Colour change and colour phases in Lethrinidae with insights into ecology.

Colour change is used by a wide range of animals. It is used for intra- and interspecific communication and crypsis, and can occur on morphological and physiological levels. Bony fish employ rapid physiological colour change and display various types of patterns and colouration (colour phases) useful for aposematic and cryptic purposes.

The comparative energetics of the turtles and crocodiles.

The Add-my-Pet collection of data on energetics and Dynamic Energy Budget parameters currently contains 92 species of turtles and 23 species of crocodiles. We discuss patterns of eco-physiological traits of turtles and crocodiles, as functions of parameter values, and compare them with other taxa. Turtles and crocodiles accurately match the general rule that the life-time cumulated neonate mass production equals ultimate weight.

Offshore platforms as novel ecosystems: A case study from Australia's Northwest Shelf.

The decommissioning of offshore oil and gas platforms typically involves removing some or all of the associated infrastructure and the consequent destruction of the associated marine ecosystem that has developed over decades. There is increasing evidence of the important ecological role played by offshore platforms. Concepts such as novel ecosystems allow stakeholders to consider the ecological role played by each platform in the decommissioning process.

Density-dependent patterns of multivariate selection on sperm motility and morphology in a broadcast spawning mussel.

Sperm cells exhibit extraordinary phenotypic variation, both among taxa and within individual species, yet our understanding of the adaptive value of sperm trait variation across multiple contexts is incomplete. For species without the opportunity to choose mating partners, such as sessile broadcast spawning invertebrates, fertilization depends on gamete interactions, which in turn can be strongly influenced by local environmental conditions that alter the concentration of sperm and eggs. However, the way in which such environmental factors impact phenotypic selection on functional gamete traits remains unclear in most systems.

Disentangling biotic and abiotic drivers of intraspecific trait variation in woody plant seedlings at forest edges.

In fragmented forests, edge effects can drive intraspecific variation in seedling performance that influences forest regeneration and plant composition. However, few studies have attempted to disentangle the relative biotic and abiotic drivers of intraspecific variation in seedling performance. In this study, we carried out a seedling transplant experiment with a factorial experimental design on three land-bridge islands in the Thousand Island Lake, China, using four common native woody plant species.

Effect of plant root symbionts on performance of native woody species in competition with an invasive grass in multispecies microcosms.

The majority of terrestrial plants form mutualistic associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and rhizobia (i.e., nitrogen-fixing bacteria).

A simple function for full-subsets multiple regression in ecology with R.

Full-subsets information theoretic approaches are becoming an increasingly popular tool for exploring predictive power and variable importance where a wide range of candidate predictors are being considered. Here, we describe a simple function in the statistical programming language R that can be used to construct, fit, and compare a complete model set of possible ecological or environmental predictors, given a response variable of interest and a starting generalized additive (mixed) model fit. Main advantages include not requiring a complete model to be fit as the starting point for candidate model set construction (meaning that a greater number of predictors can potentially be explored than might be available through functions such as dredge); model sets that include interactions between factors and continuous nonlinear predictors; and automatic removal of models with correlated predictors (based on a user defined criterion for exclusion).

Integrating trait-based empirical and modeling research to improve ecological restoration.

A global ecological restoration agenda has led to ambitious programs in environmental policy to mitigate declines in biodiversity and ecosystem services. Current restoration programs can incompletely return desired ecosystem service levels, while resilience of restored ecosystems to future threats is unknown. It is therefore essential to advance understanding and better utilize knowledge from ecological literature in restoration approaches.

High levels of polyandry, but limited evidence for multiple paternity, in wild populations of the western rock lobster ().

Polyandry, where multiple mating by females results in the temporal and spatial overlap of ejaculates from two or more males, is taxonomically widespread and occurs in varying frequencies within and among species. In decapods (crabs, lobsters, crayfish, and prawns), rates of polyandry are likely to be variable, but the extent to which patterns of multiple paternity reflect multiple mating, and thus are shaped by postmating processes that bias fertilization toward one or a subset of mated males, is unclear. Here, we use microsatellite markers to examine the frequency of multiple mating (the presence of spermatophores from two or more males) and patterns of paternity in wild populations of western rock lobster ().