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1. From coral reefs to Joshua trees: What ecological interactions teach us about the adaptive capacity of biodiversity in the Anthropocene

   https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0389  

   Lagerstrom, Katherine M.; Vance, Summer; Cornwell, Brendan H.; Ruffley, Megan; Bellagio, Tatiana; Exposito-Alonso, Moi; Palumbi, Stephen R.; Hadly, Elizabeth A. (August 2022, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)

   The pervasive loss of biodiversity in the Anthropocene necessitates rapid assessments of ecosystems to understand how they will respond to anthropogenic environmental change. Many studies have sought to describe the adaptive capacity (AC) of individual species, a measure that encompasses a species’ ability to respond and adapt to change. Only those adaptive mechanisms that can be used over the next few decades (e.g. via novel interactions, behavioural changes, hybridization, migration, etc.) are relevant to the timescale set by the rapid changes of the Anthropocene. The impacts of species loss cascade through ecosystems, yet few studies integrate the capacity of ecological networks to adapt to change with the ACs of its species. Here, we discuss three ecosystems and how their ecological networks impact the AC of species and vice versa. A more holistic perspective that considers the AC of species with respect to their ecological interactions and functions will provide more predictive power and a deeper understanding of what factors are most important to a species’ survival. We contend that the AC of a species, combined with its role in ecosystem function and stability, must guide decisions in assigning ‘risk’ and triaging biodiversity loss in the Anthropocene. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Ecological complexity and the biosphere: the next 30 years’. 

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2. Dynamic Habitat Disturbance and Ecological Resilience (DyHDER): modeling population responses to habitat condition

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3023  

   Murphy, Brendan_P; Walsworth, Timothy_E; Belmont, Patrick; Conner, Mary_M; Budy, Phaedra (February 2020, Ecosphere)

   Abstract Understanding how populations respond to spatially heterogeneous habitat disturbance is as critical to conservation as it is challenging. Here, we present a new, free, and open‐source metapopulation model: Dynamic Habitat Disturbance and Ecological Resilience (DyHDER), which incorporates subpopulation habitat condition and connectivity into a population viability analysis framework. Modeling temporally dynamic and spatially explicit habitat disturbance of varying magnitude and duration is accomplished through the use of habitat time‐series data and a mechanistic approach to adjusting subpopulation vital rates. Additionally, DyHDERuses a probabilistic dispersal model driven by site‐specific habitat suitability, density dependence, and directionally dependent connectivity. In the first application of DyHDER, we explore how fragmentation and projected climate change are predicted to impact a well‐studied Bonneville cutthroat trout metapopulation in the Logan River (Utah,USA). The DyHDERmodel predicts which subpopulations are most susceptible to disturbance, as well as the potential interactions between stressors. Further, the model predicts how populations may be expected to redistribute following disturbance. This information is valuable to conservationists and managers faced with protecting populations of conservation concern across landscapes undergoing changing disturbance regimes. The DyHDERmodel provides a valuable and generalizable new tool to explore metapopulation resilience to spatially and temporally dynamic stressors for a diverse range of taxa and ecosystems. 

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3. The Interactive Effects of Precipitation and Disturbance on the Functioning of Dryland Ecosystems as Modulated by Mean Annual Precipitation

   Jordan, Samuel (April 2024, keep.lib.asu.edu)

   Terrestrial ecosystems are critical to human welfare and regulating Earth’s life support systems but many gaps in our knowledge remain regarding how terrestrial plant communities respond to changes in climate or human actions. I used field experiments distributed across three dryland ecosystems in North America to evaluate the consequences of changing precipitation and physical disturbance on plant community structure and function. Evidence from experiments and observational work exploring both plant community composition and ecological processes suggest that physical disturbance and precipitation reductions can reduce the diversity and function of these dryland ecosystems. Specifically, I found that aboveground net primary productivity could be reduced in an interactive manner when precipitation reductions and physical disturbance co-occur, and that within sites, this reduction in productivity was greater when growing-season precipitation was low. Further, I found that these dryland plant communities, commonly dominated by highly drought-resistant shrubs and perennial grasses, were not capable of compensating for the absence of these dominant shrubs and perennial grasses when they were removed by disturbance, and that precipitation reductions (as predicted to occur from anthropogenic climate change) exacerbate these gaps. Collectively, the results of the field experiment suggest that current management paradigms of maintaining cover and structure of native perennial plants in dryland systems are well founded and may be especially important as climate variability increases over time. Evaluating how these best management practices take place in the real world is an important extension of fundamental ecological research. To address the research-management gap in the context of dryland ecosystems in the western US, I used a set of environmental management plans and remotely sensed data to investigate how ecosystem services in drylands are accounted for, both as a supply from the land base and as a demand from stakeholders. Focusing on a less-investigated land base in the United States–areas owned and managed by the Department of Defense–I explored how ecosystem services are produced by this unique land management arrangement even if they are not explicitly managed for under current management schemes. My findings support a growing body of evidence that Department of Defense lands represent a valuable conservation opportunity, both for biodiversity and ecosystem services, if management regimes fully integrate the ecosystem services concept. 

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4. Do differences in exploration and boldness inform species level responses to environmental change in montane chipmunks?

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123159  

   Wrensford, Kwasi; Samel, Ketki; Lacey, Eileen A (June 2025, Animal Behaviour)

   How animals behave in novel situations may significantly affect multiple aspects of their biology, including how they respond to environmental change. Two aspects of behaviour that are often used to assess interactions with new environments are exploration and boldness. Within species, variation in these responses to novelty is thought to reflect differences in individual behavioural phenotypes (e.g. behavioural syndromes). Between species, these responses may be influenced by the degree of ecological specialization, with members of more specialized taxa typically expected to display a reduced tendency to interact with novel habitats. To test the prediction that more ecologically specialized species are more neophobic, we used open-field assays to compare exploratory behaviour and boldness among free-living members of two partially sympatric species of chipmunks from the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, U.S.A.: the lodgepole chipmunk, Tamias speciosus, a habitat generalist, and the alpine chipmunk, Tamias alpinus, a habitat specialist. Our analyses indicate that while behavioural measures of boldness did not differ between these species, individual T. speciosus were on average more exploratory than individual T. alpinus. Although the number of individuals tested per species was limited, these findings have important implications for understanding reported interspecific differences in elevational range shifts in response to changing environmental conditions in the Sierra Nevada. More generally, our analyses underscore the potential importance of behavioural responses to novelty in shaping species level patterns of response to environmental change. 

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5. Emerging palaeoecological frameworks for elucidating plant dynamics in response to fire and other disturbance

   https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13416  

   Napier, Joseph D.; Chipman, Melissa L. (October 2021, Global Ecology and Biogeography)

   Abstract MotivationRapid climate change is altering plant communities around the globe fundamentally. Despite progress in understanding how plants respond to these climate shifts, accumulating evidence suggests that disturbance could not only modify expected plant responses but, in some cases, have larger impacts on compositional shifts than climate change. Climate‐driven disturbances are becoming increasingly common in many biomes and are key drivers of vegetation dynamics at both species and community levels. Palaeoecological records provide valuable observational windows for elucidating the long‐term impacts of these disturbances on plant dynamics; however, sparse resolution and difficulty in disentangling drivers of change limit our ability to understand the impact of disturbance on plant communities. In this targeted review, we highlight emerging opportunities in palaeoecology to advance our understanding about how disturbance, especially fire, impacts the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of terrestrial plant communities. LocationGlobal examples, with many from North America. ConclusionsWe propose a set of palaeoecological and integrative approaches that could greatly enhance our understanding of how disturbance regimes influence global plant dynamics. Specifically, we identify four future study areas: (1) focus on palaeoecological disturbance proxies beyond fire and leverage multi proxy research to examine the influence of interacting disturbances on plant community dynamics; (2) use advances in disturbance and vegetation reconstructions, including ancient sedimentary DNA, to provide the spatial, temporal and taxonomic resolution needed to resolve the relationship between changing disturbance regimes and corresponding shifts in plant community composition; (3) integrate palaeoecological, archaeological and Indigenous knowledge to disentangle the complex interplay between climate, human land use, fire and vegetation structure; and (4) apply “functional palaeoecology” and the synergy between palaeoecology and genetics to understand how fire disturbance has served as a long‐standing selective agent on plants. These frameworks could increase the resolution of disturbance‐driven plant dynamics, potentially providing valuable information for future management. 

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