Journal: Ecology Letters

Abbreviation

Ecol. lett.

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Journal Volumes

ISSN

1461-023X
1461-0248

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Publications 1 - 10 of 73
  • Ecological selection of siderophore-producing microbial taxa in response to heavy metal contamination
    Item type: Other Journal Item
    Hesse, Elze; O’Brien, Siobhán; Tromas, Nicolas; et al. (2018)
    Ecology Letters
    Some microbial public goods can provide both individual and community‐wide benefits, and are open to exploitation by non‐producing species. One such example is the production of metal‐detoxifying siderophores. Here, we investigate whether conflicting selection pressures on siderophore production by heavy metals – a detoxifying effect of siderophores, and exploitation of this detoxifying effect – result in a net increase or decrease. We show that the proportion of siderophore‐producing taxa increases along a natural heavy metal gradient. A causal link between metal contamination and siderophore production was subsequently demonstrated in a microcosm experiment in compost, in which we observed changes in community composition towards taxa that produce relatively more siderophores following copper contamination. We confirmed the selective benefit of siderophores by showing that taxa producing large amounts of siderophore suffered less growth inhibition in toxic copper. Our results suggest that ecological selection will favour siderophore‐mediated decontamination, with important consequences for potential remediation strategies.
  • Species persistence under climate change: a geographical scale coexistence problem
    Item type: Journal Article
    Usinowicz, Jacob; Levine, Jonathan M. (2018)
    Ecology Letters
  • Host-parasite coevolutionary arms races give way to fluctuating selection
    Item type: Journal Article
    Hall, Alex R.; Scanlan, Pauline D.; Morgan, Andrew D.; et al. (2011)
    Ecology Letters
  • Single introductions of soil biota and plants generate long-term legacies in soil and plant community assembly
    Item type: Other Journal Item
    Wubs, E.R. Jasper; van der Putten, Wim H.; Mortimer, Simon R.; et al. (2019)
    Ecology Letters
  • Simultaneous inbreeding modifies inbreeding depression in a plant-herbivore interaction
    Item type: Journal Article
    Kalske, Aino; Mutikainen, Pia; Muola, Anne; et al. (2014)
    Ecology Letters
  • Alpine cushion plants inhibit the loss of phylogenetic diversity in severe environments
    Item type: Journal Article
    Butterfield, Bradley J.; Cavieres, Lohengrin A.; Callaway, Ragan M.; et al. (2013)
    Ecology Letters
  • Environmental stability and lake zooplankton diversity – contrasting effects of chemical and thermal variability
    Item type: Journal Article
    Shurin, Jonathan B.; Winder, Monika; Adrian, Rita; et al. (2010)
    Ecology Letters
  • Siderophores drive invasion dynamics in bacterial communities through their dual role as public good versus public bad
    Item type: Journal Article
    Figueiredo, Alexandre R.T.; Özkaya, Özhan; Kümmerli, Rolf; et al. (2022)
    Ecology Letters
    Microbial invasions can compromise ecosystem services and spur dysbiosis and disease in hosts. Nevertheless, the mechanisms determining invasion outcomes often remain unclear. Here, we examine the role of iron-scavenging siderophores in driving invasions of Pseudomonas aeruginosa into resident communities of environmental pseudomonads. Siderophores can be ‘public goods’ by delivering iron to individuals possessing matching receptors; but they can also be ‘public bads’ by withholding iron from competitors lacking these receptors. Accordingly, siderophores should either promote or impede invasion, depending on their effects on invader and resident growth. Using supernatant feeding and invasion assays, we show that invasion success indeed increased when the invader could use its siderophores to inhibit (public bad) rather than stimulate (public good) resident growth. Conversely, invasion success decreased the more the invader was inhibited by the residents’ siderophores. Our findings identify siderophores as a major driver of invasion dynamics in bacterial communities under iron-limited conditions.
  • Ambient and substrate energy influence decomposer diversity differentially across trophic levels
    Item type: Journal Article
    Kriegel, Peter; Vogel, Sebastian; Angeleri, Romain; et al. (2023)
    Ecology Letters
    The species-energy hypothesis predicts increasing biodiversity with increasing energy in ecosystems. Proxies for energy availability are often grouped into ambient energy (i.e., solar radiation) and substrate energy (i.e., non-structural carbohydrates or nutritional content). The relative importance of substrate energy is thought to decrease with increasing trophic level from primary consumers to predators, with reciprocal effects of ambient energy. Yet, empirical tests are lacking. We compiled data on 332,557 deadwood-inhabiting beetles of 901 species reared from wood of 49 tree species across Europe. Using host-phylogeny-controlled models, we show that the relative importance of substrate energy versus ambient energy decreases with increasing trophic levels: the diversity of zoophagous and mycetophagous beetles was determined by ambient energy, while non-structural carbohydrate content in woody tissues determined that of xylophagous beetles. Our study thus overall supports the species-energy hypothesis and specifies that the relative importance of ambient temperature increases with increasing trophic level with opposite effects for substrate energy.
  • Overyielding in experimental grassland communities
    Item type: Journal Article
    Roscher, Christiane; Temperton, Vicky M.; Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael; et al. (2005)
    Ecology Letters
Publications 1 - 10 of 73