It has been suggested that individual behavioural traits influence the potential to successfully colonize new areas. Identifying the genetic basis of behavioural variation in invasive species thus represents an important step towards understanding the evolutionary potential of the invader. Here, we sequenced a candidate region for neophilic/neophobic and activity behaviour – the complete exon 3 of the DRD4 gene – in 100 Yellow-crowned bishops (Euplectes afer) from two invasive populations in Spain and Portugal. The...

The worldwide phenomenon of shrub encroachment in grass-dominated dryland ecosystems is commonly associated with desertification. Studies of the purported desertification effects associated with shrub encroachment are often restricted to relatively few study areas, and document a narrow range of possible impacts upon biota and ecosystem processes. We conducted a study in degraded Mediterranean grasslands dominated by Stipa tenacissima to simultaneously evaluate the effects of shrub encroachment on the structure and composition of multiple biotic community...

Behavior can play a key role in adaptation, especially in novel environments. Here we study how ground-perching grasshoppers that colonized street pavements as novel habitats behaviorally manage their detection rates by predators. We found that grasshoppers positioned themselves aligned with the spaces between adjacent bricks more than expected by chance. By performing a virtual predation experiment, we confirmed that this positioning behavior decreases predation rate. Surprisingly, individuals with a poorer cryptic coloration made greater use...

A long-standing paradigm in ecology holds that herbivore pressure and thus plant defences increase towards lower latitudes. However, recent work has challenged this prediction where studies have found no relationship or opposite trends where herbivory or plant defences increase at higher latitudes. Here we tested for latitudinal variation in herbivory, chemical defences (phenolic compounds), and nutritional traits (phosphorus and nitrogen) in leaves of a long-lived tree species, the English oak Quercus robur. We further investigated...

Dozens of morphologically differentiated populations, subspecies and species of crossbills (genus Loxia) exist. It has been suggested that this divergence is due to variation in the conifer cones that each population specialises upon, requiring a specific beak size to efficiently separate the cone scales. If so, apparent survival should depend on beak size. To test this hypothesis, we undertook multievent capture-recapture modelling for 6,844 individuals monitored during 27 years in a Pyrenean Common crossbill (L....

With this dataset, we studied elevational gradients and their underlying climatic factors in constitutive and induced phenolics and volatile organic compounds in Oak trees. Oak defences were measured in leaves in a field study. The dataset includes data for 18 populations of Quercus pyrenaica spanning a 1300 m elevational gradient (from 370 to 1614 m) with their correspondence coordinates. In each population we sampled six saplings that were randomly assigned to one of two treatments:...

We describe a new remarkable dwarf and apparently acaulescent species of Carex (Cyperaceae) from the Andes of northern Chile: Carex phylloscirpoides. Morphological and molecular data (two nuclear and three plastid DNA regions) were used to study the phylogenetic placement and systematic relationships of this species, which resulted in its assignment to section Racemosae. However, despite being related to the other three species of the section present in the Southern Cone based on phylogenetic evidence, it...

This data set includes measurements of substrate use by ground-perching grasshoppers (Sphingonotus azurescens) in relation to body colour before and after experimental manipulation of their original colour. The data were collected between May and September 2017 in an urban mosaic of dark and pale pavements located in an abandoned housing development area near Dos Hermanas (Seville, Spain; 37.306° N, 5.932° E). The analysis presented in this article is based on 80 adult females and 138...

1. Forest are highly vulnerable to global change drivers, such as an increase in wildfire events. Learning more about how and why different postfire management strategies regulate the ability of forest ecosystem properties (e.g., plant diversity and function) to simultaneously recover after wildfire and provide multiple ecosystem functions is of critical importance. 2. This study aims to evaluate how unburned, burned managed and burned unmanaged plots regulate the responses of multiple forest ecosystem properties (e.g.,...

Concern about the impacts of biological invasions has generated a great deal of interest in understanding factors that determine invasion success. Most of our current knowledge comes from static approaches that use spatial patterns as a proxy of temporal processes. These approaches assume that species are present in areas where environmental conditions are the most favourable. However, this assumption is problematic when applied to dynamic processes such as species expansions when equilibrium has not been...

While genetic diversity is hypothesized to be an important factor explaining invasion success, there is no consensus yet on how variation in source populations or demographic processes affects invasiveness. We used mitochondrial DNA haplotypic and microsatellite genotypic data to investigate levels of genetic variation and reconstruct the history of replicate invasions on three continents in a globally invasive bird, the monk parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus). We evaluated whether genetic diversity at invasive sites could be explained...

1. Climate and topography are among the most fundamental drivers of plant diversity. Here, we assess the importance of climate and topography in explaining diversity patterns of species richness, endemic richness and endemicity on the landscape scale of an oceanic island, and evaluate the independent contribution of climatic and topographic variables to spatial diversity patterns. 2. We constructed a presence/absence matrix of perennial endemic and native vascular plant species (including subspecies) in 890 plots on...

The negative impacts of drought on forest growth and productivity last for several years generating legacies, although the factors that determine why such legacies vary across sites and tree species remain unclear. We used an extensive network of tree-ring width (RWI, ring-width index) records of 16 tree species from 567 forests, and high-resolution climate and NDVI datasets across Spain during the common period 1982‒2008 to test the hypothesis that climate conditions and growth features modulate...

In fragile ecosystems, the introduction of exotic species could alter some ecological processes. The Austral parakeet (Enicognathus ferrugineous) shows close ecological and evolutionary relationships with the Andean Araucaria (Araucaria araucana), so any alteration in these interactions may have negative consequences for both partners and for ecosystem functioning and structure. We conducted extensive roadside surveys to estimate the abundance of parakeets in the northern Patagonian Andes over four years and recorded the food plants consumed by...

Whole-genome duplication (WGD) results in new genomic resources that can be exploited by evolution for rewiring genetic regulatory networks in organisms. In metazoans, WGD occurred before the last common ancestor of vertebrates, and has been postulated as a major evolutionary force that contributed to their speciation and diversification of morphological structures. Here, we have sequenced genomes from three of the four extant species of horseshoe crabs—Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda, Limulus polyphemus and Tachypleus tridentatus. Phylogenetic and sequence...

1. Climate change will raise temperatures and modify precipitation patterns in drylands worldwide, affecting their structure and functioning. Despite the recognized importance of soil communities dominated by mosses, lichens and cyanobacteria (biocrusts) as a driver of nutrient cycling in drylands, little is known on how biocrusts will modulate the resistance (i.e., the amount of change caused by a disturbance) of the N cycle in response to climate change. 2. Here, we evaluate how warming (ambient...

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) greatly influence the N cycle of semi-arid ecosystems, as some organisms forming them are able to fix atmospheric N. However, BSCs are not always taken into account when studying biotic controls on N cycling and transformations. Our main objective was to understand how BSCs modulate the availability of N in a semi-arid Mediterranean ecosystem dominated by the tussock grass Stipa tenacissima. We selected the six most frequent soil cover types in...

While much is known about the factors that control each component of the terrestrial nitrogen (N) cycle, it is less clear how these factors affect total N availability, the sum of organic and inorganic forms potentially available to microorganisms and plants. This is particularly true for N-poor ecosystems such as drylands, which are highly sensitive to climate change and desertification processes that can lead to the loss of soil nutrients such as N. We evaluated...

Carex sect. Confertiflorae s.l., contains ca. 40 species and diverse in E Asia. It has one of the most unstable delimitations in the literature, and the section was proposed to split into two sections up to five different ones. Recent phylogenetic reconstructions showed Confertiflorae s.l. not to be monophyletic. In this study we investigate the phylogenetic structure, morphological affinities, and biogeographic history of sect. Confertiflorae s.l. We performed a taxon-based approach to explore the morphological...

To quantify responses to drought from different data sources we take advantage of an extensive network of cross-dated tree-ring data with increment cores from 16 tree species sampled across the Spanish Iberian Peninsula (hereafter abbreviated as RWI-net), and of the Spanish National Forest Inventory (hereafter abbreviated as NFI) sampling tree and plot level data each km in forested areas. We selected the five most severe droughts that have affected each selected RWI-net population in the...

1. Anthocyanin pigments have become a model trait for evolutionary ecology since they often provide adaptive benefits for plants. Anthocyanins have been traditionally quantified biochemically, or more recently using spectral reflectance. However, both methods require destructive sampling and can be labour intensive and challenging with small samples. Recent advances in digital photography and image processing make it the method of choice for measuring colour in the wild. Here, we use digital images as a quick,...

Explanations of how organisms might adapt to urban environments have mostly focused on divergent natural selection and adaptive plasticity. However, differential habitat choice has been suggested as an alternative. Here we test for habitat choice in enhancing crypsis in ground-perching grasshoppers colonising an urbanised environment, composed of a mosaic of four distinctly coloured substrates (asphalt roads and adjacent pavements). Additionally, we determine its relative importance compared to present-day natural selection and phenotypic plasticity. We found...

Biological invasion is a global problem with large negative impacts on ecosystems and human societies. When a species is introduced, individuals will first have to pass through the invasion stages of uptake and transport, before actual introduction in a non-native range. Selection is predicted to act during these earliest stages of biological invasion, potentially influencing the invasiveness and/or impact of introduced populations. Despite this potential impact of pre-introduction selection, empirical tests are virtually lacking. To...

The degree to which variation in adult food availability affects the population dynamics of a species depends on its position on the capital-income breeding continuum. The long-lived butterflies that feed on fruits as adults constitute an example of Lepidoptera with a high degree of income breeding. For three species of fruit-feeding butterflies in Uganda, we assessed the contribution of the income to breeding in the wild, and the consequences of variation in fruit availability for...

An integrated perspective of the most important factors driving the abundance of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA) in natural ecosystems is lacking, especially in drylands. We evaluated how different climatic, abiotic, and nutrient-related factors determine AOA and AOB abundance in bare and vegetated microsites from grasslands throughout the Mediterranean Basin. We found a strong negative relationship between the abundance of AOA genes and soil fertility (availability of C, N, and P). Aridity and other...