Article
Ecology
Xiaozhou Ye, Shaopeng Wang
Summary: The effects of dispersal and habitat heterogeneity on biodiversity depend on the fitness-dependent dispersal mode. Random dispersal increases local food web diversity but decreases across-community dissimilarity and regional food web diversity. However, fitness-dependency can alter the effects of dispersal on biodiversity, with higher fitness-dependency resulting in increased diversity. Both biodiversity-habitat heterogeneity and connectivity relationships also depend on the dispersal mode.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Barbara Barta, Attila Szabo, Beata Szabo, Robert Ptacnik, Csaba F. Vad, Zsofia Horvath
Summary: Habitat loss and fragmentation pose significant challenges to biodiversity conservation. The study found that connectivity in small-scaled habitat networks has an impact on biodiversity patterns. Ponds, as part of a network, play an important role in species richness and metacommunity structure.
Article
Biology
Russell Milne, Frederic Guichard
Summary: Spatial synchrony of population fluctuations is important for predicting regional stability, but its application to natural systems is limited by the complexity of ecological time series. Environmental fluctuations and limited dispersal play a role in controlling the dynamics of population fluctuations, but their impact on synchrony and stability in metacommunities needs further investigation. This study found that frequency modulation occurs at intermediate values of dispersal and habitat heterogeneity, promoting local and regional stability through cyclic patterns of local and regional variability.
JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Ellie Wolfe, Edd Hammill, Jane Memmott, Christopher F. Clements
Summary: Biodiversity is declining rapidly, emphasizing the need for well-designed protected areas. The number of patches and heterogeneity in patch sizes play important roles in promoting diversity, but their effects vary depending on the conservation objective.
Article
Ecology
Julia D. Monk, Oswald J. Schmitz
Summary: The interaction between predators and prey can generate spatial heterogeneity in ecological systems, impacting the overall stability of the ecosystem. The intensity and spatial variability of predation have significant effects on ecosystem heterogeneity, with weak or diffuse predation leading to ecosystem homogenization.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Gen Iwashita, Akira Yamawo, Michio Kondoh
Summary: The predator discrimination of prey can affect prey coexistence and the density dependence of predators. Prey species perceived as the same by a predator have a harder time coexisting compared to species recognized as different prey. Prey species that are not discriminated by a predator may coexist in the presence of an alternative predator that does discriminate.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2022)
Review
Ecology
Pierre Quevreux, Michel Loreau
Summary: Ecosystem stability depends on spatial aspects, and assessing the synchrony of connected populations' response is essential for understanding stability. Density-dependent dispersal and spatial heterogeneity can alter synchrony patterns.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Jana A. Eccard, Clara Mendes Ferreira, Andres Peredo Arce, Melanie Dammhahn
Summary: Consumer foraging behavior plays a crucial role in biodiversity filtering, with variations in behavior affecting abundance, diversity, and functional trait composition of resource species communities. The concept of diversity at giving-up density (DivGUD) offers a novel and simple measure to quantify these cascading effects at multiple spatial scales.
Article
Ecology
Justin A. Rectenwald, Edwige Bellier, D. Clay Sisson, Theron M. Terhune, James A. Martin
Summary: This study aimed to understand how raptors affect the survival of bobwhites, finding that raptors influence bobwhites in every biological season, especially in the breeding season and late winter. Even in areas with abundant habitat, predators exert top-down influences on vital rates.
Article
Ecology
Tianna Peller, Samantha Andrews, Shawn J. Leroux, Frederic Guichard
Summary: The study synthesizes and analyzes evidence of non-living resource flows in coastal benthic marine environments, finding that resource flows commonly couple different types of benthic ecosystems and the magnitude of subsidization decreases with distance from the source. Considering ecosystem heterogeneity and the respective scales of different types of spatial flows will be an important component of extending the marine metacommunity framework to meta-ecosystems.
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
S. C. Low, V. Vouloutsi, P. F. M. J. Verschure
Summary: This study investigates the comparison between inhibitory and excitatory mechanisms of top-down attention, finding evidence that these mechanisms complement each other in informing decision-making.
COGNITIVE SYSTEMS RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Ecology
M. Evans-Clay, N. Porch, G. S. Maguire, M. A. Weston
Summary: This study compared the invertebrates captured in standard pitfall traps with those captured in pitfall traps fitted with bird-exclusion devices. The results showed that all trap designs tested met the criteria, with no significant differences in the captured invertebrate assemblages. All trap types successfully differentiated an ecological gradient between the beach and foredune.
Article
Ecology
Helin Zhang, Daniel Bearup, Ivan Nijs, Shaopeng Wang, Gyorgy Barabas, Yi Tao, Jinbao Liao
Summary: Understanding the mechanisms of biodiversity maintenance is a fundamental issue in ecology. The possibility that species disperse within the landscape along differing paths presents a relatively unexplored mechanism by which diversity could emerge. By embedding a classical metapopulation model within a network framework, researchers found that coexistence is possible on unshared dispersal networks, with species forming self-organised clusters of occupied patches. Additionally, increasing species colonisation rates or average patch connectivity in unshared networks leads to a unimodal biodiversity response, with increasing network size monotonically increasing species richness and producing characteristic species-area curves. This suggests that many more species can co-occur than previously predicted based on the number of limiting resources.
Article
Mathematics, Applied
Biao Wang, Jianhua Wu
Summary: In this study, we investigate a diffusive predator-prey model in spatially heterogeneous environments. By varying the dispersal rates of the prey and predator, we fully study the stability of semi-trivial steady states and obtain multiple positive steady states and their stability.
CALCULUS OF VARIATIONS AND PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Alice F. Besterman, Michael L. Pace
Summary: The geomorphology of mudflats plays a key role in moderating the impact of the invasive macroalga Agarophyton on shorebirds and invertebrates. Different topographies of mudflats are correlated with varying abundances of invertebrates and shorebirds, influencing their interactions. Sediment properties interacting with structural changes induced by Agarophyton mats may affect prey accessibility for birds, highlighting the importance of mudflat structure in modifying invasive species impacts.
Article
Ecology
Madhav P. Thakur, Wim H. van Der Putten, Fariha Apon, Ezio Angelini, Branko Vres, Stefan Geisen
Summary: Climate change can disrupt food chains, affecting predator-prey relationships in microbial communities. Extreme heat events can have a more detrimental impact on microbial prey communities than on their predators, possibly due to thermal acclimation mechanisms in predators. The resilience of predators and prey in rhizosphere microbial communities may vary based on species-specific effects and time dynamics.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Madhav P. Thakur, Tom Kuenne, Sybille B. Unsicker, Arjen Biere, Olga Ferlian, Ulrich Pruschitzki, Lise Thouvenot, Manfred Tuerke, Nico Eisenhauer
Summary: Recent research has shown that invasive earthworms can reduce the concentrations of certain chemical defense compounds in P. balsamifera, potentially making them more susceptible to leaf-chewing insects. These potential impacts are likely to have implications for tree survival and competition, native tree biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Malte Jochum, Olga Ferlian, Madhav P. Thakur, Marcel Ciobanu, Bernhard Klarner, Jorg-Alfred Salamon, Lee E. Frelich, Edward A. Johnson, Nico Eisenhauer
Summary: Anthropogenic pressures lead to changes in ecosystem structure and biodiversity, with species invasion such as earthworms significantly impacting soil fauna communities. Our study in northern North America reveals that high invasion of earthworms results in reduced abundance and richness of soil fauna, indicating a negative impact on biodiversity.
Letter
Ecology
Jeffrey A. Harvey, Madhav P. Thakur, Jacintha Ellers
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2021)
Editorial Material
Ecology
Stefan Geisen, Madhav P. Thakur
BASIC AND APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Ecology
Madhav P. Thakur, Wim H. van der Putten, Rutger A. Wilschut, G. F. (Ciska) Veen, Paul Kardol, Jasper van Ruijven, Eric Allan, Christiane Roscher, Mark van Kleunen, T. Martijn Bezemer
Summary: Plant-soil feedback and diversity-productivity relationships are important for studying changes in plant biodiversity. Spatial redistribution, changes in plant species dominance, and shifts in plant traits are key processes affecting PSF in diverse plant communities. Disentangling these processes in plant diversity experiments can provide new insights into how diversity-productivity relationships change over time.
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Lise Thouvenot, Olga Ferlian, Remy Beugnon, Tom Kuenne, Alfred Lochner, Madhav P. Thakur, Manfred Tuerke, Nico Eisenhauer
Summary: The study found that invasive earthworms have led to changes in plant communities in North American forests, but their impact on plant community biomass and cover is not significant. The functional trait responses of different plants to earthworm invasion are species-specific, with some traits showing opposite responses within the presence of earthworms.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Stefan Geisen, Robin Heinen, Elena Andreou, Teun van Lent, Freddy C. ten Hooven, Madhav P. Thakur
Summary: The study found that microbial groups did not affect plant growth and only fungi increased defense compounds in early- and mid-successional forbs. In early successional forbs, shoot biomass-defence relationships were negatively correlated in most microbial treatments, while in mid-successional forbs, they were positively correlated in several microbial treatments. The presence of different microbiomes commonly removed the observed growth-defence relationships.
Review
Ecology
Pubin Hong, Bernhard Schmid, Frederik De Laender, Nico Eisenhauer, Xingwen Zhang, Haozhen Chen, Dylan Craven, Hans J. De Boeck, Yann Hautier, Owen L. Petchey, Peter B. Reich, Bastian Steudel, Maren Striebel, Madhav P. Thakur, Shaopeng Wang
Summary: The research shows that biodiversity has a positive impact on ecosystem functioning, especially in high-stress environments affected by global environmental change factors. This positive impact is mainly driven by interspecific complementarity and increases over time.
Article
Ecology
Robin Heinen, Madhav P. Thakur, Jetske R. Hiddes De Fries, Katja Steinauer, Simon Vandenbrande, Renske Jongen, T. Martijn Bezemer
Summary: Plants leave legacy effects in the soil, which can influence future generations of plants and associated herbivores. In a greenhouse study, we exposed 10 plant species to insect herbivory or kept them herbivore-free, and then used the soil legacies to grow plant communities. We found that herbivore-induced soil legacies affected responding herbivores through changes in plant community shoot: root ratios, and had negative effects on the growth of plants of the same functional group.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Junjiong Shao, Xuhui Zhou, Kees Jan Groenigen, Guiyao Zhou, Huimin Zhou, Lingyan Zhou, Meng Lu, Jianyang Xia, Lin Jiang, Bruce A. Hungate, Yiqi Luo, Fangliang He, Madhav P. Thakur
Summary: This study found that the impact of warming on grassland productivity is strongly influenced by plant diversity. Warming increased plant productivity in grasslands with lower plant diversity, but decreased productivity in grasslands with higher plant diversity. The effects were partially attributed to changes in plant dominance and shifts in interspecific interactions based on plant diversity levels.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Huiying Liu, Hao Wang, Nan Li, Junjiong Shao, Xuhui Zhou, Kees Jan van Groenigen, Madhav P. Thakur
Summary: Climate warming is causing mismatches in above- and belowground plant phenological responses, with herbaceous plants showing asynchronous changes in aboveground and belowground seasons, and woody plants experiencing extended belowground growing seasons. This mismatch has significant implications for biomass allocation and carbon cycling in plants, highlighting the need for further research.
NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Arianne Marty, Timea Boeriis, Gerard Martinez-De Leon, Martin Holmstrup, Madhav P. Thakur
Summary: This study investigated the effects of temperature on reproductive investment in two Collembola species. The results showed that temperature had species-specific effects on egg size and egg numbers, and there was a trade-off between the two in colder temperature for F. candida. No such trade-offs were found in P. minuta. This highlights the importance of considering temperature effects on maternal investments in species-specific contexts.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOIL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Soil Science
Zheng Jiang, Madhav P. Thakur, Ruiqiang Liu, Guiyao Zhou, Lingyan Zhou, Yuling Fu, Peipei Zhang, Yanghui He, Junjiong Shao, Jing Gao, Nan Li, Xinxin Wang, Shuxian Jia, Yang Chen, Chunxiu Zhang, Xuhui Zhou
Summary: Root exudation rates are influenced by plant's interactions with soil microorganisms. The association with beneficial soil microorganisms helps plants minimize the cost of exudation. This study investigates the effects of plant-mycorrhizal symbiosis on root exudation rates in soils with varying phosphorous availability.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2022)
Review
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Madhav P. Thakur, Anita C. Risch, Wim H. van der Putten
Summary: Anthropogenic climate change is causing an increase in climate extremes, which have detrimental effects on biodiversity. However, certain organisms may also benefit from climate extremes. A review of 16 major taxonomic/functional groups reveals that most groups respond negatively to extreme events, with mosses, legumes, trees, and vertebrate predators being the most negatively affected. Additionally, predicting ecological recovery after climate extremes is challenging and requires considering the characteristics of the recovering species, resource availability, and species interactions.
