Articles

A metabarcoding framework for facilitated survey of endolithic phototrophs with tufA

In spite of their ecological importance as primary producers and microbioeroders of marine calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) substrata, endolithic phototrophs spanning both prokaryotic (the cyanobacteria) and eukaryotic ...

Authors: Thomas Sauvage, William E. Schmidt, Shoichiro Suda and Suzanne Fredericq

Effects of salinity on nest-building behaviour in a marine fish

Parental allocation and reproductive success are often strongly influenced by environmental factors. In this respect, salinity is a key factor influencing species distributions and community structure in aquat...

Authors: Topi K. Lehtonen, Bob B. M. Wong and Charlotta Kvarnemo

Social structure and Escherichia coli sharing in a group-living wild primate, Verreaux’s sifaka

Epidemiological models often use information on host social contacts to predict the potential impact of infectious diseases on host populations and the efficiency of control measures. It can be difficult, howe...

Authors: Andrea Springer, Alexander Mellmann, Claudia Fichtel and Peter M. Kappeler

BMC Ecology reviewer acknowledgement 2015

The editors of BMC Ecology would like to thank all our reviewers who have contributed to the journal in Volume 15 (2015).

Authors: Julia Simundza

Strategies of offspring investment and dispersal in a spatially structured environment: a theoretical study using ants

Offspring investment strategies vary markedly between and within taxa, and much of this variation is thought to stem from the trade-off between offspring size and number. While producing larger offspring can i...

Authors: Adam L. Cronin, Nicolas Loeuille and Thibaud Monnin

Optimal methods for fitting probability distributions to propagule retention time in studies of zoochorous dispersal

Propagule retention time is a key factor in determining propagule dispersal distance and the shape of “seed shadows”. Propagules dispersed by animal vectors are either ingested and retained in the gut until de...

Authors: Duarte S. Viana, Luis Santamaría and Jordi Figuerola

Group size, survival and surprisingly short lifespan in socially foraging bats

The relationships between group size, survival, and longevity vary greatly among social species. Depending on demographic and ecological circumstances, there are both positive and negative effects of group siz...

Authors: Yann Gager, Olivier Gimenez, M. Teague O’Mara and Dina K. N. Dechmann

Correspondence between the habitat of the threatened pudú (Cervidae) and the national protected-area system of Chile

Currently, many species are facing serious conservation problems due to habitat loss. The impact of the potential loss of biodiversity associated with habitat loss is difficult to measure. This is particularly...

Authors: Melissa Pavez-Fox and Sergio A. Estay

Spatio-temporal patterns of an anthrax outbreak in white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginanus, and associated genetic diversity of Bacillus anthracis

Anthrax, a soil-borne zoonosis caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, is enzootic in areas of North America with frequent outbreaks in west Texas. Despite a long history of study, pathogen transmission durin...

Authors: Jocelyn C. Mullins, Matthew Van Ert, Ted Hadfield, Mikeljon P. Nikolich, Martin E. Hugh-Jones and Jason K. Blackburn

Genetic censusing identifies an unexpectedly sizeable population of an endangered large mammal in a fragmented forest landscape

As habitat degradation and fragmentation continue to impact wildlife populations around the world, it is critical to understand the behavioral flexibility of species in these environments. In Uganda, the mostl...

Authors: Maureen S McCarthy, Jack D Lester, Eric J Howe, Mimi Arandjelovic, Craig B Stanford and Linda Vigilant

BMC Ecology Image Competition 2015: the winning images

For the third time, BMC Ecology is delighted to announce the winners of our Image Competition. This year featured entries from all over the world and showcased not only the creativity and talent of the participan...

Authors: Catherine J Potenski, Ana Luz Porzecanski, Michel Baguette, Jean Clobert, David Hughes and Josef Settele

Increased efficiency in identifying mixed pollen samples by meta-barcoding with a dual-indexing approach

Meta-barcoding of mixed pollen samples constitutes a suitable alternative to conventional pollen identification via light microscopy. Current approaches however have limitations in practicability due to low sa...

Authors: Wiebke Sickel, Markus J Ankenbrand, Gudrun Grimmer, Andrea Holzschuh, Stephan Härtel, Jonathan Lanzen, Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter and Alexander Keller

Travelling at a slug’s pace: possible invertebrate vectors of Caenorhabditis nematodes

How do very small animals with limited long-distance dispersal abilities move between locations, especially if they prefer ephemeral micro-habitats that are only available for short periods of time? The free-l...

Authors: Carola Petersen, Ruben Joseph Hermann, Mike-Christoph Barg, Rebecca Schalkowski, Philipp Dirksen, Camilo Barbosa and Hinrich Schulenburg

The devil is in the detail: estimating species richness, density, and relative abundance of tropical island herpetofauna

One of the basic premises of drawing samples from populations is that the samples are representative of the populations. However, error in sampling is poorly recognized, and it goes unnoticed especially in com...

Authors: Harikrishnan Surendran and Karthikeyan Vasudevan

Floral volatiles interfere with plant attraction of parasitoids: ontogeny-dependent infochemical dynamics in Brassica rapa

The role of plant ontogeny on investment in direct defense against herbivores is well accepted, but the transition from the vegetative to the reproductive stage can also affect indirect resistance traits (i.e....

Authors: Gaylord A Desurmont, Diane Laplanche, Florian P Schiestl and Ted C J Turlings

A global perspective on decadal challenges and priorities in biodiversity informatics

Biodiversity informatics is a field that is growing rapidly in data infrastructure, tools, and participation by researchers worldwide from diverse disciplines and with diverse, innovative approaches. A recent ...

Authors: A Townsend Peterson, Jorge Soberón and Leonard Krishtalka

Utilizing associational resistance for biocontrol: impacted by temperature, supported by indirect defence

Associational herbivore resistance is potentiated by neighbouring heterogenic plant species that impact a focal plant’s attraction to herbivores or the damage that they cause. One mechanism to confer associati...

Authors: Sari J Himanen, Thuy Nga T Bui, Mengistu M Maja and Jarmo K Holopainen

Novel species interactions: American black bears respond to Pacific herring spawn

In addition to the decline and extinction of the world’s species, the decline and eventual loss of species interactions is one of the major consequences of the biodiversity crisis. On the Pacific coast of Nort...

Authors: Caroline Hazel Fox, Paul Charles Paquet and Thomas Edward Reimchen

Sterile males in a parasitoid wasp with complementary sex determination: from fitness costs to population extinction

Single-locus complementary sex determination (sl-CSD), which occurs in some insects of the order Hymenoptera, imposes a heavy genetic load that can drive small populations to extinction. The core process in th...

Authors: Xavier Fauvergue, Anna Chuine, Chloé Vayssade, Alexandra Auguste and Emmanuel Desouhant

Commonness and ecology, but not bigger brains, predict urban living in birds

Several life history and ecological variables have been reported to affect the likelihood of species becoming urbanized. Recently, studies have also focused on the role of brain size in explaining ability to a...

Authors: Svein Dale, Jan T Lifjeld and Melissah Rowe

The effect of peatland drainage and restoration on Odonata species richness and abundance

Restoration aims at reversing the trend of habitat degradation, the major threat to biodiversity. In Finland, more than half of the original peatland area has been drained, and during recent years, restoration...

Authors: Merja Elo, Jouni Penttinen and Janne S Kotiaho

Effects of elevated temperature and CO₂ on intertidal microphytobenthos

Microphytobenthos (MPB) are the main primary producers of many intertidal and shallow subtidal environments. Although these coastal ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic activities, little is...

Authors: Paulo Cartaxana, Sónia Vieira, Lourenço Ribeiro, Rui JM Rocha, Sónia Cruz, Ricardo Calado and Jorge Marques da Silva

Reproductive natural history and successful juvenile propagation of the threatened Caribbean Pillar Coral Dendrogyra cylindrus

The Caribbean pillar coral Dendrogyra cylindrus was recently listed as a threatened species under the United States Endangered Species Act. One of the major threats to this species is its low, virtually undetecta...

Authors: Kristen L Marhaver, Mark JA Vermeij and Mónica M Medina

Efficacy of neem chippings for mosquito larval control under field conditions

An in depth understanding of mosquito breeding biology and factors regulating population sizes is fundamental for vector population control. This paper presents results from a survey of mosquito breeding habit...

Authors: Susan S Imbahale and Wolfgang R Mukabana

Agent-mediated spatial storage effect in heterogeneous habitat stabilizes competitive mouse lemur coexistence in Menabe Central, Western Madagascar

Spatio-temporal distribution patterns of species in response to natural and anthropogenic drivers provide insight into the ecological processes that determine community composition. We investigated determinant...

Authors: Livia Schäffler, Joachim Saborowski and Peter M Kappeler

Effects of growth rate, size, and light availability on tree survival across life stages: a demographic analysis accounting for missing values and small sample sizes

Plant survival is a key factor in forest dynamics and survival probabilities often vary across life stages. Studies specifically aimed at assessing tree survival are unusual and so data initially designed for ...

Authors: Aristides Moustakas and Matthew R Evans

Limited impacts of extensive human land use on dominance, specialization, and biotic homogenization in boreal plant communities

Niche theory predicts that human disturbance should influence the assembly of communities, favouring functionally homogeneous communities dominated by few but widespread generalists. The decline and loss of sp...

Authors: Stephen J Mayor, Stan Boutin, Fangliang He and James F Cahill Jr

BMC Ecology reviewer acknowledgement 2014

Authors: Catherine J Potenski

High-throughput sequencing of nematode communities from total soil DNA extractions

Nematodes are extremely diverse and numbers of species are predicted to be more than a million. Studies on nematode diversity are difficult and laborious using classical methods and therefore high-throughput s...

Authors: Rumakanta Sapkota and Mogens Nicolaisen

Nectar sugars and bird visitation define a floral niche for basidiomycetous yeast on the Canary Islands

Studies on the diversity of yeasts in floral nectar were first carried out in the late 19^th century. A narrow group of fermenting, osmophilous ascomycetes were regarded as exclusive specialists able to populate t...

Authors: Moritz Mittelbach, Andrey M Yurkov, Daniele Nocentini, Massimo Nepi, Maximilian Weigend and Dominik Begerow

Suppression of the invasive plant mile-a-minute (Mikania micrantha) by local crop sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) by means of higher growth rate and competition for soil nutrients

There are a variety of ways of increasing crop diversity to increase agricultural sustainability and in turn having a positive influence on nearby natural ecosystems. Competitive crops may provide potent manag...

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

Experimental infection of a periodical cicada (Magicicada cassinii) with a parasitoid (Emblemasoma auditrix) of a proto-periodical cicada (Okanagana rimosa)

The proto-periodical cicada Okanagana rimosa is subject to infection by the acoustically orientating parasitoid fly Emblemasoma auditrix. Furthermore, it is also the only known host of E. auditrix. Here we test t...

Authors: Reinhard Lakes-Harlan and Thomas de Vries

Dissecting the multi-scale spatial relationship of earthworm assemblages with soil environmental variability

Studying the drivers and determinants of species, population and community spatial patterns is central to ecology. The observed structure of community assemblages is the result of deterministic abiotic (enviro...

Authors: Juan J Jiménez, Thibaud Decaëns, Patrick Lavelle and Jean-Pierre Rossi

Gastrointestinal helminths may affect host susceptibility to anthrax through seasonal immune trade-offs

Most vertebrates experience coinfections, and many pathogen-pathogen interactions occur indirectly through the host immune system. These interactions are particularly strong in mixed micro-macroparasite infect...

Authors: Carrie A Cizauskas, Wendy C Turner, Bettina Wagner, Martina Küstersrs, Russell E Vance and Wayne M Getz

Coexistence mechanisms at multiple scales in mosquito assemblages

Species coexistence in mosquito assemblages may depend on mechanisms related to interspecific resource partitioning occurring at multiple scales. In the present work we investigated co-occurrence or spatial se...

Authors: Gabriel Zorello Laporta and Maria Anice Mureb Sallum

Phosphorus limitation enhances parasite impact: feedback effects at the population level

Nutrient deficiency affects the growth and population dynamics of consumers. Endoparasites can be seen as consumers that drain carbon (C) or energy from their host while simultaneously competing for limiting r...

Authors: Katja Pulkkinen, Marcin W Wojewodzic and Dag O Hessen

The Hawaiian freshwater algae biodiversity survey (2009-2014): systematic and biogeographic trends with an emphasis on the macroalgae

A remarkable range of environmental conditions is present in the Hawaiian Islands due to their gradients of elevation, rainfall and island age. Despite being well known as a location for the study of evolution...

Authors: Alison R Sherwood, Amy L Carlile, Jessica M Neumann, J Patrick Kociolek, Jeffrey R Johansen, Rex L Lowe, Kimberly Y Conklin and Gernot G Presting

Plant genetic variation mediates an indirect ecological effect between belowground earthworms and aboveground aphids

Interactions between aboveground and belowground terrestrial communities are often mediated by plants, with soil organisms interacting via the roots and aboveground organisms via the shoots and leaves. Many st...

Authors: Akanksha Singh, Julia Braun, Emilia Decker, Sarah Hans, Agnes Wagner, Wolfgang W Weisser and Sharon E Zytynska

BMC Ecologyimage competition 2014: the winning images

BMC Ecology showcases the winning entries from its second Ecology Image Competition. More than 300 individual images were submitted from an international array of research scientists, depicting life on every cont...

Authors: Simon Harold, Caspar Henderson, Michel Baguette, Michael B Bonsall, David Hughes and Josef Settele

Evidence for functional convergence in genes upregulated by herbivores ingesting plant secondary compounds

Nearly 40 years ago, Freeland and Janzen predicted that liver biotransformation enzymes dictated diet selection by herbivores. Despite decades of research on model species and humans, little is known about the...

Authors: Jael R Malenke, Michele M Skopec and M Denise Dearing

How do climate-linked sex ratios and dispersal limit range boundaries?

Geographic ranges of ectotherms such as reptiles may be determined strongly by abiotic factors owing to causal links between ambient temperature, juvenile survival and individual sex (male or female). Unfortun...

Authors: Maria Boyle, Lisa E Schwanz, Jim Hone and Arthur Georges

Causes and consequences of fine-scale population structure in a critically endangered freshwater seal

Small, genetically uniform populations may face an elevated risk of extinction due to reduced environmental adaptability and individual fitness. Fragmentation can intensify these genetic adversities and, there...

Authors: Mia Valtonen, Jukka U Palo, Jouni Aspi, Minna Ruokonen, Mervi Kunnasranta and Tommi Nyman

Fine-scale genetic structure analyses suggest further male than female dispersal in mountain gorillas

Molecular studies in social mammals rarely compare the inferences gained from genetic analyses with field information, especially in the context of dispersal. In this study, we used genetic data to elucidate s...

Authors: Justin Roy, Maryke Gray, Tara Stoinski, Martha M Robbins and Linda Vigilant

High levels of effective long-distance dispersal may blur ecotypic divergence in a rare terrestrial orchid

Gene flow and adaptive divergence are key aspects of metapopulation dynamics and ecological speciation. Long-distance dispersal is hard to detect and few studies estimate dispersal in combination with adaptive...

Authors: An Vanden Broeck, Wouter Van Landuyt, Karen Cox, Luc De Bruyn, Ralf Gyselings, Gerard Oostermeijer, Bertille Valentin, Gregor Bozic, Branko Dolinar, Zoltán Illyés and Joachim Mergeay

Forced monogamy in a multiply mating species does not impede colonisation success

The guppy (Poecilia reticulata) is a successful invasive species. It is also a species that mates multiply; previous studies have demonstrated that this strategy carries fitness benefits. Guppies are routinely in...

Authors: Amy E Deacon, Miguel Barbosa and Anne E Magurran

Population genetic structure of gray wolves (Canis lupus) in a marine archipelago suggests island-mainland differentiation consistent with dietary niche

Emerging evidence suggests that ecological heterogeneity across space can influence the genetic structure of populations, including that of long-distance dispersers such as large carnivores. On the central coa...

Authors: Astrid V Stronen, Erin L Navid, Michael S Quinn, Paul C Paquet, Heather M Bryan and Christopher T Darimont

The interplay between seasonality and density: consequences for female breeding decisions in a small cyclic herbivore

Cyclic rodent population dynamics are subjected to both intrinsic regulatory processes such as density-dependence and extrinsic environmental forcing. Among extrinsic factors, seasonal environmental variation ...

Authors: Adrien Pinot, Bertrand Gauffre and Vincent Bretagnolle

Merging metagenomics and geochemistry reveals environmental controls on biological diversity and evolution

The metabolic strategies employed by microbes inhabiting natural systems are, in large part, dictated by the physical and geochemical properties of the environment. This study sheds light onto the complex rela...

Authors: Eric B Alsop, Eric S Boyd and Jason Raymond

Secondary reproduction in the herbaceous monocarp Lobelia inflata: time-constrained primary reproduction does not result in increased deferral of reproductive effort

Although semelparity is a life history characterized by a single reproductive episode within a single reproductive season, some semelparous organisms facultatively express a second bout of reproduction, either...

Authors: Patrick William Hughes and Andrew M Simons

Mistaken identity? Visual similarities of marine debris to natural prey items of sea turtles

There are two predominant hypotheses as to why animals ingest plastic: 1) they are opportunistic feeders, eating plastic when they encounter it, and 2) they eat plastic because it resembles prey items. To asse...

Authors: Qamar A Schuyler, Chris Wilcox, Kathy Townsend, B Denise Hardesty and N Justin Marshall