Ecosystems world-wide experience changes in species composition in response to natural and anthropogenic changes in environmental conditions. Research to date has greatly improved our understanding of how species affect focal ecosystem functions. However, because measurements of multiple ecosystem functions have not been consistently justified for any given trophic group, it is unclear whether interpretations of research syntheses adequately reflect the contributions of consumers to ecosystems. Using model communities assembled in experimental microcosms, we examined the...

A field study was conducted to evaluate the effects of associated mycorrhization type on tree-tree interactions using the framework of the MyDiv tree diversity experiment established at the Bad Lauchstädt Experimental Research Station of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany). Inorganic and organic net N uptake capacity was quantified in fine roots of AM (i.e. Acer pseudoplatanus L., Fraxinus excelsior L., and Prunus avium L.) as well as EM associated tree species...

Animals require a certain amount of habitat to persist and thrive, and habitat loss is one of the most critical drivers of global biodiversity decline. While habitat requirements have been predicted by relationships between species traits and home range size, little is known about constraints imposed by environmental conditions and human impacts on a global scale. Our meta-analysis of 395 vertebrate species shows that global climate gradients in temperature and precipitation exert indirect effects via...

Colorful displays have evolved in multiple plant and animal species as signals to mutualists, antagonists, competitors, mates, and other potential receivers. Studies of color have long relied on subjective classifications of color by human observers. However, humans have a limited ability to perceive color compared to other animals, and human biological, cultural, and environmental variables can influence color perception. Here, we test the consistency of human color classification using fruit color as a model system....

1. Abandonment of agricultural land is widespread in many parts of the world, leading to shrub and tree encroachment. The increase of flammable plant biomass, i.e. fuel load, increases the risk and intensity of wildfires. Fuel reduction by herbivores is a promising management strategy to avoid fuel build-up and mitigate wildfires. However, their effectiveness in mitigating wildfire damage may depend on a range of factors, including herbivore type, population density and feeding patterns. 2. Here...

Soil seed banks represent reservoirs of diversity in the soil that may increase resilience of communities to global changes. Two global change factors that can dramatically alter the composition and diversity of aboveground communities are nutrient enrichment and increased rainfall. In a full-factorial nutrient and rainfall addition experiment in an annual Californian grassland, we asked whether shifts in aboveground composition and diversity were reflected in belowground seed banks. Nutrient and rainfall additions increased exotic and...

Rewilding is gaining importance across Europe, as agricultural abandonment trajectories provide opportunities for large-scale ecosystem restoration. However, its effective implementation is hitherto limited, in part due to a lack of monitoring of rewilding interventions and their interactions. Here, we provide a first assessment of rewilding progress across seven European sites. Using an iterative and participatory Delphi technique to standardize and analyze expert-based knowledge of these sites, we 1) map rewilding interventions onto the three central...

Approximately 25% of mammals are currently threatened with extinction, a risk that is amplified under climate change. Species persistence under climate change is determined by the combined effects of climatic factors on multiple demographic rates (survival, development, reproduction), and hence, population dynamics. Thus, to quantify which species and regions on Earth are most vulnerable to climate-driven extinction, a global understanding of how different demographic rates respond to climate is urgently needed. Here, we perform a...

Fleshy fruits have evolved to be attractive to frugivorous seed dispersers. As a result, many fruit traits like size, color, scent and nutritional content are assumed to be the result of selective pressures exerted by frugivores. At the same time, fruit traits are also subjected to a set of other selective pressures and constraints. One such trait is fruit hardness. On one hand, haptic cues have been suggested to play a role in frugivore behavior,...

Assemblages of large mammal species play a disproportionate role in the structure and composition of natural habitats. Loss of these assemblages destabilizes natural systems, while their recovery can restore ecological integrity. Here we take an ecoregion-based approach to identify landscapes that retain their historically present large mammal assemblages, and map ecoregions where reintroduction of 1–3 species could restore intact assemblages. Intact mammal assemblages occur across more than one-third of the 730 terrestrial ecoregions where large...

With accelerating environmental change, understanding the influence of forest disturbances and trade-offs between biodiversity and carbon dynamics is of high socio-economic importance. Most studies, however, have assessed immediate or short-term effects of disturbance, while long-term impacts remain poorly understood. Here, using a tree-ring-based approach, we modelled the effect of 250 years of disturbances on present-day biodiversity indicators and carbon dynamics in well-preserved European temperate primary forests. Our results indicated that disturbance legacies spanning centuries shaped...

1. Selection for crypsis has been recognised as an important ecological driver of animal coloration, whereas the relative importance of thermoregulation is more contentious with mixed empirical support. A potential thermal advantage of darker individuals has been observed in a wide range of animal species. Arctic animals that exhibit colour polymorphisms and undergo seasonal colour moults are interesting study subjects for testing the two alternative hypotheses: demographic performance of different colour morphs might be differentially...

The Pacific region has the highest density of naturalized plant species worldwide, which makes it an important area for research on the ecology, evolution and biogeography of biological invasions. While different data sources on naturalized plant species exist for the Pacific, there is no taxonomically and spatially harmonized database available for different subsets of species and islands. A comprehensive, accessible database containing the distribution of naturalized vascular plant species in the Pacific will enable new...

Aim Butterflies are considered important indicators representing the state of biodiversity and key ecosystem functions, but their use as bioindicators requires better understanding of how their observed response link to environmental factors. Moreover, better understanding how butterfly faunas vary with climate and land cover may be useful to estimate the potential impacts of various drivers, including climate change, botanical succession, grazing, and afforestation. It is particularly important to establish which species of butterflies are sensitive...

Anthropogenic pressures alter the biodiversity, structure, and organization of biological communities with severe consequences for ecosystem processes. Species invasion is such a human-induced ecosystem change with pronounced impacts on recipient ecosystems. Around the globe, earthworms invade habitats and impact abiotic soil conditions and a wide range of above- and belowground organisms. In northern North America, where earthworms have been largely absent since the last glaciation period and most earthworm species present today have only been...

Aim: Recent studies suggest insect declines in parts of Europe; however, the generality of these trends across different taxa and regions remains unclear. Standardized data are not available to assess large-scale, long-term changes for most insect groups but opportunistic citizen science data is widespread for some. Here, we took advantage of citizen science data to investigate distributional changes of Odonata. Location: Germany Methods: We compiled over 1 million occurrence records from different regional databases. We...

The aim of this study was to quantify direct and indirect relationships between soil microbial community properties (potential basal respiration, microbial biomass) and abiotic factors (soil, climate) in three major land-cover types. Location: Europe Time period: 2018 Major taxa studied: Microbial community (fungi and bacteria) We collected 881 soil samples from across Europe in the framework of the Land Use/Land Cover Area Frame Survey (LUCAS). We measured potential soil basal respiration at 20ºC and microbial...

There is increasing evidence that spatial and temporal dynamics of biodiversity and ecosystem functions play an essential role in biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships. Despite the known importance of soil processes for forest ecosystems, belowground functions in response to tree diversity and spatio-temporal dynamics of ecological processes and conditions remain poorly described. We propose a novel conceptual framework integrating spatio-temporal dynamics in BEF relationships and hypothesized a positive tree species richness effect on soil ecosystem functions...

1. Reassembling ecological communities and rebuilding habitats through active restoration treatments requires curating the selection of plant species to use in seeding and planting mixes. Ideally, these mixes should be assembled based on attributes that support ecosystem function and services, promote plant and animal species interactions and ecological networks in restoration while balancing project constraints. Despite these critical considerations, it is common for species mixes to be selected opportunistically. Reframing the selection of seed mixes...

Aims: The rapid increase in the number of species that have naturalized beyond their native range is among the most apparent features of the Anthropocene. How alien species will respond to other processes of future global changes is an emerging concern and remains largely misunderstood. We therefore ask whether naturalized species will respond to climate and land-use change differently than those species not yet naturalized anywhere in the world. Location: Global Methods: We investigated future...

Paleoclimate reconstructions have enhanced our understanding of how past climates have shaped present-day biodiversity. We hypothesize that the geographic extent of Pleistocene forest refugia and suitable habitat fluctuated significantly in time during the late Quaternary for chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Using bioclimatic variables representing monthly temperature and precipitation estimates, past human population density data and an extensive database of georeferenced presence points, we built a model of changing habitat suitability for chimpanzees at fine spatio-temporal scales...

Human encroachment into natural habitats is typically followed by conflicts derived from wildlife damages to agriculture and livestock. Spatial risk modelling is a useful tool to gain understanding of wildlife damage and mitigate conflicts. Although resource selection is a hierarchical process operating at multiple scales, risk models usually fail to address more than one scale, which can result in the misidentification of the underlying processes. Here, we addressed the multi-scale nature of wildlife damage occurrence...

Plants are subject to tradeoffs among growth strategies such that adaptations for optimal growth in one condition can preclude optimal growth in another. Thus, we hypothesized that the response of plant species abundance to one global change treatment would relate inversely to the response to a second treatment, particularly for treatment combinations that accentuate distinct traits. To address this hypothesis, we examined plant species abundances in 39 global change experiments manipulating CO2, nitrogen, phosphorus, water,...

Ecological processes and biodiversity patterns are strongly affected by how animals move through the landscape. However, it remains challenging to predict animal movement and space use. Here we present our new R package enerscape to quantify and predict animal movement in real landscapes based on energy expenditure. Enerscape integrates a general locomotory model for terrestrial animals with GIS tools in order to map energy costs of movement in a given environment, resulting in energy landscapes...