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Learning to avoid toxic prey items may aid native predators to survive the invasion of highly toxic species, such as cane toads Bufo marinus in tropical Australia. If the predators’ initial aversion is generalized, native prey that resemble the toxic invader may receive a benefit through accidental mimicry. What ecological factors influence the acquisition of learned avoidance (and hence, the impact...
Although food abundance is a principal determinant of distribution and abundance of many animals, most previous studies have not quantitatively assessed its importance relative to other factors that may also determine species distributions. We estimated frugivorous phainopepla Phainopepla nitens occupancy and density, food density, and vegetation structure on transects in fragmented mesquite and acacia...
Wildfire is a major driver of spatio‐temporal variation in terrestrial ecosystems. Large wildfires are predicted to occur more frequently due to climate change. The mechanisms by which post‐fire recovery proceeds are influenced by the abundance of survivors, and their distribution in relation to habitat variability and refugia. Thus, characterising early post‐fire demographic processes is critical...
An improved knowledge of how contrasting types of plant communities and their associated soil biota differ in their responses to climatic variables is important for better understanding the future impacts of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems. Elevational gradients serve as powerful study systems for answering questions on how ecological processes can be affected by changes in temperature and...
What determines the number of alien species in a given region? ‘Native biodiversity’ and ‘human impact’ are typical answers to this question. Indeed, studies comparing different regions have frequently found positive relationships between number of alien species and measures of both native biodiversity (e.g. the number of native species) and human impact (e.g. human population). These relationships...
Benefits arising from facultative mutualisms between ants and plants vary with the identity of the ant partner. Invasive and native ants are both attracted to plants that offer extrafloral nectar, but few studies have compared their abilities to displace herbivores and benefit plants. Yellow crazy ants Anoplolepis gracilipes have invaded eucalypt woodlands of Arnhem Land, northern Australia, where...
A mechanistic understanding of the highly variable effects of herbivores on plant production in different ecosystems remains a major challenge. To explain these patterns, the compensatory continuum hypothesis (CCH) predicts plants to compensate for defoliation when resources are abundant, whereas the growth rate hypothesis (GRH) makes the opposite claim of high herbivory tolerance under resource‐poor...
Biodiversity has been established as a potential determinant of function in many ecosystems; however, previous research has mostly focused on primary producers and effects at a single trophic level. A broader perspective that considers multiple components of food webs is necessary to understand natural systems. In particular, consumer diversity needs to be more thoroughly examined as trophic interactions...
Maternal stress can have long‐term adverse consequences on immunocompetence and disease risk of offspring, and winter survival is a crucial demographic parameter in the life‐history of an individual that can substantially affect northern rodent population dynamics. An understanding of the effects of maternal stress on winter survival of offspring may help identify mechanisms driving population fluctuations...
In the so‐called ‘patch problem’, at any given moment, the forager must decide whether to leave the current patch or to remain there and continue foraging. Optimal foraging theory and subsequent theoretical works have identified theoretical optimal policies governing this decision. In a stochastic environment, the Bayesian framework has proved to be effective. A set of mechanistic proximal mechanisms...
Understanding and predicting the composition and spatial structure of communities is a central challenge in ecology. An important structural property of animal communities is the distribution of individual home ranges. Home range formation is controlled by resource heterogeneity, the physiology and behaviour of individual animals, and their intra‐ and interspecific interactions. However, a quantitative...
Local species richness can be affected by both the dispersal process and by environmental conditions (species sorting process). The evaluation of the relative roles of these two processes contributes not only to further understanding of the mechanisms determining species richness but also to biodiversity conservation. We studied the relative importance of hydrological dispersal and water chemistry...
Dispersal is one of the most important, yet least understood phenomena of evolutionary ecology. Triggers and consequences of dispersal are difficult to study in natural populations since dispersers can typically only be identified a posteriori. Therefore, a lot of work on dispersal is either of a theoretical nature or based on anecdotal observation. This is especially true for cryptic species such...
Most multicellular terrestrial organisms experience climate at scales of millimetres to metres, yet most species‐climate associations are analysed at resolutions of kilometres or more. Because individuals experience heterogeneous microclimates in the landscape, species sometimes survive where the average background climate appears unsuitable, and equally may be eliminated from sites within apparently...
Based on eight years of annual censuses in secondary forests in central Amazonia, we compared successional dynamics in areas presenting alternative states due to different land use histories. Sites that had been clearcut without subsequent use are dominated by the pioneer genus Cecropia, but their understory is characterized by a diverse species assemblage. In contrast, areas clearcut and then used...
Standing stocks are typically easier to measure than process rates such as production. Hence, stocks are often used as indicators of ecosystem functions although the latter are generally more strongly related to rates than to stocks. The regulation of stocks and rates and thus their variability over time may differ, as stocks constitute the net result of production and losses. Based on long‐term high...
The nectarivory of sunbirds in the Old World and hummingbirds in the New World evolved independently. While both groups are specialised in their feeding apparatuses, hummingbirds are moreover famous for their adaptations to sustained hovering flight. Recently, an example of a pollination system of the invasive plant Nicotiana glauca has been used to show that less adapted sunbirds also are frequently...
The metacommunity concept provides important insights into large‐scale patterns and dynamics of distributions of interacting species. However, temporal change of metacommunity structure is little studied and has not been previously analysed in the context of biodiversity change. As metacommunity structure is determined by multiple species distributions, it is expected to change as a result of biodiversity...
The Per Brinck Oikos Award recognizes extraordinary and important contributions to the science of ecology. Particular emphasis is given to scientific work aimed at synthesis that has led to novel and original research in unexplored or neglected fields, or to bridging gaps between ecological disciplines. Such achievements typically require theoretical innovation and devlopment as well as...
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