Hybridization outcomes vary geographically and can depend on the environment. Hybridization can also reshape biotic interactions, leading to ecological shifts. If hybrids function differently ecologically in ways that enhance or reduce fitness, and those ecological roles vary geographically, ecological factors might explain variation in hybridization outcomes. However, relatively few studies have focused on ecological traits of hybrids. We compared the feeding ecology of Catostomus fish species and hybrids by using stable isotopes δ13C and δ15N...

Global wildfire regimes are changing rapidly, with widespread increases in the size, frequency, duration, and severity of wildfires. Whereas the effects of wildfire on ecological state variables such as occupancy, abundance, and species diversity are relatively well-documented, changes in population vital rates (e.g., survival, recruitment) and individual responses (e.g., growth, movement) to wildfire are more limited because of the detailed information needed on the same individuals both pre- and post-fire. We capitalized on the 2018...

Context WUI wildfire disasters are increasing, as fires are pushed by strong winds and drier fuels across landscapes and into communities. Possible disasters make maintaining and restoring landscape-scale fire in fire-adapted ecosystems difficult. Rapid action is needed to reduce building loss in WUI wildfire disasters. Objectives In a Colorado case study, I used distance-based empirical modeling to refine potential risk of building loss in WUI wildfire disasters to focus risk-reduction efforts. Methods New empirical modeling...

Circadian clocks confer adaptation to predictable 24-h fluctuations in the exogenous environment, but it has yet to be determined what ecological factors maintain natural genetic variation in endogenous circadian period outside of the hypothesized optimum of 24 h. We estimated quantitative genetic variation in circadian period in leaf movement in 30 natural populations of the Arabidopsis relative Boechera stricta sampled within only 1° of latitude but across an elevation gradient spanning 2460−3300 m in the...

Artemisia simplex (Laramie chickensage) is an imperiled, endemic plant in southeastern Wyoming, USA. To fill critical information gaps, we measured its seed viability and pollination mechanisms, measures that are lacking for many rare and endemic plants yet critical for the perpetuation of species. Artemisia simplex cover varied among sites and occupied 5.5% (range: 1.3–14.6%) of the area on average. This unique plant typically produced viable seeds under ambient conditions but did not self-pollinate. Characteristics of...

Measuring rates of valley head migration and determining the timing of canyon-opening are insightful quantifications for the history and evolution of planetary surfaces. Horizontal spatial gradients of in situ-produced cosmogenic nuclide concentrations provide a framework for assessing the migration of these and similar topographic features. We developed a theoretical model for the concentration of in situ produced cosmogenic radionuclides in valley walls during retreat of a valley head. The retreat rate is inversely proportional to...

Patterns of food quality and availability, when combined with energetic demands in seasonal environments, shape resource acquisition and allocation by animals and hold consequences for life-history strategies. In long-lived species with extensive maternal care, regulation of somatic reserves of energy and protein can occur in a risk-sensitive manner, wherein resources are preferentially allocated to support survival at the cost of investment in reproduction. We investigated how Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), an alpine mammal...

Ecological differentiation can drive speciation but it is unclear how the genetic architecture of habitat-dependent fitness contributes to lineage divergence. We investigated the genetic architecture of cumulative flowering, a fitness component, in second-generation hybrids between Silene dioica and S. latifolia transplanted into the natural habitat of each species. We used reduced-representation sequencing and Bayesian Sparse Linear Mixed Models (BSLMMs) to analyze the genetic control of cumulative flowering in each habitat. Our results point to a...

Understanding factors that influence animal behavior is central to ecology. Basic principles of animal ecology imply that individuals should seek to maximize survival and reproduction, which means carefully weighing risk against reward. Decisions become increasingly complex and constrained, however, when risk is spatiotemporally variable. We advance a growing body of work in predator-prey behavior by evaluating novel questions where a prey species is confronted with multiple predators and a potential competitor. We tested how fine-scale...

Delineating conservation units (CUs, e.g., evolutionarily significant units, ESUs, and management units, MUs) is critical to the recovery of declining species because CUs inform both listing status and management actions. Genomic data have strengths and limitations in informing CU delineation and related management questions in natural systems. We illustrate the value of using genomic data in combination with landscape, dispersal, and occupancy data, to inform CU delineation in Nevada populations of the Great Basin Distinct...

Aim: Differences in realized and fundamental thermal niches can reveal how temperature constrains species distributions. Because climate-induced range shifts assume that temperature influences distribution limits (i.e., climate equilibrium assumption), understanding the factors that determine the realized thermal niche of species is critical for understanding their climate tracking abilities. Location: Thermal niches were evaluated for two scales: Globally (n = 95 species) and across the Great Plains – Rocky Mountain region, U.S.A (n = 28 species)...

1. Whether wild herbivores confer biotic resistance to invasion by exotic plants remains a key question in ecology. There is evidence that wild herbivores can impede invasion by exotic plants, but it is unclear whether and how this generalises across ecosystems with varying wild herbivore diversity and functional groups of plants, particularly over long-term (decadal) time frames. 2. Using data from three long-term (13- to 26-year) exclosure experiments in central Kenya, we tested the effects...

Additional file 1. Taxonomic information, accession numbers and references of mitochondrial genomes used for phylogenetic analyses.

Many temperate and polar animals have developed physiological and behavioral adaptations to survive the challenging conditions of winter. Some animals hibernate to reduce energetic expenditure while other animals, including ungulates, migrate to avoid cold temperatures and deep snow. Despite moving vast distances between seasonal ranges, many migratory ungulates are unable to escape the energetic challenges of winter and often rely on reserves of fat to withstand food scarcity and a negative energy balance. The mobilization...

Elucidating factors that contribute to citation rates of scientific articles can help scientists write manuscripts that have a stronger influence on their scientific field and wildlife management, and are accessible to a broad audience. Using a cohort of 778 articles published in The Journal of Wildlife Management from 2011–2015, we examined how visibility strategies (e.g., open access, increasing the Atlmetric Attention Score, self-citations), article structure, and focal system – all factors authors can predominantly control...

Avoiding inbreeding is considered a key driver of dispersal evolution, and dispersal distances should be especially important in mediating inbreeding risk because the likelihood of mating with relatives decreases with dispersal distance. However, a lack of direct data on dispersal distances has limited empirical tests of this prediction, particularly in the context of the multiple selective forces that can influence dispersal. Using a headwater salamander system, we tested whether spatial variation in environmental conditions leads...

Consistent individual differences in behaviour across time or contexts (i.e., personality types) have been found in many species and have implications for fitness. Likewise, individual variation in cognitive abilities has been shown to impact fitness. Cognition and personality are complex, multidimensional traits. However, previous work has generally examined the connection between a single personality trait and a single cognitive ability, yielding equivocal results. Links between personality and cognitive ability suggest that behavioural traits coevolved and...

These files are the raw data used in the manuscript "Effects of a half century of warming and fire exclusion on montane forests of the Klamath Mountains, California, USA" Manuscript authors: Erik S. Jules, Melissa H. DeSiervo, Matthew J. Reilly, Drew S. Bost, and Ramona J. Butz Climate warming and altered disturbance regimes are changing forest composition and structure worldwide. Given that species often exhibit individualistic responses to change, making predictions about the cumulative effects...

The Forage Maturation Hypothesis (FMH) states that energy intake for ungulates is maximized when forage biomass is at intermediate levels. Nevertheless, metabolic allometry and different digestive systems suggest that resource selection should vary across ungulate species. By combining GPS relocations with remotely-sensed data on forage characteristics and surface water, we quantified the effect of body size and digestive system in determining movements of 30 populations of hindgut fermenters (equids) and ruminants across biomes. Selection for...

The microbiome is critical to an organism’s phenotype, and its composition is shaped by, and a driver of, eco-evolutionary interactions. We investigated how host ancestry, habitat, and diet shape gut microbial composition in a mammalian hybrid zone that occurs across an ecotone between distinct vegetation communities. We found that habitat is the primary determinant of diet, while host genotype is the primary determinant of the gut microbiome—a finding further supported by intermediate microbiome composition in...

Nutrition underpins population dynamics of large herbivores. The environmental, physiological, and nutritional state of a mother can have a lifetime effect on her offspring. For ungulates, nutrition of the mother during gestation can have an important and often underappreciated effect on the lifetime phenotype, behavior, and success of her offspring. Research in captive settings has shown even with animals that are closely related (i.e., have similar genetic makeups), maternal condition can have serious lifetime implications...

Amplified by warming temperatures and drought, recent outbreaks of native bark beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) have caused extensive tree mortality throughout Europe and North America. Despite their ubiquitous nature and important effects on ecosystems, forest recovery following such disturbances is poorly understood, particularly across regions with varying abiotic conditions and outbreak effects. To better understand post-outbreak recovery across a topographically complex region, we synthesized data from 16 field studies spanning subalpine forests in the Southern Rocky...

A major goal in ecology is to make generalizable predictions of organism responses to environmental variation based on their traits. However, straightforward relationships between traits and fitness are rare and likely vary with environmental context. Characterizing how traits mediate demographic responses to the environment may enhance predictions of organism responses to global change. We synthesized 15 years of demographic data and species-level traits in a shortgrass steppe to determine whether the effects of leaf and...

Pleistocene glacial cycles drastically changed the distributions of taxa endemic to temperate rainforests in the Pacific Northwest, with many experiencing reduced habitat suitability during glacial periods. In this study, we investigate whether glacial cycles promoted intraspecific divergence and whether subsequent range changes led to secondary contact and gene flow. For seven invertebrate species endemic to the PNW, we estimated Species Distribution Models (SDMs) and projected them onto current and historical climate conditions to assess how...

Aim: Species distribution maps are frequently the foundation upon which species-specific conservation strategies are developed, however, mapping species distribution is challenging, especially across large spatial extents. Our aim was to use a novel empirical approach to predict the national distribution for all six large carnivore species found in Kenya to guide conservation and management decisions by identifying knowledge and conservation gaps. Location: Kenya Methods: Data on carnivore presence and absence were collected through questionnaires and...