data for the EU
    Item type: Other Journal Item
    Mesnage, Robin; Straw, Edward A.; Antoniou, Michael N.; et al. (2021)
    Nature Ecology & Evolution
  • Transnational conservation to anticipate future plant shifts in Europe
    Item type: Journal Article
    Chauvier-Mendes, Yohann; Pollock, Laura J.; Verburg, Peter H.; et al. (2024)
    Nature Ecology & Evolution
    To meet the COP15 biodiversity framework in the European Union (EU), one target is to protect 30% of its land by 2030 through a resilient transnational conservation network. The European Alps are a key hub of this network hosting some of the most extensive natural areas and biodiversity hotspots in Europe. Here we assess the robustness of the current European reserve network to safeguard the European Alps’ flora by 2080 using semi-mechanistic simulations. We first highlight that the current network needs strong readjustments as it does not capture biodiversity patterns as well as our conservation simulations. Overall, we predict a strong shift in conservation need through time along latitudes, and from lower to higher elevations as plants migrate upslope and shrink their distribution. While increasing species, trait and evolutionary diversity, migration could also threaten 70% of the resident flora. In the face of global changes, the future European reserve network will need to ensure strong elevation and latitudinal connections to complementarily protect multifaceted biodiversity beyond national borders.
  • Contrasting responses of woody and grassland ecosystems to increased CO2 as water supply varies
    Item type: Journal Article
    Pan, Yude; Jackson, Robert B.; Hollinger, David Y.; et al. (2022)
    Nature Ecology & Evolution
    Experiments show that elevated atmospheric CO2 (eCO2) often enhances plant photosynthesis and productivity, yet this effect varies substantially and may be climate sensitive. Understanding if, where and how water supply regulates CO2 enhancement is critical for projecting terrestrial responses to increasing atmospheric CO2 and climate change. Here, using data from 14 long-term ecosystem-scale CO2 experiments, we show that the eCO2 enhancement of annual aboveground net primary productivity is sensitive to annual precipitation and that this sensitivity differs between woody and grassland ecosystems. During wetter years, CO2 enhancement increases in woody ecosystems but declines in grass-dominated systems. Consistent with this difference, woody ecosystems can increase leaf area index in wetter years more effectively under eCO2 than can grassland ecosystems. Overall, and across different precipitation regimes, woody systems had markedly stronger CO2 enhancement (24%) than grasslands (13%). We developed an empirical relationship to quantify aboveground net primary productivity enhancement on the basis of changes in leaf area index, providing a new approach for evaluating eCO2 impacts on the productivity of terrestrial ecosystems.
Publications 1 - 10 of 81