A fundamental problem in ecology is understanding the changes in species composition among sites (i.e. beta-diversity). It is unclear how spatial heterogeneity in species occupancy across sites shapes patterns of beta-diversity. To address this question, we develop probabilistic models that consider two spatial or temporal sites, where presence probabilities vary both among species and between the

Understanding where and when pathogens occur in the environment has implications for reservoir population health and infection risk. In reservoir hosts, infection status and pathogen shedding are affected by processes interacting across different scales: from landscape features affecting host location and transmission to within-host processes affecting host immunity and infectiousness. While uncommonly

Marshall. D. J. (2024). Principles of experimental design for ecology and evolution. Ecology Letters, 27(4), e14400. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14400 In the original publication, under the heading ‘Scales of biology and experiments’, the author made an unjustified assumption that the populations shown in Figure 2 differed solely in pH, the putative causal agent. However, based on the information provided

Characterizing how sympatric species influence each other's behavior, activity patterns, and habitat selection is central to wildlife ecology and conservation. Animals display behaviors like resource exclusion, competitor evasion, or attraction to prey or safety, resulting in observable patterns of attraction or avoidance. Spatiotemporal avoidance–attraction ratios (AARs) based on the time intervals

An understanding of mechanisms that influence biogeographical patterns can play a pivotal role in deciphering the intricate dynamics underlying species distributions and, ultimately, biodiversity patterns. Biodiversity composition results from both evolutionary origins and contemporary processes. However, how this combination jointly shapes biodiversity patterns and operates through mechanistic links

The theory about reproductive trade‐offs suggests that as reproduction is costly, individuals should trade current reproduction against future reproduction or survival, leading to within‐individual negative covariation between current reproduction and future performance. Despite clear predictions at the individual level, within‐individual negative covariations do not always translate into negative

COVER PHOTO: The cover image shows a Blackburnian Warbler as it takes flight. Blackburnian Warblers are one of hundreds of species of birds that migrate at night through the Central Flyway in the Great Plains of the United States. Using weather surveillance radar to track the timing of these migrations, Adams et al. (Ecology, Volume 106, Issue 5, Article e70110; doi:10.1002/ecy.70110) found that migration

Nest survival is a key demographic parameter for assessing the viability of bird populations and is frequently responsive to management. While nest survival is often monitored alone, its joint monitoring with abundance permits a more thorough understanding of breeding productivity and the mechanisms of population change. However, nests are subject to a time‐to‐event process that presents a challenge

Invasive mammal eradications are commonplace in island conservation. However, post‐eradication monitoring beyond the confirmation of target species removal is rarer. Seabirds are ecosystem engineers on islands and are negatively affected by invasive mammals. Following an invasive mammal eradication, the recovery of seabird populations can be necessary for wider ecosystem recovery. Seabirds fertilize

Biological pest control is a major ecosystem service and is known to depend on landscape heterogeneity. The composition and configuration of landscapes can affect natural enemy communities, trophic interactions, and pest density within agroecosystems. However, local agricultural management can interfere with natural enemy activity, so the positive effects of landscape heterogeneity may be disrupted

Correction to: Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02667-x, published online 8 April 2025.

Several animals have evolved venom glands that produce toxins for use in predation and defence. Writing in Molecular Biology and Evolution, Zancolli and colleagues used a comparative transcriptomics approach to investigate the genetic mechanisms that underlie the evolution of venom glands in marine carnivorous snails. The digestive system of this clade is characterized by mid-oesophageal glands that

Mammalian herbivores, drought and invertebrate ecosystem engineers are among the main drivers of vegetation dynamics in grasslands and savannas. Although their individual effects are relatively well understood, and some studies have probed their pairwise interactions, it is unclear how all three might combine in real-world conditions. Writing in Journal of Ecology, Wells et al. address this gap using

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Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi) was named as a new species in 1998. It is one of three extant long-beaked echidna species and one of only five extant species of monotreme. But the description was based on a holotype collected in the Cyclops Mountains of New Guinea in 1961, and there has been no scientific documentation of the species since that time. However, Indigenous

Animals redistribute elements throughout their lives by depositing wastes and carcasses. Growing evidence shows that these zoogeochemical processes enhance landscape diversity and heterogeneity worldwide. We provide a descriptive framework for understanding how direct animal depositions (i.e. fecal matter, urine, carcasses, and other body materials) contribute to element heterogeneity across scales

Insect biodiversity is changing rapidly, driven by a suite of pressures, notably land use, land‐use intensification and increasingly climate change. We lack large‐scale evidence on how land use and climate change interact to drive insect biodiversity changes. We assess bumble bee responses to interactive effects of land use and climate pressures across North America and Europe. The probability of occurrence

Birds select habitat characteristics, such as variability in habitat structure, across multiple spatial scales (grain and extent). Measuring habitat variability at multiple scales can better capture factors that influence avifauna communities than focusing on one scale only. One valuable tool in assessing habitat heterogeneity is the cumulative dynamic habitat index (DHI), which is derived from satellite

Species distribution models (SDMs) analyse the relationships between species occurrences and environmental predictors. Their efficacy largely depends on the selection of ecologically relevant predictors, with remote sensing (RS) data being one of the most commonly used sources. The usability of multispectral predictors is influenced by temporal changes in vegetation and environmental conditions. However

The abundant‐center hypothesis (ACH) provides a conceptual model for predicting range‐wide distributions of species abundance, suggesting that abundance peaks in the center of the geographic range and declines towards range edges. Empirical studies testing the ACH and its subsequent derivations predominantly occurred in terrestrial systems and reported mixed support. Moreover, none of these models

Plant–soil feedbacks (PSFs) have strong effects on plant community diversity and composition, but we know less about how the abiotic environment alters PSFs. In the context of the stress‐gradient hypothesis (SGH), we predicted less negative PSFs in alpine versus prairie systems and tested this with three alpine and four prairie species and soil from three elevational gradients in western Montana, USA

The abundance of many Caribbean corals has declined over the past few decades, yet now Porites astreoides is more common on many shallow reefs than in the 1980s and shows evidence of local adaptation. We compare the small‐scale (1–8000 m) genetic structure of this brooding species and the broadcasting coral Orbicella annularis on reefs (<14 m depth) in St. John, US Virgin Islands, to examine how larval

Global climate changes and intensified land use have made desertification one of the most pressing threats to vegetation integrity and associated ecosystem services worldwide. Wind‐eroded desertified patches (WEDP) in sandland vegetation communities threaten semiarid sandland ecosystems. Although the soil seed bank can be replenished by surrounding vegetation, the self‐renewal of vegetation within