Applied Filters
- Ecology and Evolution
Journal Title
Topics
- Biological and Life Sciences135
- Integrative Sciences40
- Earth and Environmental Sciences32
- Conservation and Sustainability28
- Marine and Aquatic Sciences25
- Zoology23
- Genetics and Genomics11
- Geosciences6
- Biomedical and Health Sciences5
- Plant and Agricultural Sciences5
- Anatomy and Biomechanics4
- Epidemiology4
- Science Communication4
- Microbiology2
- Science and Policy2
- Science and Society2
- Science Education2
- Atmospheric and Climate Sciences1
- Cell and Developmental Biology1
- Ethics1
- Neuroscience1
- Public Health1
Publication Date
Author
- Hall, Britt D6
- Edwards, Sara4
- Davy, Christina M3
- Heard, Stephen B3
- Heustis, Allyson3
- Mallory, Mark L3
- Morris, Douglas W3
- Pureswaran, Deepa S3
- Addison, Jason A2
- Barry, Tegan N2
- Bates, Amanda E2
- Blaquière, Holly2
- Boczulak, Stacy A2
- Bohnert, Sara A2
- Bourassa, Stéphane2
- Bowden, Joseph J2
- Bowman, Jeff2
- Buddle, Christopher M2
- Burles, Douglas W2
- Candau, Jean-Noël2
- Carleton, R Drew2
- Closs, Alana M2
- Coffin, Michael R S2
- Cooke, Steven J2
- Courtenay, Simon C2
Access Type
81 - 100of135
Save this search
Please login to be able to save your searches and receive alerts for new content matching your search criteria.
Filters
| Search Name | Searched On |
|---|---|
| Subject Areas: Ecology and Evolution (135) | 21 Nov 2024 |
You do not have any saved searches
- OPEN ACCESS
- Steven J. Cooke,
- Robert J. Lennox,
- Jacob W. Brownscombe,
- Sara J. Iverson,
- Frederick G. Whoriskey,
- Joshua J. Millspaugh,
- Nigel E. Hussey,
- Glenn T. Crossin,
- Brendan J. Godley, and
- Robert Harcourt
Monitoring animals with electronic tags is an increasingly important tool for fundamental and applied ecological research. Based on the size of the system under study, the ability to recapture the animal, and research medium (e.g., aerial, freshwater, saltwater, terrestrial), tags selected may either log data in memory (bio-logging), transmit it to a receiver or satellite (biotelemetry), or have a hybrid design. Over time, we perceive that user groups are diverging based on increasing use of technology specific terms, favouring either bio-logging or biotelemetry. It is crucial to ensure that a divide does not become entrenched in the community because it will likely hinder efforts to advance field and analytical methods and reduce accessibility of animal tracking with electronic tags to early-career and new researchers. We discuss the context for this emerging problem and the evidence that this is manifesting within the scientific community. Finally, we suggest how the animal tracking community may work to address this issue to maximize the benefits of information transfer and integration between users of the two technologies. - OPEN ACCESS
- Christoph M. Deeg,
- Albina N. Kanzeparova,
- Alexei A. Somov,
- Svetlana Esenkulova,
- Emiliano Di Cicco,
- Karia H. Kaukinen,
- Amy Tabata,
- Tobi J. Ming,
- Shaorong Li,
- Gideon Mordecai,
- Angela Schulze, and
- Kristina M. Miller
Salmon are keystone species across the North Pacific, supporting ecosystems, commercial opportunities, and cultural identity. Nevertheless, many wild salmon stocks have experienced significant declines. Salmon restoration efforts focus on fresh and coastal waters, but little is known about the open ocean environment. Here we use high throughput RT-qPCR tools to provide the first report on the health, condition, and infection profile of coho, chum, pink, and sockeye salmon in the Gulf of Alaska during the 2019 winter. We found lower infectious agent number, diversity, and burden compared with coastal British Columbia in all species except coho, which exhibited elevated stock-specific infection profiles. We identified Loma sp. and Ichthyophonus hoferi as key pathogens, suggesting transmission in the open ocean. Reduced prey availability, potentially linked to change in ocean conditions due to an El Niño event, correlated with energetic deficits and immunosuppression in salmon. Immunosuppressed individuals showed higher relative infection burden and higher prevalence of opportunistic pathogens. We highlight the cumulative effects of infection and environmental stressors on overwintering salmon, establishing a baseline to document the impacts of a changing ocean on salmon. - OPEN ACCESS
- Greniqueca Mitchell,
- Paul J. Wilson,
- Micheline Manseau,
- Bridget Redquest,
- Brent R. Patterson, and
- Linda Y. Rutledge
Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) are threatened in Canada because of the drastic decline in population size caused primarily by human-induced landscape changes that decrease habitat and increase predation risk. Conservation efforts have largely focused on reducing predators and protecting critical habitat, whereas research on dietary niches and the role of potential food constraints in lichen-poor environments is limited. To improve our understanding of dietary niche variability, we used a next-generation sequencing approach with metabarcoding of DNA extracted from faecal pellets of woodland caribou located on Lake Superior in lichen-rich (mainland) and lichen-poor (island) environments. Amplicon sequencing of fungal ITS2 region revealed lichen-associated fungi as predominant in samples from both populations, but amplification at the chloroplast trnL region, which was only successful on island samples, revealed primary consumption of yew (Taxus spp.) based on relative read abundance (83.68%) with dogwood (Cornus spp.; 9.67%) and maple (Acer spp.; 4.10%) also prevalent. These results suggest that conservation efforts for caribou need to consider the availability of food resources beyond lichen to ensure successful outcomes. More broadly, we provide a reliable methodology for assessing ungulate diet from archived faecal pellets that could reveal important dietary shifts over time in response to climate change. - OPEN ACCESSThe performance of graduate students in research varies greatly across countries due to various factors, mainly socioeconomic and linguistic. The current situation is critical because the wealthiest countries are also the most linguistically equipped to navigate the English-dominant landscape of academia. Here, we assess the language of citations and the publishing performance of graduate students from three French-speaking countries: Algeria, Canada, and France, where Algeria is the least English proficient and the most economically disadvantaged. We found that the bibliography of PhD theses were English dominated in all regions (72.5% in Algeria compared with >93.1% in Western countries), whereas those of Masters theses were French dominated in Algeria (63.3%), relatively bilingual in France (47.6% French), but English dominated in Canada-Québec (94.7%) and Canada-BC (98.7%). Algerian PhD students produced fewer papers, were less likely to publish in journals with calculated impact factors, and received fewer citations than students who graduated from universities in France or in two Canadian provinces, British Columbia and Québec. Our results suggest that the economic and linguistic disadvantages faced by graduate students from non-Western backgrounds affect their academic performance, highlighting important issues in facing future global challenges.
- OPEN ACCESSForested vernal pools serve an integral role in the recruitment of amphibians in glaciated northeastern North America. In south-central Ontario, vernal pools exist in relatively unimpacted forest networks, but the amphibian communities face uncertain challenges from anthropogenic-induced climate change. We surveyed amphibian larvae and collected measurements of habitat characteristics from vernal pools to collect baseline information on amphibian community structure and species–habitat relationships. Amphibian communities were influenced by hydroperiod length and canopy openness, and the relative abundances of early breeding amphibians were affected by changes in the structure of vegetation communities within pools. Our study suggests that, even across moderate ranges of breeding habitat characteristics, the structure of amphibian communities is dynamic. With anthropogenic-induced climate change leading to more drought-prone summers, the conservation of intact forests that support diverse wetland assemblages will be a necessary component of future legislation.
- OPEN ACCESSScientists, like all humans, are subject to self-deceptive valuations of their importance and profile. Vainglorious practice is annoying but mostly harmless when restricted to an individual’s perception of self-worth. Language that can be associated with self-promotion and aggrandizement is destructive when incorporated into scientific writing. So too is any practice that oversells the novelty of research or fails to provide sufficient scholarship on the uniqueness of results. We evaluated whether such tendencies have been increasing over time by assessing the frequencies of articles claiming to be “the first”, and those that placed the requirement for scholarship on readers by using phrases such as “to the best of our knowledge”. Our survey of titles and abstracts of 176 journals in ecology and environmental biology revealed that the frequencies of both practices increased linearly over the past half century. We thus warn readers, journal editors, and granting agencies to use caution when assessing the claimed novelty of research contributions. A system-wide reform toward more cooperative science that values humility, and abhors hubris, might help to rectify the problem.
- OPEN ACCESS
- Shawn R. Craik,
- Rodger D. Titman,
- Anna M. Calvert,
- Gregory J. Robertson,
- Mark L. Mallory, and
- Sarah E. Gutowsky
The addition of eggs to a nest by a conspecific is known for approximately 250 bird species. Understanding the evolution of conspecific brood parasitism (CBP) requires assessment of fitness consequences to the egg recipient (host). We addressed host traits and the effects of CBP on future reproduction (i.e., annual survival) and hatching success of hosts by following the nesting of 206 red-breasted mergansers (Mergus serrator) for a colony in which an average of 41% of nests was parasitized annually. Each host was tracked for ≥2 seasons and up to seven seasons. The proportion of a host’s nesting attempts that was parasitized averaged 43% and varied considerably across individuals (range 0%–100%). Probability of parasitism, however, was not repeatable across a host’s nests. Rather, rates of CBP throughout a host’s lifetime increased with earlier dates of nest initiation. CBP had no effect on annual survival of a host. Hatching success throughout a host’s lifetime declined with a greater number of foreign eggs added to the individual’s nests. This study revealed that there may be measurable costs of CBP to lifetime reproductive success in red-breasted mergansers, although our observations suggest that costs to hosts are limited to the most heavily parasitized clutches. - OPEN ACCESSOvergrazing of habitat-forming kelps by sea urchins is reshaping reef seascapes in many temperate regions. Loss of kelp, in particular as a food source, may alter individual consumer physiology, which in turn may impair their ability to respond to climate warming. Here, we measured the temperature dependence of absolute and mass-independent oxygen consumption (M˙O2) using two different exposure protocols (acute exposure and temperature “ramping”), as proxies of realized physiology, between green sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis) populations from neighbouring barren and kelp habitats. Sea urchins from kelp habitats consumed 8%–78% more oxygen than sea urchins from barrens (across the range of temperatures tested (4–32 °C)) and had higher maximum M˙O2 values (by 26%). This was in part because kelp urchins typically had greater body masses. However, higher mass-independent M˙O2 values of kelp urchins suggest metabolic plasticity in response to habitat per se. In addition, the M˙O2 of sea urchins from kelp habitats was less sensitive to increases in temperature. We conclude that sea urchins from barren and kelp habitats of comparable body mass represent different energetic units. This highlights that habitat type can drive population-level variation that may shape urchins activities and environmental impact. Such variation should be integrated into energy-based models.
- OPEN ACCESSCumulative human impact analysis is a promising management tool to estimate the impacts of stressors on ecosystems caused by multiple human activities. However, connecting cumulative impact scores to actual ecosystem change at appropriate spatial scales remains challenging. Here, we calculated cumulative effects (CE) scores for 187 seagrass beds in Atlantic Canada that accounts for both bay-scale and local-scale anthropogenic activities. We then developed a CE threshold to evaluate where degradation of seagrass beds from multiple human activities is more likely. Overall, the CE score was the best predictor of human impacts for seagrass beds. Locations with high watershed land alteration and nitrogen loading had the highest CE scores; however, we also identified seagrass beds with high CE scores in regions characterized by generally low levels of human activities. Forty-nine seagrass beds exceeded the CE threshold and, of these, 86% had CE scores that were influenced by three or more stressors that cumulatively amounted to a large score. This CE threshold approach can provide a simplified metric to identify areas where management of cumulative effects should be prioritized and further highlights the need to consider multiple human activities when assessing anthropogenic impacts to coastal habitats.
- OPEN ACCESSCoastal salt marshes provide many ecosystem services; however, little is known of the biology of decomposer taxa in these systems. This study employed aboveground and belowground litterbags to characterize the fungal and mite communities associated with the dominant salt marsh grass, Sporobolus pumilus, in the Minas Basin, Nova Scotia. Decomposition rates of aboveground and belowground tissues and environmental variables were quantified to contextualize temporal patterns in community composition. Aboveground litterbag mass loss peaked in July and decreased consistently over succeeding months, which positively correlated with fungal richness. Fungal and mite richness displayed inverse relationships over time, with mites gradually increasing in diversity before peaking in November, suggesting the presence of a complex detrital network where mites and fungi respond to different and possibly unrelated environmental cues. This study offers a first look at temporal community dynamics of two neglected groups of decomposers associated with S. pumilus in Canada.
- OPEN ACCESS
- Anna Bazzicalupo,
- Susana C. Gonçalves,
- Rémi Hébert,
- Sigrid Jakob,
- Alfredo Justo,
- Gavin Kernaghan,
- Renée Lebeuf,
- Bruce Malloch,
- R. Greg Thorn, and
- Allison K. Walker
Despite the ecological importance of fungi, we still know little about their diversity in Canada. One of the largest hurdles to implementing fungal conservation initiatives is the lack of fungal distribution data. As anthropogenic impacts accelerate the speed of environmental change, it is imperative that we fill this major information gap, critical for fungal protection. To gain insight on the conservation status of Canadian macrofungi, we took advantage of the large and growing body of fungal biodiversity data from government research (Wild Species 2020), citizen science, trained independent mycologists, university, and museum biodiversity research. The majority of macrofungi are data deficient; we do not know their geographic distribution or habitat requirements, occurrence, or abundance in Canada. For mushrooms that fruit only a few days of the year and are often difficult to positively identify, there is a lot of work to overcome the uncertainty of distinguishing under-sampling from rarity. Our work stresses the importance of building a strong network of professional and amateur mycologists to develop resources, disseminate information to make educated decisions, and advance conservation actions. We found that several fungi can be prioritized; we present a short list for consideration for formal conservation assessment. - OPEN ACCESSThe lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) is a commercially valuable freshwater species with a broad distribution in North America. Some phylogeographic work has been done on this species, but little is known about genetic population subdivision among populations of the widely dispersed Mississippian lineage. We used 3,173 single nucleotide polymorphisms in 508 lake whitefish from 22 different lakes to examine population structure across central Canada and the United States. Bayesian clustering, ordination, and fixation indices identified population subdivision that largely reflected geographic distance and hydrological connectivity, with greater differentiation between lakes that are farther apart. Population subdivision was hierarchical, with greater differentiation between Canadian provinces and less differentiation based on river basins within provincial boundaries. Interestingly, isolation by distance alone was not sufficient to account for all of the observed genetic differentiation among populations. We conclude that important components of lake whitefish genetic diversity are present at different spatial scales, and that populations within the Mississippian lineage have differentiated widely across their range.
- OPEN ACCESSMismatches between institutions and social–ecological systems (SESs) are one of the foremost challenges in natural resource management. However, while mismatches are often cited in the literature as a major challenge, empirical evidence of mismatches and their consequences is limited. This is particularly true for complex SESs, such as on the Pacific Coast of North America, where salmon drive interactions across multiple environments, jurisdictions, and scales. Here, I use the theoretical concept of fit to examine institutional alignment in a large-scale Pacific salmon SES, the Skeena River watershed in British Columbia, Canada. Utilizing Canadian federal environmental assessments as a proxy for colonial environmental governance institutions, I describe the common causes and consequences of mismatches between institutions and salmon SESs. This case study suggests that mismatches are threatening salmon sustainability and negatively affecting Indigenous People’s rights, livelihoods, and approaches to resource management and stewardship. I argue that improving social–ecological fit in salmon SESs will require new or revitalized forms of environmental governance that consciously fit the underlying social–ecological dynamics. While these findings are based on the Skeena River watershed, they may be generalizable to other salmon SESs in which mismatches between social and ecological processes and institutions exist.
- OPEN ACCESS
- Jessica Currie,
- Joseph B. Burant,
- Valentina Marconi,
- Stephanie A. Blain,
- Sandra Emry,
- Katherine Hébert,
- Garland Xie,
- Nikki A. Moore,
- Xueqi Wang,
- Andrea Brown,
- Lara Grevstad,
- Louise McRae,
- Stefano Mezzini,
- Patrick Pata, and
- Robin Freeman
To effectively combat the biodiversity crisis, we need ambitious targets and reliable indicators to accurately track trends and measure conservation impact. In Canada, the Living Planet Index (LPI) has been adapted to produce a national indicator by both World Wildlife Fund-Canada (Canadian Living Planet Index; C-LPI) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (Canadian Species Index) to provide insight into the status of Canadian wildlife, by evaluating temporal trends in vertebrate population abundance. The indicator includes data for just over 50% of Canadian vertebrate species. To assess whether the current dataset is representative of the distribution of life history characteristics of Canadian wildlife, we analyzed the representation of species-specific biotic variables (i.e., body size, trophic level, lifespan) for vertebrates within the C-LPI compared to native vertebrates lacking LPI data. Generally, there was considerable overlap in the distribution of biotic variables for species in the C-LPI compared to native Canadian vertebrate species lacking LPI data. Nevertheless, some differences among distributions were found, driven in large part by discrepancy in the representation of fishes—where the C-LPI included larger-bodied and longer-lived species. We provide recommendations for targeted data collection and additional analyses to further strengthen the applicability, accuracy, and representativity of biodiversity indicators. - OPEN ACCESS
- Jessica Garzke,
- Ian Forster,
- Sean C. Godwin,
- Brett T. Johnson,
- Martin Krkošek,
- Natalie Mahara,
- Evgeny A. Pakhomov,
- Luke A. Rogers, and
- Brian P.V. Hunt
Migrating marine taxa encounter diverse habitats that differ environmentally and in foraging conditions over a range of spatial scales. We examined body (RNA/DNA, length-weight residuals) and nutritional (fatty acid composition) condition of juvenile sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in British Columbia, while migrating through oceanographically variable waters. Fish were sampled in the stratified northern Strait of Georgia (NSoG); the highly mixed Johnstone Strait (JS); and the transitional zone of Queen Charlotte Strait (QCS). In 2015, body and nutritional condition were high in the NSoG but rapidly declined to reach lowest levels in JS where prey availability was low, before showing signs of compensatory growth in QCS. In 2016, juvenile salmon had significantly lower condition in the NSoG than in 2015, although zooplankton biomass was similar, condition remained low in JS, and no compensatory growth was observed in QCS. We provide evidence that differences in juvenile salmon condition between the two years were due to changes in the food quality available to juvenile fish. We propose that existing hypotheses about fish survival need to be extended to incorporate food quality in addition to quantity to understand changes in fish condition and survival between years. - OPEN ACCESSTitles of scientific papers play a key role in their discovery, and “good” titles engage and recruit readers. Humour is a particularly interesting aspect of title construction, but little is known about whether funny titles boost or limit paper impact. We used a panel of scorers to assess title humour for 2439 papers in ecology and evolution, and measured associations between humour and subsequent citation (self-citation and citation by others). Papers with funnier titles were cited less, but this appears to reflect confounding with paper importance: self-citation data suggest that authors give funnier titles to papers they consider less important. After correction for this, papers with funny titles have significantly higher citation rates (P < 2.2 × 10−16; roughly doubling from lowest to highest humour score)—suggesting that humour recruits readers. We also examined associations between citation rates and other features of titles. Inclusion of acronyms and taxonomic names was associated with lower citation rates, while assertive-statement phrasing and presence of colons, question marks, and political regions were associated with somewhat higher citation rates. Title length had no effect on citation. Our results suggest that scientists can use creativity with titles without having their work condemned to obscurity.
- OPEN ACCESS
- Alexandra M. Anderson,
- Catherine B. Jardine,
- J.R. Zimmerling,
- Erin F. Baerwald, and
- Christina M. Davy
Understanding the relationship between the height of wind turbines and wildlife fatalities is important for informing and mitigating wildlife collisions as ever taller and denser arrays of wind turbines are erected across the landscape. We examined relationships between turbine height and fatalities of bats and swallows at 811 turbines in Ontario, Canada, ranging from 119 to 186 m tall. We accounted for cut-in speeds, operational mitigation, and taller turbines projecting carcasses farther from the turbine base than shorter turbines. Fatalities of hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus Palisot de Beauvois, 1796), silver-haired bats (Lasionycteris noctivagans Le Conte, 1831), and big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus Palisot de Beauvois, 1796) increased with increased maximum blade height of turbines. In contrast, fatalities of little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus Le Conte, 1831) and eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis Müller, 1776) decreased with increased turbine height. Fatalities of purple martins (Progne subis Linnaeus, 1758) and tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor Vieillot, 1808) were higher at taller turbines than shorter turbines. However, fatalities of cliff swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota Vieillot, 1817) and barn swallow (Hirundo rustica Linnaeus, 1758) were not associated with turbine height. Our results suggest that varying flight height among species may be one factor affecting collision risk. - OPEN ACCESS
- OPEN ACCESSHuman access to surface water resources in the Northern Great Plains (NGP) is challenged by availability and quality, and ecosystem health objectives for these characteristics have not been well developed. Here, we present a predictive multivariate model using the reference condition approach to inform goals for ecosystem health assessment. Benthic communities and abiotic variables were collected at 280 potential reference sites and 8 test sites, and of these, reference sites with least amount of human activity (n = 83) were classified into three community groups and summary metrics. Discriminant function analysis and cross-validation determined that stream order and ecoregion predicted 68.7% of the sites correctly, thus enabling comparison of sites with unknown condition to reference site groups. We then evaluated metrics through Test Site Analysis and stressor gradient analysis in each biological group. Beetle and amphipod fauna were found to be important for condition assessment in addition to traditional metrics of species richness, abundance, detritivory, Ephemeroptera/Plecoptera/Trichoptera dominance, and assemblage composition. These results provide least disturbed reference condition and ecological insights into land use impacts in the NGP. Ultimately, this model is an effective tool for evaluating biotic condition, enables prioritizing river management strategies, and can quantify the efficacy of mitigation measures.
- OPEN ACCESSProtected areas (PAs) are a key component of most conservation strategies because they are thought to enhance biodiversity value relative to similar habitats in working landscapes. To examine whether PAs in Nova Scotia are functioning to enhance the biodiversity value of the landscapes in which they are embedded, we surveyed breeding bird communities in forested wetlands inside and outside of a large PA during 2018 and 2019. We found significantly higher species richness and diversity at sites in the working landscape relative to those inside the PA. Bird communities from different wetland types inside the PA were distinct from each other and those outside the PA, whereas bird communities at outside sites were homogenized and comprised of more early-successional species. There were numerous species of conservation concern at both inside and outside sites, indicating that both types of sites are playing important conservation roles. Abundances of these key species were driven by a combination of local (e.g., water table depth, herb, and shrub cover) and landscape scale factors (e.g., edge density and human disturbance). The higher abundance of long-distance migrants and insectivores at inside sites suggests PAs are providing critical additional support to key guilds that are in steep decline.