March research news from the Ecological Society of America
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Research published in Ecological Applications models elk “foodscapes” to understand how food availability and animal movement drive reproduction in these large deer.
view moreCredit: Jacob W. Frank/NPS
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) presents a roundup of five research articles recently published in its esteemed journals. Widely recognized for fostering innovation and advancing ecological knowledge, ESA’s journals consistently feature illuminating and impactful studies. This selection of papers explores elk foraging behavior in relation to pregnancy rates, the slow shift in alpine plant species with climate change, how climate change may affect bee gut biomes, biodiversity drivers of decomposition in watersheds, and how farming communities can boost agri-environmental and climate measures.
From Ecological Applications:
Fit elk sometimes bypass the best food
Author contact: Ryan A. Long (ralong@uidaho.edu)
Does an abundance of good food translate to greater numbers of pregnant elk? A new study suggests: not always. For seven Idaho populations of elk, researchers developed linked models to explore how differences in food availability across space and time (or “foodscapes”) and foraging behavior impact their numbers. In the models — which predict foodscapes as well as pregnancy rates based on food availability and foraging behavior — the elk used resources in different ways: some actively sought out higher-quality forage, while others avoided it or showed no preference. Pregnancy rates varied widely and appear more strongly influenced by how elk use the available foodscape than by the overall quantity of high-quality forage. In other words, the total amount of good food across the landscape was important, but what mattered more was whether elk accessed it. These findings suggest that both food availability and constraints on foraging behavior shape population health. The method of modeling used in this study could be applied to other herbivore populations, helping wildlife managers determine whether species are limited by food resources or informing conservation strategies.
Read the article: Using dynamic foodscape models to assess bottom-up constraints on population performance of herbivores
From Ecosphere:
Mountain plants slow to change in a warming world
Author contact: Kaleb A. Goff (kagoff@ncsu.edu)
Mountain plants are usually cold-tolerant and long-lived species that do not spread and disperse easily, lending themselves vulnerable to the effects of climate change. To investigate the sensitivity of these organisms, researchers examined how alpine plant communities in parts of California and Nevada have shifted over nearly 20 years. The study involved 29 arid mountain summits and measured how many species were present, how species were replacing each other over time, and how different types of plants (like flowers, grasses or shrubs) were changing in abundance. They found that the total number of species stayed about the same over time, and although some plants were replaced by others, it was not much more than what you might expect to happen by chance. While they did see some changes in particular groups of plants (e.g., flowering species grew in number, cushion plants lost more species), the overall community patterns did not show major shifts. It seems climate change has not caused big changes in the plant communities at these dry high-altitude sites. However, the scientists note that this could change in the future, and that other studies point to different outcomes in wetter alpine regions.
Read the article: Limited directional change in mountaintop plant communities over 19 years in western North America
From Ecology:
Trust a bumble bee’s gut — at least its microbiome
Author contact: Fabienne Maihoff (fabienne.maihoff@uni-wuerzburg.de)
Bumble bees are crucial pollinators for plants and crops around the world, and climate change threatens their survival. Beyond harming the bees themselves and the plants they rely on, rising temperatures can disrupt bees’ gut bacteria, which regulate their nutrition, health and disease resistance. To better understand these impacts, researchers studied six bumble bee species living at different elevations in the German Alps, analyzing their gut bacteria using DNA sequencing. In one experiment, they moved two bee species (Bombus terrestris and Bombus lucorum) between different elevations to observe how their microbiome changed when introduced to new climatic conditions. They also exposed these species to controlled heat and cold waves in a lab. The study found that bees from higher elevations have less stable microbiomes, suggesting they may be more vulnerable to environmental stress and pathogens. However, lab-controlled temperature changes alone did not alter the mixture of gut microbes, suggesting that environmental factors beyond temperature (such as diet and local microbes) play a role. Understanding these microbial interactions is essential for predicting pollinator responses in a warming world.
Read the article: Exploring climate-related gut microbiome variation in bumble bees: An experimental and observational perspective
From Ecological Monographs:
River shredders and biodiversity keep ecosystems flowing
Author contact: Rubén del Campo (rubendel.campo@um.es)
Biodiversity is essential for maintaining healthy ecosystems at large scales, such as an entire river network. In a recent study, scientists tallied stream-dwelling invertebrates (insects, crustaceans, snails and the like) across 51 sites in the Swiss Thur River network to explore how biodiversity affects leaf-litter decomposition rates — a key ecosystem function in streams which helps recycle nutrients back into the environment. They found that decomposition rates are lower farther away from headwaters, primarily due to a decrease in key leaf-shredding insects which help speed up decomposition such as stoneflies, caddisflies and mayflies. However, traits of the leaf litter itself, like the nutrients in the leaves, appear to be the main factor controlling decomposition rates at larger scales. Nevertheless, biodiversity of stream invertebrates still mattered in one important way: a higher functional diversity (a mix of species with different ecological roles) can stabilize decomposition by reducing variation across different types of leaf litter. This suggests that while the presence of specific shredder species is essential for decomposition rates, a diverse community plays an important role in ensuring consistent nutrient cycling across an entire river network.
Read the article: Functional macroinvertebrate diversity stabilizes decomposition among leaf litter resources across a river network
From Earth Stewardship:
Cooperation and cash can boost farmland conservation
Author contact: Jule M. Huber (jule.huber@uni-goettingen.de)
What is the best way to encourage farmers to adopt environment- and climate-friendly practices? In the European Union, agri-environmental and climate measures (AECM) aim to support biodiversity and ecosystem services on farmland, in which participating farmers carry out well-defined environmental or climate-related practices for which they receive financial compensation. Despite being around for many years, AECM have not been successful in reversing the decline of biodiversity in agricultural areas in Europe — perhaps the result of too much focus on single-farm efforts or inadequate financial incentives. Now, new AECM schemes are being developed that focus on more landscape-scale measures, which will require cooperation from larger groups of farmers. Cooperative AECM environmental benefits may include landscape designs with habitat areas that span multiple properties, preventing species’ isolation and promoting biodiversity; benefits to farmers can include local capacity-building, stronger networks among regional farmers and also cost-effectiveness and higher crop yields. But will more farmers participate? A study in Lower Saxony, Germany found that economic factors related to AECM such as financial incentives and alignment with farming activities are the most important motivators. For cooperative AECM, social connections also became important, alongside better scheme design. The study highlights key policy recommendations to promote adoption of cooperative AECM that include offering adequate financial compensation, clearly communicating environmental benefits, fostering social interactions and relationships and creating governance structures that support cooperation and scheme design.
Read the article: Farmer motivation to participate in cooperative agri-environmental and climate measures
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The Ecological Society of America, founded in 1915, is the world’s largest community of professional ecologists and a trusted source of ecological knowledge, committed to advancing the understanding of life on Earth. The 8,000 member Society publishes six journals and a membership bulletin and broadly shares ecological information through policy, media outreach and education initiatives. The Society’s Annual Meeting attracts 4,000 attendees and features the most recent advances in ecological science. Visit the ESA website at https://www.esa.org
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