Article
Ecology
Shenaz Rasheed, P. Venkatesh, Dharam Raj Singh, V. R. Renjini, Girish Kumar Jha, Dinesh Kumar Sharma
Summary: Wayanad district in Kerala, India, is rich in traditional paddy varieties, but shifting cropping patterns have led to threats to agrobiodiversity. Farmers are willing to accept compensation to cultivate traditional paddy varieties, but the amounts are lower than the annual value of ecosystem services, indicating the need for more consideration in the eco-compensation framework.
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Lynn Govaert, Andrew P. Hendry, Farshad Fattahi, Markus Moest
Summary: Rapid environmental changes lead to massive biodiversity loss, negatively affecting ecosystem functioning. Intraspecific diversity has been found to contribute to ecosystem functioning as much as interspecific diversity. However, we still have limited quantitative knowledge on how interspecific and intraspecific biodiversity loss affect ecosystem functioning. Extending the interspecific Price partitioning method to account for intraspecific diversity loss can provide us with quantitative insights into these effects.
Article
Ecology
Katie L. Millette, Vincent Fugere, Chloe Debyser, Ariel Greiner, Frederic J. J. Chain, Andrew Gonzalez
Summary: The authors comment on the limitations of data and methodology in a previous study, but these do not refute their main conclusion of no strong signal of human impacts on COI variation globally.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Simon Blanchet, Laura Fargeot, Allan Raffard
Summary: This paper proposes using candidate genes phylogenetically-conserved across species as an inclusive biodiversity unit that transcends the intra- and interspecific boundaries, deepening our understanding of how evolution has shaped biodiversity and how biodiversity alters ecological dynamics. The framework combines knowledge from functional genomics and functional ecology, providing guidelines and examples for identifying phylogenetically-conserved candidate genes (PCCGs) within communities and measuring biodiversity from PCCGs. This framework also links biodiversity measured at PCCGs to ecosystem functions and highlights the eco-evolutionary processes shaping PCCG diversity patterns.
Review
Environmental Sciences
Xiuhong Li, Yizhuo Wang, Rongjin Yang, Le Zhang, Yi Zhang, Qiang Liu, Zhenwei Song
Summary: This paper discusses the challenges and problems faced by watershed eco-compensation in China, and explores new models including expanding funding sources, establishing sustainable compensation models, and reducing the burden on the government. It also compares different regional models of eco-compensation projects.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Akihiko Mougi
Summary: Microbes interact with their environment by modifying it and reacting to these modifications, and recent research has shown that the ecological consequences of these interactions can be predicted from their effects on pH. Adaptation of pH niche can affect microbial coexistence, but the mechanisms underlying this effect are not yet understood. This study demonstrates that ecological theory may have difficulty in accurately predicting ecological consequences when there are adaptive changes in pH niche.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Annette E. Evans, Marketa Zimova, Sean T. Giery, Heidi E. Golden, Amanda L. Pastore, Christopher P. Nadeau, Mark C. Urban
Summary: In recent decades, increased disturbances have resulted in fragmented ecological communities, making restoration efforts challenging. The traditional humpty-dumpty effect theory fails to consider other critical mechanisms that hinder successful restoration. This study extends the humpty-dumpty analogy to include eco-evolutionary changes and proposes recommendations for more successful restoration efforts.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Lukasz Dylewski, Marcin Tobolka, Lukasz Mackowiak, Joanna T. Bialas, Weronika Banaszak-Cibicka
Summary: The study discovered that unused railway embankments have significantly higher composition, abundance, and diversity of pollinating insects, particularly bees, butterflies, and hoverflies, indicating their importance in conservation and supplementing declining natural habitats.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Food Science & Technology
Maria Garcia-Martin, Lynn Huntsinger, Maria Jose Ibarrola-Rivas, Marianne Penker, Ugo D'Ambrosio, Thymios Dimopoulos, Maria E. Fernandez-Gimenez, Thanasis Kizos, Jose Munoz-Rojas, Osamu Saito, Karl S. Zimmerer, David J. Abson, Jianguo Liu, Cristina Quintas-Soriano, Irene Holm Sorensen, Peter H. Verburg, Tobias Plieninger
Summary: This article explores the multiple functions of seven landscape products worldwide, emphasizing that landscape products can improve food systems by promoting place-sensitive sustainability strategies and standards, thus addressing conflicts related to food production, social justice, and the environment.
Review
Ecology
Isabel Blasco-Costa, Alexander Hayward, Robert Poulin, Juan A. Balbuena
Summary: It is crucial to integrate advances from ecology and evolutionary biology into cophylogeny for deeper mechanistic insights and to turn cophylogeny into a platform for understanding interspecific interactions and diversification. Key directions include trait reconstruction integration and consideration of multiple scales of network organization, with recent developments providing opportunities for implementation. A new quantitative framework is proposed to allow the integration of relevant information and assessment of individual mechanisms' contributions to cophylogenetic patterns.
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Biology
Zachary T. Wood, Eric P. Palkovacs, Brian J. Olsen, Michael T. Kinnison
Summary: Humans are dominant global drivers of ecological and evolutionary change, affecting the reshaping of ecosystems and natural selection. Human activities play a crucial role in shaping eco-evolutionary potential, influencing the stability and resilience of populations, communities, and ecosystems. Proper management of anthropogenic effects requires a science of human effects on eco-evolutionary potential.
Article
Ecology
Rana W. El-Sabaawi, Kimberley D. Lemmen, Punidan D. Jeyasingh, Steven A. J. Declerck
Summary: Characterizing intraspecific variation and its ecological consequences is a challenge in eco-evolutionary dynamics. Ecological stoichiometry, using elemental variation, is a powerful framework. However, the emphasis on organismal stoichiometry has limited its application. Studying traits as components of an 'elemental phenotype' and their ecological effects is important. A conceptual framework exploring microevolutionary change in the elemental phenotype can generate hypotheses and enhance our ability to explain eco-evolutionary dynamics.
Editorial Material
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Lars Opgenoorth, Christian Rellstab
Summary: The study of drought resistance in white spruce utilized multiple data sources and analytical approaches to identify candidate genes involved in growth and resistance to extreme drought events, showcasing how diverse datasets can provide complementary evidence to overcome challenges in the research field.
Article
Ecology
Sebastien Lion, Akira Sasaki, Mike Boots
Summary: Understanding the interaction between ecological processes and evolutionary dynamics of quantitative traits in natural systems is a challenge. Two main theoretical frameworks, adaptive dynamics and quantitative genetics, have strengths and limitations and are used by different research communities. To make progress, a novel theoretical framework called 'oligomorphic dynamics' is proposed to bridge the gap between these approaches and strengthen the link to empirical data. Oligomorphic dynamics considers environmental feedback and can analyze eco-evolutionary dynamics, including multimodal trait distributions and non-normal or skewed distributions encountered in nature, facilitating a tighter integration between theory and data.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Alicia Dalongeville, Erica S. Nielsen, Peter R. Teske, Sophie von Der Heyden
Summary: The study found that temperature variation is a prominent source of intraspecific genetic variation along the South African coastline characterized by high environmental heterogeneity. Genetic diversity differs between bioregions, but does not display higher levels within the core of each species' range when assessed across multiple species.
DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Eglantine Mathieu-Begne, Simon Blanchet, Olivier Rey, Orlane Scelsi, Camille Poesy, Geoffrey Marselli, Geraldine Loot
Summary: The study found that certain microhabitats facilitate contact between hosts and parasites, allowing parasites to successfully find their hosts in complex environments.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biology
Marine Deluen, Simon Blanchet, Fabien Aubret, Audrey Trochet, Eric J. Gangloff, Olivier Guillaume, Hugo Le Chevalier, Olivier Calvez, Clementine Carle, Lea Genty, Gaetan Arrondeau, Lucas Cazale, Laura Kouyoumdjian, Alexandre Riberon, Romain Bertrand
Summary: Global warming affects species' adaptation, migration, and extinction. The metabolic rate in ectotherms increases with temperature and cold-adapted populations exhibit higher resting metabolism. The impact of climate change on metabolism in species inhabiting different climates is still debated. Assessing the pace of metabolic responses to global warming is crucial in understanding the adaptation of populations to varying climatic conditions.
JOURNAL OF THERMAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jerome G. Prunier, Keoni Saint-Pe, Laurence Tissot, Nicolas Poulet, Geoffrey Marselli, Charlotte Veyssiere, Simon Blanchet
Summary: Intraspecific genetic diversity shows repeatable spatial patterns in natural landscapes, which can be modified by human activities. Stocking natural populations with captive-bred strains strongly alters the genetic diversity and differentiation patterns in brown trout populations. This study documents the spatial distribution of captive-bred ancestry in French brown trout populations and quantifies the effect of captive-bred ancestry on the spatial distribution of genetic diversity and differentiation.
AQUATIC CONSERVATION-MARINE AND FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jerome G. Prunier, Geraldine Loot, Charlotte Veyssiere, Nicolas Poulet, Simon Blanchet
Summary: Hyperfragmentation of rivers by anthropogenic barriers is a major threat to biodiversity. Restoration policies are being adopted worldwide to mitigate these impacts, particularly those on fish connectivity. The F-INDEX outperformed traditional genetic tools, detecting barriers more efficiently, and thereby improving estimates of recovery of connectivity following restoration. Restoration actions systematically improved genetic connectivity, sometimes completely and in just a few months, with an overall halving of fragmentation levels. Our study demonstrates that current restoration policies are recovering genetic connectivity efficiently, and that practitioners may benefit from the F-INDEX as a new operational tool to assess barrier strength for nonmigratory organisms and to plan and monitor riverine restoration.
CONSERVATION LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Paul Castagne, Ivan Paz-Vinas, Stephanie Bouletreau, Jessica Ferriol, Geraldine Loot, Charlotte Veyssiere, Robert Arlinghaus, Robert Britton, Marlene Chiarello, Emili Garcia-Berthou, Pavel Horky, Delphine Nicolas, Annamaria Nocita, Oscar Nordahl, Michaël Ovidio, Filipe Ribeiro, Ondrej Slavik, Chloe Vagnon, Simon Blanchet, Frederic Santoul
Summary: Biological invasions are a significant component of global change, but they can also have negative impacts on native populations. Efficient management policies are needed to prevent the spread of invasive species in non-native areas while protecting native populations. Genetic variation analysis can help assess the genetic state, identify invasion pathways, determine management strategies, and identify populations requiring conservation measures.
BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Chloe Schmidt, Sean Hoban, Margaret Hunter, Ivan Paz-Vinas, Colin J. Garroway
Summary: The IUCN Red List is an important tool for assessing extinction risk, but it does not consider genetic diversity. Previous studies have shown that species with higher extinction risk tend to have lower genetic diversity across all marker types.
CONSERVATION BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Simon Blanchet, Laura Fargeot, Allan Raffard
Summary: This paper proposes using candidate genes phylogenetically-conserved across species as an inclusive biodiversity unit that transcends the intra- and interspecific boundaries, deepening our understanding of how evolution has shaped biodiversity and how biodiversity alters ecological dynamics. The framework combines knowledge from functional genomics and functional ecology, providing guidelines and examples for identifying phylogenetically-conserved candidate genes (PCCGs) within communities and measuring biodiversity from PCCGs. This framework also links biodiversity measured at PCCGs to ecosystem functions and highlights the eco-evolutionary processes shaping PCCG diversity patterns.
Article
Ecology
Laura Fargeot, Camille Poesy, Maxim Lefort, Jerome G. Prunier, Madoka Krick, Charlotte Veyssiere, Murielle Richard, Chiara Mercier, Morgan Sautreuil, Natan Huberson, Nadia Langford, Delphine Legrand, Geraldine Loot, Simon Blanchet
Summary: Testing the spatial co-variation of biodiversity across trophic levels is important for understanding biodiversity patterns. However, there is limited research on the co-variation across multiple trophic levels. In this study, we collected data on genomic and species diversity in a riverine freshwater ecosystem across three trophic levels. We found no spatial co-variation of biodiversity across trophic levels, indicating that global biodiversity patterns in rivers may be idiosyncratic.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Sean Hoban, Jessica M. da Silva, Alicia Mastretta-Yanes, Catherine E. Grueber, Myriam Heuertz, Margaret E. Hunter, Joachim Mergeay, Ivan Paz-Vinas, Keiichi Fukaya, Fumiko Ishihama, Rebecca Jordan, Viktoria Koppa, Maria Camilla Latorre-Cardenas, Anna J. MacDonald, Victor Rincon-Parra, Per Sjogren-Gulve, Naoki Tani, Henrik Thurfjell, Linda Laikre
Summary: Recent scientific evidence emphasizes the importance of maintaining and monitoring genetic diversity for the protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Three genetic diversity indicators, including non-DNA based assessments, have been proposed for reporting to the Convention on Biological Diversity and other conservation initiatives. These indicators allow for an approximation of genetic diversity using existing demographic and geographic information, informing policy decisions. Ongoing efforts in calculating and applying these indicators, as well as addressing implementation challenges, are described, highlighting the potential of using existing biodiversity observation data to report on genetic diversity.
CONSERVATION LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jerome G. Prunier, Charlotte Veyssiere, Geraldine Loot, Simon Blanchet
Summary: Biodiversity is in crisis and efforts are needed to conserve natural populations, especially in river ecosystems. The use of molecular tools has gained popularity for conservation practices in rivers, but the superiority of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) over short tandem repeats (STRs) is still debated. This study compared the usefulness of STRs and SNPs to study genetic variability in freshwater fish species in southern France. SNPs provided more precise estimates of genetic diversity and differentiation, but both markers detected similar genetic structures that could be useful for conservation. The choice of marker should be based on research questions and available resources.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Laurine Gouthier, Eloise Duval, Simon Blanchet, Geraldine Loot, Charlotte Veyssiere, Maxime Galan, Erwan Quemere, Lisa Jacquin
Summary: The study investigated how environmental gradients in a river network shape the spatial patterns of genetic diversity and differentiation in wild brown trout populations. The results showed that both the distance from the confluence and the centrality on the river network can explain the variation in genetic diversity and differentiation. Both neutral and functional markers followed a similar pattern, with higher genetic diversity and lower genetic differentiation in populations that were closer to the confluence and/or more central.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jerome G. Prunier, Mathieu Chevalier, Allan Raffard, Geraldine Loot, Nicolas Poulet, Simon Blanchet
Summary: Experimental evidence indicates that genetic diversity can promote biomass stability, but does this process occur in wild populations? Focusing on three freshwater fish species from two river basins in southwestern France, this study shows that the biomass of genetically diversified populations has been more stable in recent decades than populations that have suffered from genetic erosion.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Biology
Flavien Garcia, Ivan Paz-Vinas, Arnaud Gaujard, Julian D. Olden, Julien Cucherousset
Summary: Understanding how obligate freshwater organisms colonize seemingly isolated ecosystems has long fascinated ecologists. Recent investigations reveal that fish eggs can survive the digestive tract of birds and hatch successfully once deposited. This study provides multiple lines of evidence supporting the avian zoochory as a probable pathway for fish colonization of remote or newly-formed freshwater ecosystems, using European perch as a case study.