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Abstract Climate and land use change are two of the primary threats to global biodiversity; however, each species within a community may respond differently to these facets of global change. Although it is typically assumed that species use the habitat that is advantageous for survival and reproduction, anthropogenic changes to the environment can create ecological traps, making it critical to assess both habitat selection (e.g. where species congregate on the landscape) and the influence of selected habitats on the demographic processes that govern population dynamics.We used a long‐term (1958–2011), large‐scale, multi‐species dataset for waterfowl that spans the United States and Canada to estimate species‐specific responses to climate and land use variables in a landscape that has undergone significant environmental change across space and time. We first estimated the effects of change in climate and land use variables on habitat selection and population dynamics for nine species. We then hypothesized that species‐specific responses to environmental change would scale with life‐history traits, specifically: longevity, nesting phenology and female breeding site fidelity.We observed species‐level heterogeneity in the demographic and habitat selection responses to climate and land use change, which would complicate community‐level habitat management. Our work highlights the importance of multi‐species monitoring and community‐level analysis, even among closely related species.We detected several relationships between life‐history traits, particularly nesting phenology, and species' responses to environmental change. One species, the early‐nesting northern pintail (Anas acuta), was consistently at the extreme end of responses to land use and climate predictors and has been a species of conservation concern since their population began to decline in the 1980s. They, and the blue‐winged teal, also demonstrated a positive habitat selection response to the proportion of cropland on the landscape that simultaneously reduced abundance the following year, indicative of susceptibility to ecological traps.By distilling the diversity of species' responses to environmental change within a community, our methodological approach and findings will help improve predictions of community responses to global change and can inform multi‐species management and conservation plans in dynamic landscapes that are based on simple tenets of life‐history theory.
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Plant–insect chemical communication in ecological communities: An information theory perspective
Abstract Cross‐species communication, where signals are sent by one species and perceived by others, is one of the most intriguing types of communication that functionally links different species to form complex ecological networks. Global change and human activity can affect communication by increasing fluctuations in species composition and phenology, altering signal profiles and intensity, and introducing noise. So far, most studies on cross‐species communication have focused on a few specific species isolated from ecological communities. Scaling up investigations of cross‐species communication to the community level is currently hampered by a lack of conceptual and practical methodologies. Here, we propose an interdisciplinary framework based on information theory to investigate mechanisms shaping cross‐species communication at the community level. We use plants and insects, the cornerstones of most ecosystems, as a showcase and focus on chemical communication as the key communication channel. We first introduce some basic concepts of information theory, then we illustrate information patterns in plant–insect chemical communication, followed by a further exploration of how to integrate information theory into ecological and evolutionary processes to form testable mechanistic hypotheses. We conclude by highlighting the importance of community‐level information as a means to better understand the maintenance and workings of ecological systems, especially during rapid global change.
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- PAR ID:
- 10367782
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Systematics and Evolution
- Volume:
- 61
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 1674-4918
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 445-453
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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