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Sanders D, Hirt MR, Brose U, Evans DM, Gaston KJ, Gauzens B, Ryser R. How artificial light at night may rewire ecological networks: concepts and models. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20220368. [PMID: 37899020 PMCID: PMC10613535 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0368] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 10/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Artificial light at night (ALAN) is eroding natural light cycles and thereby changing species distributions and activity patterns. Yet little is known about how ecological interaction networks respond to this global change driver. Here, we assess the scientific basis of the current understanding of community-wide ALAN impacts. Based on current knowledge, we conceptualize and review four major pathways by which ALAN may affect ecological interaction networks by (i) impacting primary production, (ii) acting as an environmental filter affecting species survival, (iii) driving the movement and distribution of species, and (iv) changing functional roles and niches by affecting activity patterns. Using an allometric-trophic network model, we then test how a shift in temporal activity patterns for diurnal, nocturnal and crepuscular species impacts food web stability. The results indicate that diel niche shifts can severely impact community persistence by altering the temporal overlap between species, which leads to changes in interaction strengths and rewiring of networks. ALAN can thereby lead to biodiversity loss through the homogenization of temporal niches. This integrative framework aims to advance a predictive understanding of community-level and ecological-network consequences of ALAN and their cascading effects on ecosystem functioning. This article is part of the theme issue 'Light pollution in complex ecological systems'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dirk Sanders
- Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Myriam R. Hirt
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 07737 Jena, Germany
| | - Ulrich Brose
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 07737 Jena, Germany
| | - Darren M. Evans
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
| | - Kevin J. Gaston
- Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Benoit Gauzens
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 07737 Jena, Germany
| | - Remo Ryser
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 07737 Jena, Germany
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Zhang X, Dalsgaard B, Staab M, Zhu C, Zhao Y, Gonçalves F, Ren P, Cai C, Qiao G, Ding P, Si X. Habitat fragmentation increases specialization of multi-trophic interactions by high species turnover. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20231372. [PMID: 37876189 PMCID: PMC10598433 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1372] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2023] [Accepted: 10/02/2023] [Indexed: 10/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Habitat fragmentation is altering species interactions worldwide. However, the mechanisms underlying the response of network specialization to habitat fragmentation remain unknown, especially for multi-trophic interactions. We here collected a large dataset consisting of 2670 observations of tri-trophic interactions among plants, sap-sucking aphids and honeydew-collecting ants on 18 forested islands in the Thousand Island Lake, China. For each island, we constructed an antagonistic plant-aphid and a mutualistic aphid-ant network, and tested how network specialization varied with island area and isolation. We found that both networks exhibited higher specialization on smaller islands, while only aphid-ant networks had increased specialization on more isolated islands. Variations in network specialization among islands was primarily driven by species turnover, which was interlinked across trophic levels as fragmentation increased the specialization of both antagonistic and mutualistic networks through bottom-up effects via plant and aphid communities. These findings reveal that species on small and isolated islands display higher specialization mainly due to effects of fragmentation on species turnover, with behavioural changes causing interaction rewiring playing only a minor role. Our study highlights the significance of adopting a multi-trophic perspective when exploring patterns and processes in structuring ecological networks in fragmented landscapes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xue Zhang
- MOE Key Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis and Protection, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, People's Republic of China
- Section for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 2100, Denmark
| | - Bo Dalsgaard
- Section for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 2100, Denmark
| | - Michael Staab
- Technical University Darmstadt, Ecological Networks, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Chen Zhu
- MOE Key Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis and Protection, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, People's Republic of China
- Section for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 2100, Denmark
| | - Yuhao Zhao
- Zhejiang Zhoushan Archipelago Observation and Research Station, Institute of Eco-Chongming, Zhejiang Tiantong Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, People's Republic of China
| | - Fernando Gonçalves
- Section for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 2100, Denmark
| | - Peng Ren
- MOE Key Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis and Protection, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, People's Republic of China
| | - Chang Cai
- MOE Key Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis and Protection, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, People's Republic of China
| | - Gexia Qiao
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, People's Republic of China
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China
| | - Ping Ding
- MOE Key Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis and Protection, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, People's Republic of China
| | - Xingfeng Si
- Zhejiang Zhoushan Archipelago Observation and Research Station, Institute of Eco-Chongming, Zhejiang Tiantong Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, People's Republic of China
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Vizentin-Bugoni J, Maruyama PK. To rewire or not to rewire: To what extent rewiring to surviving partners can avoid extinction? J Anim Ecol 2023; 92:1676-1679. [PMID: 37670422 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13972] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 09/07/2023]
Abstract
Research Highlight: Leimberger, K.G., Hadley, A.S., & Betts, M.G. (2023). Plant-hummingbird pollination networks exhibit minimal rewiring after experimental removal of a locally abundant plant species. Journal of Animal Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13935. In this paper, Leimberger, Hadley and Betts (2023) explore the effects of removing a locally abundant plant species on plant-hummingbird pollination networks. They experimentally prevented access of hummingbirds to flowers of Heliconia tortuosa and assessed subsequent changes in the interactions between plants and hummingbirds. Their main hypothesis postulated that the loss of a highly connected species would lead to interaction rewiring and niche expansions by hummingbirds, decreasing individual, species and network specialization. However, they found that the overall structure of the plant-hummingbird networks remains mostly unaltered, with limited rewiring and minimal changes in specialization. The main contributions of this study can be summarized as (i) it adds to a limited number of manipulative studies on the capacity of species to rewire their interactions following the loss of partners, and importantly, it is the first study from the tropics and with vertebrate pollinators, for which experimental studies at appropriate scales is intrinsically more challenging; and (ii) innovates by evaluating change in specialization for the individual level, carried out through pollen sampling on the body of hummingbirds. The limited change in species interactions highlights that network stability through interaction rewiring may have been overestimated in previous studies, calling for further manipulative studies in the field. At the same time, it also indicated that even the loss of a highly abundant plant species has an overall small effect on network structure. Thus, this study contributes timely findings regarding the capacity of ecological communities to respond to species extinctions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeferson Vizentin-Bugoni
- Laboratório de Ecologia de Interações & Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biodiversidade Animal, Departamento de Ecologia Zoologia e Genética, Universidade Federal de Pelotas-UFPel, Pelotas, Brazil
| | - Pietro Kiyoshi Maruyama
- Centro de Síntese Ecológica e Conservação, Departamento de Genética, Ecologia e Evolução, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais-UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
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Wenda C, Gaitán-Espitia JD, Solano-Iguaran JJ, Nakamura A, Majcher BM, Ashton LA. Heat tolerance variation reveals vulnerability of tropical herbivore-parasitoid interactions to climate change. Ecol Lett 2023; 26:278-290. [PMID: 36468222 DOI: 10.1111/ele.14150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2022] [Revised: 10/24/2022] [Accepted: 11/09/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Assessing the heat tolerance (CTmax) of organisms is central to understand the impact of climate change on biodiversity. While both environment and evolutionary history affect CTmax, it remains unclear how these factors and their interplay influence ecological interactions, communities and ecosystems under climate change. We collected and reared caterpillars and parasitoids from canopy and ground layers in different seasons in a tropical rainforest. We tested the CTmax and Thermal Safety Margins (TSM) of these food webs with implications for how species interactions could shift under climate change. We identified strong influence of phylogeny in herbivore-parasitoid community heat tolerance. The TSM of all insects were narrower in the canopy and parasitoids had lower heat tolerance compared to their hosts. Our CTmax-based simulation showed higher herbivore-parasitoid food web instability under climate change than previously assumed, highlighting the vulnerability of parasitoids and related herbivore control in tropical rainforests, particularly in the forest canopy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cheng Wenda
- School of Ecology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Shenzhen, China.,State Key Laboratory of Biological Control, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Juan Diego Gaitán-Espitia
- SWIRE Institute of Marine Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Jaiber J Solano-Iguaran
- Departamento de Salud Hidrobiológica, División de Investigación en Acuicultura, Instituto de Fomento Pesquero, Puerto Montt, Chile
| | - Akihiro Nakamura
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, China
| | - Bartosz M Majcher
- Ecology and Biodiversity Area, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Louise A Ashton
- Ecology and Biodiversity Area, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
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Abstract
There is growing awareness of pollinator declines worldwide. Conservation efforts have mainly focused on finding the direct causes, while paying less attention to building a systemic understanding of the fragility of these communities of pollinators. To fill this gap, we need operational measures of network resilience that integrate two different approaches in theoretical ecology. First, we should consider the range of conditions compatible with the stable coexistence of all of the species in a community. Second, we should address the rate and shape of network collapse once this safe operational space is exited. In this review, we describe this integrative approach and consider several mechanisms that may enhance the resilience of pollinator communities, chiefly rewiring the network of interactions, increasing heterogeneity, allowing variance, and enhancing coevolution. The most pressing need is to develop ways to reduce the gap between these theoretical recommendations and practical applications. This perspective shifts the emphasis from traditional approaches focusing on the equilibrium states to strategies that allow pollination networks to cope with global environmental change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jordi Bascompte
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland;
| | - Marten Scheffer
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
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Schachat SR. Examining paleobotanical databases: Revisiting trends in angiosperm folivory and unlocking the paleoecological promise of propensity score matching and specification curve analysis. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.951547] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Paleobotany is at a crossroads. Long-term trends in the fossil record of plants, encompassing their interactions with herbivores and with the environment, are of the utmost relevance for predicting global change as pCO2 continues to rise. Large data compilations with the potential to elucidate those trends are increasingly easy to assemble and access. However, in contrast to modern ecology and unlike various other paleontological disciplines, paleobotany has a limited history of “big data” meta-analyses. Debates about how much data are needed to address particular questions, and about how to control for potential confounding variables, have not examined paleobotanical data. Here I demonstrate the importance of analytical best practices by applying them to a recent meta-analysis of fossil angiosperms. Two notable analytical methods discussed here are propensity score matching and specification curve analysis. The former has been used in the biomedical and behavioral sciences for decades; the latter is a more recent method of examining relationships between, and inherent biases among, models. Propensity score matching allows one to account for potential confounding variables in observational studies, and more fundamentally, provides a way to quantify whether it is possible to account for them. Specification curve analysis provides the opportunity to examine patterns across a variety of schemes for partitioning data—for example, whether fossil assemblages are binned temporally by stage, epoch, or period. To my knowledge, neither of these methods has been used previously in paleontology, however, their use permits more robust analysis of paleoecological datasets. In the example provided here, propensity score matching is used to separate latitudinal trends from differences in age, climate, and plant community composition. Specification curve analysis is used to examine the robustness of apparent latitudinal trends to the schema used for assigning fossil assemblages to latitudinal bins. These analytical methods have the potential to further unlock the promise of the plant fossil record for elucidating long-term ecological and evolutionary change.
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Burns C, Villalobos S, Vamosi JC. When less is more: Visitation by generalist pollinators can have neutral or negative effects on plant reproduction. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.1012809] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Selection for specialized coevolutionary relationships can arise if generalized opportunistic pollinators, while still delivering some pollen, operate as less effective pollen delivery agents. Nevertheless, generalization could buffer high-latitude communities from loss of specialist pollinator species by providing some pollination service. Currently, there is limited understanding of the ecosystem services provided by generalized pollinators and whether they increase the fitness of the plants they visit. Network data and thorough observations of floral visitors, paired with estimates of seed set, offer some insight into the role of generalists, which in turn can inform us about how plants are likely to respond to ecosystem disturbances, such as losses of some pollinators, or changes in land cover. Here, we report on plant-pollinator visitation networks in Canada with high levels of generalization and examine the effects of generalization on seed set under different disturbance histories. We also then take a case study of one crop wild relative, Rubus arcticus or Arctic raspberry, and report on a near-complete characterization of pollinator interactions in different environmental conditions. Our findings indicate that generalized pollinators, though frequent and robust to variable temperatures and moisture conditions, do not appear to play a strong role in increasing the reproductive output of many plant species, and may provide only a weak buffer against the stronger effects of disturbance.
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Mota FMM, Heming NM, Morante-Filho JC, Talora DC. Amount of bird suitable areas under climate change is modulated by morphological, ecological and geographical traits. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.987204] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Biodiversity is already experiencing the effects of climate change through range expansion, retraction, or relocation, potentializing negative effects of other threats. Future projections already indicate richness reduction and composition modifications of bird communities due to global warming, which may disrupt the provision of key ecological services to ecosystem maintenance. Here, we systematically review the effect of morphological, ecological, and geographical traits on the amount of future suitable area for birds worldwide. Specifically, we tested whether body mass, diet, habitat type, movement pattern, range size, and biogeographic realm affect birds' suitable area. Our search returned 75 studies that modeled the effects of climate change on 1,991 bird species. Our analyses included 1,661 species belonging to 128 families, representing 83% of the total, for which we were able to acquire all the six traits. The proportion of birds' suitable area was affected by range size, body mass, habitat type, and biogeographic realm, while diet and movement pattern showed lower relative importance and were not included in our final model. Contrary to expectations, the proportion of birds' suitable area was negatively related to range size, which may be explained by higher climatic stability predicted in certain areas that harbor species with restricted distribution. In contrast, we observed that birds presenting higher body mass will show an increase of the proportion of suitable area in the future. This is expected due to the high exposure of smaller birds to environmental changes and their difficulty to keep thermoregulation. Our results also indicated a low proportion of suitable area to forest-dependent birds, which is in accordance with their higher vulnerability due to specific requirements for reproduction and feeding. Finally, the proportion of suitable area was low for birds from Oceania, which is expected since the region encompasses small islands isolated from continents, preventing their species from reaching new suitable areas. Our study highlights that different traits should be considered when assessing extinction risk of species based on future projections, helping to improve bird conservation, especially the most vulnerable to climate change.
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