Life Sciences Commons^™

Water Availability Dictates How Plant Traits Predict Demographic Rates, Alice E. Stears, Peter B. Adler, Dana M. Blumenthal, Julie A. Kray, Kevin E. Mueller, Troy W. Ocheltree, Kevin R. Wilcox, Daniel C. Laughlin

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

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 to vary with environmental context. Characterizing how traits mediate demographic responses to the environment may enhance the 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 root traits on growth and survival depended on seasonal water availability. We predicted that (1) species with drought-tolerant traits, such as lower leaf …

Network Structure Of Vertebrate Scavenger Assemblages At The Global Scale: Drivers And Ecosystem Functioning Implications, Esther Sebastián-González, Zebensui Morales-Reyes, Francisco Botella, Lara Naves-Alegre, Juan M. Pérez-García, Patricia Mateo-Tomás, Pedro P. Olea, Marcos Moleón, Jomar M. Barbosa, Fernando Hiraldo, Eneko Arrondo, José A. Donázar, Ainara Cortés‐Avizanda, Nuria Selva, Sergio A. Lambertucci, Aishwarya Bhattacharjee, Alexis L. Brewer, Erin F. Abernethy, Kelsey L. Turner, James C. Beasley, Travis L. Devault, Hannah C. Gerke, Olin E. Rhodes Jr., Andrés Ordiz, Camilla Wikenros, Barbara Zimmermann, Petter Wabakken, Christopher C. Wilmers, Justine A. Smith, Corinne J. Kendall, Darcy Ogada, Ethan Frehner, Maximilian L. Allen, Heiko U. Wittmer, James R. A. Butler, Johan T. Du Toit, Et Al.

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

The organization of ecological assemblages has important implications for ecosystem functioning, but little is known about how scavenger communities organize at the global scale. Here, we test four hypotheses on the factors affecting the network structure of terrestrial vertebrate scavenger assemblages and its implications on ecosystem functioning. We expect scavenger assemblages to be more nested (i.e. structured): 1) in species‐rich and productive regions, as nestedness has been linked to high competition for carrion resources, and 2) regions with low human impact, because the most efficient carrion consumers that promote nestedness are large vertebrate scavengers, which are especially sensitive to human …

The Differences Between Rewilding And Restoring An Ecologically Degraded Landscape, Johan T. Du Toit, Nathalie Pettorelli

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

1. Rewilding is a developing concept in ecosystem stewardship that involves reorganizing and regenerating wildness in an ecologically degraded landscape, with present and future ecosystem function being of higher consideration than historical benchmark conditions. This approach differs from ecosystem restoration but the two concepts are often conflated because (a) they both rely on similar management actions (at least initially) and (b) it can be erroneously assumed that they both aim for similar states of wildness.
2. Rewilding and restoring both influence biodiversity, and common management actions such as species reintroductions (e.g. beavers or wolves) can be integral to a rewilding project. However, …

A Life-History Perspective On The Demographic Drivers Of Structured Population Dynamics In Changing Environments, David N. Koons, David T. Iles, Michael Schaub, Hal Caswell

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Current understanding of life-history evolution and how demographic parameters contribute to population dynamics across species is largely based on assumptions of either constant environments or stationary environmental variation. Meanwhile, species are faced with non-stationary environmental conditions (changing mean, variance, or both) created by climate and landscape change. To close the gap between contemporary reality and demographic theory, we develop a set of transient life table response experiments (LTREs) for decomposing realised population growth rates into contributions from specific vital rates and components of population structure. Using transient LTREs in a theoretical framework, we reveal that established concepts in population biology …