Review
Ecology
Rachel M. Stein, Janet L. Rachlow
Summary: This study reviews the role of acoustics in the behavior and ecology of terrestrial mammals and develops a conceptual framework to provide a broader understanding of terrestrial mammal acoustics. The review identifies environmental, social, morphological and physiological, state-related factors, and other factors that influence both signallers (mammals producing sound) and receivers (mammals receiving sound). This framework helps researchers integrate multiple factors and place their work in a broader context.
Article
Environmental Sciences
David R. Thompson, Philip G. Brodrick, Kerry Cawse-Nicholson, K. Dana Chadwick, Robert O. Green, Benjamin Poulter, Shawn Serbin, Alexey N. Shiklomanov, Philip A. Townsend, Kevin R. Turpie
Summary: The study highlights the significant impact of spectral calibration on the SBG's aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem objectives, requiring more accurate calibration than historical missions. Errors in calibration may lead to systematic errors larger than instrument noise, impacting atmospheric correction and hindering comparisons between ecosystems.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-BIOGEOSCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Microbiology
Anneliek M. ter Horst, Christian Santos-Medellin, Jackson W. Sorensen, Laura A. Zinke, Rachel M. Wilson, Eric R. Johnston, Gareth G. Trubl, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Steven J. Blazewicz, Paul J. Hanson, Jeffrey P. Chanton, Christopher W. Schadt, Joel E. Kostka, Joanne B. Emerson
Summary: The study reveals that viral community composition in peatlands is influenced by factors such as peat depth, water content, and carbon chemistry, showing distinct aquatic characteristics. Viral populations in peatlands have narrow predicted host ranges. There are strong viral species boundaries between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, as well as between different types of soils.
Article
Forestry
Di Yang, Chiung-Shiuan Fu
Summary: The study indicates that forest management practices in the southeastern U.S. are conducted using road-delineated management units determined by satellite remote sensing imagery and crowd-sourced road network datasets. Analysis shows that units smaller than 0.5 hectares make up 64% of total units but only 0.98% of total forest area. Additionally, statistical tests demonstrate a significant overlap between production forests and disturbance areas in the region.
Review
Forestry
Paul H. Gobster, Courtney L. Schultz, Linda E. Kruger, John R. Henderson
Summary: Most definitions of forest therapy focus on the role of nature experiences in achieving human health and wellbeing outcomes, but research on forest therapy has mainly focused on outcomes rather than the factors and conditions that give rise to these experiences. This scoping review examines empirical studies of forest therapy using a conceptual framework to understand how different components are conceptualized and measured. The review finds that while most studies report positive outcomes, they use small samples and have limited descriptions of the forest environment and human-forest interactions. However, the analysis also uncovers a wider range of findings that provide important insights for future research and the development of forest therapy programs and settings.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Sara Tayari, Firouzeh Taghikhah, Gnana Bharathy, Alexey Voinov
Summary: Fires have both ecological and destructive impacts on natural ecosystems, property, human health, and resources. Urban sprawl and climate change contribute to the severity of wildfires. Prescribed burning reduces forest fuel load but affects air quality and human health, while mechanical fuel load reduction is safer but more expensive. A conceptual framework combining GIS methods and life cycle assessment helps decision makers choose optimal hazard reduction practices considering environmental, economic, and social costs.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Review
Ecology
Fernanda S. Valdovinos, Kayla R. S. Hale, Sabine Dritz, Paul R. Glaum, Kevin S. McCann, Sophia M. Simon, Elisa Thebault, William C. Wetzel, Kate L. Wootton, Justin D. Yeakel
Summary: Bioenergetic approaches have been influential in understanding community functioning and stability, particularly in aquatic ecosystems. However, these models face challenges in predicting plant-consumer interactions in terrestrial ecosystems where body mass is less predictive of these interactions.
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Matthew R. Macpherson, Jacqueline D. Litzgus, Patrick J. Weatherhead, Stephen C. Lougheed
Summary: This study evaluated the impact of different designs and materials of barrier fencing on the behavioral response of gray ratsnakes, finding that fencing material and height significantly influenced the likelihood of ratsnakes successfully climbing over the fencing, with longer snakes being more successful. The most effective fencing tested was 100 cm metal mesh fencing with a lip, preventing successful escapes in 93.3% of trials.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
(2021)
Review
Ecology
Juliana Balluffi-Fry, Shawn J. Leroux, Emilie Champagne, Eric Vander Wal
Summary: Nutritional ecologists aim to predict the effects of food availability on populations and landscapes, but tools to extrapolate nutrition from small to large scales are often lacking. Ecological stoichiometry (ES), commonly used in ecosystem ecology, can meet these demands but has been underutilized in wildlife nutrition studies. This article discusses the use of elemental currencies in terrestrial herbivore nutritional ecology and suggests that ES and elemental currencies can be used to measure resource quality and compare nutrient availability. However, there are limitations to ES that need to be addressed, and future research directions are outlined.
Review
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Gregory A. Lewbart, Trevor T. Zachariah
Summary: Invertebrates, which comprise the majority of the animal kingdom, are a diverse group of animals found in various habitats. However, our understanding of their welfare and care is relatively limited compared to vertebrates. This review focuses on seven economically important and widely recognized invertebrate taxa and discusses their welfare, as well as other topics such as anatomy, physiology, husbandry, natural history, and environmental diseases.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Izabela Fedyn, Fabian Przepiora, Wojciech Sobocinski, Jakub Wyka, Michal Ciach
Summary: There is increasing awareness of the ecosystem engineering services provided by recovering populations of Eurasian beaver. By modifying aquatic environments, this species has a significant, positive influence on biodiversity. Our study in Poland compared the species richness and activity of terrestrial mammals at beaver ponds and randomly-selected reference sites. The results showed that beaver sites had higher species richness and activity, and the presence of beavers also rearranged the occurrence and activity of the terrestrial mammal assemblage.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Merin Reji Chacko, Florian Altermatt, Fabian Fopp, Antoine Guisan, Thomas Keggin, Arnaud Lyet, Pierre-Louis Rey, Eilish Richards, Alice Valentini, Conor Waldock, Loic Pellissier
Summary: Monitoring species assemblages using environmental DNA (eDNA) has the potential to inform evidence-based environmental policymaking. In this study, eDNA sampling was used to capture the diversity of a region with highly heterogeneous habitat patches across a wide elevation gradient in the Swiss Alps. The results showed that eDNA metabarcoding successfully detected multiple vertebrate and plant taxa across different catchments, with marked turnover among samples from distinct elevational classes. The findings suggest that biomonitoring schemes based on eDNA capture within biologically integrated catchments could provide a comprehensive estimation of biodiversity.
Article
Microbiology
Damien R. Finn, Benoit Bergk-Pinto, Christina Hazard, Graeme W. Nicol, Christoph C. Tebbe, Timothy M. Vogel
Summary: Functional traits play a key role in niche differentiation among terrestrial prokaryotes, with copiotrophic and oligotrophic niches characterized by different traits related to rapid growth, nutrient acquisition, and stress tolerance. The study found non-random functional distributions and trait similarities between related taxa, as well as identified specific traits enriched or depleted in different taxonomic groups. Hierarchical clustering revealed distinct Glades representing competitive copiotrophic families and glycosyl-transferase-enriched oligotrophic families, suggesting a nuanced view is needed to describe niche differentiation in terrestrial systems.
FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biology
Kazuharu Ohashi, Andreas Juergens, James D. Thomson
Summary: This article discusses the relationship between flowers and different visitor groups, proposing a conceptual framework of visitor-mediated trade-offs, including phenotypic trade-offs and opportunity trade-offs. Existing research suggests that the evolutionary strategy of flowers includes avoiding or eliminating fitness valleys produced by phenotypic trade-offs, and the need to adapt to opportunity trade-offs may lead to active exclusion or floral specialization.
BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS
(2021)
Review
Ecology
Stephen E. Osakpolor, Mira Kattwinkel, Jens Schirmel, Alexander Feckler, Alessandro Manfrin, Ralf B. Scha
Summary: The study found that food webs in a meta-ecosystem are functionally linked and vulnerable to multiple stressors. While theoretical models and aquatic-terrestrial models have similarities, they also have distinct differences. Overall, applications of the models have shown that environmental changes cause cross-scale effects on food webs in meta-ecosystems.
ECOLOGICAL MODELLING
(2021)
Article
Ornithology
Shannon Bale, Karen F. Beazley, Alana Westwood, Peter G. Bush
Article
Environmental Sciences
Johanna Buchmann-Duck, Karen F. Beazley
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2020)
Review
Environmental Sciences
Harveer S. Srain, Karen F. Beazley, Tony R. Walker
Summary: PPCPs are released into aquatic environments via untreated sewage, wastewater treatment plants, landfill leachate, and can affect aquatic life through sublethal and lethal effects, although some studies suggest PPCPs are non-toxic to aquatic organisms at environmentally relevant concentrations. There is wide variation in reported toxicity levels and limited consensus in the academic literature, emphasizing the need for more research on chronic toxicity of PPCPs at environmentally relevant concentrations.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Rachel T. Buxton, Joseph R. Bennett, Andrea J. Reid, Charles Shulman, Steven J. Cooke, Charles M. Francis, Elizabeth A. Nyboer, Gary Pritchard, Allison D. Binley, Stephanie Avery-Gomm, Natalie C. Ban, Karen F. Beazley, Elena Bennett, Louise K. Blight, Lauren E. Bortolotti, Alaine F. Camfield, Fawziah Gadallah, Aerin L. Jacob, Ilona Naujokaitis-Lewis, Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne, Dominique G. Roche, Francois Soulard, Diana Stralberg, Kella D. Sadler, Kevin A. Solarik, Carly D. Ziter, James Brandt, Christopher W. McKindsey, David A. Greenwood, Peter C. Boxall, Cyprian F. Ngolah, Kai M. A. Chan, David Lapen, Scott Poser, Judith Girard, Claudio DiBacco, Shari Hayne, Diane Orihel, Doug Lewis, Danika Littlechild, Shawn J. Marshall, Larry McDermott, Rod Whitlow, David Browne, Jennifer Sunday, Paul A. Smith
Summary: To address the global biodiversity crisis, robust information is essential but mechanisms to translate information into action are urgently needed. Collaboration among experts in Indigenous knowledge systems and various scientific disciplines is crucial in supporting transformative change for biodiversity conservation.
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Frederica Jacks, Djuradj Milosevic, Victoria Watson, Karen F. Beazley, Andrew S. Medeiros
Summary: This study examined the baseline reference of benthic macroinvertebrate indicators in freshwater ponds of SINPR, Canada, comparing water quality parameters monitored from 2015 to 2019 to biomonitoring in 2019. Variability in community structure was found between different months and ponds, with significant correlations between water chemistry parameters and macroinvertebrate diversity. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of biomonitoring in systems with small freshwater pond ecosystems and establishes a baseline for future monitoring and management of SINPR's freshwater resources.
ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Civil
Shizhou Ma, Karen F. Beazley, Patrick Nussey, Christopher S. Greene
Summary: This study tested a novel DEM smoothing algorithm and found that smoothed LiDAR DEM in 5-m spatial resolution best balanced ARA accuracy and data processing efficiency, recommending it for future ARA delineations.
WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
M'sit No'kmaq, Albert Marshall, Karen F. Beazley, Jessica Hum, Shalan Joudry, Anastasia Papadopoulos, Sherry Pictou, Janet Rabesca, Lisa Young, Melanie Zurba
Summary: The precipitous declines in biodiversity require transformative changes to conservation, while the resurgence of Indigenous autonomies is a mutually compatible aim. Achieving these aims will entail significant transformations in conservation and re-Indigenization, emphasizing the value of people and nature in all their diversity and relationships.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Karen F. Beazley, Andrea Olive
Article
Environmental Studies
Jamie C. Allan, Karen F. Beazley, Anna Metaxas
Summary: The literature and IUCN-WCPA guidelines do not offer comprehensive strategies for designing MPA networks for large, migratory pelagic species, but could potentially be effective for these species if migratory connectivity is fully considered and complementary adaptive and dynamic mechanisms are developed. Updgrades to the design guidelines for MPA networks are needed, particularly in the areas of connectivity, adaptive and dynamic approaches, and international collaborations.
Article
Environmental Studies
Jessica L. Needham, Karen F. Beazley, Victoria P. Papuga
Review
Management
Julie Bull, Karen Beazley, Jennifer Shea, Colleen MacQuarrie, Amy Hudson, Kelly Shaw, Fern Brunger, Chandra Kavanagh, Brenda Gagne
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN ORGANIZATIONS AND MANAGEMENT
(2020)
Article
Environmental Studies
Caitlin Cunningham, Karen F. Beazley
Letter
Biology
David Johns, John Terborgh, Karen F. Beazley, James A. Estes, David Foreman, Brian Miller, Reed Noss, Michael Soule, William J. Ripple
Article
Environmental Studies
Melanie Zurba, Karen F. Beazley, Emilie English, Johanna Buchmann-Duck
Article
Environmental Studies
Christopher J. Lemieux, Paul A. Gray, Rodolphe Devillers, Pamela A. Wright, Philip Dearden, Elizabeth A. Halpenny, Mark Groulx, Thomas J. Beechey, Karen Beazley