Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Szabolcs Szamado, Flora Samu, Karoly Takacs
Summary: Understanding how animals and humans can reliably signal is crucial for explaining the evolution of communication. The traditional Handicap Principle suggests that honest signals must be costly, but subsequent game theoretical models propose that honesty can be maintained by the potential cost of cheating. We conducted a laboratory experiment with human participants and found that trade-off manipulation had a greater impact on the reliability of communication than manipulating the cost of signal production. Contrary to the predictions of the Handicap Principle, negative production cost promoted high levels of honesty.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Szabolcs Szamado, Flora Samu, Karoly Takacs
Summary: The reliable signaling between animals and humans is a key issue in biology and social sciences, and honesty in signals can be maintained through differential trade-offs rather than high costs. The results of a laboratory experiment with human participants showed that manipulation of trade-offs had a greater influence on communication reliability, with negative production costs promoting honesty to a high level.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Thomas James Ellis, Froukje M. Postma, Christopher G. Oakley, Jon Agren
Summary: Resources used for survival cannot be used for increasing fecundity, but the extent of this trade-off depends on overall resource status. Adaptation to different environments may involve the evolution of traits that enhance individuals' ability to acquire resources.
Article
Immunology
Nana Nguefang Laure, Juhee Ahn
Summary: This study evaluates the trade-offs between phage resistance and antibiotic resistance in Salmonella Typhimurium exposed to phage PBST10 and antibiotics. The results show that the presence of phages increases the susceptibility of STKCCM to ampicillin, while combination treatments of phages and antibiotics result in greater fitness costs. In addition, there is an association between tolC and antibiotic susceptibility.
MICROBIAL PATHOGENESIS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Juliano Morimoto, Pedro Conceicao, Christen Mirth, Mathieu Lihoreau
Summary: Animals regulate their food intake to maximize fitness traits, but they must trade off optimal expression of some traits due to differences in nutrient requirements. Previous methods to measure nutritional trade-offs were subjective, conceptually difficult, computationally expensive, and sometimes inaccurate. This study presents a simple trigonometric model, nutrigonometry, to measure nutritional trade-offs in multidimensional landscapes, which is easier to understand and use than previous approaches. The results show that polynomial (Bayesian) regressions can accurately predict peaks and valleys in performance landscapes, irrespective of data structure. Nutrigonometry enables fast, reliable, and reproducible quantification of nutritional trade-offs, broadening the potential for evolutionary nutrition research.
AMERICAN NATURALIST
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Rocco F. Notarnicola, Adrienne B. Nicotra, Loeske E. B. Kruuk, Pieter A. Arnold
Summary: This study investigates the effects of climate warming on the trade-off between seed size and number in an alpine plant. The results show that warming during parental growth reduces both seed size and number, but does not affect germination. This highlights the detrimental effect of warming on parental fitness and the potential risk of climate change for alpine plant communities.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Physiology
Guilherme Martins Limberger, Kathellen Pintado Esteves, Lamia Marques Halal, Luiz Eduardo Maia Nery, Duane Barros da Fonseca
Summary: Physiological trade-offs between reproduction and immunity are common in animals. This study examines the effects of a chronic immune response on survival and reproduction in female Gryllus assimilis. The results show that chronic immune response has negative effects on female survival and reproduction, and also affects the feeding behavior of females.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY B-BIOCHEMICAL SYSTEMS AND ENVIRONMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Zoology
Nikole E. Freeman, D. Ryan Norris, Alex O. Sutton, Dan Strickland, T. Kurt Kyser, Amy E. M. Newman
Summary: Individuals undergo significant physiological and behavioral changes during development, influenced by diet composition, feather corticosterone levels, and environmental conditions. The study on Canada jays revealed that nestling physiology and body condition can affect social status and body condition in juveniles post-independence, potentially impacting survival and fitness in the long term.
INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biology
Kristen M. Lalla, Shannon Whelan, Karl Brown, Allison Patterson, Ana Gabriela Jimenez, Scott A. Hatch, Kyle H. Elliott
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2020)
Article
Ecology
Girma Shumi, Patricia Rodrigues, Jan Hanspach, Werner Haerdtle, Kristoffer Hylander, Feyera Senbeta, Joern Fischer, Jannik Schultner
Summary: The study found that different land use types have rich woody plant species and ecosystem services, and species diversity is positively correlated with ecosystem services diversity.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Tolera Senbeto Jiren, Julia Leventon, Nicolas W. Jager, Ine Dorresteijn, Jannik Schultner, Feyera Senbeta, Arvid Bergsten, Joern Fischer
Summary: Addressing governance challenges is crucial for ensuring food security and biodiversity conservation, including issues related to institutional structure and policy coherence. Our study found that many challenges impact not only individual sectors, but also present obstacles for overall governance.
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Biology
Fred Tremblay, Shannon Whelan, Emily S. Choy, Scott A. Hatch, Kyle H. Elliott
Summary: This study developed a novel method for comparing active and resting costs in seabirds during incubation and chick rearing, and found that resting costs were higher during incubation. Therefore, it is important to consider both active and resting costs when assessing energy expenditure.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Maria Brueck, David J. J. Abson, Joern Fischer, Jannik Schultner
Summary: Traditional aggregate assessments of ecosystem services cannot address equity issues effectively. This conceptual paper emphasizes the importance of disaggregation and proposes four dimensions for assessing equity implications in ecosystem services appropriation. It also presents a structured approach to conducting disaggregated assessments, which can provide crucial information for understanding the implications of changing natural resource management and ecosystem services appropriation.
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Joern Fischer, David J. Abson, Ine Dorresteijn, Jan Hanspach, Tibor Hartel, Jannik Schultner, Kate Sherren
Summary: The leverage points perspective was used to compare three in-depth social-ecological case studies, revealing similar sustainability problems at the design and intent levels across different systems. This highlights the underlying challenges for rural sustainability worldwide and emphasizes the importance of considering system characteristics when implementing interventions.
ECOSYSTEMS AND PEOPLE
(2022)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Patricia Rodrigues, Aisa O. Manlosa, Joern Fischer, Jannik Schultner, Jan Hanspach, Feyera Senbeta, Ine Dorresteijn
Summary: The population-environment-food nexus is a major challenge for the Global South, especially in Africa. This study explores the determinants of women's fertility preferences in rural southwestern Ethiopia. The findings suggest that perceptions of future trends in key stressors have little effect on fertility preferences, except for perceptions of human population growth. The influence of social-cultural norms, religion, and gender equity also play a role in shaping fertility preferences.
SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Dula Wakassa Duguma, Elizabeth Law, Girma Shumi, Patricia Rodrigues, Feyera Senbeta, Jannik Schultner, David J. Abson, Joern Fischer
Summary: The aim of this study was to model woody plant species richness in southwestern Ethiopia and predict the impact of future land-use changes on biodiversity. The results showed that scenarios focused on mining and food production would lead to significant biodiversity loss, while a scenario prioritizing gain over grain could maintain biodiversity relative to the baseline. Only the scenario combining coffee and conservation showed positive changes in biodiversity in the long term.
Article
Ecology
Maria Brueck, Joern Fischer, Elizabeth A. Law, Jannik Schultner, David J. Abson
Summary: The global shift toward agricultural specialization in the 20th century had significant ecological and socioeconomic impacts, but the drivers behind this specialization, such as comparative advantage and market participation, remain understudied.
ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Girma Shumi, Hannah Wahler, Maraja Riechers, Feyera Senbeta, David J. Abson, Jannik Schultner, Joern Fischer
Summary: Addressing ecosystem destruction and unsustainable development requires comprehensive investigation of social-ecological systems. In this study focusing on woody plant management in southwestern Ethiopia, a social-ecological resilience and leverage points perspective was combined to assess stakeholders' perceptions and operationalizations of resilience principles, investigate resilience challenges and solutions, and analyze stakeholder groups' perspectives on system depth. The findings identified limited application of resilience principles, with a focus on deeper systemic change. Based on this, the study suggests fostering bottom-up changes, drawing on local knowledge, and further research on combining social-ecological resilience and leverage points perspectives.
ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Tolera Senbeto Jiren, David James Abson, Jannik Schultner, Maraja Riechers, Joern Fischer
Summary: Many landscapes in sub-Saharan Africa are changing rapidly, with negative impacts. To address these impacts, proactive landscape planning is necessary. Scenario planning, which generates narratives of possible future landscape change, has been used to support decisions, but backcasting-the envisioning of a desirable future landscape and identifying pathways to reach it-has been rarely applied in landscape planning due to challenges including group dynamics.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Maria Brueck, Jannik Schultner, Birhanu Bekele Negash, Dadi Feyisa Damu, David J. Abson
Summary: Recognizing the diversity of preferences and values ascribed to ecosystems in decision-making can lead to more sustainable and equitable policies. This study examines the relationship between rankings of ecosystem products, individual characteristics, social-ecological context, and values ascribed to each product. The study finds that people often attribute multiple values to each ecosystem product, and that direct use and relational values are more important than exchange or intrinsic values in determining overall importance rankings.
Article
Ecology
Dula W. Duguma, Jannik Schultner, David J. Abson, Joern Fischer
Summary: This study presents an approach to translate scenario narratives into spatially explicit land use maps and integrates participatory, narrative-based scenario research to assess the social-ecological outcomes of different future scenarios. Translating narratives into maps helps understand and communicate potential land use changes and facilitates a more spatially nuanced approach to adapting to broad scale socioeconomic changes.
ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Joern Fischer, Arvid Bergsten, Ine Dorresteijn, Jan Hanspach, Kristoffer Hylander, Tolera S. Jiren, Aisa O. Manlosa, Patricia Rodrigues, Jannik Schultner, Feyera Senbeta, Girma Shumi
Summary: The study emphasizes the importance of a multifaceted, social-ecological approach in addressing challenges around food security and biodiversity conservation. While specialist species require undisturbed forests, farmland also plays a crucial role in supporting various species and ecosystem services. Diversified livelihoods can enhance smallholder food security, but lack of access to resources and crop raiding by wild animals can have negative impacts on food security.
ECOSYSTEMS AND PEOPLE
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Tolera S. Jiren, Jan Hanspach, Jannik Schultner, Joern Fischer, Arvid Bergsten, Feyera Senbeta, Kristoffer Hylander, Ine Dorresteijn
ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY
(2020)