Precipitation Drives Frugivory in a Subtropical Generalist Herbivore, the Gopher Tortoise, and Alters Its Functional Role as a Seed Disperser.

Consumers employ a variety of foraging strategies, and oftentimes the foraging strategy employed is related to resource availability. As consumers acquire resources, they may interact with their resource base in mutualistic or antagonistic ways-falling along a mutualism-antagonism continuum-with implications for ecological processes such as seed dispersal. However, patterns of resource use vary temporally, and textbook herbivores may switch foraging tactics to become more frugivorous in periods of greater fleshy fruit availability.

Evolutionary Links Between Skull Shape and Body Size Suggest Allometric Forces and Selection at Work in a Generalist Group of Lizards.

The vertebrate skull is a complex structure, and studies of skull shape have yielded considerable insight into the evolutionary forces shaping specialized phenotypes in organisms as diverse as bats, frogs, and fossorial animals. Here, we used phylogenetic comparative analyses of CT scans of male skulls from 57 species of lizards to explore patterns of skull evolution in a group of generalist taxa. We found that most interspecific variation is in terms of skull elongation such that some species have long, narrow skulls, whereas others exhibit more compact and robust skulls.

Long-term ecological research and the COVID-19 anthropause: A window to understanding social-ecological disturbance.

The period of disrupted human activity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, coined the "anthropause," altered the nature of interactions between humans and ecosystems. It is uncertain how the anthropause has changed ecosystem states, functions, and feedback to human systems through shifts in ecosystem services. Here, we used an existing disturbance framework to propose new investigation pathways for coordinated studies of distributed, long-term social-ecological research to capture effects of the anthropause.

Towards connecting biodiversity and geodiversity across scales with satellite remote sensing.

Issue: Geodiversity (i.e., the variation in Earth's abiotic processes and features) has strong effects on biodiversity patterns.

Coral epigenetic responses to nutrient stress: Histone H2A.X phosphorylation dynamics and DNA methylation in the staghorn coral .

Nutrient pollution and thermal stress constitute two of the main drivers of global change in the coastal oceans. While different studies have addressed the physiological effects and ecological consequences of these stressors in corals, the role of acquired modifications in the coral epigenome during acclimatory and adaptive responses remains unknown. The present work aims to address that gap by monitoring two types of epigenetic mechanisms, namely histone modifications and DNA methylation, during a 7-week-long experiment in which staghorn coral fragments ( were exposed to nutrient stress (nitrogen, nitrogen + phosphorus) in the presence of thermal stress.

Evolutionary patterns of volatile terpene emissions across 202 tropical tree species.

Plant responses to natural enemies include formation of secondary metabolites acting as direct or indirect defenses. Volatile terpenes represent one of the most diverse groups of secondary metabolites. We aimed to explore evolutionary patterns of volatile terpene emission.

Is a community still a community? Reviewing definitions of key terms in community ecology.

Community ecology is an inherently complicated field, confounded by the conflicting use of fundamental terms. Nearly two decades ago, Fauth et al. (1996) demonstrated that imprecise language led to the virtual synonymy of important terms and so attempted to clearly define four keywords in community ecology; "community," "assemblage," "guild," and "ensemble".

Quantity over quality: light intensity, but not red/far-red ratio, affects extrafloral nectar production in Senna mexicana var. chapmanii.

Extrafloral nectar (EFN) mediates food-for-protection mutualisms between plants and insects and provides plants with a form of indirect defense against herbivory. Understanding sources of variation in EFN production is important because such variations affect the number and identity of insect visitors and the effectiveness of plant defense. Light represents a potentially crucial tool for regulating resource allocation to defense, as it not only contributes energy but may help plants to anticipate future conditions.