With many plant-pollinator interactions undergoing change, we require a better understanding of how the addition of new interacting partners, such as antagonists, can affect plant reproduction. One such group of antagonistic floral visitors, nectar robbers, can deplete plants of nectar rewards without contributing to pollination. The addition of nectar robbing to the floral visitor assemblage could therefore have costs to the plant´s reproductive output. We focus on a recent plant colonist, Digitalis purpurea, a plant that in its native range is rarely robbed, but experiences intense nectar robbing in areas it has been introduced to. Here, we test the costs to reproduction following experimental nectar robbing. To identify any changes in the behaviour of the principal pollinators in response to nectar robbing, we measured visitation rates, visit duration, proportion of flowers visited and rate of rejection of inflorescences. To find the effects of robbing on fitness, we used proxies for female and male components of reproductive output, by measuring the seeds produced per fruit and the pollen export respectively. Nectar robbing significantly reduced the rate of visitation and lengths of visits by bumblebees. Additionally, bumblebees visited a lower proportion of flowers on an inflorescence that had robbed flowers. We found that flowers in the robbed treatment produced significantly fewer seeds per fruit on average but did not export fewer pollen grains. Our finding that robbing leads to reduced seed production could be due to fewer and shorter visits to flowers leading to less effective pollination. We discuss the potential consequences of new pollinator environments, such as exposure to nectar robbing, for plant reproduction.

1. The use of a drone to count the flock sizes of 33 species of waterbirds during the breeding and non-breeding periods was investigated. 2. In 96% of 343 cases, drone counting was successful. 18.8% of non-breeding birds and 3.6% of breeding birds exhibited adverse reactions: in the former, the birds were flushed, whereas the latter attempted to attack the drone. 3. The automatic counting birds was best done with the microbiology software - ImageJ / Fiji: the average bird counting rate was 100 birds in 82 seconds. 4. Machine learning using neural network algorithms proved to be an effective and fast way of counting birds – 100 birds in 23 seconds. However, as the preparation of images and machine learning time are time-consuming, this method is recommended only for large data sets and large bird assemblages. 5. The responsible study of wildlife using a drone should only be carried out by persons experienced in the biology and behaviour of the animals concerned.

Fat metabolism in toothed whales is different from other mammals. RT-qPCR is still a reliable technique for studying the relative expressions of various genes involved in metabolism. This study was done for Risso’s dolphin, a toothed whale and information produced here will be important for further transcriptomics studies focused on unrevealed marine mammal fat metabolism. In this study, we sought to identify a suitable reference gene with minimum resources. Seven candidate reference genes ZC3H10, FTL, LGALS1, RPL27A, GAPDH, FTH1 and DCN were initially tested for amplification efficiency using RT-qPCR by producing standard curves. Then, three nearly 100% efficient genes FTL, LGALS1 and GAPDH were selected for the gene stability analysis to determine one stable gene across eight different fat tissues, liver, and muscle of Risso’s dolphins based on four algorithms, provided in geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper and Delta Ct. Finally, a RefFinder comprehensive ranking was done based on stability values and the genes were ranked as: FTL>LGALS1>GAPDH. The FTL and LGHLS were identified as the most stable genes; however, GAPDH was third, a well-known housekeeping gene for mammals. Finally, we suggest using FTL as a reliable reference gene for functional genomics studies on toothed whales in the future.

Reply to Betts et al. “When are hypotheses useful in ecology and conservation?”Meredith Root-Bernstein1, 2, 3UMR CESCO, CNRS, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, FranceCenter of Applied Ecology and Sustainability, Santiago, ChileInstitute of Ecology and Biodiversity, Santiago, ChileWords: 2045It is difficult to disagree with Betts et al. (2021) when they claim that hypotheses are often useful but sometimes not necessary. The difficulty with Betts et al. does not lie with any of their individual points, but rather with the lack of a clear argument giving them structure. This is not just a critique of style. It is relevant because it is an example of what I think is the real problem in ecological research. In my view, the lack of hypotheses in ecology and conservation is not just about the rise of big data approaches, or the documentation of applied work. More generally, I argue that the low use of hypotheses reflects the failure of ecology and conservation to value and develop discipline-specific forms of argument, logic and reasoning. I first address the particular nature of the hypothesis as an argument form, and then the question of whether there are specifically ecological argument forms. Finally I argue that we need a broad set of arguments and logics suitable to the broad set of phenomona in ecology, and that hypotheses are usually derived from non-hypothetico-deductive reasoning and logic. If we want more or better hypotheses, we need more and better forms of non-hypothetico-deductive ecological reasoning.A hypothesis is a form of argument structured so that it can be answered in only one of two ways: rejection or non-rejection. Hypotheses are also characterized by particular ways of framing questions that are considered legitimate, interesting, or elegant, which varies by the discipline or subject matter. I will illustrate my points about the need for forms of argument that fit a subject matter with the Betts et al. paper itself. Betts et al. present their argument about why ecologists should use hypotheses in the form of a couple of hypotheses, the predictions of which they test in a hypothetico-deductive manner on quantitative data using statistical reasoning. They structure their hypothesis as though it were an evolutionary argument: they identify potential discrete individual benefits of adopting a behaviour within a specific environment.

1. The balance between risk and benefit of exploiting resources drives life history evolution. Predators are naturally recognized as major drivers of the life history evolution of their prey. The concept of an evolutionary arms race posits that prey also influence the life history evolution of their predators. There is far more evidence on the role of predators than of prey. 2. The goal of this study was to investigate the role of prey in life history evolution of predators using ladybird beetle predators either of aphids or coccids. These particular organisms were chosen because literature shows that the pace of life of aphids is faster than that of coccids and this difference is reflected in the life histories of the ladybirds that specialize on feeding on aphids or coccids. 3. Thirty-four species of ladybird predators of aphids and eight of coccids belonging to five different tribes were collected and reared in the laboratory. The females were weighed as well as their eggs, and their reproductive investment calculated as the number of ovarioles multiplied by the average mass of an egg. Phylogenetic relatedness was controlled for in the statistical analyses. 4. Controlling for female mass revealed that ladybird predators of aphids lay bigger eggs and have a higher reproductive investment than ladybird predators of coccids. These differences are not influenced by phylogenetic relatedness but only by the type of prey. We suggest that ladybird predators of coccids lay smaller eggs because neonate larvae do not have to search, catch and subdue prey, and that they have a smaller reproductive investment because they need to allocate more resources to locate prey. 5. Recognizing the influence of prey on the life history evolution of predators is important for understanding food web dynamics.

Drooping wildryegrass (Elymus nutans) has been widely planted together with other perennial grasses for rebuilding degraded alpine meadow atop the Tibetan Plateau. However, the rebuilt sown pastures begin to decline a few years after establishing. One of the possible causes for degradation of sown grassland may come from allelopathy of planted grasses. The purpose of this study was to examine allelopathic potential of drooping wildryegrass. Three types aqueous extracts from drooping wildryegrass and its root zone soil were prepared and 5 highland crops and 5 perennial grasses were used as recipient plants. Drooping wildryegrass exhibited strong allelopathic potential on germination and seedling growth of 5 crops germination and growth, but different crops or perennial grasses respond to the extracts differently. The pieces extract has stronger inhibition than others. Hulless barley, oat and Chinese fescue were the most affected, while quinoa and Siberian wildryegrass were the least affected. Drooping wildryegrass presented less influence on Kentucky bluegrass and crymophylla bluegrass than on Chinese fescue. It is recommended that the species combination of mixture for restoration should consider allopathic effects of the co-seeding and decrease the seeding rate ratio of drooping wildryegrass. The annual dicot crop quinoa and rape seeds can be used as alternative subsequent crop for seed field of drooping wildryegrass monoculture.

1. Plant-soil feedback (PSF) has gained attention as a mechanism promoting plant growth and coexistence. However, because most PSF research has measured monoculture growth in greenhouse conditions, field-based PSF experiments remain an important frontier for PSF research. 2. Using a four-year, factorial field experiment in Jena, Germany, we measured the growth of nine grassland species on soils conditioned by each of the target species (i.e., PSF). Plant community models were parameterized with or without these PSF effects, and model predictions were compared to plant biomass production in new and existing diversity-productivity experiments. 3. Plants created soils that changed subsequent plant biomass by 36%. However, because they were both positive and negative, the net PSF effect was 14% less growth on ‘home’ than ‘away’ soils. At the species level, seven of nine species realized non-neutral PSFs, but the two dominant species grew only 2% less on home than away soils. At the species*soil type level, 31 of 72 PSFs differed from zero. 4. In current and pre-existing diversity-productivity experiments, nine-species plant communities produced 37 to 29% more biomass than monocultures due primarily to selection effects. Null and PSF models predicted 29 to 28% more biomass for polycultures than monocultures, again due primarily to selection effects. 5. Synthesis: In field conditions, PSFs were large enough to be expected to cause roughly 14% overyielding due to complementarity, however, in plant communities overyielding was caused by selections effects, not complementarity effects. Further, large positive and large negative PSFs were associated with subdominant species, suggesting there may be selective pressure for plants to create neutral PSF. Broadly, results highlighted the importance of testing PSF effects in communities because there are several ways in which PSFs may be more or less important to plant growth in communities than suggested from simple PSF values.

Animals are expected to select a breeding habitat using cues that should reflect, directly or not, the fitness outcome of the different habitat options. However, human-induced environmental changes can alter the relationship between habitat characteristics and their fitness consequences, leading to a maladaptive habitat choice. The most severe case of such nonideal habitat selection is the ecological trap, which occurs when individuals prefer to settle in poor-quality habitats while better ones are available. Here we studied the adaptiveness of nest box selection in a tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) population breeding over a 10-year period in a network of 400 nest boxes distributed along a gradient of agricultural intensification in southern Québec, Canada. We first examined the effects of multiple environmental and social habitat characteristics on nest box preference to identify potential settlement cues. We then assessed the links between those cues and habitat quality as defined by the reproductive performance of individuals that settled early or late in nest boxes. We found that tree swallows preferred nesting in open habitats with high cover of perennial forage crops, high spring insect biomass, and high density of house sparrows, their main competitors for nest sites. They also preferred nesting where the density of breeders and their mean number of fledglings during the previous year were high. Additionally, we detected mismatches between preference and habitat quality for several environmental variables. The density of competitors and conspecific social information showed severe mismatches, as their relationships to preference and breeding success went in opposite direction under certain circumstances. Spring food availability and agricultural landscape context, while related to preferences, were not related to breeding success. Overall, our study emphasizes the complexity of habitat selection behavior and provides evidence that multiple mechanisms may potentially lead to an ecological trap in farmlands.

The timing of germination is a key life-history trait in plants, which is strongly affected by the strength of seed dormancy. Continental-wide variation in seed dormancy has been related to differences in climate and the timing of conditions suitable for seedling establishment. However, for predictions of adaptive potential and consequences of climatic change, information is needed regarding the extent to which seed dormancy varies within climatic regions and the factors driving such variation We planted 17 Italian and 28 Fennoscandian populations of Arabidopsis thaliana in the greenhouse and at two field sites in Italy and Sweden. To identify possible drivers of among-population variation in seed dormancy, we examined the relationship between seed dormancy and climate at the sites where populations were originally sampled. Seed dormancy was on average stronger in the Italian compared to the Fennoscandian populations, but also varied widely within both regions. Estimates of seed dormancy in the three maternal environments were positively correlated, but seeds had on average stronger dormancy when produced in the greenhouse than at the two field sites. Among Fennoscandian populations, seed dormancy tended to increase with increasing summer temperature and decreasing precipitation at the site of origin. In the smaller sample of Italian populations, no significant association was detected between mean seed dormancy and climate at the site of origin. The correlation between seed dormancy and climatic factors in Fennoscandia suggests that at least some of the among-population variation is adaptive and that climate change will affect selection on this trait.

Maternal infanticide and cannibalism, whereby a mother killing and consumes her own offspring, occurs in various animal taxa. The ability of the tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri) to kill and consume conspecifics is accepted, but the extent of its occurrence is not fully understood due to difficulty in observation and uneven reporting. Here we discover extra interesting phenomenonand that two tree shrew respectively eating the neonate in two different experiments. This was the first recorded of evidence by dynam

1. Restoration ecology has historically focused on reconstructing communities of highly visible taxa whilst less visible taxa, such as invertebrates and microbes, are ignored. This is problematic as invertebrates and microbes make up the vast bulk of biodiversity and drive many key ecosystem processes, yet they are rarely actively reintroduced following restoration, potentially limiting ecosystem function and biodiversity in these areas. 2. In this review, we discuss the current (limited) incorporation of invertebrates and microbes in restoration and rewilding projects. We argue that these groups should be actively rewilded during restoration to improve biodiversity and ecosystem function outcomes and highlight how they can be used to greater effect in the future. For example, invertebrates and microbes are easily manipulated, meaning whole communities can potentially be rewilded through habitat transplants in a practice that we refer to as “whole-of-community” rewilding. 3. We provide a framework for whole-of-community rewilding and describe empirical case studies as practical applications of this under-researched restoration tool that land managers can use to improve restoration outcomes. 4. We hope this new perspective on whole-of-community restoration will promote applied research into restoration that incorporates all biota, irrespective of size, whilst also enabling a better understanding of fundamental ecological theory, such as colonisation- competition trade-offs. This may be a necessary consideration as invertebrates that are important in providing ecosystem services are declining globally; targeting invertebrate communities during restoration may be crucial in stemming this decline.

Resource availability and heterogeneity are recognized as two essential environmental aspects to determine species diversity and community abundance. However, how resource availability and heterogeneity determine species diversity and community abundance in highly heterogeneous and most fragile karst landscapes is largely unknown. We examined the effects of resource availability and heterogeneity on plant community composition and quantified their relative contribution by variation partitioning. Then, a structural equation model (SEM) was used to further disentangle the multiple direct and indirect effects of resource availability on plant community composition. Species diversity was significantly influenced by the resource availability in shrubland and woodland but not by the heterogeneity in woodland. Abundance was significantly affected by both resource availability and heterogeneity, whereas variation partitioning results showed that resource availability explained the majority of the variance in abundance, and the contribution of resource heterogeneity was marginal. These results indicated that resource availability plays a more important role in determining karst plant community composition than resource heterogeneity. Our SEMs further found that the multiple direct and indirect processes of resource availability in determining karst species diversity and abundance were different in different vegetation types. Resource availability and heterogeneity both played a certain role in determining karst plant community composition, while the importance of resource availability far exceeded resource heterogeneity. We propose that steering community restoration and reconstruction should be highly dependent on resource availability, and multiple direct and indirect pathways of resource availability for structuring karst plant communities need to be taken into account.

Maintenance of a desirable mixture of shrubs and grasses is a key issue in sustainable grazing management. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of long-term sheep grazing on desert steppe shrubs. Based on a long-term controlled sheep stocking rate experiment in a desert steppe of north China, combined with long-term random sampling monitoring of above-ground vegetation standing crop (14 years) and short-term systematic sampling monitoring of vegetation cover and individual characteristics of shrubs (3 years), we analyzed plant community changes, the current situation of shrubs and the response of individual shrub characteristics to stocking rate. We found that low stocking rates have increased the cumulative above-ground standing crop of shrubs and herbaceous plants, but the cumulative above-ground standing crop of shrubs under high grazing rates tends to be flat. The cover and height of four shrub species generally showed a decrease with increasing stocking rate, while the response of the four shrubs to the stocking rate gradient varied. Among four shrub species, Artemisia frigida was the most sensitive to stocking rate, followed by Ceratoides latens and Caragana microphylla, while Kochia prostrata was relatively insensitive to stocking rate. These results suggest that grassland managers can use an appropriate stocking rate to maintain desirable plant community composition and configuration in the temperate grassland.

Adaptations to anthropogenic domestic habitats contribute to the success of mosquito Aedes aegypti as a major global vector of several arboviral diseases. The species inhabited African forests before expanding into domestic habitats and spreading to the rest of the world. Despite a well-studied evolutionary history, how this species initially moved into human settlements in Africa remains unclear. During this initial habitat transition, Ae. aegypti switched from using natural containers like tree holes as larval breeding sites to using artificial containers like clay pots. Little is known about how these natural versus artificial containers differ in their environments, or whether Ae. aegypti in forest versus domestic habitats evolved any corresponding incipient behavioral divergence, such as in oviposition. To address these gaps, we first characterized physical characteristics, larval density, microbial density, bacterial composition, and volatile profiles of natural versus artificial containers used as mosquito larval breeding sites. We focused on two localities in Africa, La Lopé, Gabon and Rabai, Kenya. In both localities, our data showed that the two habitat-specific container types had significantly different characteristics. We then examined whether such containers differed in their attractiveness for oviposition, a key behavior affecting larval distribution. Forest Ae. aegypti readily accepted artificial containers in our field experiments, and laboratory choice experiments did not find distinct oviposition preference between forest and village Ae. aegypti colonies. These results suggested that African Ae. aegypti were likely generalists in their oviposition site choice. This flexibility to accept different containers might play a vital role during the initial domestication of Ae. aegypti, allowing the mosquitoes to use human-stored water as fallback breeding sites during dry seasons. Although ovipositional changes were not present initially, after longer domestic habitat breeding, the mosquitoes did evolve divergence oviposition preference, as suggested by previous comparisons of African Ae. aegypti and human-specialized non-African Ae. aegypti.

1. Environmental soundscapes are increasingly being used as descriptors of ecosystem health and vocal animal biodiversity. Soundscape data can quickly become very expensive and difficult to manage, so data compression or temporal down-sampling are sometimes employed to reduce data storage and transmission costs. These parameters vary widely between experiments, with the consequences of this variation remaining mostly unknown. 2. We analyse field recordings from North-Eastern Borneo across a gradient of historical land-use. We quantify the impact of experimental parameters (mp3 compression, recording length and temporal subsetting) on soundscape descriptors (Analytical Indices and a convolutional neural net derived AudioSet Fingerprint). Both descriptor types were tested for their robustness to parameter alteration and their usability in a landscape classification task. 3. We find that compression and frame size both drive considerable variation in calculated index values. However, we find that the effects of this varaiation and temporal subsetting on the performance of classification models is minor: performance is much more strongly determined by acoustic index choice, with Audioset fingerprinting offering substantial (12-16%) increases in all of classifier accuracy, precision and recall. 4. We advise using the AudioSet Fingerprint in soundscape analysis, demonstrating its superior and consistent performance even on small pools of data. If data storage is a bottleneck to a study, we recommend Variable Bit Rate encoded compression (quality=0, 23% file size) to reduce file size without affecting most Analytical Index values. The AudioSet Fingerprint can be confidently compressed further to a Constant Bit Rate encoding of 64kb/s (8% file size) without any detectable effect. These recommendations balance the efficient use of restricted data storage against the comparability of results between different studies.

Across the globe, ecological communities are confronted with multiple global environmental change drivers, and they are responding in complex ways ranging from behavioural, physiological, and morphological changes within populations to changes in community composition and food web structure with consequences for ecosystem functioning. A better understanding of global change-induced alterations of multitrophic biodiversity and the ecosystem-level responses in terrestrial ecosystems requires holistic and integrative experimental approaches to manipulate and study complex communities and processes above and below the ground. We argue that mesocosm experiments fill a critical gap in this context, especially when based on ecological theory and coupled with microcosm experiments, field experiments, and observational studies of macroecological patterns. We describe the design and specifications of a novel terrestrial mesocosm facility, the iDiv Ecotron. It was developed to allow the setup and maintenance of complex communities and the manipulation of several abiotic factors in a near-natural way, while simultaneously measuring multiple ecosystem functions. To demonstrate the capabilities of the facility, we provide a case study. This study shows that changes in aboveground multitrophic interactions caused by decreased predator densities can have cascading effects on the composition of belowground communities. The iDiv Ecotrons technical features, which allow for the assembly of an endless spectrum of ecosystem components, create the opportunity for collaboration among researchers with an equally broad spectrum of expertise. In the last part, we outline some of such components that will be implemented in future ecological experiments to be realized in the iDiv Ecotron. Key words: food webs, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, mesocosms, biotic interactions, lysimeters, climate chambers

Vector-borne parasites often manipulate hosts to attract uninfected vectors. For example, parasites causing malaria alter host odor to attract mosquitoes. Here we discuss the ecology and evolution of fruit-colonizing yeast in a tripartite symbiosis – the so-called “killer yeast” system. “Killer yeast” consists of Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast hosting two double stranded RNA viruses (M satellite dsRNAs, L-A dsRNA helper virus). When both dsRNA viruses occur in a yeast cell, the yeast converts to lethal toxin‑producing “killer yeast” phenotype that kills uninfected yeasts. Yeasts on ephemeral fruits attract insect vectors to colonize new habitats. As the viruses have no extracellular stage, they depend on the same insect vectors as yeast for their dispersal. Viruses also benefit from yeast dispersal as this promotes yeast to reproduce sexually, which is how viruses can transmit to uninfected yeast strains. We tested whether insect vectors are more attracted to killer yeasts than to non‑killer yeasts. In our field experiment, we found that killer yeasts were more attractive to Drosophila than non-killer yeasts. This suggests that vectors foraging on yeast are more likely to transmit yeast with a killer phenotype, allowing the viruses to colonize those uninfected yeast strains that engage in sexual reproduction with the killer yeast. Beyond insights into the basic ecology of the killer yeast system, our results suggest that viruses could increase transmission success by manipulating the insect vectors of their host.

Lacking of systematic evaluations in soil quality and microbial community recovery after different amendments addition limits optimization of amendments combination in coal mine-soils. We performed a short-term incubation experiment over 12 weeks to assess the effects of three amendments (biochar: C; nitrogen fertilizer at three levels: N-N1~N3; microbial agent at two levels: M-M1~M2) based on C/N ratio (regulated by biochar and N level: 35:1, 25:1, 12.5:1) on soil quality and microbial community in the Qilian Mountains, China. Over the incubation period, soil pH and MBC/MBN were significantly lower than unamended treatment in N addition and C+M+N treatments, respectively. Soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), available nitrogen (AN), available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK), microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) contents had a significant increase in all amended treatments (P<0.001). Higher AP, AK, MBC, MBN and lower MBC/MBN were observed in N2-treated soil(corresponding to C/N ratio of 25:1). Meanwhile, N2-treated soil significantly increased species richness and diversity of soil bacterial community (P<0.05). Principal coordinate analysis further showed that soil bacterial community compositions were significantly separated by N level. C-M-N treatments (especially at N2 and N1 levels) significantly increased the relative abundance (>1%) of the bacterial phyla Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, and decreased the relative abundance of fungal phyla Chytridiomycota (P<0.05). Redundancy analysis illustrated the importance of soil nutrients in explaining variability in bacteria community composition (74.73%) than fungal (35.0%). Our results indicated that N and M addition based on biochar can improve soil quality by neutralizing soil pH and increasing soil nutrient contents, and the appropriate C/N ratio (25:1: biochar+N2-treated soil) can better promote mass, richness and diversity of soil bacterial community. Our study provided a new insight for achieving restoration of damaged habitats by changing microbial structure, diversity and mass by regulating C/N ratio of amendments

Seminal fluid proteins (SFPs) play vital roles for optimizing reproductive success in diverse animals. Underlining their significance, SFP production and transfer are highly plastic, e.g., depending on the presence of rivals or mating status of partners. However, surprisingly little is known about replenishing SFPs after mating. It is especially relevant in multiple mating species, as they would continuously produce and use SPFs throughout their reproductive life. Here we examined the expression pattern of SFP genes after mating in the great pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis. Our results show that only two of the six SFP genes investigated here were up-regulated after mating, indicating that L. stagnalis replenishes seminal fluid in a protein-specific manner. In addition, we suggest that SFP replenishment is plastic depending on the mating history of female-acting snails. Our results shed light on unexplored aspects of SFP replenishment, thereby expanding the understanding of reproductive strategies in animals.

The studies of climatic-niche shifts over evolutionary time accompanied by key morphological innovations have attracted the interest of many researchers recently. We analyzed the realized niche dynamics across clades within Scutiger boulengeri using ecological niche models (ENMs), ordination method (environment principal component analysis; PCA-env), and correspondingly key morphological innovations combined phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) and phylogenetic generalized least squares (PGLS) regression methods throughout their distributions in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) margins of China in Asia. Our analyses reveal that there is obvious niche divergence caused by niche expansion across S. boulengeri clades, especially in E. A, E. B and partial of E. C clades. Moreover, niche expansion is more popular than niche unfilling into novel environmental conditions. Annual mean temperature and Annual precipitation are the most important contributors in E. A and E. B clades, while Precipitation of driest month is most likely to be the leading limited factor in these two regions according to jackknife test of variable importance. In addition, we identified several key ecological and morphological traits that tend to be associated with niche expansion in S. boulengeri clades correspondingly. Specifically, we found that Elevation, Isothermality, Mean diurnal range and Max temperature of warmest month are significantly negative predictors of snout–vent length (SVL) under phylogenetic models, while the S. boulengeri toads from warmer and more arid environments tend to be larger. There seems to a trade-off strategy by trait covary of locomotor performance combined with enlarged SVL, which provide us a potential pattern of how a colonizing toad might seed a novel habit to begin the process of speciation and finally adaptive radiation. It is worth noting that we should not overlook that the Tibet continuously growing and moving northward over millions of years has laid the foundation for early divergence of clades within S. boulengeri.

1. Animal movement studies are conducted to monitor ecosystem health, understand ecological dynamics and address management and conservation questions. In marine environments, traditional sampling and monitoring methods to measure animal movement are invasive, labour intensive, costly, and measuring movement of many individuals is challenging. Automated detection and tracking of small-scale movements of many animals through cameras are possible. However, automated techniques are largely untested in field conditions, and this is hampering applications to ecological questions. 2. Here, we aimed to test the ability of computer vision algorithms to track small-scale movement of many individuals in videos. We apply the method to track fish movement in the field and characterize movement behaviour. First, we automated the detection of a common fisheries species (yellowfin bream, Acanthopagrus australis) from underwater videos of individuals swimming along a known movement corridor. We then tracked fish movement with three types of tracking algorithms (MOSSE, Seq-NMS and SiamMask), and evaluated their accuracy at characterizing movement. 3. We successfully detected yellowfin bream in a multi-species assemblage (F1 score = 91%). At least 120 of the 169 individual bream present in videos were correctly identified and tracked. The accuracies among the three tracking architectures varied, with MOSSE and SiamMask achieving an accuracy of 78%, and Seq-NMS 84%. 4. By employing these emerging computer vision technologies, we demonstrated a non-invasive and reliable approach to studying fish behaviour by tracking their movement under field conditions. These cost-effective technologies potentially will allow future studies to scale-up analysis of movement across many underwater visual monitoring systems.

Understanding the contributions of autotrophic respiration (Ra) and heterotrophic respiration (Rh) to total soil respiration (Rs) is necessary for accurate prediction of global carbon balance and net ecosystem production under environmental change. In this research, annual Rs and Rh and estimated were investigated by using a root trenching experiment in a Camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora) forest in subtropical China for two years to qualify the relative contribution of Ra and Rh components to Rs, and to determine the environmental factors that control the seasonal changes in Ra, Rh and Rs. The results showed that annual mean Rs was 405 ± 219 gC m-2 year-1 in the studied forests, of which Rh and Ra were 240 ± 120 gC m-2 year-1 and 164 ±102 gC m-2 year-1, respectively. The contribution of Rh to Rs averaged 58.1%, ranging from 45 to 81%. The seasonal changes in Rs and Rh were highly correlated with soil temperature, but not to soil water content. Our results suggest microbial community and activity make a primary contribution to carbon flux released from soil to atmosphere in the studied forest ecosystems.

Aim: Artemisia annua L. is the one and only original plant used to isolate artemisinin which is a highly effective remedy to fight malaria. Climate change leads to change of distribution and suitable range for many species and A. annua is no exception. However, it is not clear that the potential distribution and suitable range change of this unique plant under climate change. Therefore, we present this research to study its change in the future. Location: Global. Methods: Since the accuracy of species distribution models was affected by occurrence records and environmental variables, 1062 presence records and 7 variables were picked out to build ensemble models with 10 different algorithms by means of biomod2 under current and future climate scenarios. Results: At present, except SRE, the AUC values of the rest models were greater than 0.8, and the TSS values were greater than 0.6, the values of ensemble model were 0.968 and 0.826 respectively. Mean temperature of driest quarter was the dominant factor to shape the range of A. annua and its optimum interval ranged from 4.8 to 23.3ºC. The high suitable habitats of A. annua were mainly located in Eastern Asia, Western Europe, Central Europe. In the future, the high suitable area would decline at 15.55% to 25.87%. Main conclusions: Ensemble models showed it performed better than any the single one. At present, the high suitable habitat simulated by ensemble model was in accordance with the actual occurrence records. In the future, the high suitable habitat for A. annua would move northeast, and disappear in North America. They would increase with time under each SSP, but sharply decline while comparing with the current one. This study can be used to protect wild resource and guide cultivation for A. annua, which would make modest contribution to fight malaria.

Birds are known to act as potential vectors for the exogenous dispersal of bryophyte diaspores. Given the totipotency of vegetative tissue of many bryophytes, birds could also contribute to endozoochorous bryophyte dispersal. Research has shown that fecal samples of the upland goose (Chloephaga picta) and white-bellied seedsnipe (Attagis malouinus) contain bryophyte fragments. Although few fragments from bird feces have been known to regenerate, the evidence for the viability of diaspores following passage through the bird intestinal tract remains ambiguous. We evaluated the role of endozoochory in these same herbivorous and sympatric bird species in sub-Antarctic Chile. We hypothesized that fragments of bryophyte gametophytes retrieved from their feces are viable and capable of regenerating new plant tissue. Eleven feces disc samples containing undetermined moss fragments from C. picta (N=6) and A. malouinus (N=5) and six moss fragment samples from wild collected mosses (Conostomum tetragonum, Syntrichia robusta, and Polytrichum strictum) were grown ex situ in peat soil and in vitro using a agar-Gamborg medium. After 91 days, 20% of fragments from A. malouinus feces, 50% of fragments from C. picta feces, and 67% of propagules from wild mosses produced new growth. The fact that moss diaspores remained viable and can regenerate under experimental conditions following the passage through the intestinal tracts of these robust fliers and altitudinal and latitudinal migrants, suggests that sub-Antarctic birds may play a critical role in bryophyte dispersal. This relationship may have important implications in the way bryophytes disperse and colonize habitats facing climate change. Keywords: birds, bryophyte dispersal, endozoochory, mosses, sub-Antarctic