Effects of landscape structure on movement patterns of the flightless bush cricket Pholidoptera griseoaptera.

Because the viability of a population may depend on whether individuals can disperse, it is important for conservation planning to understand how landscape structure affects movement behavior. Some species occur in a wide range of landscapes differing greatly in structure, and the question arises of whether these species are particularly versatile in their dispersal or whether they are composed of genetically distinct populations adapted to contrasting landscapes. We performed a capture-mark-resight experiment to study movement patterns of the flightless bush cricket Pholidoptera griseoaptera (De Geer 1773) in two contrasting agricultural landscapes in France and Switzerland.

Functional richness of local hoverfly communities (Diptera, Syrphidae) in response to land use across temperate Europe.

Environmental change is not likely to act on biodiversity in a random manner, but rather according to species traits that affect assembly processes, thus, having potentially serious consequences on ecological functions. We investigated the effects of anthropogenic land use on functional richness of local hoverfly communities of 24 agricultural landscapes across temperate Europe. A multivariate ordination separated seven functional groups based on resource use, niche characteristics and response type.

Adaptive reproductive variation along a pollution gradient in a wolf spider.

When populations are exposed to environmental pollutants, growth and reproduction might be strongly reduced due to an increased detoxification effort. Sublethal metal pollution is therefore to be expected to cause the same selection pressure as a low resource habitat and might alter the reproductive strategy. Optimality models of life history theory predict that when resource availability is reduced, growth and reproductive output are reduced and that the release of fewer but larger propagules will be favoured.