Herbivory is a major energy transfer within ecosystems; an open question is under what circumstances it can stimulate aboveground seasonal primary production. Despite multiple field demonstrations, past theory considered herbivory as a continuous process and found stimulation of seasonal production to be unlikely. Here we report a new theoretical model that explores the consequences of discrete herbivory events, or episodes, separated in time. We discovered that negative density (biomass) dependence of plant growth, such as...

Mutualisms, or reciprocally beneficial interspecific interactions, constitute the foundation of many ecological communities and agricultural systems. Mutualisms come in different forms, from pairwise interactions to extremely diverse communities, and they are continually challenged with exploitation by non-mutualistic community members (exploiters). Thus, understanding how mutualisms persist remains an essential question in ecology. Theory suggests that high species richness and functional redundancy could promote mutualism persistence in complex mutualistic communities. Using a yeast system (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), we...

Aquatically breeding harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) males use underwater vocalizations during the breeding season to establish underwater territories, defend territories against intruder males, and possibly to attract females. Vessel noise overlaps in frequency with these vocalizations and could negatively impact breeding success by limiting communication space. In this study we investigated whether harbour seals employed anti-masking strategies to maintain communication in the presence of vessel noise in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Harbour...

Many sexually selected ornaments and weapons are elaborations of an animal’s outer body surface, including long feathers, colorful skin, and rigid outgrowths. The time and energy required to keep these traits clean, attractive, and in good condition for signaling may represent an important, but understudied cost of bearing a sexually selected trait. Male fiddler crabs possess an enlarged and brightly colored claw that is used both as a weapon to fight with rival males and...

Phenotypic plasticity is known to enhance population persistence (Wang and Althoff, 2019), facilitate adaptive evolution (Levis et al., 2018), and initiate novel phenotypes in novel environments (Levis and Pfennig, 2016). How plasticity can contribute or hinder adaptation to different environments hinges on its genetic architecture. Even though plasticity in many traits is genetically controlled, whether and how plasticity’s genetic architecture might change in novel environments is still unclear. Because much of gene expression can be...

How males and females contribute to joint reproductive success has been a long-standing question in sexual selection. Under postcopulatory sexual selection (PSS), paternity success is predicted to derive from complex interactions among females engaging in cryptic female choice and males engaging in sperm competition. Such interactions have been identified as potential sources of genetic variation in sexually selected traits but are also expected to inhibit trait diversification. To date, studies of interactions between females and...

Fertility depends, in part, on interactions between male and female reproductive proteins inside the female reproductive tract (FRT) that mediate postmating changes in female behavior, morphology, and physiology. Coevolution between interacting proteins within species may drive reproductive incompatibilities between species, yet the mechanisms underlying postmating-prezygotic isolating barriers remain poorly resolved. Here, we used quantitative proteomics in sibling Drosophila species to investigate the molecular composition of the FRT environment and its role in mediating species-specific postmating...