Articles

Transient recovery dynamics of a predator–prey system under press and pulse disturbances

Species recovery after disturbances depends on the strength and duration of disturbance, on the species traits and on the biotic interactions with other species. In order to understand these complex relationsh...

Authors: Canan Karakoç, Alexander Singer, Karin Johst, Hauke Harms and Antonis Chatzinotas

Moose–tree interactions: rebrowsing is common across tree species

Plant strategies to resist herbivory include tolerance and avoidance. Tolerance strategies, such as rapid regrowth which increases the palatability of new shoots, can lead to positive feedback loops between pl...

Authors: Karen Marie Mathisen, Jos M. Milner and Christina Skarpe

Cold spell en route delays spring arrival and decreases apparent survival in a long-distance migratory songbird

Adjusting the timing of annual events to gradual changes in environmental conditions is necessary for population viability. However, adaptations to weather extremes are poorly documented in migratory species. ...

Authors: Martins Briedis, Steffen Hahn and Peter Adamík

Alternative reproductive tactics and inverse size-assortment in a high-density fish spawning aggregation

At high densities, terrestrial and marine species often employ alternate reproductive tactics (ARTs) to maximize reproductive benefits. We describe ARTs in a high-density and unfished spawning aggregation of t...

Authors: Rucha Karkarey, Amod Zambre, Kavita Isvaran and Rohan Arthur

Puumala hantavirus infections in bank vole populations: host and virus dynamics in Central Europe

In Europe, bank voles (Myodes glareolus) are widely distributed and can transmit Puumala virus (PUUV) to humans, which causes a mild to moderate form of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, called nephropathia...

Authors: Daniela Reil, Ulrike M. Rosenfeld, Christian Imholt, Sabrina Schmidt, Rainer G. Ulrich, Jana A. Eccard and Jens Jacob

Predator cues reduce intraspecific trait variability in a marine dinoflagellate

Phenotypic plasticity is commonplace and enables an organism to respond to variations in the environment. Plastic responses often modify a suite of traits and can be triggered by both abiotic and biotic change...

Authors: Sylke Wohlrab, Erik Selander and U. John

Shrubby cinquefoil (Dasiphora fruticosa (L.) Rydb.) mapping in Northwestern Estonia based upon site similarities

Different methods have been used to map species and habitat distributions. In this paper, similarity-based reasoning—a methodological approach that has received less attention—was applied to estimate the distr...

Authors: Kalle Remm and Liina Remm

Wild pollinators enhance oilseed rape yield in small-holder farming systems in China

Insect pollinators play an important role in crop pollination, but the relative contribution of wild pollinators and honey bees to pollination is currently under debate. There is virtually no information avail...

Authors: Yi Zou, Haijun Xiao, Felix J. J. A. Bianchi, Frank Jauker, Shudong Luo and Wopke van der Werf

Sequential above- and belowground herbivory modifies plant responses depending on herbivore identity

Herbivore-induced changes in plant traits can cause indirect interactions between spatially and/or temporally separated herbivores that share the same host plant. Feeding modes of the herbivores is one of the ...

Authors: Dinesh Kafle, Anne Hänel, Tobias Lortzing, Anke Steppuhn and Susanne Wurst

How anthropogenic changes may affect soil-borne parasite diversity? Plant-parasitic nematode communities associated with olive trees in Morocco as a case study

Plant-parasitic nematodes (PPN) are major crop pests. On olive (Olea europaea), they significantly contribute to economic losses in the top-ten olive producing countries in the world especially in nurseries and u...

Authors: Nadine Ali, Johannes Tavoillot, Guillaume Besnard, Bouchaib Khadari, Ewa Dmowska, Grażyna Winiszewska, Odile Fossati-Gaschignard, Mohammed Ater, Mohamed Aït Hamza, Abdelhamid El Mousadik, Aïcha El Oualkadi, Abdelmajid Moukhli, Laila Essalouh, Ahmed El Bakkali, Elodie Chapuis and Thierry Mateille

Testing the potential significance of different scion/rootstock genotype combinations on the ecology of old cultivated olive trees in the southeast Mediterranean area

A previous multi-locus lineage (MLL) analysis of SSR-microsatellite data of old olive trees in the southeast Mediterranean area had shown the predominance of the Souri cultivar (MLL1) among grafted trees. The ...

Authors: Oz Barazani, Yoni Waitz, Yizhar Tugendhaft, Michael Dorman, Arnon Dag, Mohammed Hamidat, Thameen Hijawi, Zohar Kerem, Erik Westberg and Joachim W. Kadereit

Non-associative versus associative learning by foraging predatory mites

Learning processes can be broadly categorized into associative and non-associative. Associative learning occurs through the pairing of two previously unrelated stimuli, whereas non-associative learning occurs ...

Authors: Peter Schausberger and Stefan Peneder

Erratum to: Palaeoenvironmental drivers of vertebrate community composition in the Belly River Group (Campanian) of Alberta, Canada, with implications for dinosaur biogeography

Authors: Thomas M. Cullen and David C. Evans

Erratum to: Feeding preferences of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in Nepal

Authors: Raj Kumar Koirala, David Raubenheimer, Achyut Aryal, Mitra Lal Pathak and Weihong Ji

A temporal assessment of nematode community structure and diversity in the rhizosphere of cisgenic Phytophthora infestans-resistant potatoes

Nematodes play a key role in soil processes with alterations in the nematode community structure having the potential to considerably influence ecosystem functioning. As a result fluctuations in nematode diver...

Authors: Vilma Ortiz, Sinead Phelan and Ewen Mullins

Collapse of an iconic conifer: long-term changes in the demography of Widdringtonia cedarbergensis using repeat photography

Conifer populations appear disproportionately threatened by global change. Most examples are, however, drawn from the northern hemisphere and long-term rates of population decline are not well documented as hi...

Authors: J. D. M. White, S. L. Jack, M. T. Hoffman, J. Puttick, D. Bonora, V. Visser and E. C. February

Feeding preferences of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in Nepal

Nepal provides habitat for approximately 100–125 wild Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). Although a small proportion of the world population of this species, this group is important for maintaining the genetic di...

Authors: Raj Kumar Koirala, David Raubenheimer, Achyut Aryal, Mitra Lal Pathak and Weihong Ji

Palaeoenvironmental drivers of vertebrate community composition in the Belly River Group (Campanian) of Alberta, Canada, with implications for dinosaur biogeography

The Belly River Group of southern Alberta is one of the best-sampled Late Cretaceous terrestrial faunal assemblages in the world. This system provides a high-resolution biostratigraphic record of terrestrial v...

Authors: Thomas M. Cullen and David C. Evans

Siberian flying squirrels do not anticipate future resource abundance

One way to cope with irregularly occurring resources is to adjust reproduction according to the anticipated future resource availability. In support of this hypothesis, few rodent species have been observed to...

Authors: Vesa Selonen and Ralf Wistbacka

The 2nd International Conference on Water Resource and Environment (WRE 2016)

01 The eco-toxicological effects of cadmium stress on five ornamental plants

Authors: Zhouli Liu, Wei Chen, Xingyuan He, Shuai Yu, Weihang Ding, Jianjun Liu, Yuliang Wu, Kaixiang Fan, Yuanchao Li, Xinqing Zheng, Shiquan Chen, Haiqun Xie, Jie Li, Zhuomin Wang, Li Xue, Zhiyang Lie…

BioVeL: a virtual laboratory for data analysis and modelling in biodiversity science and ecology

Making forecasts about biodiversity and giving support to policy relies increasingly on large collections of data held electronically, and on substantial computational capability and capacity to analyse, model...

Authors: Alex R. Hardisty, Finn Bacall, Niall Beard, Maria-Paula Balcázar-Vargas, Bachir Balech, Zoltán Barcza, Sarah J. Bourlat, Renato De Giovanni, Yde de Jong, Francesca De Leo, Laura Dobor, Giacinto Donvito, Donal Fellows, Antonio Fernandez Guerra, Nuno Ferreira, Yuliya Fetyukova…

A century of morphological variation in Cyprinidae fishes

Aquatic habitats have been altered over the past century due to a variety of anthropogenic influences. Ecomorphology is an area of aquatic ecology that can both directly and indirectly assess the effects of ha...

Authors: Stephen J. Jacquemin and Mark Pyron

Insect herbivory in a mature Eucalyptus woodland canopy depends on leaf phenology but not CO₂ enrichment

Climate change factors such as elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations (e[CO₂]) and altered rainfall patterns can alter leaf composition and phenology. This may subsequently impact insect herbivory. In...

Authors: Andrew N. Gherlenda, Ben D. Moore, Anthony M. Haigh, Scott N. Johnson and Markus Riegler

High genetic diversity in the offshore island populations of the tephritid fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis

Geographic isolation is an important factor that limit species dispersal and thereby affects genetic diversity. Because islands are often small and surrounded by a natural water barrier to dispersal, they gene...

Authors: Chunyan Yi, Chunyan Zheng, Ling Zeng and Yijuan Xu

Ecological status of high altitude medicinal plants and their sustainability: Lingshi, Bhutan

Human beings use plants for a multitude of purposes of which a prominent one across the globe is for their medicinal values. Medicinal plants serve as one of the major sources of income for high altitude inhab...

Authors: Lakey and Kinley Dorji

Hunting as a management tool? Cougar-human conflict is positively related to trophy hunting

Overexploitation and persecution of large carnivores resulting from conflict with humans comprise major causes of declines worldwide. Although little is known about the interplay between these mortality types,...

Authors: Kristine J. Teichman, Bogdan Cristescu and Chris T. Darimont

Loss and conservation of evolutionary history in the Mediterranean Basin

Phylogenetic diversity and evolutionary distinctiveness are highly valuable components of biodiversity, but they are rarely considered in conservation practices. Focusing on a biodiversity hotspot, the Mediter...

Authors: S. Veron, P. Clergeau and S. Pavoine

Application of fundamental equations to species−area theory

Species−area relationship (SAR), endemics-area relationship (EAR) and overlap-area relationship (OAR) are three important concepts in biodiversity study. The application of fundamental equations linking the SA...

Authors: Xubin Pan

Seasonal rainfall at long-term migratory staging sites is associated with altered carry-over effects in a Palearctic-African migratory bird

An understanding of year-round habitat use is essential for determining how carry-over effects shape population dynamics in long-distance migratory songbirds. The recent discovery of long-term migratory stagin...

Authors: Marjorie C. Sorensen, Graham D. Fairhurst, Susanne Jenni-Eiermann, Jason Newton, Elizabeth Yohannes and Claire N. Spottiswoode

Host plant range of a fruit fly community (Diptera: Tephritidae): does fruit composition influence larval performance?

Phytophagous insects differ in their degree of specialisation on host plants, and range from strictly monophagous species that can develop on only one host plant to extremely polyphagous species that can devel...

Authors: Abir Hafsi, Benoit Facon, Virginie Ravigné, Frédéric Chiroleu, Serge Quilici, Brahim Chermiti and Pierre-François Duyck

Crop diversity loss as primary cause of grey partridge and common pheasant decline in Lower Saxony, Germany

The grey partridge (Perdix perdix) and the common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) are galliform birds typical of arable lands in Central Europe and exhibit a partly dramatic negative population trend. In order to ...

Authors: Katrin Ronnenberg, Egbert Strauß and Ursula Siebert

Population density of the western burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) in Mexican prairie dog (Cynomys mexicanus) colonies in northeastern Mexico

The western burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) occurs throughout western North America in various habitats such as desert, short-grass prairie and shrub-steppe, among others, where the main threat for th...

Authors: Gabriel Ruiz Ayma, Alina Olalla Kerstupp, Alberto Macías Duarte, Antonio Guzmán Velasco and José I. González Rojas

Pesticide seed dressings can affect the activity of various soil organisms and reduce decomposition of plant material

Seed dressing with pesticides is widely used to protect crop seeds from pest insects and fungal diseases. While there is mounting evidence that especially neonicotinoid seed dressings detrimentally affect inse...

Authors: Johann G. Zaller, Nina König, Alexandra Tiefenbacher, Yoko Muraoka, Pascal Querner, Andreas Ratzenböck, Michael Bonkowski and Robert Koller

Differentiation and description of aromatic short grain rice landraces of eastern Indian state of Odisha based on qualitative phenotypic descriptors

Speciality rice, in general, and aromatic rice in particular, possess enormous market potential for enhancing farm profits. However, systematic characterization of the diversity present in this natural wealth ...

Authors: Pritesh Sundar Roy, Rashmita Samal, Gundimeda Jwala Narasimha Rao, Sasank Sekhar Chyau Patnaik, Nitiprasad Namdeorao Jambhulkar, Ashok Patnaik and Trilochan Mohapatra

BMC Ecology Image Competition 2016: the winning images

The 2016 BMC Ecology Image Competition marked another celebration of the astounding biodiversity, natural beauty, and biological interactions documented by talented ecologists worldwide. For our fourth annual ...

Authors: Julia Simundza, Matthew Palmer, Josef Settele, Luke M. Jacobus, David P. Hughes, Dominique Mazzi and Simon Blanchet

Chemical disguise of myrmecophilous cockroaches and its implications for understanding nestmate recognition mechanisms in leaf-cutting ants

Cockroaches of the genus Attaphila regularly occur in leaf-cutting ant colonies. The ants farm a fungus that the cockroaches also appear to feed on. Cockroaches disperse between colonies horizontally (via foragin...

Authors: Volker Nehring, Francesca R. Dani, Luca Calamai, Stefano Turillazzi, Horst Bohn, Klaus-Dieter Klass and Patrizia d’Ettorre

Using multivariate cross correlations, Granger causality and graphical models to quantify spatiotemporal synchronization and causality between pest populations

This work combines multivariate time series analysis and graph theory to detect synchronization and causality among certain ecological variables and to represent significant correlations via network projection...

Authors: Petros Damos

Surveying the citizen science landscape: an exploration of the design, delivery and impact of citizen science through the lens of the Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) programme

This paper provides a short introduction to the topic of citizen science (CS) identifying the shift from the knowledge deficit model to more inclusive, participatory science. It acknowledges the benefits of ne...

Authors: Linda Davies, Roger Fradera, Hauke Riesch and Poppy Lakeman-Fraser

To have your citizen science cake and eat it? Delivering research and outreach through Open Air Laboratories (OPAL)

The vast array of citizen science projects which have blossomed over the last decade span a spectrum of objectives from research to outreach. While some focus primarily on the collection of rigorous scientific...

Authors: Poppy Lakeman-Fraser, Laura Gosling, Andy J. Moffat, Sarah E. West, Roger Fradera, Linda Davies, Maxwell A. Ayamba and René van der Wal

Differences between urban and rural hedges in England revealed by a citizen science project

Hedges are both ecologically and culturally important and are a distinctive feature of the British landscape. However the overall length of hedges across Great Britain is decreasing. Current challenges in stud...

Authors: Laura Gosling, Tim H. Sparks, Yoseph Araya, Martin Harvey and Janice Ansine

Quality control in public participation assessments of water quality: the OPAL Water Survey

Public participation in scientific data collection is a rapidly expanding field. In water quality surveys, the involvement of the public, usually as trained volunteers, generally includes the identification of...

Authors: N L. Rose, S. D. Turner, B. Goldsmith, L. Gosling and T. A. Davidson

Initiating and continuing participation in citizen science for natural history

Natural history has a long tradition in the UK, dating back to before Charles Darwin. Developing from a principally amateur pursuit, natural history continues to attract both amateur and professional involveme...

Authors: Glyn Everett and Hilary Geoghegan

Synergistic impacts by an invasive amphipod and an invasive fish explain native gammarid extinction

Worldwide freshwater ecosystems are increasingly affected by invasive alien species. In particular, Ponto-Caspian gobiid fishes and amphipods are suspected to have pronounced effects on aquatic food webs. Howe...

Authors: S. Beggel, J. Brandner, A. F. Cerwenka and J. Geist

Haematocrit, eggshell colouration and sexual signaling in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

One hypothesis to explain the blue–green colour of the eggs of many bird species is that it is a sexually-selected signal of the laying female’s quality, which males use to determine their investment. This hyp...

Authors: Raime B. Fronstin, Stephanie M. Doucet and Julian K. Christians

Suppression of reproductive characteristics of the invasive plant Mikania micrantha by sweet potato competition

As a means of biologically controlling Mikania micrantha H.B.K. in Yunnan, China, the influence of sweet potato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.] on its reproductive characteristics was studied. The trial utilized a de...

Authors: Shicai Shen, Gaofeng Xu, David Roy Clements, Guimei Jin, Shufang Liu, Yanxian Yang, Aidong Chen, Fudou Zhang and Hisashi Kato-Noguchi

Importance of latrine communication in European rabbits shifts along a rural–to–urban gradient

Information transfer in mammalian communication networks is often based on the deposition of excreta in latrines. Depending on the intended receiver(s), latrines are either formed at territorial boundaries (betwe...

Authors: Madlen Ziege, David Bierbach, Svenja Bischoff, Anna-Lena Brandt, Mareike Brix, Bastian Greshake, Stefan Merker, Sandra Wenninger, Torsten Wronski and Martin Plath

Effects of elevated CO₂ on photosynthetic traits of native and invasive C₃ and C₄ grasses

Rising CO₂ is expected to result in changes in plant traits that will increase plant productivity for some functional groups. Differential plant responses to elevated CO₂ are likely to drive changes in competitiv...

Authors: Heather A. Hager, Geraldine D. Ryan, Hajnal M. Kovacs and Jonathan A. Newman

Assessment of Clarias gariepinus as a biological control agent against mosquito larvae

The emergence and spread of insecticide resistant mosquitoes renewed interest in investigating the use of larvivorous fish as a biological control agent. The potential of Clarias gariepinus fish in controlling An...

Authors: Buze Chala, Berhanu Erko, Abebe Animut, Abraham Degarege and Beyene Petros

Floral traits influence pollen vectors’ choices in higher elevation communities in the Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains

How floral traits and community composition influence plant specialization is poorly understood and the existing evidence is restricted to regions where plant diversity is low. Here, we assessed whether plant ...

Authors: Yan-Hui Zhao, Zong-Xin Ren, Amparo Lázaro, Hong Wang, Peter Bernhardt, Hai-Dong Li and De-Zhu Li

Fire-severity effects on plant–fungal interactions after a novel tundra wildfire disturbance: implications for arctic shrub and tree migration

Vegetation change in high latitude tundra ecosystems is expected to accelerate due to increased wildfire activity. High-severity fires increase the availability of mineral soil seedbeds, which facilitates recr...

Authors: Rebecca E. Hewitt, Teresa N. Hollingsworth, F. Stuart Chapin III and D. Lee Taylor