Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Rowan Sprague, Philip E. Hulme, Elena Moltchanova, William Godsoe
Summary: This study introduces a novel approach to estimate spatial processes affecting population growth, comparing estimates at plot scales and landscape scales, and finding significant differences between mean field estimates and landscape estimates.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Qianqian Zhao, Yixin Diao, Yue Weng, Zixin Huang, Bojian Gu, Yiqian Wu, Yihan Wang, Qing Zhao, Fang Wang
Summary: Human-wildlife conflicts in cities are increasing worldwide, posing challenges to urban biodiversity management and landscape planning. This study uses ensemble and circuit modeling to predict suitable raccoon dog habitat and identify potential dispersal pathways, providing a foundation for precautionary management strategies. The research reveals a positive association between raccoon dog distribution and anthropogenic factors, and predicts potential conflict areas.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Lucien Besnard, Brandyn M. M. Lucca, Oliver N. N. Shipley, Gael Le Croizier, Raul O. Martinez-Rincon, Jeroen E. E. Sonke, David Point, Felipe Galvan-Magana, Edouard Kraffe, Sae Yun Kwon, Gauthier Schaal
Summary: The management of migratory taxa relies on understanding their movements, including ontogenetic habitat shifts from nurseries to adult habitats. In the Mexican Pacific, research has found that smooth hammerhead sharks rely heavily on coastal habitats for 2 years after birth, supporting the need for management decisions regarding size limits in coastal fisheries.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Rassim Khelifa, Hayat Mahdjoub, Leithen K. M'Gonigle, Claire Kremen
Summary: The use of high-speed videos (HSV) improves resighting rates and survival rate estimations for dragonfly species, compared to conventional eye observations. Including HSV in studies increased resights and survival probability estimates, enhancing the credibility intervals for these demographic parameters in dragonfly species. This method shows potential for expanding research possibilities on traditionally difficult-to-monitor species, such as insects and birds.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Review
Biodiversity Conservation
Cendrine Mony, Lea Uroy, Fadwa Khalfallah, Nick Haddad, Philippe Vandenkoornhuyse
Summary: Land use changes have led to a decrease in global biodiversity, and increasing landscape connectivity is proposed as a key strategy to counterbalance the negative effects of habitat fragmentation. However, the existing framework on connectivity has overlooked microorganisms, which represent a significant proportion of Earth's biodiversity. This review explores the influence of connectivity on microorganisms and highlights the need for further research to understand their response to connectivity and its implications for microbial communities and ecosystem services.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Emily Zepeda, Eric Payne, Ashley Wurth, Andrew Sih, Stanley Gehrt
Summary: Natal dispersal plays a key role in connecting individual behavior with ecological processes, especially in urban environments. The study found that coyotes with more developed habitat in their natal home range were more likely to disperse and travel farther. However, the relationship between natal habitat and habitat selection during settlement produced mixed results, while early life experience with urbanization did not seem to influence survival to adulthood or vehicular mortality.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Jie Hu, Philippe Vandenkoornhuyse, Fadwa Khalfallah, Romain Causse-Vedrines, Cendrine Mony
Summary: This study investigates the effect of corridors on the dynamics of plant root endospheric fungal assemblages, and finds that connected plants have higher species richness, lower beta-diversity, and more deterministic assembly compared to isolated plants, with these effects becoming more pronounced as host plants develop.
Article
Ecology
Frances E. Buderman, James H. Devries, David N. Koons
Summary: Climate and land use change present significant threats to global biodiversity, but each species responds differently to these changes. This study used a large-scale dataset of waterfowl species in the US and Canada to assess species-specific responses to climate and land use variables. It found heterogeneity in these responses, highlighting the importance of multi-species monitoring and analysis. The study also identified relationships between species' life-history traits and their responses to environmental change.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Jennifer Zavalnitskaya, Elias H. Bloom, Zsofia Szendrei
Summary: This study investigates the influence of non-crop habitats on the overwintering success of pest populations, using the asparagus beetle as a case study. The researchers found that the abundance of overwintering asparagus beetles was highest in areas with deciduous leaves and decomposing asparagus stalks. Additionally, the abundance of dead trees in adjacent woodlots was negatively correlated with adult beetle abundance. Landscape analysis revealed that deciduous forest within 1250 m of sites increased beetle abundance in focal asparagus fields, while asparagus production at spatial scales greater than 1500 m suppressed their populations.
AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Allan H. Edelsparre, Mark J. Fitzpatrick, Marco A. Rodriguez, Marla B. Sokolowski
Summary: The dispersal tendency of fruit flies is influenced by the distribution and pattern of food patches across a landscape. Different genotypes may adopt different dispersal strategies under varying environmental conditions.
Article
Ecology
Rebecca Wheatley, Jessie C. Buettel, Barry W. Brook, Christopher N. Johnson, Rory P. Wilson
Summary: Animals adjust their habitat use based on the energy demands of movement and the risk of predation, but recent research suggests they also take into account the risk of accidents in their movement decisions. The study proposes a theoretical framework describing how physical landscape features interact with animal characteristics to affect the risk of accidents, emphasizing the need for future research to test these hypotheses in different real-world systems.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Morgan J. DuBois, Nathan E. Putman, Susan E. Piacenza
Summary: Ocean circulation models are vital in studying the transport of hatchling sea turtles, as they revealed that various physical factors and annual variability influence the transport of hatchlings in their first month. The beaches where turtles hatch from and the year of hatching may shape their early life and transport speed into the open ocean.
Article
Plant Sciences
David Hohl, Teodora Stoycheva, R. Julia Kilgour, Elsa C. Anderson, Jalene M. LaMontagne
Summary: In urban ecosystems, tree cavities are influenced by tree health, management, and cavity excavators, and their formation and persistence are affected by changes in vegetation structure, human use patterns, and the built environment. Highly-managed parks and residential habitats have lower abundance of decayed trees and therefore fewer cavities compared to forests, while stability of cavity abundance over time is observed in managed habitats. The probability of cavity presence is increased with larger tree size and higher levels of tree decay, but this association varies between habitat types and years.
URBAN FORESTRY & URBAN GREENING
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Andreas Lemke, Sascha Buchholz, Ingo Kowarik, Uwe Starfinger, Moritz von der Lippe
Summary: The study analyzed the population dynamics of common ragweed in a road network in Germany, finding that traffic intensity and roadside habitat features significantly affect the invasion process. High traffic facilitates ragweed invasion, while less suitable roadside habitats can slow down the invasion process.
Article
Entomology
Jordan P. Cuff, Fredric M. Windsor, Emma C. Gilmartin, Lynne Boddy, T. Hefin Jones
Summary: The study found significant differences in the biological communities inhabiting rot holes with different environmental conditions, with environmental conditions playing a crucial role in shaping the structure of invertebrate communities. The strong link between environmental conditions and invertebrate communities in rot holes suggests the importance of promoting environmental heterogeneity to enhance invertebrate diversity in deadwood habitats.
JOURNAL OF INSECT SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Soil Science
Melanie Armbruster, Tim Goodall, Penny R. Hirsch, Nick Ostle, Jeremy Puissant, Kate C. Fagan, Richard F. Pywell, Robert I. Griffiths
Summary: The study found that land-use intensification can reduce soil carbon stocks and alter microbial community biodiversity and functionality. By surveying unimproved calcareous grasslands and local arable lands, consistent responses of specific microbial taxa to management across geographic scales were identified as key drivers of soil restoration, providing site-independent indicators for calcareous grassland soil function restoration.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Markus Wagner, Lucy Hulmes, Sarah Hulmes, Marek Nowakowski, John W. Redhead, Richard F. Pywell
Summary: The study compared the effectiveness of green-hay transfer and diverse seed mixtures in restoring species-rich grazed meadows, finding that both methods yielded similar results. However, high flood risk areas, along with associated edaphic factors like high phosphorus availability, negatively impacted restoration progress.
RESTORATION ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
James M. Bullock, Morag E. McCracken, Michael J. Bowes, Roselle E. Chapman, Anil R. Graves, Shelley A. Hinsley, Michael G. Hutchins, Marek Nowakowski, David J. E. Nicholls, Simon Oakley, Gareth H. Old, Nicholas J. Ostle, John W. Redhead, Ben A. Woodcock, Tom Bedwell, Sarah Mayes, Vicky S. Robinson, Richard F. Pywell
Summary: Agri-environmental management aims to enhance delivery of multiple ecosystem services through a range of actions, rather than relying on individual measures. Experimental study on a commercial farm in southern England showed that different agri-environmental actions had varied effects on ecosystem services, suggesting a need for farmers to adopt a suite of options to maximize benefits.
AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Claire Carvell, Nadine Mitschunas, Rachel McDonald, Sarah Hulmes, Lucy Hulmes, Rory S. O'Connor, Michael P. D. Garratt, Simon G. Potts, Michelle T. Fountain, Dinara Sadykova, Mike Edwards, Marek Nowakowski, Richard F. Pywell, John W. Redhead
Summary: Sown wildflower areas can increase the abundance of flower-visiting insects, but their benefits for other insect groups are limited. The successful establishment and maintenance of sown wildflower areas rely on appropriate management practices.
BASIC AND APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
John W. Redhead, Richard Burkmar, Mike Brown, Richard F. Pywell
Summary: E-Planner is a free web-based application that provides detailed maps of agricultural land in Great Britain for environmental enhancement. The information provided by E-Planner is important for spatial targeting of farm management, maximizing crop production and environmental delivery efficiency. The methods used by E-Planner for collating and presenting data on environmental constraints and drivers are widely applicable.
ENVIRONMENTAL MODELLING & SOFTWARE
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Willem Proesmans, Christopher Andrews, Alan Gray, Rob Griffiths, Aidan Keith, Uffe N. Nielsen, David Spurgeon, Richard Pywell, Bridget Emmett, Adam J. Vanbergen
Summary: Cattle grazing has profound effects on the abiotic and biotic characteristics of forest ecosystems, including modifications to soil environment and changes in microbial and invertebrate communities.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Cecily E. D. Goodwin, Luca Butikofer, Jack H. Hatfield, Paul M. Evans, James M. Bullock, Jonathan Storkey, Andrew Mead, Goetz M. Richter, Peter A. Henrys, Richard F. Pywell, John W. Redhead
Summary: Due to the increasing demand for food and environmental services, agriculture needs to deliver multiple outcomes. Characterizing differences across agricultural landscapes is crucial in exploring spatial patterns in land capacity. Creating characterizations at multiple levels allows policymakers and land managers to harmonize ecosystem services delivery. Understanding variation within and between agricultural landscapes and farming practices has implications for environmental sustainability and food security.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
John W. Redhead, Shelley A. Hinsley, Marc S. Botham, Richard K. Broughton, Stephen N. Freeman, Paul E. Bellamy, Gavin Siriwardena, Zoe Randle, Marek Nowakowski, Matthew S. Heard, Richard F. Pywell
Summary: Despite decades of research and implementation of agri-environment schemes (AES), farmland biodiversity continues to decline. However, a 10-year study on bird and butterfly species in a farmland landscape in southern England showed that areas with AES intervention had stable or increasing species abundance, in contrast to equivalent landscapes without AES. These findings emphasize the importance of delivering and monitoring high-quality AES options for biodiversity conservation.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
William N. W. Fincham, John W. Redhead, Ben A. Woodcock, Richard F. Pywell
Summary: This study investigates the factors that limit agricultural yield and explores the relationships between in-field yield patterns and local landscape context. The findings suggest that proximity to the field edge and the presence of semi-natural habitats in the surrounding landscape can reduce crop yields. The study highlights the need for high-resolution environmental data to inform precision agriculture management and environmental policies.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ben A. Woodcock, Anna E. Oliver, Lindsay K. Newbold, H. Soon Gweon, Daniel S. Read, Ujala Sayed, Joanna Savage, Jim Bacon, Emily Upcott, Katherine Howell, Katharine Turvey, David B. Roy, M. Gloria Pereira, Darren Sleep, Arran Greenop, Richard F. Pywell
Summary: This study utilized a national citizen science monitoring scheme to quantify the impact of agricultural intensification on honeybee diet breadth, finding a negative correlation between species richness of forage plants and arable cropping area. In intensively farmed areas, honeybee diets were dominated by Brassica crops, and the prevalence of Deformed Wing Virus in bees increased in agricultural land with high use of foliar insecticides.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Richard K. Broughton, James M. Bullock, Charles George, France Gerard, Marta Maziarz, Wesley E. Payne, Paul A. Scholefield, Daniel Wade, Richard F. Pywell
Summary: Passive rewilding is a method of expanding woodland cover and restoring biodiversity by abandoning land management and allowing natural vegetation succession to occur. In a case study over 33 years, researchers found that passive rewilding resulted in the development of a distinctive habitat mosaic, supporting a locally distinctive bird community. Wetland and woodland bird species increased compared to nearby farmland, while farmland bird species declined.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Emily V. Upcott, Peter A. Henrys, John W. Redhead, Susan G. Jarvis, Richard F. Pywell
Summary: Cropping decisions have significant impacts on agricultural management strategies and environmental outcomes. Mapping and predicting crop rotations enable targeted mitigation measures and risk forecasting. The study demonstrates the complexity of crop rotations and suggests their importance across disciplines beyond agronomy and ecology.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Dafydd M. O. Elias, Kelly E. Mason, Katherine Howell, Nadine Mitschunas, Lucy Hulmes, Sarah Hulmes, Inma Lebron, Richard F. Pywell, Niall P. McNamara
Summary: Grasslands contribute 30% of global terrestrial carbon, mostly stored in soils, and provide essential ecosystem services. Research on extending grassland reseeding cycle to increase stable soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks is limited, hindering effective grassland management for climate change mitigation.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Entomology
Michelle T. Fountain, Konstantinos Tsiolis, Celine X. Silva, Greg Deakin, Michael P. D. Garratt, Rory O'Connor, Claire Carvell, Richard F. Pywell, Michael Edwards, Simon G. Potts
Summary: This project aimed to identify the nest locations of ground-nesting bees in apple orchards and determine the factors that influence their nest selection. Most of the nests were found in the bare ground underneath the apple trees. Fourteen species of ground-nesting bees were identified in the orchards. Therefore, maintaining bare ground areas in apple orchards can improve nesting opportunities for ground-nesting bees and enhance pollination.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Louise J. Slater, Chris Huntingford, Richard F. Pywell, John W. Redhead, Elizabeth J. Kendon
Summary: Recent extreme weather events in the UK have had severe impacts on crop yields, raising concerns about the effect of climate change on wheat production. This study investigates the impacts of climate change on wheat yields in the country and finds that the volatility of wheat yields has increased in recent years, with climate impacts being strongest during years with compound weather extremes. Projections show that while average temperatures and precipitation are likely to increase during certain wheat growth stages in the future, statistical models suggest that wheat yields will continue to grow. However, the study highlights that wheat farming in the UK may face new weather conditions outside of its historical climate envelope.
EARTH SYSTEM DYNAMICS
(2022)