scholarly journals Microevolutionary Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Plant-Animal Interactions

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco E. Fontúrbel ◽  
Maureen M. Murúa
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Fragmentation ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Fragmented Habitats ◽  
Interacting Species ◽  
Biodiversity Maintenance ◽  
Selective Forces ◽  
Plant Animal Interactions ◽  
New Interactions ◽  
Antagonistic Interactions

Plant-animal interactions are a key component for biodiversity maintenance, but they are currently threatened by human activities. Habitat fragmentation might alter ecological interactions due to demographic changes, spatial discontinuities, and edge effects. Also, there are less evident effects of habitat fragmentation that potentially alter selective forces and compromise the fitness of the interacting species. Changes in the mutualistic and antagonistic interactions in fragmented habitats could significantly influence the plant reproductive output and the fauna assemblage associated with. Fragmented habitats may trigger contemporary evolution processes and open new evolutionary opportunities. Interacting parties with a diffuse and asymmetric relationship are less susceptible to local extinction but more prone to evolve towards new interactions or autonomy. However, highly specialized mutualisms are likely to disappear. On the other hand, ecological interactions may mutually modulate their response in fragmented habitats, especially when antagonistic interactions disrupt mutualistic ones. Ecoevolutionary issues of habitat fragmentation have been little explored, but the empiric evidence available suggests that the complex modification of ecological interactions in fragmented habitats might lead to nonanalogous communities on the long term.

scholarly journals Eco-evolutionary feedbacks promote fluctuating selection and long-term stability of antagonistic networks

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1874) ◽  
pp. 20172596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi ◽  
Paulo R. Guimarães ◽  
Carlos J. Melián
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Variation ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Species Interaction ◽  
Fluctuating Selection ◽  
Term Stability ◽  
Long Term Stability ◽  
Interacting Species ◽  
Species Abundances ◽  
Antagonistic Interactions

Studies have shown the potential for rapid adaptation in coevolving populations and that the structure of species interaction networks can modulate the vulnerability of ecological systems to perturbations. Although the feedback loop between population dynamics and coevolution of traits is crucial for understanding long-term stability in ecological assemblages, modelling eco-evolutionary dynamics in species-rich assemblages is still a challenge. We explore how eco-evolutionary feedbacks influence trait evolution and species abundances in 23 empirical antagonistic networks. We show that, if selection due to antagonistic interactions is stronger than other selective pressures, eco-evolutionary feedbacks lead to higher mean species abundances and lower temporal variation in abundances. By contrast, strong selection of antagonistic interactions leads to higher temporal variation of traits and on interaction strengths. Our results present a theoretical link between the study of the species persistence and coevolution in networks of interacting species, pointing out the ways by which coevolution may decrease the vulnerability of species within antagonistic networks to demographic fluctuation.

Seed cleaning of Cupania vernalis (Sapindaceae) by ants: edge effect in a highland forest in south-east Brazil

2002 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo Roberto Guimarães Jr ◽  
Rodrigo Cogni
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Fragmentation ◽  
Seed Dispersal ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Edge Effect ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Population Changes ◽  
Seed Dispersers ◽  
Conservation Of Biodiversity

The integrity of ecological interactions, such as pollination and seed dispersal, has been recognized as important for long-term conservation of biodiversity (Asquith et al. 1999, Buchmann & Nabhan 1997, Howe 1984, Pizo 1997). This is illustrated by the fact that the loss of large-bodied animals like birds and mammals after habitat fragmentation can result in population changes or even extinction of many plant species (Silva & Tabarelli 2000). In the absence of primary seed dispersers (vertebrates), the importance of invertebrates such as ants, that can carry or clean seeds, probably increases.

Mistletoes in a changing world: a premonition of a non-analog future?

Botany ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 98 (9) ◽  
pp. 479-488
Author(s):  
Francisco E. Fontúrbel
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Human Disturbances ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Plant Animal Interactions ◽  
Changing World

Mistletoes are a group of flowering plants that have developed a parasitic lifeform through complex eco-evolutionary processes. Despite being considered a pest, mistletoes represent a keystone forest resource and are involved in complex plant–plant and plant–animal interactions. Their parasitic lifeform and specialized ecological interactions make mistletoes an ideal model with which to understand the effects of anthropogenic disturbances in a changing world. The accelerated growth of the human population has altered all ecosystems on Earth, leading to biodiversity loss. Land-use changes (involving habitat loss, fragmentation, degradation, and transformation processes) can alter the ecological scenario for mistletoe by altering hosts, mutualists, and nutrient cycling. Those changes may have large consequences at the community level, changing the spatial structure of mistletoes, as well as interaction effectiveness, facilitation process, interaction disruption, and novel interactions with invasive species, leading to non-analog communities in the long run. Furthermore, climate change effects operate on a global scale, enhancing the effects of land-use changes. As temperatures increase, many species would alter their distribution and phenology, potentially causing spatial and temporal mismatches. But more critical is the fact that water stress is likely to disrupt key ecological interactions. Thus, mistletoes can provide valuable insights for what we can expect in the future, as a result of human disturbances.

Genetic Differentiation in Isolated Populations of Hakea carinata (Proteaceae)

1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 671 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Starr ◽  
S. M. Carthew
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Habitat Fragmentation ◽  
Gene Diversity ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Similar Species ◽  
Isolated Populations ◽  
Plant Populations ◽  
Evolutionary Condition ◽  
Private Alleles

Fragmentation of the landscape by human activity has created small, isolated plant populations. Hakea carinata F. Muell. ex Meissner, a sclerophyllous shrub, is common in isolated fragments of vegetation in South Australia. This study investigated whether habitat fragmentation has caused restrictions to gene flow between populations. Gene diversity (HT = 0.317) is average for similar species but little is held within populations (HS = 0.168) and 46.9% of gene diversity is accounted for between populations. Estimates of gene flow are NM = 0.270 (based on FST) and NM = 0.129 (based on private alleles). Populations are substantially selfing (t = 0.111). Small isolated populations appears to be a long-term evolutionary condition in this species rather than a consequence of habitat fragmentation; however, population extinctions are occurring. Conservation will require the reservation of many populations to represent the genetic variation present in the species.

scholarly journals Economics and evolution

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 298-298
Author(s):  
Geerat J. Vermeij
Keyword(s):  
Energy Use ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Ripple Effect ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Economic Interpretation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
Random Nature ◽  
Antagonistic Interactions

Individual organisms compete for resources. Among competitive dominants, per-capita energy use has generally increased through time. This increase has had a ripple effect on all other species by increasing the number of competitive and predatory encounters among individuals. Species unable to cope with such biological rigors have become restricted to environments where resource supply is low and where encounters with enemies are few. Among species that hold their own in biologically rigorous habitats, construction materials that are cheap to produce and that enable individuals to grow and respond quickly have generally been favored over those that exact a high cost in energy and time. Extinction interrupts but does not reverse or fundamentally alter these long-term between-clade evolutionary trends. The availability of resources to organisms, as well as the opportunity for evolutionary change, depends on extrinsic events and factors as well as on the competitive abilities of organisms.Those who have raised methodological and theoretical objections against this economic interpretation of the history of life deny the overriding importance of organisms as agents of natural selection, emphasize the random nature of extinction, deny the existence of long-term trends, favor a larger role for mutualistic as opposed to antagonistic interactions, or accord a larger role to species-level attributes in evolution that are not reducible to the properties of individual organisms. These arguments are either unpersuasive or incorrect. The long-term economics of life may have important lessons for our own use of resources.

scholarly journals The colonization of the oceans by calcifying pelagic algae

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 2501-2510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baptiste Suchéras-Marx ◽  
Emanuela Mattioli ◽  
Pascal Allemand ◽  
Fabienne Giraud ◽  
Bernard Pittet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Middle Eocene ◽  
World Ocean ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Accumulation Rates ◽  
Calcareous Nannoplankton ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamic ◽  
Three Phase ◽  
Establishment Phase

Abstract. The rise of calcareous nannoplankton in Mesozoic oceans has deeply impacted ocean chemistry and contributed to shaping modern oceans. Nevertheless, the calcareous nannoplankton colonization of past marine environments remains poorly understood. Based on an extensive compilation of published and unpublished data, we show that their accumulation rates in sediments increased from the Early Jurassic (∼200 Ma) to the Early Cretaceous (∼120 Ma), although these algae diversified up to the end of the Mesozoic (66 Ma). After the middle Eocene (∼45 Ma), a decoupling occurred between accumulation rates, diversity and coccolith size. The time series analyzed points toward a three-phase evolutionary dynamic. An invasion phase of the open-ocean realms was followed by a specialization phase occurring along with taxonomic diversification, ended by an establishment phase where a few small-sized species dominated. The current hegemony of calcareous nannoplankton in the world ocean results from a long-term and complex evolutionary history shaped by ecological interactions and abiotic forcing.

scholarly journals Population signatures of large-scale, long-term disjunction and small-scale, short-term habitat fragmentation in an Afromontane forest bird

Heredity ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 113 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
J C Habel ◽  
R K Mulwa ◽  
F Gassert ◽  
D Rödder ◽  
W Ulrich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Fragmentation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Forest Bird ◽  
Afromontane Forest

scholarly journals Phenological variation in annual timing of hibernation and breeding in nearby populations of Arctic ground squirrels

2010 ◽  
Vol 278 (1716) ◽  
pp. 2369-2375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Sheriff ◽  
G. Jim Kenagy ◽  
Melanie Richter ◽  
Trixie Lee ◽  
Øivind Tøien ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Ground Squirrels ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Physiological Mechanisms ◽  
Interacting Species ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Phenological Shifts ◽  
Arctic Ground Squirrels ◽  
Northern Alaska

Ecologists need an empirical understanding of physiological and behavioural adjustments that animals can make in response to seasonal and long-term variations in environmental conditions. Because many species experience trade-offs between timing and duration of one seasonal event versus another and because interacting species may also shift phenologies at different rates, it is possible that, in aggregate, phenological shifts could result in mismatches that disrupt ecological communities. We investigated the timing of seasonal events over 14 years in two Arctic ground squirrel populations living 20 km apart in Northern Alaska. At Atigun River, snow melt occurred 27 days earlier and snow cover began 17 days later than at Toolik Lake. This spatial differential was reflected in significant variation in the timing of most seasonal events in ground squirrels living at the two sites. Although reproductive males ended seasonal torpor on the same date at both sites, Atigun males emerged from hibernation 9 days earlier and entered hibernation 5 days later than Toolik males. Atigun females emerged and bred 13 days earlier and entered hibernation 9 days earlier than those at Toolik. We propose that this variation in phenology over a small spatial scale is likely generated by plasticity of physiological mechanisms that may also provide individuals the ability to respond to variation in environmental conditions over time.

scholarly journals Short- and long-term effects of habitat fragmentation differ but are predicted by response to the matrix

Ecology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 98 (3) ◽  
pp. 807-819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maldwyn J. Evans ◽  
Sam C. Banks ◽  
Don A. Driscoll ◽  
Andrew J. Hicks ◽  
Brett A. Melbourne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Fragmentation ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Short And Long Term
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document