Ecology: The fruits of local knowledge.

Local and indigenous communities often have an intimate connection to nature that is reflected in their ecological knowledge and practices. A new study shows that local ecological knowledge can transform the scientific understanding of an ecological network.

Species motif participation provides unique information about species risk of extinction.

Loss of species in food webs can set in motion a cascade of additional (secondary) extinctions. A species' position in a food web (e.g.

The propagation of disturbances in ecological networks.

Despite the development of network science, we lack clear heuristics for how far different disturbance types propagate within and across species interaction networks. We discuss the mechanisms of disturbance propagation in ecological networks, and propose that disturbances can be categorized into structural, functional, and transmission types according to their spread and effect on network structure and functioning. We describe the properties of species and their interaction networks and metanetworks that determine the indirect, spatial, and temporal extent of propagation.

Food webs coupled in space: Consumer foraging movement affects both stocks and fluxes.

The exchange of material and individuals between neighboring food webs is ubiquitous and affects ecosystem functioning. Here, we explore animal foraging movement between adjacent, heterogeneous habitats and its effect on a suite of interconnected ecosystem functions. Combining dynamic food web models with nutrient-recycling models, we study foraging across habitats that differ in fertility and plant diversity.

A bioenergetic framework for aboveground terrestrial food webs.

Bioenergetic approaches have been greatly influential for understanding community functioning and stability and predicting effects of environmental changes on biodiversity. These approaches use allometric relationships to establish species' trophic interactions and consumption rates and have been successfully applied to aquatic ecosystems. Terrestrial ecosystems, where body mass is less predictive of plant-consumer interactions, present inherent challenges that these models have yet to meet.

Beyond body size-new traits for new heights in trait-based modelling of predator-prey dynamics.

Food webs map feeding interactions among species, providing a valuable tool for understanding and predicting community dynamics. Using species' body sizes is a promising avenue for parameterizing food-web models, but such approaches have not yet been able to fully recover observed community dynamics. Such discrepancies suggest that traits other than body size also play important roles.