The Journal Of Animal Ecology[JOURNAL]
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200 papers
12 years of assembly patterns in saproxylic beetles suggest early decay wood as ephemeral resource patch.
Lettenmaier L, Bässler C, Decker O … +6 more , Hagge J, Heibl C, Mamadashvili G, Seibold S, Thorn S, Müller J
J Anim Ecol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41216996 · Full text
The ephemeral resource patch (ERP) concept provides a framework for understanding how finite, short-lived resources shape community assembly processes at both patch and landscape scale. Some of these theories and princip...
The ephemeral resource patch (ERP) concept provides a framework for understanding how finite, short-lived resources shape community assembly processes at both patch and landscape scale. Some of these theories and principles can be applied to intermediate-lived resources, such as deadwood, but this remains largely unexplored. We tested three ecological mechanisms of community assembly (more-individuals hypothesis, habitat-heterogeneity hypothesis and habitat filtering) to investigate whether beetle assemblages in deadwood fit the ERP concept. We tracked saproxylic beetle communities in experimental logs of Norway spruce (Picea abies), European silver fir (Abies alba) and beech (Fagus sylvatica) in the temperate mountain forest of the Bavarian Forest National Park over a 12-year decomposition period, from the early decomposition stage until near-complete resource depletion. Beetle abundance and number of species declined consistently in all tree species until the 4th year but increased again in spruce after ~8 years. Species richness (number of species controlled for abundance) showed inconsistent patterns over time: U-shaped for spruce, weakly hump-shaped for fir and no temporal effect for beech. Habitat filtering was more pronounced in the early stage as functional diversity was initially low but increased for all tree species up to 4 years, then plateaued and increased again after ~10 years for both conifers. Conditional inference tree identified two temporally distinct beetle assemblages (years 1-3 and 4-12), and strong differences within the first 4 years. Our findings suggest that the more-individuals hypothesis and habitat filtering are key mechanisms driving community assembly in saproxylic beetles. Early decomposition stages supported functionally similar assemblages, highlighting this phase as a critical period for decomposer community structuring. Synthesis. The consistency of the early successional trajectories of beetles suggests that the early stages of deadwood decomposition up to the 3rd year in the temperate zone follow ephemerality theories similar to those of short-lived ERPs, while the advanced stages provide a habitat for a more random combination of beetle species. Furthermore, our findings highlight the need for temporally continuous deadwood input, via natural processes or staggered retention during logging operations, to provide coarse woody debris for wide range of saproxylic beetles.
Large herbivores are linked to higher herbaceous plant diversity and functional redundancy across spatial scales.
Trepel J, Atkinson J, le Roux E … +14 more , Abraham AJ, Aucamp M, Greve M, Greyling M, Kalwij JM, Khosa S, Lindenthal L, Makofane C, Mokoena L, Oosthuizen A, Rech BJ, Lundgren E, Svenning JC, Buitenwerf R
J Anim Ecol · 2026 Jan · PMID 41216995 · Full text
Large herbivores can strongly influence plant communities. However, these effects are highly variable, potentially depending on the herbivore regime, that is, herbivore diversity and density. However, the role of the her...
Large herbivores can strongly influence plant communities. However, these effects are highly variable, potentially depending on the herbivore regime, that is, herbivore diversity and density. However, the role of the herbivore regime has been challenging to evaluate across spatial scales due to widespread defaunation and a lack of data on herbivore communities and their densities. Here, we investigated the effects of large herbivores along a gradient of trophic complexity (low to high herbivore diversity) and herbivory intensity (estimated from herbivore biomass and visitation frequency) on plant taxonomic and functional diversity at different scales (plot [n = 250], site [n = 50] and landscape [n = 10]) in 10 reserves in the savanna biome in South Africa. We found higher total plant species richness, driven by higher herbaceous (but not woody) plant species richness, in areas with higher herbivory intensity across multiple scales. While herbivores had no significant relationship with plant functional richness, we observed higher functional redundancy at all scales in areas more frequently visited by herbivores. Overall, herbivore-vegetation relationships were largely consistent across scales, and the strongest effects emerged at the largest scale. Our results show a positive relationship between large herbivores and both herbaceous plant species richness and plant functional redundancy, the latter suggesting higher vegetation resilience (the capacity of ecosystems to quickly recover from disturbances as different species compensate for the loss or decline of others). These effects are largely consistent across scales, indicating that the impact of herbivore regimes on plant communities is predominantly scale-independent and that large herbivores drive vegetation dynamics at both local and large scales. However, the stronger effects observed at the landscape scale imply that herbivore impacts manifest most prominently at larger scales. Altogether, our results suggest that restoring large herbivore populations can be expected to promote herbaceous plant diversity and ecosystem resilience.
Quantifying fish-derived nutrient hotspots across reefscapes.
Helder NK, Moura A, Neufeld A … +2 more , Burns JHR, Green SJ
J Anim Ecol · 2026 Jan · PMID 41211767 · Full text
Animals aggregated on habitat patches can generate nutrient "hotspots" that enhance biogeochemical cycling and primary production, yet the conditions under which such hotspots emerge in continuous reef habitats remain un...
Animals aggregated on habitat patches can generate nutrient "hotspots" that enhance biogeochemical cycling and primary production, yet the conditions under which such hotspots emerge in continuous reef habitats remain unclear. This study aimed to determine how different scales of reef structural complexity regulate fish-derived nutrient supply and associated benthic enrichment. We conducted fish surveys and high-resolution photogrammetry across six reefscapes (~2500 m each) in the Florida Keys, USA. At the 25 m scale, we quantified large-scale vertical relief and fine-scale complexity using vector ruggedness (VRM), estimated nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) supply from fish bioenergetics models, and measured macroalgal tissue %N and %P. We found that fish-derived nutrient supply increased with reef vertical relief up to ~2.8 m, beyond which supply rates saturated. VRM was positively related to nutrient supply, particularly in low-relief areas, indicating scale-dependent effects. Macroalgal nutrient content was non-linearly related to supply, with uptake plateauing above ~250 mg N m day and ~35 mg P m day. Nonlinear patterns were driven by high-relief hotspots, where nutrient supply was several times greater than surrounding reef. These findings show that mesoscale habitat complexity interacts across scales to shape consumer-driven nutrient supply and benthic enrichment. Identifying thresholds in relief and VRM provides new insight into when and where nutrient hotspots form and offers practical guidance for targeting restoration to reef features most likely to enhance productivity.
Disentangling the influence of density dependence, size dependence and environmental effects on fish population dynamics.
Bordes A, Huret M, Rivot E … +5 more , Andrieux C, Doray M, Edeline E, Lebigre C, Olmos M
J Anim Ecol · 2026 Jan · PMID 41208158 · Publisher ↗
Improving our understanding of the ecological and demographic mechanisms that underlie changes in wild population productivity is critical to support ecosystem-based management. Yet, population productivity results from...
Improving our understanding of the ecological and demographic mechanisms that underlie changes in wild population productivity is critical to support ecosystem-based management. Yet, population productivity results from a combination of demographic rates (such as mortality, growth and recruitment) driven by intrinsic and extrinsic factors which interact through density-, size- or environment-dependent mechanisms. The interdependence between demographic rates, and intrinsic and extrinsic factors, has rarely been studied throughout the life cycle of a wild population. This is particularly needed for short life species, such as small pelagic fish, which are subject to inter-annual abrupt changes in abundances. Here, we developed an age-based life-cycle model to investigate the relative influence of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on successive transitions rates along the life cycle of a system composed of two small pelagic species of the Bay of Biscay, the European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) and European sardine (Sardina pilchardus). Our model allows to disentangle the influence of density dependence, size dependence and environmental factors throughout the life cycle of short life species. Our results highlight that sardine demography is density-dependent, with significant effects of density on natural mortality at age 1 and age 3. In contrast, anchovy demography is both size- and density-dependent, with density-dependent effects on natural mortality at age 1, age 2 and on recruitment, and a size-dependent effect on age-1 mortality. Moreover, we found that natural mortalities of both anchovy and sardine were related to large-scale environmental indicators, such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation. The originality of this approach lies in its ability to integrate the effects of size, density and environment on a multitude of demographic processes throughout the life cycle for wild species, and can be seen as a step towards supporting ecosystem-based management.
Host-associated beneficial gut microbiota boosts induced immunity and limits immune deployment costs in bumblebees.
Calhoun AC, Shosanya T, Long BK … +2 more , Rehberger JK, Sadd BM
J Anim Ecol · 2026 Jan · PMID 41208121 · Full text
Ecological immunology posits that variation in host resistance to infection may be attributed partly to the ecological and evolutionary costs of immunity. While the deployment of immune defence is necessary to combat pat...
Ecological immunology posits that variation in host resistance to infection may be attributed partly to the ecological and evolutionary costs of immunity. While the deployment of immune defence is necessary to combat pathogenic infection, hosts pay energetic and other costs for activation. Host-associated beneficial microbiota have been shown to affect multiple host traits, including immunity, but how interactions with these microbial communities may mitigate the costs of immune activation remains an open question. For apid bees, including eusocial bumblebees, core members of the adult gut microbiota contribute to a variety of fitness-relevant traits and provide a key ecological and evolutionary relationship contributing to ecological success. Here we test the hypothesis that the host-associated microbiota provides benefits to bumblebee immunity, including the mitigation of the costs associated with inducible immune responses. Freshly emerged germ-free adult workers were supplemented with their native microbiota via experimental faecal transplants from nestmates or kept deprived of their native microbiota inoculum. We assessed functional measures of induced immunity and assessed the costs of non-pathogenic immune activation for survival. In support of our hypothesis, we find that microbiota supplementation strengthened functional antibacterial immunity. Moreover, although we observed a cost of immune activation for survival, the cost was much greater for bees deprived of their native gut microbiota compared to those supplemented. Thus, we provide evidence that in addition to other roles, the microbiota mitigates costs of immune deployment. This demonstrates a key role for host-associated microbiota in the realization of induced immune defence, and contributes more broadly to our understanding of microbiota-immune interactions in the context of ecological immunology.
Sweat the small stuff: A review of the use of accelerometers to estimate energy expenditure in wild animals.
Elliott KH
J Anim Ecol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41204787 · Full text
Dynamic body acceleration (DBA), a measure of work based on Newtonian biomechanics, is a metric often used to estimate daily energy expenditure (DEE) with accelerometers, but studies validating DBA in wild animals have s...
Dynamic body acceleration (DBA), a measure of work based on Newtonian biomechanics, is a metric often used to estimate daily energy expenditure (DEE) with accelerometers, but studies validating DBA in wild animals have shown mixed results. I review all studies using accelerometry to measure energy expenditure in free-living (wild or farmed) animals, focussing on those that calibrate DBA against doubly labelled water or heart rate as the 'gold standard' for DEE. Most (~90%) energetics studies using DBA focus on endotherms, even though DBA may work better for ectotherms. In nearly all studies of endotherms, average DBA increased linearly with DEE, but the intercept of the DBA-DEE relationship was not constant across contexts-even within the same species. DBA-DEE relationships were stronger with mass-specific DEE and slightly stronger with vectorial DBA than overall DBA. In a case study of six seabird species with similar activity modes and physiologies, DBA-DEE slopes varied with activity, but were consistent across species for flight, implying that activity-specific slopes might be applied across species in some cases where sufficient sampling occurs within similar taxa. I offer recommendations for the use of DBA to estimate DEE. I explore the potential for a general physiological model across species, without species-specific calibrations, and note where the DBA-DEE relationship breaks down and where we need more data. DBA, used under appropriate conditions, is an index of energy use in many endotherms, and I encourage its use with more ecological questions.
Suboptimal is good enough: Aligning thermal sensitivity to habitat temperature across season.
Litle JW, Carrington E
J Anim Ecol · 2026 Jan · PMID 41204753 · Publisher ↗
Predicting the thermal performance of organisms is crucial for understanding the effects of climate warming. In ectotherms, organismal performance depends on how well aligned the thermal sensitivities of fitness componen...
Predicting the thermal performance of organisms is crucial for understanding the effects of climate warming. In ectotherms, organismal performance depends on how well aligned the thermal sensitivities of fitness components are to body temperatures in the natural habitat. It is frequently assumed that T (temperatures that maximize performance) for important fitness components has evolved to align with habitat temperatures. However, most organisms at temperate latitudes experience significant seasonal temperature variation, and therefore frequently operate at suboptimal temperatures. Importantly, seasonal performance patterns may differ among fitness components if those components have different thermal sensitivities. The extent to which habitat temperature can deviate from T before an organism can no longer persist in its environment, and the role of seasonality in driving this deviation, is infrequently explored. Here, we assess how well aligned the thermal sensitivity (thermal performance curves, or TPCs) of development, growth and survival is to local habitat temperatures across two seasons using embryos of the marine gastropod Haminoea vesicula. We develop a mechanistic model by integrating thermal sensitivity for development, growth and survival with habitat temperatures to predict embryo performance across seasons. Our results demonstrate that habitat temperatures mostly fall far below T for development and growth. Accordingly, model predictions show that in the cool spring, developmental periods are 20% longer and hatchling sizes are slightly (~1%) smaller on average than in the summer. Survival risk intensifies in the summer due to an acute high-temperature event, indicating that seasonal temperature variation affects performance differently between fitness components. We horizontally shift TPC functions to assess how well aligned the thermal sensitivity of each fitness component is to habitat temperatures. Simulations indicate that thermal sensitivity for survival is well aligned to habitat temperature, but T for development and growth would need to cold shift by 11°C and 16°C, respectively, to achieve maximal performance. However, cold shifting TPCs to maximize development and growth results in sharp survival reductions due to summer heat spikes. Overall, T greatly exceeds the most frequent habitat temperatures, leading to suboptimal performance most of the time. However, high T allows embryos to survive seasonally driven heat spikes. Sometimes 'suboptimal' is good enough.
Maternal glucocorticoid exposure drives social tolerance and growth with limited evidence for long-term social buffering.
Lange EC, Aracena B
J Anim Ecol · 2025 Nov · PMID 41174951 · Publisher ↗
Research Highlight: MacLeod, K., Bouffet-Halle, A., Wapstra, E., Uller, T., While, G. (2025). Maternal glucocorticoids have persistent effects on offspring social phenotype irrespective of opportunity for social bufferin...
Research Highlight: MacLeod, K., Bouffet-Halle, A., Wapstra, E., Uller, T., While, G. (2025). Maternal glucocorticoids have persistent effects on offspring social phenotype irrespective of opportunity for social buffering. Journal of Animal Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70121. Maternal effects can have wide-ranging effects on offspring phenotypes. Understanding if there are ways to ameliorate negative effects of poor early lives including maternal stress is a critical outstanding question. For example, the social buffering hypothesis predicts that individuals can reduce the negative effects of poor early lives with positive later life social environments. MacLeod et al. (2025) tested this hypothesis in a facultatively social lizard, Liopholis whitii, with a full-sibling split brood breeding design. They found evidence for social buffering of postnatal activity, but not for size, growth or social interactions. Instead, prenatal glucocorticoid exposure is a strong predictor of increased social interactions as well as decreased size and growth. Their results suggest that for many phenotypes, a poor early start can lead to lifelong effects, but for others, positive social environments could ameliorate negative early lives. Future work is needed to build a framework to predict which phenotypes have propensities for longer term social buffering to assess agents of selection and pathways for interventions.
Social immunity in a supercolonial invasive ant: Nest structure confers immune function.
LeBrun EG, Fernandez AS, Sekula LA … +2 more , Macones CR, Gilbert LE
J Anim Ecol · 2026 Jan · PMID 41174939 · Full text
In animals, group living comes at the cost of increased pathogen exposure. In kin groups, social immune behaviours offset that cost and reach their most complex expression in eusocial insect societies. In the nests of th...
In animals, group living comes at the cost of increased pathogen exposure. In kin groups, social immune behaviours offset that cost and reach their most complex expression in eusocial insect societies. In the nests of these societies, collective social behaviours can modify the patterns of individual interactions across space, reducing the ability of pathogens to reach the reproductive core of the colony (organizational immunity). To be effective, these behaviours must separate infected and uninfected individuals; implying that the efficacy of social immune behaviours may depend upon nest structure. The role of nest space has received little attention, and most knowledge of social immune behaviour in social insects is based on the study of generalist entomopathogenic fungi. We examine the social immune behaviours involved in the interaction between the supercolonial, invasive tawny crazy ant (Nylanderia fulva) and its specialist, intracellular, microsporidian pathogen Myrmecomorba nylanderiae, to ask how nest structure influences social immunity. By manipulating nest structure, we demonstrate that preventing pathogen transmission to the colony core requires a multi-chambered nest. Without which, social immune function was lost, and disease transmission was universal. To understand how nest space enhances social immune efficacy, we first confirm that workers within tawny crazy ant nests form spatially and behaviourally segregated social sub-networks. We then find that infected ants introduced into the colony core migrate to the colony periphery, while uninfected ants do not. Behavioural tests indicate that, despite the infection being internal, uninfected ants can detect the infection status of a worker; thus, behaviours enforcing spatial segregation could be triggered by either party. Additionally, infected ants alter the behavioural tasks they perform, assuming more corpse removal tasks, particularly infected corpse removal, and reducing their efforts in foraging and brood care. With some exceptions, the social immune behaviours expressed by this supercolonial ant in response to microsporidian infection correspond to immune defence behaviours employed to defend against generalist entomopathogenic fungi. These behaviours appear to be conserved, generalized responses to pathogen infection among social insects.
Impact of animal socioecology on gut microbial communities: Insights from wild meerkats in the Kalahari.
Balasubramaniam K, Mueller-Klein N, Vink T … +3 more , Clutton-Brock TH, Manser MB, Sommer S
J Anim Ecol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41167241 · Full text
The social organisation of animals likely shapes the composition, diversity and stability of microbiomes, giving rise to the concept of the 'social microbiome'-microbial communities shared within and across social units,...
The social organisation of animals likely shapes the composition, diversity and stability of microbiomes, giving rise to the concept of the 'social microbiome'-microbial communities shared within and across social units, or 'islands', ranging from individuals to entire ecosystems. Understanding the connections and their underlying drivers is crucial for revealing how socioecology influences microbiomes and associated health outcomes. However, empirical assessments are still limited, and the relative influence of social organisation compared to intrinsic (biological) and extrinsic (environmental) factors in shaping microbiomes is particularly unclear. Here, we used a long-term, individual-based study of Kalahari meerkats (Suricata suricatta) to test predictions from the social microbiome concept. We assessed the relative influence of social factors, biological traits and environmental variables on gut microbial communities, while also accounting for the effects of microbial phylogenetic relatedness and within-host associations or co-occurrence independent of phylogeny. Meerkat microbiomes exhibited highly 'nested' and weakly 'modular' structures: individuals with lower diversity hosted amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) that were subsets of the overall community, though some bacterial taxa clustered distinctly among hosts. Microbiomes were more similar within social groups than between them. Group membership strongly influenced the co-occurrence of many beneficial ASVs, as well as a few potentially harmful ones. This effect was stronger than that of kinship, though closer relatives shared more similar microbiomes within some groups. While a range of social, biological and environmental factors influenced bacterial abundance, group membership, individual age and sampling time since sunrise had the most significant impact. ASV-ASV co-occurrence within hosts, independent of phylogeny, also played a major role. In contrast, individual-level social traits (e.g. dominance, immigration), other environmental (e.g. sampling temperature, rainfall, hours since foraging), demographic (sex) and health-related factors (body condition, disease status) had weaker effects on bacterial abundance. We show that gut microbiomes are shaped by a combination of factors, highlighting the importance of separating the effects of social organisation from individual social traits, biological factors, environmental influences and microbe-microbe interactions. By identifying drivers of both beneficial and detrimental bacterial co-occurrence, we provide a foundation for assessing how the social microbiome affects animal health and fitness.
Alternative energetic strategies for a cold-water fish: Gains in the mainstem versus efficiency in floodplain refuges.
Barrett H, Armstrong J
J Anim Ecol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41165172 · Publisher ↗
Alternative responses to environmental change can buffer populations from climate variation. Variation in behavioural responses to thermal stress may mediate population-level responses to warming, but relatively little i...
Alternative responses to environmental change can buffer populations from climate variation. Variation in behavioural responses to thermal stress may mediate population-level responses to warming, but relatively little is known about the trade-offs associated with alternative strategies. In freshwater ecosystems cold-water fish exhibit intra-population variation in refuge seeking behaviour during periods of thermal stress. Moving to refuge may present a conflict between temperature and food, since consumption rates should decline with increasing fish densities (and potentially lower food production) in refuges. In comparison, fish that do not seek refuge incur higher metabolic demands but may also have higher foraging rates. While this trade-off is fundamentally important for cold-water fish in a warming world, it is difficult to quantify, and the relative fitness of alternative strategies remains largely unknown. We integrated field measurements of adult coastal cutthroat trout diet, fish growth and water temperature within a bioenergetics framework to quantify the energetic trade-offs associated with alternative responses to summer maximum temperatures. While the energetic costs and benefits of each strategy were markedly different, both yielded comparable growth (i.e. net energy balance), suggesting that both strategies represent evolutionarily stable strategies at present. However, warming temperatures are expected to penalize fish remaining in non-refuge habitat, making this strategy less energetically profitable in the future. Our findings underscore the importance of considering individual variation in response to climate change and floodplain heterogeneity in climate adaptation planning.
Apex predators exploit advantageous snow conditions across hunting modes.
Sullender BK, Ganz TR, Mower R … +5 more , Lundquist JD, Kertson BN, Newsome TM, Wirsing AJ, Prugh LR
J Anim Ecol · 2025 Oct · PMID 41146455 · Publisher ↗
Apex predators balance functional traits, habitat features, and prey distribution to maximize hunting efficiency. As components of habitat such as snow cover are altered by climate change, functional traits may prove mor...
Apex predators balance functional traits, habitat features, and prey distribution to maximize hunting efficiency. As components of habitat such as snow cover are altered by climate change, functional traits may prove more or less effective given new environmental conditions, with ecosystem-wide impacts as a result of changing predator-prey interactions. Hunting mode is one such functional trait that shapes which environments are best for catching prey. Coursing large carnivores may exploit snow conditions that offer movement advantages, with long chase sequences maximizing their superior mobility over large-bodied ungulate prey that typically sink deeper into snow. However, comparatively little is known about whether stalking predators utilize snow similarly, despite similar theoretical movement advantages over prey. In this study, we examined the effects of snow on two sympatric predators with different hunting strategies: cougars (Puma concolor; stalking predators) and wolves (Canis lupus; coursing predators). We coupled a physically based snow model with kill site investigations and telemetry data from 50 cougars, 14 wolves, 142 mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and 90 white-tailed deer (O. virginianus) collected from 2017 to 2021 in Washington state, USA. We first created winter deer distribution models for each year to control for expected prey density. We then generated step selection functions for cougars and wolves using this deer index, snow properties, and other landscape characteristics hypothesized to influence the hunting process. The interaction between snow depth and density shaped both predators' movements and was an unexpectedly strong driver of cougar winter movements and kill site distribution. Wolves weakly selected for shallow (<35 cm), low density (<200 kg/m) snow, and avoided deeper snow unless sufficiently dense (>350 kg/m). Cougars selected for very dense (>400 kg/m), moderate-depth (<50 cm) snow and avoided deep snow. Snow depth and density had similar effects on cougar kill site selection (n = 389 known and probable cougar kills; insufficient sample size for wolves). Our results indicate that snow is a critical component of large carnivore movements regardless of hunting mode. In a warming climate, the knock-on effects of a diminishing snowpack may reduce the hunting success of multiple large carnivore species, consequently altering predator-prey dynamics with cascading ecosystem-wide effects.
Intraspecific variation in prey quality affects the consumption rates of top predators.
Nehasil SE, Zwolinski JP, Dorval E … +1 more , Kurle CM
J Anim Ecol · 2026 Jan · PMID 41146400 · Full text
Prey quality, measured as energy density and energy content, is a key functional trait in predator-prey relationships. While the effects of interspecific differences in prey quality on predators have been examined previo...
Prey quality, measured as energy density and energy content, is a key functional trait in predator-prey relationships. While the effects of interspecific differences in prey quality on predators have been examined previously, the consequences of intraspecific variation remain less understood. To examine how within-species variation in prey quality influences predator foraging, we modelled the effects of prey size, maturity and sampling season and region on the quality of Engraulis mordax, Sardinops sagax and Doryteuthis opalescens-three common prey species for top predators in the California Current Ecosystem (CCE). We contextualized our findings using documented energy budgets of the California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), a consumer of these species and an important ecosystem indicator in the CCE. We found significant within-species variation in prey quality related to size, maturity, season and region, with stronger effects in fish than squid. These patterns likely reflect prey life history and regional and seasonal oceanographic conditions that influence energy storage. Under static prey availability and predator energy demands, daily biomass requirements driven by intraspecific variation in prey quality were comparable to previous estimates based on interspecific differences. By integrating predator bioenergetics with prey energy content models, we found that the number of prey required can vary by tens of thousands depending on prey size-rendering smaller individuals an impractical energy source for non-filter-feeding predators. Even accounting for size, predators may need to consume up to twice as many individuals when foraging on lower-quality prey from certain regions, seasons or maturity stages compared to higher-quality conspecifics. Our findings highlight the critical importance of incorporating intraspecific variation in prey quality into bioenergetics frameworks that inform predator foraging predictions. As climate change and resource exploitation intensify, integrating functional traits and energetic trade-offs into predator-prey studies will be essential for anticipating predator responses and evaluating ecosystem resilience.
Seascape heterogeneity and predictability drive movement strategy selection in estuarine predators.
Eggenberger CW, Viadero N, Santos R … +5 more , Papastamatiou Y, Price R, Strazisar T, Madden C, Rehage J
J Anim Ecol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41128113 · Publisher ↗
Animal movement strategies, or suites of correlated traits reflecting how individuals respond to their environment, are often shaped by spatiotemporal heterogeneity and predictability in physicochemical conditions, resou...
Animal movement strategies, or suites of correlated traits reflecting how individuals respond to their environment, are often shaped by spatiotemporal heterogeneity and predictability in physicochemical conditions, resources or risk. While movement strategies have been well studied in terrestrial animals using high-resolution satellite telemetry, our understanding of how seascape heterogeneity influences movement strategies in aquatic systems remains limited due to technological constraints. We used a non-gridded passive acoustic telemetry array to identify and classify movement strategies of Common Snook (Centropomus undecimalis) and Atlantic Tarpon (Megalops atlanticus) within two estuarine systems in Everglades National Park, Florida. We then evaluated how seasonal heterogeneity and environmental predictability influenced movement strategy selection. Using a suite of movement metrics, we identified three statistically distinct movement strategies that varied in movement frequency, home range size and site fidelity. Fish in more homogeneous environments tended to adopt strategies involving frequent movements, larger home ranges and shorter stays in a given location. In contrast, increased seascape heterogeneity was associated with movement strategies characterized by less frequent movements, smaller home ranges and longer residence times. We also found species-level differences in strategy use, with the predictability of dissolved oxygen, salinity and turbidity emerging as key environmental drivers of movement strategy selection. These results demonstrate that seascape heterogeneity and predictability strongly influence the emergence and selection of movement strategies in estuarine predators. Our findings provide a novel approach for identifying movement strategies in aquatic systems using passive acoustic telemetry and highlight the broader importance of seascape complexity in shaping animal behaviour and predicting responses to environmental change.
Computer vision uncovers trait-based insect responses to habitat loss.
Gonçalves-Souza T, Vancine MH, Paterno GB
J Anim Ecol · 2026 Jan · PMID 41128069 · Publisher ↗
Research Highlight: Colares, L. F., Peres, C. A., Dambros, C. S. (2026). Life history induces markedly divergent insect responses to habitat loss. Journal of Animal Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70117. Habit...
Research Highlight: Colares, L. F., Peres, C. A., Dambros, C. S. (2026). Life history induces markedly divergent insect responses to habitat loss. Journal of Animal Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70117. Habitat loss is driving biodiversity collapse worldwide. Although this phenomenon has been extensively studied across many taxa and regions, we still lack information about whether species with distinct life histories respond differently to habitat loss. This challenge is particularly critical for tropical insects, where knowledge gaps remain large due to the Linnean (taxonomy) and Raunkiæran (traits) shortfalls. In this issue, Colares et al. (2025) address these gaps by using 236 sticky traps across the world's largest man-made tropical forest archipelago in the Central Amazon (~360,000 ha), generating a dataset of ~23,000 individual insects. They combined these surveys of insect fauna with computer vision models to assess how habitat loss affects both α- and β-diversity in insects with contrasting life histories (terrestrial vs. aquatic). The study reveals that responses diverge strongly depending on whether taxa rely on terrestrial or aquatic environments during their ontogeny. Whereas low forest amount reduced the number of terrestrial species, it increased species with aquatic life histories. Importantly, the authors also linked insect responses to body size (a proxy for dispersal ability), suggesting that larger insects, which disperse more successfully across the water matrix, may be favoured as 'winner' species in fragmented habitats. The findings of Colares et al. (2025) have broad implications for animal ecology and insect conservation. First, they highlight that insect declines in response to habitat loss are largely driven by traits that confer high or low resilience to reductions in forest cover. Second, they underscore the potential of computer vision as a powerful tool for uncovering key information about insect populations, thereby facilitating applied research such as rapid biodiversity surveys and long-term monitoring.
An integrative, peer-reviewed and open-source cooperative-breeding database (Co-BreeD).
Ben Mocha Y, Woith M, Scemama de Gialluly S … +29 more , Bruscagnin L, Kestel N, Markman S, Drobniak SM, Baglione V, Boersma J, Cousseau L, Covas R, Braga de Miranda GH, Dey CJ, Doutrelant C, Gula R, Heinsohn R, Keynan O, Kingma SA, Leitão AV, Li J, Makuya L, Middleton KM, Pruett-Jones S, Radford AN, Restrepo C, Rubenstein DR, Schradin C, Theuerkauf J, Warrington MH, Williams DA, Woxvold IA, Griesser M
J Anim Ecol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41128050 · Full text
Large-scale, cross-species comparative analyses on cooperative breeding-where individuals care for the offspring of other group members-are important for understanding sociality and cooperation. However, the datasets tha...
Large-scale, cross-species comparative analyses on cooperative breeding-where individuals care for the offspring of other group members-are important for understanding sociality and cooperation. However, the datasets that facilitate these analyses are often limited in precision. To advance comparative research on cooperative breeding, we hereby introduce the Cooperative-Breeding Database (Co-BreeD) for birds and mammals. We describe key features of Co-BreeD's structure: (i) integration of complementary datasets, each presenting a biological parameter relevant to cooperative-breeding research; (ii) sample-based (i.e. multiple samples per species linked to an exact sampling location and period); and (iii) open-source. Respectively, these features enable: (a) comprehensive identification of cooperative-breeding species according to the user's chosen definition, (b) linking intra- and inter-specific variation in traits with fine-scale environmental parameters and (c) enabling the research community to correct and expand this database. We present the initial Co-BreeD dataset, which estimates the prevalence of breeding events involving potential alloparents in 460 populations of 324 species, including 6 human populations (No. total = 43,247 breeding events). We conclude by demonstrating: (i) how Co-BreeD can improve comparative research (e.g. by enabling the study of cooperative breeding as a continuous rather than a binary trait); and (ii) that cooperative breeding is probably more prevalent than previously estimated in birds and mammals.
Estimating the ecological drivers of insect abundance when detection is imperfect.
Ulrich J, Sargent RD
J Anim Ecol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41126595 · Full text
Biodiversity conservation hinges on a clear understanding of the ecological drivers of species abundance. In studies of insect abundance, researchers often estimate the effects of hypothesized drivers by applying general...
Biodiversity conservation hinges on a clear understanding of the ecological drivers of species abundance. In studies of insect abundance, researchers often estimate the effects of hypothesized drivers by applying generalized linear models and generalized linear mixed models (GLMs/GLMMs) to count data. However, a significant issue with conventional GLMs/GLMMs is that they cannot account for a failure to detect some individuals that are present ('imperfect detection'), which can bias model estimates. To account for this, some researchers adopt hierarchical modelling approaches, including multinomial N-mixture (multimix) models for mark-recapture data and binomial N-mixture (binmix) models for repeated count data. Currently, we lack side-by-side comparisons to determine the ecological and study design conditions that require the use of these more cumbersome approaches to achieve accurate estimates. We collected abundance data on wild bees in a study designed to compare unrestored to restored urban parks, which had more flowers and taller vegetation. We applied all three modelling approaches to these data, using either mark-recapture data (multimix approach) or ignoring whether individuals were marked and treating the data as traditional counts (binmix and GLMM approaches). Our models indicated that capture rates for individual bees were below ~5%. The multimix mark-recapture model found that bees were ~1.6-fold more likely to be detected in restored habitats. A GLMM, which did not account for detection bias, overestimated the effects of restoration on bee abundance. Using simulation, we found that multimix mark-recapture models had the highest accuracy and precision for estimating an abundance driver, including when individuals have the potential to move in/out of sampling areas; however, we also found that increasing baseline detection rates minimized the impacts of detection bias on GLMM estimates. Our results emphasize that environmental factors can influence our ability to detect insects in field studies, and that these factors may be confounded with the experimental design. We recommend that studies planning to apply GLMs/GLMMs to count data prioritize methods that maximize detection over other aspects of study design such as the number of sites. Together, our results provide needed guidance on how to design and implement studies that accurately quantify the ecological drivers of insect abundance.
Hierarchical organization of life-history variation in a salmonid fish across riverscape: Relevance of seasonal growth opportunity and maturation decision window.
Shida T, Sato T
J Anim Ecol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41116241 · Publisher ↗
Understanding life-history variation maintained across landscapes is crucial for revealing the spatial scale at which adaptation and population stability manifest. Previous studies have often focused on population mean l...
Understanding life-history variation maintained across landscapes is crucial for revealing the spatial scale at which adaptation and population stability manifest. Previous studies have often focused on population mean life history and its differences between habitats, overlooking variation within local habitats and its relative contribution to life-history variation at the landscape scale. By integrating a year-round survey of spatial heterogeneity in stream temperature and prey resource dynamics with a life-history survey for a masu salmon Oncorhynchus masou masou inhabiting a large watershed, we examined here how relative phenologies of seasonal growth and the maturation decision window have potentially shaped within-habitat and between-habitat variation in life history across the watershed. We found that fast-life individuals tended to dominate downstream reaches, characterized by warmer temperature, abundant aquatic invertebrate prey, and fewer terrestrial invertebrate inputs. On the other hand, slow-life individuals were more prevalent in upstream reaches, characterized by colder temperature, fewer aquatic invertebrate prey, but relatively abundant terrestrial invertebrate subsidies. However, there was considerable variation in the age of mature fish in all reaches except the most downstream and upstream reaches. The variation partitioning for the age of mature fish across the watershed revealed that the proportional contribution of within-habitat variation was unexpectedly higher (84% in females, 88% in males) than that of between-habitat variation in both sexes (16% in females, 12% in males). These results highlight the need to acknowledge the hierarchical structure of life-history variation, especially within-habitat variation, to fully understand the spatial scales at which the life-history variation is maintained and its functions, such as population stabilization and adaptive evolution, are operated.
Temperature influences pollinators' choice of floral partners independently of community composition.
Arrowsmith KC, Strait MD, Chandar M … +2 more , Schiffer A, Brosi BJ
J Anim Ecol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41108582 · Full text
Climate change can impact species interactions by changing the spatial and/or temporal overlap of interaction partners, but interspecific interactions can also vary when partners remain co-located in space and time. Unde...
Climate change can impact species interactions by changing the spatial and/or temporal overlap of interaction partners, but interspecific interactions can also vary when partners remain co-located in space and time. Understanding the effects of climate-driven environmental variation, such as rising temperatures, is particularly important for interactions that underlie key ecosystem functions like pollination. However, very little is known about how temperature variation may impact plant-pollinator interaction patterns in the absence of shifts in species presence or abundance, in part because environmental variation across multiple days or sites is often confounded with changing community composition. In this study, we examined the effects of temperature variation on pollinators' choice of floral partners within near-static ecological communities by sampling interactions at multiple temperatures within individual days-a method that allowed us to disentangle the effects of temperature variation and species turnover on patterns of plant-pollinator interactions. The substantial temperature variation both within and across days in each growing season also enabled us to largely disentangle temperature variation from time-of-day effects. With this sampling protocol, we show that temperature can influence pollinator floral choice independently of changes in species composition. We found differences in the choice of floral resources across pollinator taxa as temperature varied during individual days and further found that bumble bees, but not sweat bees, exhibited this pattern when analyzed independently. We also confirmed that our observed trends were not driven by variation in the number of interactions recorded, the relative abundance of pollinators, or in the overall attractiveness of flowers at different temperatures. We propose that thermal niche partitioning in this system could be driven by physiological and behavioral factors including energetics and competition for specific floral resources at different temperatures. These insights into thermal variation in pollinators' floral choice contribute to wider understanding of the fine-scale mechanisms through which climate change may impact ecological networks, community resilience, and ecosystem functioning.
Seasonal body mass dynamics mediate life-history trade-offs in a hibernating mammal.
Allison AZT, Conway CJ, Goldberg AR … +2 more , Morris AE, Hakanson EC
J Anim Ecol · 2026 Mar · PMID 41108567 · Full text
Energetic acquisition and growth are key traits that affect demography and life-history strategies. Many animals that live in seasonal environments in which food availability fluctuates store energy endogenously as fat i...
Energetic acquisition and growth are key traits that affect demography and life-history strategies. Many animals that live in seasonal environments in which food availability fluctuates store energy endogenously as fat in anticipation of food shortage. Fat-storing mammalian hibernators are an extreme example of this strategy wherein the optimal resolution of resource allocation trade-offs is essential to survival. Hence, these species provide an opportunity to test potential causes and consequences of seasonal body mass dynamics. We used a 12-year dataset of 8753 body mass records from 3351 individually marked northern Idaho ground squirrels (Urocitellus brunneus)-a federally threatened hibernator-to meet three objectives: (1) document seasonal body mass changes by sex, age and reproductive status, (2) test ecological hypotheses to explain spatiotemporal variation in body mass and (3) document fitness consequences of pre-hibernation body condition via condition-dependent overwinter survival. Squirrels varied substantially in seasonal body mass dynamics. The magnitude (36-155%) and onset (late May to early July) of rapid active-season mass gain varied among demographic groups. Reproductive females acquired the necessary fat stores to survive hibernation later in the active season than did males and non-reproductive females. Moreover, squirrels with better pre-hibernation body condition were more likely to survive to the subsequent year, potentially because they allocated excess energetic reserves to prolonging hibernation via early immergence and thereby reduced predation risk. These results suggest a direct trade-off between current and future reproduction mediated by resource acquisition and allocation, as predicted by life-history theory. Colder active-season temperatures and lower conspecific densities negatively influenced squirrel body condition, possibly via reductions in foraging activity associated with those conditions. These ecological effects on body condition constrain resource allocation and demographic outcomes. As such, our results can help guide research and conservation strategies to benefit hibernating animals.
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