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Ritwika VPS, Gopinathan A, Yeakel JD. Beyond the kill: The allometry of predation behaviours among large carnivores. J Anim Ecol 2024; 93:554-566. [PMID: 38459609 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.14070] [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: 09/01/2023] [Accepted: 02/06/2024] [Indexed: 03/10/2024]
Abstract
The costs of foraging can be high while also carrying significant risks, especially for consumers feeding at the top of the food chain. To mitigate these risks, many predators supplement active hunting with scavenging and kleptoparasitic behaviours, in some cases specializing in these alternative modes of predation. The factors that drive differential utilization of these tactics from species to species are not well understood. Here, we use an energetics approach to investigate the survival advantages of hunting, scavenging and kleptoparasitism as a function of predator, prey and potential competitor body sizes for terrestrial mammalian carnivores. The results of our framework reveal that predator tactics become more diverse closer to starvation, while the deployment of scavenging and kleptoparasitism is strongly constrained by the ratio of predator to prey body size. Our model accurately predicts a behavioural transition away from hunting towards alternative modes of predation with increasing prey size for predators spanning an order of magnitude in body size, closely matching observational data across a range of species. We then show that this behavioural boundary follows an allometric power-law scaling relationship where the predator size scales with an exponent nearing 3/4 with prey size, meaning that this behavioural switch occurs at relatively larger threshold prey body size for larger carnivores. We suggest that our approach may provide a holistic framework for guiding future observational efforts exploring the diverse array of predator foraging behaviours.
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Affiliation(s)
- V P S Ritwika
- Department of Physics, UC Merced, Merced, California, USA
- Department of Communication, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Life and Environmental Sciences, UC Merced, Merced, California, USA
| | | | - Justin D Yeakel
- Life and Environmental Sciences, UC Merced, Merced, California, USA
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2
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Borofsky T, Feldman MW, Ram Y. Cultural transmission, competition for prey, and the evolution of cooperative hunting. Theor Popul Biol 2024; 156:12-21. [PMID: 38191077 DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2023.12.005] [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: 11/07/2023] [Revised: 12/07/2023] [Accepted: 12/20/2023] [Indexed: 01/10/2024]
Abstract
Although cooperative hunting is widespread among animals, its benefits are unclear. At low frequencies, cooperative hunting may allow predators to escape competition and access bigger prey that could not be caught by a lone cooperative predator. Cooperative hunting is a more successful strategy when it is common, but its spread can result in overhunting big prey, which may have a lower per-capita growth rate than small prey. We construct a one-predator species, two-prey species model in which predators either learn to hunt small prey alone or learn to hunt big prey cooperatively. Predators first learn vertically from parents, then horizontally (i.e. socially) from random individuals or siblings. After horizontal transmission, they hunt with their learning partner if both are cooperative, and otherwise they hunt alone. Cooperative hunting cannot evolve when initially rare unless predators (a) interact with siblings, or (b) horizontally transmit the cooperative behavior to potential hunting partners. Whereas competition for small prey favors cooperative hunting when this cooperation is initially rare, the frequency of cooperative hunting cannot reach 100% unless big prey is abundant. Furthermore, a mutant that increases horizontal learning can invade if cooperative hunting is present, but not at 100%, because horizontal learning allows pairs of predators to have the same strategy. Our results reveal that the interactions between prey availability, social learning, and degree of cooperation among predators may have important effects on ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Talia Borofsky
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | | | - Yoav Ram
- School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
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3
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Alton LA, Kutz T, Bywater CL, Lombardi E, Cockerell FE, Layh S, Winwood-Smith H, Arnold PA, Beaman JE, Walter GM, Monro K, Mirth CK, Sgrò CM, White CR. Temperature and nutrition do not interact to shape the evolution of metabolic rate. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2024; 379:20220484. [PMID: 38186272 PMCID: PMC10772606 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0484] [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: 06/06/2023] [Accepted: 09/22/2023] [Indexed: 01/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Metabolic cold adaptation, or Krogh's rule, is the controversial hypothesis that predicts a monotonically negative relationship between metabolic rate and environmental temperature for ectotherms living along thermal clines measured at a common temperature. Macrophysiological patterns consistent with Krogh's rule are not always evident in nature, and experimentally evolved responses to temperature have failed to replicate such patterns. Hence, temperature may not be the sole driver of observed variation in metabolic rate. We tested the hypothesis that temperature, as a driver of energy demand, interacts with nutrition, a driver of energy supply, to shape the evolution of metabolic rate to produce a pattern resembling Krogh's rule. To do this, we evolved replicate lines of Drosophila melanogaster at 18, 25 or 28°C on control, low-calorie or low-protein diets. Contrary to our prediction, we observed no effect of nutrition, alone or interacting with temperature, on adult female and male metabolic rates. Moreover, support for Krogh's rule was only in females at lower temperatures. We, therefore, hypothesize that observed variation in metabolic rate along environmental clines arises from the metabolic consequences of environment-specific life-history optimization, rather than because of the direct effect of temperature on metabolic rate. This article is part of the theme issue 'The evolutionary significance of variation in metabolic rates'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lesley A. Alton
- Centre for Geometric Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
| | - Teresa Kutz
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
| | - Candice L. Bywater
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
| | - Emily Lombardi
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
| | - Fiona E. Cockerell
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
| | - Sean Layh
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
| | - Hugh Winwood-Smith
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
| | - Pieter A. Arnold
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
| | - Julian E. Beaman
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
| | - Greg M. Walter
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
| | - Keyne Monro
- Centre for Geometric Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
| | - Christen K. Mirth
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
| | - Carla M. Sgrò
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
| | - Craig R. White
- Centre for Geometric Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
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4
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Kao AB, Hund AK, Santos FP, Young JG, Bhat D, Garland J, Oomen RA, McCreery HF. Opposing Responses to Scarcity Emerge from Functionally Unique Sociality Drivers. Am Nat 2023; 202:302-321. [PMID: 37606948 DOI: 10.1086/725426] [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] [Indexed: 08/23/2023]
Abstract
AbstractFrom biofilms to whale pods, organisms across taxa live in groups, thereby accruing numerous diverse benefits of sociality. All social organisms, however, pay the inherent cost of increased resource competition. One expects that when resources become scarce, this cost will increase, causing group sizes to decrease. Indeed, this occurs in some species, but there are also species for which group sizes remain stable or even increase under scarcity. What accounts for these opposing responses? We present a conceptual framework, literature review, and theoretical model demonstrating that differing responses to sudden resource shifts can be explained by which sociality benefit exerts the strongest selection pressure on a particular species. We categorize resource-related benefits of sociality into six functionally distinct classes and model their effect on the survival of individuals foraging in groups under different resource conditions. We find that whether, and to what degree, the optimal group size (or correlates thereof) increases, decreases, or remains constant when resource abundance declines depends strongly on the dominant sociality mechanism. Existing data, although limited, support our model predictions. Overall, we show that across a wide diversity of taxa, differences in how group size shifts in response to resource declines can be driven by differences in the primary benefits of sociality.
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5
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Glazier DS. The Relevance of Time in Biological Scaling. BIOLOGY 2023; 12:1084. [PMID: 37626969 PMCID: PMC10452035 DOI: 10.3390/biology12081084] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2023] [Revised: 07/13/2023] [Accepted: 07/31/2023] [Indexed: 08/27/2023]
Abstract
Various phenotypic traits relate to the size of a living system in regular but often disproportionate (allometric) ways. These "biological scaling" relationships have been studied by biologists for over a century, but their causes remain hotly debated. Here, I focus on the patterns and possible causes of the body-mass scaling of the rates/durations of various biological processes and life-history events, i.e., the "pace of life". Many biologists have regarded the rate of metabolism or energy use as the master driver of the "pace of life" and its scaling with body size. Although this "energy perspective" has provided valuable insight, here I argue that a "time perspective" may be equally or even more important. I evaluate various major ways that time may be relevant in biological scaling, including as (1) an independent "fourth dimension" in biological dimensional analyses, (2) a universal "biological clock" that synchronizes various biological rates/durations, (3) a scaling method that uses various biological time periods (allochrony) as scaling metrics, rather than various measures of physical size (allometry), as traditionally performed, (4) an ultimate body-size-related constraint on the rates/timing of biological processes/events that is set by the inevitability of death, and (5) a geological "deep time" approach for viewing the evolution of biological scaling patterns. Although previously proposed universal four-dimensional space-time and "biological clock" views of biological scaling are problematic, novel approaches using allochronic analyses and time perspectives based on size-related rates of individual mortality and species origination/extinction may provide new valuable insights.
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6
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Bibi F, Cantalapiedra JL. Plio-Pleistocene African megaherbivore losses associated with community biomass restructuring. Science 2023; 380:1076-1080. [PMID: 37289876 DOI: 10.1126/science.add8366] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 05/10/2023] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Fossil abundance data can reveal ecological dynamics underpinning taxonomic declines. Using fossil dental metrics, we reconstructed body mass and mass-abundance distributions in Late Miocene to recent African large mammal communities. Despite collection biases, fossil and extant mass-abundance distributions are highly similar, with unimodal distributions likely reflecting savanna environments. Above 45 kilograms, abundance decreases exponentially with mass, with slopes close to -0.75, as predicted by metabolic scaling. Furthermore, communities before ~4 million years ago had considerably more large-sized individuals, with a greater proportion of total biomass allocated in larger size categories, than did later communities. Over time, individuals and biomass were redistributed into smaller size categories, reflecting a gradual loss of large-sized individuals from the fossil record paralleling the long-term decline of Plio-Pleistocene large mammal diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Faysal Bibi
- Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, 10115 Berlin, Germany
| | - Juan L Cantalapiedra
- GloCEE-Global Change Ecology and Evolution Research Group, Department of Life Sciences, Universidad de Alcalá, 28805 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain
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7
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On the natural selection of body mass allometries. ACTA OECOLOGICA 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.actao.2023.103889] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/09/2023]
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8
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Temporal Trends in Skull Morphology of the European Bison from the 1950s to the Present Day. DIVERSITY 2023. [DOI: 10.3390/d15030377] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/08/2023]
Abstract
The shape and size of the skull are determined by various factors. These factors act not only on single individuals in their ontogenesis, but can affect entire populations in the long term, thus determining developmental trends. The aim of this study was to determine whether the craniometric features of the European bison skull and their proportions are constant or change over time. In total, 1097 European bison skulls from the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Warsaw University of Life Sciences were examined. It has been shown that almost all examined skull dimensions tend to decrease. The opposite phenomenon was observed for the height of the skull in males. The results of the work prove that European bison adapt to changing environmental conditions related to climate warming, food availability, and population density.
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9
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Antunes AC, Gauzens B, Brose U, Potapov AM, Jochum M, Santini L, Eisenhauer N, Ferlian O, Cesarz S, Scheu S, Hirt MR. Environmental drivers of local abundance–mass scaling in soil animal communities. OIKOS 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/oik.09735] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ana Carolina Antunes
- Inst. of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller Univ. Jena Jena Germany
- EcoNetLab, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
| | - Benoit Gauzens
- Inst. of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller Univ. Jena Jena Germany
- EcoNetLab, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
| | - Ulrich Brose
- Inst. of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller Univ. Jena Jena Germany
- EcoNetLab, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
| | - Anton M. Potapov
- Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Inst. of Zoology and Anthropology, Univ. of Goettingen Goettingen Germany
| | - Malte Jochum
- Experimental Interaction Ecology, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
- Inst. of Biology, Leipzig Univ. Leipzig Germany
| | - Luca Santini
- Dept of Biology and Biotechnologies ‘Charles Darwin', Sapienza Univ. of Rome Rome Italy
| | - Nico Eisenhauer
- Experimental Interaction Ecology, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
- Inst. of Biology, Leipzig Univ. Leipzig Germany
| | - Olga Ferlian
- Experimental Interaction Ecology, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
- Inst. of Biology, Leipzig Univ. Leipzig Germany
| | - Simone Cesarz
- Experimental Interaction Ecology, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
- Inst. of Biology, Leipzig Univ. Leipzig Germany
| | - Stefan Scheu
- Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Inst. of Zoology and Anthropology, Univ. of Goettingen Goettingen Germany
- Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use Göttingen Germany
| | - Myriam R. Hirt
- Inst. of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller Univ. Jena Jena Germany
- EcoNetLab, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
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10
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Mikhailova AG, Mikhailova AA, Ushakova K, Tretiakov EO, Iliushchenko D, Shamansky V, Lobanova V, Kozenkov I, Efimenko B, Yurchenko AA, Kozenkova E, Zdobnov EM, Makeev V, Yurov V, Tanaka M, Gostimskaya I, Fleischmann Z, Annis S, Franco M, Wasko K, Denisov S, Kunz WS, Knorre D, Mazunin I, Nikolaev S, Fellay J, Reymond A, Khrapko K, Gunbin K, Popadin K. A mitochondria-specific mutational signature of aging: increased rate of A > G substitutions on the heavy strand. Nucleic Acids Res 2022; 50:10264-10277. [PMID: 36130228 PMCID: PMC9561281 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkac779] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2022] [Revised: 08/02/2022] [Accepted: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The mutational spectrum of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) does not resemble any of the known mutational signatures of the nuclear genome and variation in mtDNA mutational spectra between different organisms is still incomprehensible. Since mitochondria are responsible for aerobic respiration, it is expected that mtDNA mutational spectrum is affected by oxidative damage. Assuming that oxidative damage increases with age, we analyse mtDNA mutagenesis of different species in regards to their generation length. Analysing, (i) dozens of thousands of somatic mtDNA mutations in samples of different ages (ii) 70053 polymorphic synonymous mtDNA substitutions reconstructed in 424 mammalian species with different generation lengths and (iii) synonymous nucleotide content of 650 complete mitochondrial genomes of mammalian species we observed that the frequency of AH > GH substitutions (H: heavy strand notation) is twice bigger in species with high versus low generation length making their mtDNA more AH poor and GH rich. Considering that AH > GH substitutions are also sensitive to the time spent single-stranded (TSSS) during asynchronous mtDNA replication we demonstrated that AH > GH substitution rate is a function of both species-specific generation length and position-specific TSSS. We propose that AH > GH is a mitochondria-specific signature of oxidative damage associated with both aging and TSSS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alina G Mikhailova
- Center for Mitochondrial Functional Genomics, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics RAS, Moscow, Russia
| | - Alina A Mikhailova
- Center for Mitochondrial Functional Genomics, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation
| | - Kristina Ushakova
- Center for Mitochondrial Functional Genomics, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation
| | - Evgeny O Tretiakov
- Center for Mitochondrial Functional Genomics, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation
- Department of Molecular Neurosciences, Center for Brain Research, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Dmitrii Iliushchenko
- Center for Mitochondrial Functional Genomics, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation
| | - Victor Shamansky
- Center for Mitochondrial Functional Genomics, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation
| | - Valeria Lobanova
- Center for Mitochondrial Functional Genomics, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation
| | - Ivan Kozenkov
- Center for Mitochondrial Functional Genomics, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation
| | - Bogdan Efimenko
- Center for Mitochondrial Functional Genomics, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation
| | - Andrey A Yurchenko
- INSERM U981, Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus, Université Paris Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Elena Kozenkova
- Institute of Physics, Mathematics and Information Technology, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation
| | - Evgeny M Zdobnov
- Department of Genetic Medicine and Development, University of Geneva Medical School, Geneva, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Vsevolod Makeev
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics RAS, Moscow, Russia
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow, Russian Federation
| | - Valerian Yurov
- Institute of Physics, Mathematics and Information Technology, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation
| | - Masashi Tanaka
- Department of Neurology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Irina Gostimskaya
- Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
| | - Zoe Fleischmann
- Department of Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Sofia Annis
- Department of Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Melissa Franco
- Department of Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Kevin Wasko
- Department of Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Stepan Denisov
- Center for Mitochondrial Functional Genomics, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation
- School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
| | - Wolfram S Kunz
- Department of Epileptology and Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research, University Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Dmitry Knorre
- The A.N. Belozersky Institute Of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation
| | - Ilya Mazunin
- Center for Molecular and Cellular Biology, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), Skolkovo, Russian Federation
- Fomin Clinic, Moscow, Russian Federation
- Medical Genomics LLC, Moscow, Russian Federation
| | - Sergey Nikolaev
- INSERM U981, Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus, Université Paris Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Jacques Fellay
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
- School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Alexandre Reymond
- Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | - Konstantin Gunbin
- Center for Mitochondrial Functional Genomics, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation
- Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation
| | - Konstantin Popadin
- Center for Mitochondrial Functional Genomics, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
- School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
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11
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Changes in bee functional traits at community and intraspecific levels along an elevational gradient in a Mexical-type scrubland. Oecologia 2022; 200:145-158. [PMID: 36053349 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-022-05248-y] [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: 01/04/2022] [Accepted: 08/22/2022] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Understanding the causes of morphological variation of organisms along climatic gradients has been a central challenge in ecological research. We studied the variation of community weighted mean (CWM) and two functional diversity metrics (Rao-Q and functional richness) computed for five morphological traits of wild bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) related to thermal performance (namely body size, relative appendage length and hairiness), at community and interspecific levels, along an elevation gradient in a Mexical-type scrubland. At the community level we found a decreasing CWM of body size pattern with increasing elevation which is consistent with the species-energy theory (and contrary to Bergmann's rule). We also found an increase in the CWM of relative tibia length, which is contrary to Allen's rule. Additionally, we found an increase in the CWM of relative hair length towards high levels of elevation, which would be consistent with the hypothesis that hairiness plays an important role as thermal insulation. We found that functional diversity was larger at low elevations with respect to high elevation for body size and hair length, which could imply that highland communities were more sensitive towards environmental changes than lowland communities. Overall, at intraspecific level, most of species showed no pattern for any of the traits along the elevation gradient. Future research should provide further evidence on the possible behavioral or physiological mechanisms behind it.
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12
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White CR, Alton LA, Bywater CL, Lombardi EJ, Marshall DJ. Metabolic scaling is the product of life-history optimization. Science 2022; 377:834-839. [PMID: 35981018 DOI: 10.1126/science.abm7649] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 30.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Organisms use energy to grow and reproduce, so the processes of energy metabolism and biological production should be tightly bound. On the basis of this tenet, we developed and tested a new theory that predicts the relationships among three fundamental aspects of life: metabolic rate, growth, and reproduction. We show that the optimization of these processes yields the observed allometries of metazoan life, particularly metabolic scaling. We conclude that metabolism, growth, and reproduction are inextricably linked; that together they determine fitness; and, in contrast to longstanding dogma, that no single component drives another. Our model predicts that anthropogenic change will cause animals to evolve decreased scaling exponents of metabolism, increased growth rates, and reduced lifetime reproductive outputs, with worrying consequences for the replenishment of future populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Craig R White
- School of Biological Sciences and Centre for Geometric Biology, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia
| | - Lesley A Alton
- School of Biological Sciences and Centre for Geometric Biology, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia
| | - Candice L Bywater
- School of Biological Sciences and Centre for Geometric Biology, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia
| | - Emily J Lombardi
- School of Biological Sciences and Centre for Geometric Biology, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia
| | - Dustin J Marshall
- School of Biological Sciences and Centre for Geometric Biology, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia
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13
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Campillay-Llanos W, Córdova-Lepe FD, Moreno-Gómez FN. Coexistence, Energy, and Trophic Cascade in a Three-Level Food Chain Integrating Body Sizes. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.821176] [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
Predation is a biological interaction that influences demographic patterns by modifying community structure. In the current ecological crisis, there is a need to better understand the conditions of coexistence between predators, prey and their resources. The body size is considered a key feature to explain community-scale phenomena, energetic, and evolutionary constraints. This raises the question of how species body size directly or indirectly affects the demographic patterns that enable coexistence. Considering the above, we conducted a theoretical study that implements a Rosenzweig-MacArthur type model, which represents a three-level chain that integrates body sizes and includes a Holling type I functional response. In this model, we characterize coexistence through body size-dependent net reproductive rates. Our results suggest that the body sizes of consumer species strongly affect the size-density relations and energy requirements. We obtain the negative relationship between body size and density of intermediate consumers and discuss the energy equivalence rule. Furthermore, larger predators have a more significant impact on the intensity of the trophic cascade than smaller predators. Finally, we discuss potential extensions and applications of our modeling approach.
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14
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Monogenean body size, but not reproduction, increases with infracommunity density. Int J Parasitol 2022; 52:539-545. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2022.03.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2021] [Revised: 03/09/2022] [Accepted: 03/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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15
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Luzuriaga-Neira AR, Alvarez-Ponce D. Rates of Protein Evolution across the Marsupial Phylogeny: Heterogeneity and Link to Life-History Traits. Genome Biol Evol 2022; 14:evab277. [PMID: 34894228 PMCID: PMC8759560 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evab277] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite the importance of effective population size (Ne) in evolutionary and conservation biology, it remains unclear what factors have an impact on this quantity. The Nearly Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution predicts a faster accumulation of deleterious mutations (and thus a higher dN/dS ratio) in populations with small Ne; thus, measuring dN/dS ratios in different groups/species can provide insight into their Ne. Here, we used an exome data set of 1,550 loci from 45 species of marsupials representing 18 of the 22 extant families, to estimate dN/dS ratios across the different branches and families of the marsupial phylogeny. We found a considerable heterogeneity in dN/dS ratios among families and species, which suggests significant differences in their Ne. Furthermore, our multivariate analyses of several life-history traits showed that dN/dS ratios (and thus Ne) are affected by body weight, body length, and weaning age.
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16
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Lunn TJ, Nicol SC, Buettel JC, Brook BW. Population demography of the Tasmanian short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus). AUST J ZOOL 2022. [DOI: 10.1071/zo21037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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17
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Roeder KA, Benson BR, Weiser MD, Kaspari M. Testing the role of body size and litter depth on invertebrate diversity across six forests in North America. Ecology 2021; 103:e03601. [PMID: 34820828 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3601] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2021] [Revised: 11/01/2021] [Accepted: 11/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Ecologists search for rules by which traits dictate the abundance and distribution of species. Here we search for rules that apply across three common taxa of litter invertebrates in six North American forests from Panama to Oregon. We use image analysis to quantify the abundance and body size distributions of mites, springtails, and spiders in 21 1-m2 plots per forest. We contrast three hypotheses: two of which focus on trait-abundance relationships and a third linking abundance to species richness. Despite three orders of magnitude variation in size, the predicted negative relationship between mean body size and abundance per area occurred in only 18% of cases, never for large bodied taxa like spiders. We likewise found only 18% of tests supported our prediction that increasing litter depth allows for high abundance; two-thirds of which occurred at a single deciduous forest in Massachusetts. In contrast, invertebrate abundance constrained species richness 76% of the time. Our results suggest that body size and habitat volume in brown food webs are rarely good predictors of variation in abundance, but that variation in diversity is generally well predicted by abundance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karl A Roeder
- USDA, Agricultural Research Service, North Central Agricultural Research Laboratory, Brookings, South Dakota, 57006, USA.,Department of Biology, Geographical Ecology Group, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 73019, USA
| | - Brittany R Benson
- Department of Biology, Geographical Ecology Group, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 73019, USA.,Ecology Research Group, Faculty of Biosciences and Aquaculture, Nord University, Steinkjer, 7729, Norway
| | - Michael D Weiser
- Department of Biology, Geographical Ecology Group, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 73019, USA
| | - Michael Kaspari
- Department of Biology, Geographical Ecology Group, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 73019, USA
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18
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Hatton IA, Heneghan RF, Bar-On YM, Galbraith ED. The global ocean size spectrum from bacteria to whales. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021; 7:eabh3732. [PMID: 34757796 PMCID: PMC8580314 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abh3732] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2021] [Accepted: 09/14/2021] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
It has long been hypothesized that aquatic biomass is evenly distributed among logarithmic body mass size classes. Although this community structure has been observed regionally, mostly among plankton groups, its generality has never been formally tested across all marine life over the global ocean, nor have the impacts of humans on it been globally assessed. Here, we bring together data at the global scale to test the hypothesis from bacteria to whales. We find that biomass within most order of magnitude size classes is indeed remarkably constant, near 1 gigatonne (Gt) wet weight (1015 g), but bacteria and large marine mammals are markedly above and below this value, respectively. Furthermore, human impacts appear to have significantly truncated the upper one-third of the spectrum. This dramatic alteration to what is possibly life’s largest-scale regularity underscores the global extent of human activities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian A. Hatton
- Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig 04103, Germany
- Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Ryan F. Heneghan
- Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- School of Mathematical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QD 4000, Australia
| | - Yinon M. Bar-On
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel
| | - Eric D. Galbraith
- Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0E8, Canada
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19
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Clauss M, Scriba M, Kioko J, Ganzhorn JU, Kiffner C. Camera-trap data do not indicate scaling of diel activity and cathemerality with body mass in an East African mammal assemblage. Ecol Evol 2021; 11:13846-13861. [PMID: 34707822 PMCID: PMC8525076 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2021] [Revised: 08/19/2021] [Accepted: 08/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Diel activity patterns of animal species reflect constraints imposed by morphological, physiological, and behavioral trade-offs, but these trade-offs are rarely quantified for multispecies assemblages. Based on a systematic year-long camera-trap study in the species-rich mammal assemblage of Lake Manyara National Park (Tanzania), we estimated activity levels (hours active per day) and circadian rhythms of 17 herbivore and 11 faunivore species to determine the effects of body mass and trophic level on activity levels and cathemerality (the degree to which species are active throughout the day and night). Using generalized least squares and phylogenetic generalized least squares analyses, we found no support for the hypothesis that trophic level is positively associated with activity levels. We found no support for activity levels to scale positively with body mass in herbivores or to differ between ruminants and nonruminants; in faunivores, we also did not detect relationships between body mass and activity levels. Cathemerality was positively associated with activity levels but did not scale significantly with body mass. Overall, our findings caution against trophic level or body mass-associated generalized conclusions with regard to diel activity patterns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcus Clauss
- Clinic for Zoo Animals, Exotic Pets and WildlifeVetsuisse FacultyUniversity of ZurichZurichSwitzerland
| | - Miriam Scriba
- Animal Ecology and ConservationInstitute of ZoologyUniversität HamburgHamburgGermany
| | - John Kioko
- Center For Wildlife Management StudiesThe School For Field StudiesKaratuTanzania
| | - Jörg U. Ganzhorn
- Animal Ecology and ConservationInstitute of ZoologyUniversität HamburgHamburgGermany
| | - Christian Kiffner
- Center For Wildlife Management StudiesThe School For Field StudiesKaratuTanzania
- Junior Research Group Human‐Wildlife Conflict & CoexistenceLeibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF)MünchebergGermany
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20
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Schuster L, Cameron H, White CR, Marshall DJ. Metabolism drives demography in an experimental field test. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:e2104942118. [PMID: 34417293 PMCID: PMC8403948 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2104942118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2021] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Metabolism should drive demography by determining the rates of both biological work and resource demand. Long-standing "rules" for how metabolism should covary with demography permeate biology, from predicting the impacts of climate change to managing fisheries. Evidence for these rules is almost exclusively indirect and in the form of among-species comparisons, while direct evidence is exceptionally rare. In a manipulative field experiment on a sessile marine invertebrate, we created experimental populations that varied in population size (density) and metabolic rate, but not body size. We then tested key theoretical predictions regarding relationships between metabolism and demography by parameterizing population models with lifetime performance data from our field experiment. We found that populations with higher metabolisms had greater intrinsic rates of increase and lower carrying capacities, in qualitative accordance with classic theory. We also found important departures from theory-in particular, carrying capacity declined less steeply than predicted, such that energy use at equilibrium increased with metabolic rate, violating the long-standing axiom of energy equivalence. Theory holds that energy equivalence emerges because resource supply is assumed to be independent of metabolic rate. We find this assumption to be violated under real-world conditions, with potentially far-reaching consequences for the management of biological systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lukas Schuster
- Centre for Geometric Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
| | - Hayley Cameron
- Centre for Geometric Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
| | - Craig R White
- Centre for Geometric Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
| | - Dustin J Marshall
- Centre for Geometric Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
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21
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Buffalo V. Quantifying the relationship between genetic diversity and population size suggests natural selection cannot explain Lewontin's Paradox. eLife 2021; 10:e67509. [PMID: 34409937 PMCID: PMC8486380 DOI: 10.7554/elife.67509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2021] [Accepted: 08/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Neutral theory predicts that genetic diversity increases with population size, yet observed levels of diversity across metazoans vary only two orders of magnitude while population sizes vary over several. This unexpectedly narrow range of diversity is known as Lewontin's Paradox of Variation (1974). While some have suggested selection constrains diversity, tests of this hypothesis seem to fall short. Here, I revisit Lewontin's Paradox to assess whether current models of linked selection are capable of reducing diversity to this extent. To quantify the discrepancy between pairwise diversity and census population sizes across species, I combine previously-published estimates of pairwise diversity from 172 metazoan taxa with newly derived estimates of census sizes. Using phylogenetic comparative methods, I show this relationship is significant accounting for phylogeny, but with high phylogenetic signal and evidence that some lineages experience shifts in the evolutionary rate of diversity deep in the past. Additionally, I find a negative relationship between recombination map length and census size, suggesting abundant species have less recombination and experience greater reductions in diversity due to linked selection. However, I show that even assuming strong and abundant selection, models of linked selection are unlikely to explain the observed relationship between diversity and census sizes across species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vince Buffalo
- Institute for Ecology and Evolution, University of OregonEugeneUnited States
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22
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Ramirez JI. Uncovering the different scales in deer-forest interactions. Ecol Evol 2021; 11:5017-5024. [PMID: 34025988 PMCID: PMC8131778 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7439] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2020] [Revised: 02/22/2021] [Accepted: 02/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Deer are regarded to be a keystone species as they play a crucial role in the way an ecosystem functions. Most deer-forest interaction studies apply a single scale - process of analyzing ecological interactions by only taking into account one dependent variable - to understand how deer browsing behavior shapes different forest components, but they overlook the fact that forests respond to multiple scales simultaneously. This research evaluates the effect of browsing by wild deer on temperate and boreal forests at different scales by synthesizing seminal papers, specifically (a) what are the effects of deer population density in forest regeneration? (b) What are the effects of deer when forests present diverging spatial characteristics? (c) What are the effects on vegetation at different temporal scales? and (d) What are the hierarchical effects of deer when considering other trophic levels? Additionally, a framework based on modern technology is proposed to answer the multiscale research questions previously identified. When analyzing deer-forest interactions at different scales, the strongest relationships occur at the extremes. For example: when deer assemblage occurs in low or high density and is composed of a mix of small and large species. As forests on poor soils remain restrained in size, isolated and chronically browsed. When forests harbor incomplete trophic levels, the effects spill over to lower trophic levels. To better understand the complexities in deer-forest interactions, researchers should combine technology-based instruments like fixed sensors and drones with field-tested methods such observational studies and experiments to tackle multiscale research questions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juan Ignacio Ramirez
- Department of Ecology and Environmental SciencesUmeå UniversityUmeåSweden
- Environmental Science GroupUniversity & ResearchWageningenthe Netherlands
- Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales COCIBAUniversidad San Francisco de Quito USFQQuitoEcuador
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23
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Abraham JO, Goldberg ER, Botha J, Staver AC. Heterogeneity in African savanna elephant distributions and their impacts on trees in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Ecol Evol 2021; 11:5624-5634. [PMID: 34026034 PMCID: PMC8131780 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7465] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2021] [Revised: 03/01/2021] [Accepted: 03/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Though elephants are a major cause of savanna tree mortality and threaten vulnerable tree species, managing their impact remains difficult, in part because relatively little is known about how elephant impacts are distributed throughout space.This is exacerbated by uncertainty about what determines the distribution of elephants themselves, as well as whether the distribution of elephants is even informative for understanding the distribution of their impacts.To better understand the factors that underlie elephant impacts, we modeled elephant distributions and their damage to trees with respect to soil properties, water availability, and vegetation in Kruger National Park, South Africa, using structural equation modeling.We found that bull elephants and mixed herds differed markedly in their distributions, with bull elephants concentrating in sparsely treed basaltic sites close to artificial waterholes and mixed herds aggregating around permanent rivers, particularly in areas with little grass.Surprisingly, we also found that the distribution of elephant impacts, while highly heterogeneous, was largely unrelated to the distribution of elephants themselves, with damage concentrated instead in densely treed areas and particularly on basaltic soils.Results underscore the importance of surface water for elephants but suggest that elephant water dependence operates together with other landscape factors, particularly vegetation community composition and historical management interventions, to influence elephant distributions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joel O. Abraham
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyYale UniversityNew HavenCTUSA
- Present address:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyPrinceton UniversityPrincetonNJUSA
| | - Emily R. Goldberg
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyYale UniversityNew HavenCTUSA
- Present address:
Department of Mechanical EngineeringUniversity of MinnesotaMinneapolisMNUSA
| | - Judith Botha
- Scientific ServicesKruger National ParkSkukuzaSouth Africa
| | - A. Carla Staver
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyYale UniversityNew HavenCTUSA
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24
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Santini L, Isaac NJB. Rapid Anthropocene realignment of allometric scaling rules. Ecol Lett 2021; 24:1318-1327. [PMID: 33932267 DOI: 10.1111/ele.13743] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2020] [Revised: 12/20/2021] [Accepted: 03/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The negative relationship between body size and population density in mammals is often interpreted as resulting from energetic constraints. In a global change scenario, however, this relationship might be expected to change, given the size-dependent nature of anthropogenic pressures and vulnerability to extinction. Here we test whether the size-density relationship (SDR) in mammals has changed over the last 50 years. We show that the relationship has shifted down and became shallower, corresponding to a decline in population density of 31-73%, for the largest and smallest mammals, respectively. However, the SDRs became steeper in some groups (e.g. carnivores) and shallower in others (e.g. herbivores). The Anthropocene reorganisation of biotic systems is apparent in macroecological relationships, reinforcing the notion that biodiversity pattens are contingent upon conditions at the time of investigation. We call for an increased attention to the role of global change on macroecological inferences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luca Santini
- Department of Biology and Biotechnologies "Charles Darwin", Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy.,National Research Council, Institute of Research on Terrestrial Ecosystems (CNR-IRET), Monterotondo (Rome), Italy
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25
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Marshall CR, Latorre DV, Wilson CJ, Frank TM, Magoulick KM, Zimmt JB, Poust AW. Absolute abundance and preservation rate of Tyrannosaurus rex. Science 2021; 372:284-287. [PMID: 33859033 DOI: 10.1126/science.abc8300] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2020] [Accepted: 03/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Although much can be deduced from fossils alone, estimating abundance and preservation rates of extinct species requires data from living species. Here, we use the relationship between population density and body mass among living species combined with our substantial knowledge of Tyrannosaurus rex to calculate population variables and preservation rates for postjuvenile T. rex We estimate that its abundance at any one time was ~20,000 individuals, that it persisted for ~127,000 generations, and that the total number of T. rex that ever lived was ~2.5 billion individuals, with a fossil recovery rate of 1 per ~80 million individuals or 1 per 16,000 individuals where its fossils are most abundant. The uncertainties in these values span more than two orders of magnitude, largely because of the variance in the density-body mass relationship rather than variance in the paleobiological input variables.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles R Marshall
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. .,University of California Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Daniel V Latorre
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.,University of California Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Connor J Wilson
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.,University of California Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Tanner M Frank
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.,University of California Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Katherine M Magoulick
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.,University of California Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Joshua B Zimmt
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.,University of California Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Ashley W Poust
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.,University of California Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.,San Diego Natural History Museum, San Diego, CA, USA
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26
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Abstract
Population-level scaling in ecological systems arises from individual growth and death with competitive constraints. We build on a minimal dynamical model of metabolic growth where the tension between individual growth and mortality determines population size distribution. We then separately include resource competition based on shared capture area. By varying rates of growth, death, and competitive attrition, we connect regular and random spatial patterns across sessile organisms from forests to ants, termites, and fairy circles. Then, we consider transient temporal dynamics in the context of asymmetric competition, such as canopy shading or large colony dominance, whose effects primarily weaken the smaller of two competitors. When such competition couples slow timescales of growth to fast competitive death, it generates population shocks and demographic oscillations similar to those observed in forest data. Our minimal quantitative theory unifies spatiotemporal patterns across sessile organisms through local competition mediated by the laws of metabolic growth, which in turn, are the result of long-term evolutionary dynamics.
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27
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Tomiya S, Miller LK. Why aren't rabbits and hares larger? Evolution 2021; 75:847-860. [PMID: 33599290 PMCID: PMC8252017 DOI: 10.1111/evo.14187] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2020] [Revised: 11/28/2020] [Accepted: 02/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Macroevolutionary consequences of competition among large clades have long been sought in patterns of lineage diversification. However, mechanistically clear examples of such effects remain elusive. Here, we postulated that the limited phenotypic diversity and insular gigantism in lagomorphs could be explained at least in part by an evolutionary constraint placed on them by potentially competing ungulate-type herbivores (UTHs). Our analyses yielded three independent lines of evidence supporting this hypothesis: (1) the minimum UTH body mass is the most influential predictor of the maximum lagomorph body mass in modern ecoregions; (2) the scaling patterns of local-population energy use suggest universal competitive disadvantage of lagomorphs weighing over approximately 6.3 kg against artiodactyls, closely matching their observed upper size limit in continental settings; and (3) the trajectory of maximum lagomorph body mass in North America from the late Eocene to the Pleistocene (37.5-1.5 million years ago) was best modeled by the body mass ceiling placed by the smallest contemporary perissodactyl or artiodactyl. Body size evolution in lagomorphs has likely been regulated by the forces of competition within the clade, increased predation in open habitats, and importantly, competition from other ungulate-type herbivores. Our findings suggest conditionally-coupled dynamics of phenotypic boundaries among multiple clades within an adaptive zone, and highlight the synergy of biotic and abiotic drivers of diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susumu Tomiya
- Center for International Collaboration and Advanced Studies in Primatology, Kyoto University Primate Research Institute, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan.,Negaunee Integrative Research and Gantz Family Collections Centers, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, 60605, USA.,Museums of Paleontology and Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.,Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Lauren K Miller
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
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28
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Barbier M, Wojcik L, Loreau M. A macro‐ecological approach to predation density‐dependence. OIKOS 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/oik.08043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Matthieu Barbier
- Centre for Biodiversity Theory and Modelling, Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, UMR 5321, CNRS and Paul Sabatier Univ. Moulis France
| | - Laurie Wojcik
- Centre for Biodiversity Theory and Modelling, Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, UMR 5321, CNRS and Paul Sabatier Univ. Moulis France
| | - Michel Loreau
- Centre for Biodiversity Theory and Modelling, Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, UMR 5321, CNRS and Paul Sabatier Univ. Moulis France
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29
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Wen Z, Feijó A, Cheng J, Du Y, Ge D, Xia L, Yang Q. Explaining mammalian abundance and elevational range size with body mass and niche characteristics. J Mammal 2020. [DOI: 10.1093/jmammal/gyaa093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Recent work on tropical montane small mammals and birds has shown that abundance–elevational range size relationships (i.e., the relationship between abundance of a species and its elevational range size) can be manifested in a number of distinct generalized patterns. To understand why different patterns occur, one first must understand the causal mechanisms behind patterns of interspecific variation in species abundance and elevational range size. Using small mammal data along five elevational gradients in Southwest China, we assessed the relative importance of body mass, niche position (i.e., how typical the environmental conditions in which a species occurs are of the full set of conditions under consideration) and niche breadth in explaining the interspecific variation in mean abundance of species of small mammals, and elevational range size. Niche position and niche breadth were calculated using outlying mean index analysis based on 24 environmental variables. The relative importance of body mass, niche position, and niche breadth, in explaining the mean abundance and elevational range size of species were examined using phylogenetic regression and phylogenetic path analyses. Along each of five elevational gradients, body mass maintained a nonsignificant (P > 0.05) relationship both with mean abundance and elevational range size when the effects of phylogeny were taken into account. Niche position had a negative effect on mean abundance and elevational range size (species with a niche position close to edge environmental conditions were rarer and had smaller elevational range sizes) across five gradients (significant negative effect: three gradients for mean abundance; five gradients for elevational range size). Conversely, a positive effect of niche breadth on mean abundance and elevational range size was observed consistently, yet the effect was significant only for some gradients (mean abundance: two gradients; elevational range size: four gradients). Our study suggests that niche position and niche breadth both are good predictors of abundance and elevational range size of montane small mammals; niche position and niche breadth therefore play a strong role in the formation of abundance–elevational range size relationship.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhixin Wen
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
| | - Anderson Feijó
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
| | - Jilong Cheng
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
| | - Yuanbao Du
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
| | - Deyan Ge
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
| | - Lin Xia
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
| | - Qisen Yang
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
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30
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Junker JR, Cross WF, Benstead JP, Huryn AD, Hood JM, Nelson D, Gíslason GM, Ólafsson JS. Resource supply governs the apparent temperature dependence of animal production in stream ecosystems. Ecol Lett 2020; 23:1809-1819. [PMID: 33001542 PMCID: PMC7702057 DOI: 10.1111/ele.13608] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2020] [Revised: 06/06/2020] [Accepted: 08/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Rising global temperatures are changing how energy and materials move through ecosystems, with potential consequences for the role of animals in these processes. We tested a central prediction of the metabolic scaling framework-the temperature independence of animal community production-using a series of geothermally heated streams and a comprehensive empirical analysis. We show that the apparent temperature sensitivity of animal production was consistent with theory for individuals (Epind = 0.64 vs. 0.65 eV), but strongly amplified relative to theoretical expectations for communities, both among (Epamong = 0.67 vs. 0 eV) and within (Epwithin = 1.52 vs. 0 eV) streams. After accounting for spatial and temporal variation in resources, we show that the apparent positive effect of temperature was driven by resource supply, providing strong empirical support for the temperature independence of invertebrate production and the necessary inclusion of resources in metabolic scaling efforts.
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Affiliation(s)
- James R Junker
- Department of Ecology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, 59717, USA
| | - Wyatt F Cross
- Department of Ecology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, 59717, USA
| | - Jonathan P Benstead
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487, USA
| | - Alexander D Huryn
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487, USA
| | - James M Hood
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, Translational Data Analytics Institute, The Aquatic Ecology Laboratory, Columbus, OH, 43212, USA
| | - Daniel Nelson
- Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 73019, USA
| | - Gísli M Gíslason
- University of Iceland, Institute of Life and Environmental Sciences, Reykjavík, Iceland
| | - Jón S Ólafsson
- Institute of Marine and Freshwater Fisheries, Reykjavík, Iceland
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31
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Xu L, Van Doorn S, Hildenbrandt H, Etienne RS. Inferring the Effect of Species Interactions on Trait Evolution. Syst Biol 2020; 70:463-479. [PMID: 32960972 PMCID: PMC8048392 DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syaa072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2020] [Revised: 09/01/2020] [Accepted: 09/08/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Models of trait evolution form an important part of macroevolutionary biology. The Brownian motion model and Ornstein–Uhlenbeck models have become classic (null) models of character evolution, in which species evolve independently. Recently, models incorporating species interactions have been developed, particularly involving competition where abiotic factors pull species toward an optimal trait value and competitive interactions drive the trait values apart. However, these models assume a fitness function rather than derive it from population dynamics and they do not consider dynamics of the trait variance. Here, we develop a general coherent trait evolution framework where the fitness function is based on a model of population dynamics, and therefore it can, in principle, accommodate any type of species interaction. We illustrate our framework with a model of abundance-dependent competitive interactions against a macroevolutionary background encoded in a phylogenetic tree. We develop an inference tool based on Approximate Bayesian Computation and test it on simulated data (of traits at the tips). We find that inference performs well when the diversity predicted by the parameters equals the number of species in the phylogeny. We then fit the model to empirical data of baleen whale body lengths, using three different summary statistics, and compare it to a model without population dynamics and a model where competition depends on the total metabolic rate of the competitors. We show that the unweighted model performs best for the least informative summary statistic, while the model with competition weighted by the total metabolic rate fits the data slightly better than the other two models for the two more informative summary statistics. Regardless of the summary statistic used, the three models substantially differ in their predictions of the abundance distribution. Therefore, data on abundance distributions will allow us to better distinguish the models from one another, and infer the nature of species interactions. Thus, our framework provides a conceptual approach to reveal species interactions underlying trait evolution and identifies the data needed to do so in practice. [Approximate Bayesian computation; competition; phylogeny; population dynamics; simulations; species interaction; trait evolution.]
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Affiliation(s)
- Liang Xu
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, PO Box 11103, Groningen 9700 CC, The Netherlands
| | - Sander Van Doorn
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, PO Box 11103, Groningen 9700 CC, The Netherlands
| | - Hanno Hildenbrandt
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, PO Box 11103, Groningen 9700 CC, The Netherlands
| | - Rampal S Etienne
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, PO Box 11103, Groningen 9700 CC, The Netherlands
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32
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Spatial variance-mass allometry of population density in felids from camera-trapping studies worldwide. Sci Rep 2020; 10:14814. [PMID: 32908174 PMCID: PMC7481184 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-71725-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2020] [Accepted: 07/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Power laws are cornerstone relationships in ecology and evolutionary biology. The density-mass allometry (DMA), which predicts an allometric scaling of population abundance, and Taylor’s law (TL), which predicts a decrease in the population abundance variation along with a decrease in population density, have enhanced our knowledge of inter- and intra-specific variation in population abundance. When combined, these two power laws led to the variance-mass allometry (VMA), which states that larger species have lower spatial variation in population density than smaller species. The VMA has been predicted through theoretical models, however few studies have investigated if this law is also supported by empirical data. Here, to formally test the VMA, we have used the population density estimates obtained through worldwide camera trapping studies for an emblematic and ecologically important carnivorous taxa, the Felidae family. Our results showed that the VMA law hold in felids, as well as the TL and the DMA laws; bigger cat species showed less variation for the population density than smaller species. These results have important implications for the conservation of wildlife population and confirm the validity of important ecological concepts, like the allometric scaling of population growth rate and the slow-fast continuum of life history strategies.
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33
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Engen S, Wright J, Araya-Ajoy YG, Saether BE. Phenotypic evolution in stochastic environments: The contribution of frequency- and density-dependent selection. Evolution 2020; 74:1923-1941. [PMID: 32656772 DOI: 10.1111/evo.14058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2019] [Revised: 06/24/2020] [Accepted: 07/02/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Understanding how environmental variation affects phenotypic evolution requires models based on ecologically realistic assumptions that include variation in population size and specific mechanisms by which environmental fluctuations affect selection. Here we generalize quantitative genetic theory for environmentally induced stochastic selection to include general forms of frequency- and density-dependent selection. We show how the relevant fitness measure under stochastic selection relates to Fisher's fundamental theorem of natural selection, and present a general class of models in which density regulation acts through total use of resources rather than just population size. In this model, there is a constant adaptive topography for expected evolution, and the function maximized in the long run is the expected factor restricting population growth. This allows us to generalize several previous results and to explain why apparently " K -selected" species with slow life histories often have low carrying capacities. Our joint analysis of density- and frequency-dependent selection reveals more clearly the relationship between population dynamics and phenotypic evolution, enabling a broader range of eco-evolutionary analyses of some of the most interesting problems in evolution in the face of environmental variation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steinar Engen
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, N-7491, Norway
| | - Jonathan Wright
- Department of Biology, Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, N-7491, Norway
| | - Yimen G Araya-Ajoy
- Department of Biology, Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, N-7491, Norway
| | - Bernt-Erik Saether
- Department of Biology, Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, N-7491, Norway
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34
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Cosset CCP, Gilroy JJ, Srinivasan U, Hethcoat MG, Edwards DP. Mass-abundance scaling in avian communities is maintained after tropical selective logging. Ecol Evol 2020; 10:2803-2812. [PMID: 32211157 PMCID: PMC7083669 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.6066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2019] [Revised: 01/07/2020] [Accepted: 01/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Selective logging dominates forested landscapes across the tropics. Despite the structural damage incurred, selectively logged forests typically retain more biodiversity than other forest disturbances. Most logging impact studies consider conventional metrics, like species richness, but these can conceal subtle biodiversity impacts. The mass-abundance relationship is an integral feature of ecological communities, describing the negative relationship between body mass and population abundance, where, in a system without anthropogenic influence, larger species are less abundant due to higher energy requirements. Changes in this relationship can indicate community structure and function changes.We investigated the impacts of selective logging on the mass-abundance scaling of avian communities by conducting a meta-analysis to examine its pantropical trend. We divide our analysis between studies using mist netting, sampling the understory avian community, and point counts, sampling the entire community.Across 19 mist-netting studies, we found no consistent effects of selective logging on mass-abundance scaling relative to primary forests, except for the omnivore guild where there were fewer larger-bodied species after logging. In eleven point-count studies, we found a more negative relationship in the whole community after logging, likely driven by the frugivore guild, showing a similar pattern.Limited effects of logging on mass-abundance scaling may suggest high species turnover in logged communities, with like-for-like replacement of lost species with similar-sized species. The increased negative mass-abundance relationship found in some logged communities could result from resource depletion, density compensation, or increased hunting; potentially indicating downstream impacts on ecosystem functions. Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that size distributions of avian communities in logged forests are relatively robust to disturbance, potentially maintaining ecosystem processes in these forests, thus underscoring the high conservation value of logged tropical forests, indicating an urgent need to focus on their protection from further degradation and deforestation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cindy C P Cosset
- Department of Animal and Plant Sciences University of Sheffield Sheffield UK
| | - James J Gilroy
- School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Norwich UK
| | - Umesh Srinivasan
- Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs Princeton University Princeton NJ USA
| | - Matthew G Hethcoat
- Department of Animal and Plant Sciences University of Sheffield Sheffield UK
- School of Mathematics and Statistics University of Sheffield Sheffield UK
- Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures University of Sheffield Sheffield UK
| | - David P Edwards
- Department of Animal and Plant Sciences University of Sheffield Sheffield UK
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35
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The Natural Selection of Metabolism Explains Curvature in Fossil Body Mass Evolution. Evol Biol 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s11692-020-09493-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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36
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Jessop TS, Ariefiandy A, Forsyth DM, Purwandana D, White CR, Benu YJ, Madsen T, Harlow HJ, Letnic M. Komodo dragons are not ecological analogs of apex mammalian predators. Ecology 2020; 101:e02970. [DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2970] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2019] [Revised: 10/03/2019] [Accepted: 12/04/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Tim S. Jessop
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences Centre for Integrative Ecology Deakin University Waurn Ponds Victoria 3220 Australia
| | | | - David M. Forsyth
- New South Wales Department of Primary Industries Vertebrate Pest Research Unit Orange New South Wales 2800 Australia
| | | | - Craig R. White
- School of Biological Sciences Monash University Clayton Victoria 3800 Australia
| | | | - Thomas Madsen
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences Centre for Integrative Ecology Deakin University Waurn Ponds Victoria 3220 Australia
| | - Henry J. Harlow
- Department of Physiology and Zoology University of Wyoming Laramie Wyoming 82071 USA
| | - Mike Letnic
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences Centre for Ecosystem Science University of New South Wales Kensington New South Wales 2033 Australia
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37
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Life-history models reconstruct mammalian evolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:1839-1841. [PMID: 31915297 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1921256117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
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38
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Scaling the risk landscape drives optimal life-history strategies and the evolution of grazing. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:1580-1586. [PMID: 31848238 PMCID: PMC6983398 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1907998117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Consumers face numerous risks that can be minimized by incorporating different life-history strategies. How much and when a consumer adds to its energetic reserves or invests in reproduction are key behavioral and physiological adaptations that structure communities. Here we develop a theoretical framework that explicitly accounts for stochastic fluctuations of an individual consumer's energetic reserves while foraging and reproducing on a landscape with resources that range from uniformly distributed to highly clustered. First, we show that the selection of alternative life histories depends on both the mean and variance of resource availability, where depleted and more stochastic environments promote investment in each reproductive event at the expense of future fitness as well as more investment per offspring. We then show that if resource variance scales with body size due to landscape clustering, consumers that forage for clustered foods are susceptible to strong Allee effects, increasing extinction risk. Finally, we show that the proposed relationship between resource distributions, consumer body size, and emergent demographic risk offers key ecological insights into the evolution of large-bodied grazing herbivores from small-bodied browsing ancestors.
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39
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van Langevelde F, Comor V, de Bie S, Prins HHT, Thakur MP. Disturbance regulates the density-body-mass relationship of soil fauna. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2020; 30:e02019. [PMID: 31600842 PMCID: PMC7003476 DOI: 10.1002/eap.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2019] [Revised: 08/03/2019] [Accepted: 08/23/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Theory on the density-body-mass (DBM) relationship predicts that the density of animal species decreases by the power of -0.75 per unit increase in their body mass, or by the power of -1 when taxa across trophic levels are studied. This relationship is, however, largely debated, as the slope often deviates from the theoretical predictions. Here, we tested the ability of the DBM relationship to reflect changes in the structure of communities subjected to an anthropogenic disturbance. The slope would become less steep if smaller animals were more impacted by the disturbance than the larger ones, whereas the slope would become steeper if larger animals were more affected than the smaller ones. We tested the changes in the DBM relationship by sampling soil fauna, i.e., nematodes, Collembola, and larger arthropods, from a semiarid grassland before and after spraying diesel fuel as disturbance. We applied three different treatments: a control, a light disturbance, and an intense disturbance. We found that the slopes of the DBM relationships before the disturbance were around -1 as predicted by theory. The slope became more positive (i.e., less steep) just after the disturbance, especially after the intense disturbance as smaller fauna suffered the most and early colonizers had larger body mass. Interestingly, we observed that the slopes converged back to -1 by 2 months post-disturbance. Our findings show that the response of soil fauna communities to anthropogenic disturbances could explain the large variation in observed slopes of the DBM relationships. We experimentally demonstrate that an animal community, when disturbed, shows a temporal pattern of DBM relationships ranging from deviations from the predicted slope to convergence to the predicted slope with time. We recommend that deviations in the DBM relationships after disturbances can provide insights in the trajectory of community recovery, and hence could be used for biomonitoring.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank van Langevelde
- Resource Ecology GroupWageningen UniversityDroevendaalsesteeg 3aWageningen6708 PBThe Netherlands
- School of Life SciencesUniversity of KwaZulu‐NatalWestville CampusDurban4000South Africa
| | - Vincent Comor
- Resource Ecology GroupWageningen UniversityDroevendaalsesteeg 3aWageningen6708 PBThe Netherlands
| | - Steven de Bie
- Resource Ecology GroupWageningen UniversityDroevendaalsesteeg 3aWageningen6708 PBThe Netherlands
| | - Herbert H. T. Prins
- Resource Ecology GroupWageningen UniversityDroevendaalsesteeg 3aWageningen6708 PBThe Netherlands
| | - Madhav P. Thakur
- Department of Terrestrial EcologyNetherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO‐KNAW)Droevendaalsesteeg 10Wageningen6708 PBThe Netherlands
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40
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Crees JJ, Collen B, Turvey ST. Bias, incompleteness and the 'known unknowns' in the Holocene faunal record. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2019; 374:20190216. [PMID: 31679489 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Long-term faunal data are needed to track biodiversity change and extinction over wide spatio-temporal scales. The Holocene record is a particularly rich and well-resolved resource for this purpose but nonetheless represents a biased subset of the original faunal composition, both at the site-level assemblage and when data are pooled for wider-scale analysis. We investigated patterns and potential sources of taxonomic, spatial and temporal bias in two Holocene datasets of mammalian occurrence and abundance, one at the global species level and one at the continental population-level. Larger-bodied species are disproportionately abundant in the Holocene fossil record, but this varies according to trophic level, probably owing to past patterns of human subsistence and exploitation. Despite the uneven spatial distribution of mammalian occurrence records, we found no specific source of sampling bias, suggesting that this error type can be avoided by intensive data collection protocols. Faunal assemblages are more abundant and precisely dated nearer to the present as a consequence of taphonomy, past human demography and dating methods. Our study represents one of the first attempts to quantify incompleteness and bias in the Holocene mammal record, and failing to critically assess the quality of long-term faunal datasets has major implications for understanding species decline and extinction risk. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The past is a foreign country: how much can the fossil record actually inform conservation?'
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ben Collen
- Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Samuel T Turvey
- Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London NW1 4RY, UK
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41
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Abstract
Scaling laws relating body mass to species characteristics are among the most universal quantitative patterns in biology. Within major taxonomic groups, the 4 key ecological variables of metabolism, abundance, growth, and mortality are often well described by power laws with exponents near 3/4 or related to that value, a commonality often attributed to biophysical constraints on metabolism. However, metabolic scaling theories remain widely debated, and the links among the 4 variables have never been formally tested across the full domain of eukaryote life, to which prevailing theory applies. Here we present datasets of unprecedented scope to examine these 4 scaling laws across all eukaryotes and link them to test whether their combinations support theoretical expectations. We find that metabolism and abundance scale with body size in a remarkably reciprocal fashion, with exponents near ±3/4 within groups, as expected from metabolic theory, but with exponents near ±1 across all groups. This reciprocal scaling supports "energetic equivalence" across eukaryotes, which hypothesizes that the partitioning of energy in space across species does not vary significantly with body size. In contrast, growth and mortality rates scale similarly both within and across groups, with exponents of ±1/4. These findings are inconsistent with a metabolic basis for growth and mortality scaling across eukaryotes. We propose that rather than limiting growth, metabolism adjusts to the needs of growth within major groups, and that growth dynamics may offer a viable theoretical basis to biological scaling.
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42
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Kempes CP, Koehl MAR, West GB. The Scales That Limit: The Physical Boundaries of Evolution. Front Ecol Evol 2019. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00242] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
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43
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Arakaki S, Tokeshi M. Biomass compensation: Behind the diversity gradients of tidepool fishes. POPUL ECOL 2019. [DOI: 10.1002/1438-390x.12007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
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44
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Lyons SK, Smith FA, Ernest SKM. Macroecological patterns of mammals across taxonomic, spatial, and temporal scales. J Mammal 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/jmammal/gyy171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- S Kathleen Lyons
- University of Nebraska–Lincoln, School of Biological Sciences, St. Lincoln, NE
| | - Felisa A Smith
- University of New Mexico, Department of Biology, Albuquerque, NM
| | - S K Morgan Ernest
- University of Florida, Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Gainesville, FL
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45
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Stephens PA, Vieira MV, Willis SG, Carbone C. The limits to population density in birds and mammals. Ecol Lett 2019; 22:654-663. [PMID: 30724435 PMCID: PMC6850427 DOI: 10.1111/ele.13227] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2018] [Revised: 10/17/2018] [Accepted: 12/28/2018] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
We address two fundamental ecological questions: what are the limits to animal population density and what determines those limits? We develop simple alternative models to predict population limits in relation to body mass. A model assuming that within-species area use increases with the square of daily travel distance broadly predicts the scaling of empirical extremes of minimum density across birds and mammals. Consistent with model predictions, the estimated density range for a given mass, 'population scope', is greater for birds than for mammals. However, unlike mammals and carnivorous birds, expected broad relationships between body mass and density extremes are not supported by data on herbivorous and omnivorous birds. Our results suggest that simple constraints on mobility and energy use/supply are major determinants of the scaling of density limits, but further understanding of interactions between dietary constraints and density limits are needed to predict future wildlife population responses to anthropogenic threats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip A. Stephens
- Conservation Ecology GroupDepartment of BiosciencesDurham UniversitySouth RoadDurhamDH1 3LEUK
| | - Marcus V. Vieira
- Departamento de EcologiaInstituto de BiologiaUniversidade Federal do Rio de JaneiroCp 68020Rio de Janeiro RJ21941‐902Brazil
| | - Stephen G. Willis
- Conservation Ecology GroupDepartment of BiosciencesDurham UniversitySouth RoadDurhamDH1 3LEUK
| | - Chris Carbone
- Institute of ZoologyZoological Society of LondonRegent's ParkLondonNW1 4RYUK
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46
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Bernhardt JR, Sunday JM, O'Connor MI. Metabolic Theory and the Temperature-Size Rule Explain the Temperature Dependence of Population Carrying Capacity. Am Nat 2018; 192:687-697. [PMID: 30444656 DOI: 10.1086/700114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
The temperature dependence of highly conserved subcellular metabolic systems affects ecological patterns and processes across scales, from organisms to ecosystems. Population density at carrying capacity plays an important role in evolutionary processes, biodiversity, and ecosystem function, yet how it varies with temperature-dependent metabolism remains unclear. Though the exponential effect of temperature on intrinsic population growth rate, r, is well known, we still lack clear evidence that population density at carrying capacity, K, declines with increasing per capita metabolic rate, as predicted by the metabolic theory of ecology (MTE). We experimentally tested whether temperature effects on photosynthesis propagate directly to population carrying capacity in a model species, the mobile phytoplankton Tetraselmis tetrahele. After maintaining populations at a fixed resource supply and fixed temperatures for 43 days, we found that carrying capacity declined with increasing temperature. This decline was predicted quantitatively when models included temperature-dependent metabolic rates and temperature-associated body-size shifts. Our results demonstrate that warming reduces carrying capacity and that temperature effects on body size and metabolic rate interact to determine how temperature affects population dynamics. These findings bolster efforts to relate metabolic temperature dependence to population and ecosystem patterns via MTE.
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47
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Affiliation(s)
- Lars Witting
- Greenland Inst. of Natural Resources; Box 570, DK-3900 Nuuk Greenland Denmark
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48
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Somveille M, Rodrigues ASL, Manica A. Energy efficiency drives the global seasonal distribution of birds. Nat Ecol Evol 2018; 2:962-969. [PMID: 29735990 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0556-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2017] [Accepted: 04/06/2018] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
The uneven distribution of biodiversity on Earth is one of the most general and puzzling patterns in ecology. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain it, based on evolutionary processes or on constraints related to geography and energy. However, previous studies investigating these hypotheses have been largely descriptive due to the logistical difficulties of conducting controlled experiments on such large geographical scales. Here, we use bird migration-the seasonal redistribution of approximately 15% of bird species across the world-as a natural experiment for testing the species-energy relationship, the hypothesis that animal diversity is driven by energetic constraints. We develop a mechanistic model of bird distributions across the world, and across seasons, based on simple ecological and energetic principles. Using this model, we show that bird species distributions optimize the balance between energy acquisition and energy expenditure while taking into account competition with other species. These findings support, and provide a mechanistic explanation for, the species-energy relationship. The findings also provide a general explanation of migration as a mechanism that allows birds to optimize their energy budget in the face of seasonality and competition. Finally, our mechanistic model provides a tool for predicting how ecosystems will respond to global anthropogenic change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marius Somveille
- Edward Grey Institute, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. .,Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. .,Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive CEFE UMR 5175, CNRS - Université de Montpellier - Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier - EPHE, Montpellier, France.
| | - Ana S L Rodrigues
- Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive CEFE UMR 5175, CNRS - Université de Montpellier - Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier - EPHE, Montpellier, France
| | - Andrea Manica
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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49
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Carrying capacity, carnivoran richness and hominin survival in Europe. J Hum Evol 2018; 118:72-88. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.01.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2017] [Revised: 01/18/2018] [Accepted: 01/18/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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50
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Voje KL, Starrfelt J, Liow LH. Model Adequacy and Microevolutionary Explanations for Stasis in the Fossil Record. Am Nat 2018; 191:509-523. [DOI: 10.1086/696265] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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