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Author: Angela T. Moles ×Clear All Filters
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The enemy release hypothesis posits that introduced species escape some of their predators, pathogens, and parasites when they move to a new range. We used a systematic review to compile data from 691 contrasts of enemy release spanning plants, animals, and algae in aquatic and terrestrial systems worldwide. Data from 311 biogeographic contrasts (between home and new range) revealed that on average, a species experiences only...
Plant species establishing beyond their introduced range are not always released from belowground enemiesNARA Subscribed
Background and aims Interactions with soil biota can shape the success of plants, but we still have much to learn about the role of belowground interactions in plant invasions. In this study, we investigated how soil factors affect the growth of an introduced plant species. Methods In a glasshouse experiment, we grew Plantago lanceolata L. seeds from Europe (native range) and Australia (introduced range) in soil samples collec...
Counterintuitive Range Shifts May Be Explained by Climate Induced Changes in Biotic InteractionsNARA Subscribed
Many organisms are expected to shift their ranges uphill, toward the poles or to deeper waters in response to climate change. However, over a third of species exhibit counterintuitive range shifts—toward the equator, downhill or to shallower waters. Despite the prevalence and potential importance of counterintuitive shifts, they are seldom predicted by the species distribution models on which conservation decisions often rely,...
The biocontrol paradoxNARA Subscribed
Predation on Live and Artificial Insect Prey Shows Different Global Latitudinal PatternsNARA Subscribed
Aim Long‐standing theory predicts that the intensity of biotic interactions increases from high to low latitudes. Studies addressing geographic variation in predation on insect prey have often relied on prey models, which lack many characteristics of live prey. Our goals were to explore global latitudinal patterns of predator attack rates on standardised live insect prey and to compare the patterns in predation on live insects...
Does urbanisation lead to parallel demographic shifts across the world in a cosmopolitan plant?NARA Subscribed
Urbanisation is occurring globally, leading to dramatic environmental changes that are altering the ecology and evolution of species. In particular, the expansion of human infrastructure and the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats in cities is predicted to increase genetic drift and reduce gene flow by reducing the size and connectivity of populations. Alternatively, the ‘urban facilitation model’ suggests that some spe...
Factors that shape large‐scale gradients in clonalityNARA Subscribed
Aim Many plant species reproduce clonally. However, ecologists still have much to learn about the factors that shape large‐scale patterns in plant clonal growth and reproduction, especially in the southern hemisphere. We addressed this knowledge gap by quantifying relationships between reproductive mode and a suite of plant characteristics and environmental variables. Location Australia. Taxon Spermatophytes. Methods We used d...
Ecological restoration projects often have variable and unpredictable outcomes, and these can limit the overall impact on biodiversity. Previous syntheses have investigated restoration effectiveness by comparing average restored conditions to average conditions in unrestored or reference systems. Here, we provide the first quantification of the extent to which restoration affects both the mean and variability of biodiversity o...
Phenotypic differentiation among native, expansive and introduced populations influences invasion successNARA Subscribed
Aim Humans influence species distributions by modifying the environment and by dispersing species beyond their natural ranges. Populations of species that have established in disjunct regions of the world may exhibit trait differentiation from native populations due to founder effects and adaptations to selection pressures in each distributional region. We compared multiple native, expansive and introduced populations of a sin...
A literature synthesis concluded that small mammals have the greatest impact on post‐dispersal removal of intermediate‐sized seeds (Dylewski et al . 2020). However, this study failed to consider the duration of seed exposure to predators. Re‐analyses of the corrected dataset revealed only a weak effect of seed mass on seed removal.
Time‐traveling seeds reveal that plant regeneration and growth traits are responding to climate changeNARA Subscribed
Studies assessing the biological impacts of climate change typically rely on long‐term, historic data to measure trait responses to climate through time. Here, we overcame the problem of absent historical data by using resurrected seeds to capture historic plant‐trait data for a number of plant regeneration and growth traits. We collected seed and seedling trait measurements from resurrected historic seeds and compared these w...
A hairy situation: Plant species in warm, sunny places are more likely to have pubescent leavesNARA Subscribed
Aim Leaf pubescence has several important roles, including regulating heat balance, reducing damage from UV radiation, minimizing water loss and reducing herbivory. Each of these functions could affect a plant's ability to tolerate the biotic and abiotic stresses encountered in different parts of the world. However, we know remarkably little about large scale biogeographic patterns in leaf pubescence. Our aims were: (a) to det...
Aim Tropical species are thought to be more susceptible to climate warming than are higher latitude species. This prediction is largely based on the assumption that tropical species can tolerate a narrower range of temperatures. While this prediction holds for some animal taxa, we do not yet know the latitudinal trends in temperature tolerance for plants. We aim to address this knowledge gap and establish if there is a global...
Plants are more likely to be spiny at mid‐elevations in the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau, south‐western ChinaNARA Subscribed
Aim We tested the elevational herbivory defence hypothesis, which predicts that plants from low elevations are better defended than plants from higher elevations. Location The Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau in south‐western China—the world's highest plateau. Taxon Angiosperms. Methods We collated binary spinescence data for 10,622 angiosperm species ranging from 600 to 6,000 m a.s.l. Logistic regression was used to quantify the eleva...
TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open accessNARA Subscribed
Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodivers...
Seeds tend to disperse further in the tropicsNARA Subscribed
Despite the importance of seed dispersal in a plant's life cycle, global patterns in seed dispersal distance have seldom been studied. This paper presents the first geographically and taxonomically broad quantification of the latitudinal gradient in seed dispersal distance. Although there is substantial variation in the seed dispersal distances of different species at a given latitude, seeds disperse on average more than an or...
Factors shaping large‐scale gradients in seed physical defence: Seeds are not better defended towards the tropicsNARA Subscribed
Aim Previous studies have shown that seed predation is not more intense towards the tropics. One possible explanation for this finding is that seeds might be better defended at lower latitudes. Our goal was to provide the first broad‐scale, quantitative analysis of the latitudinal gradient in physical investment in tissues surrounding seed reserve. In order to understand which factors underpin large‐scale gradients in seed def...
Aim Biotic interactions have traditionally been predicted to be stronger towards the tropics. However, all previous studies about the latitudinal gradient in seed predation were either based on single species or compiled data from studies that used different methods in different ecosystems. Our goal was to provide the first broad‐scale quantification of the latitudinal gradient in seed predation at both cross‐species and withi...
Birds, butterflies and flowers in the tropics are not more colourful than those at higher latitudesNARA Subscribed
Aim The idea that species are generally more colourful at tropical latitudes has held great appeal among biologists since the days of exploration by early naturalists. However, advances in colour quantification and analysis only now allow an objective test of this idea. We provide the first quantitative analysis of the latitudinal gradient in colour on a broad scale using data from both animals and plants, encompassing both hu...
Aim It has been widely assumed that large seeds generally require large animals to ingest and disperse them. However, this relationship has only been quantified in single animal groups (e.g. birds) and in a few communities. Our goal was to provide the first broad‐scale study of the relationship between animal body mass and ingested seed size. Location Global. Methods We compiled a dataset of 13,135 unique animal × seed interac...
The biogeography and filtering of woody plant functional diversity in North and South AmericaNARA Subscribed
Aim In recent years evidence has accumulated that plant species are differentially sorted from regional assemblages into local assemblages along local‐scale environmental gradients on the basis of their function and abiotic filtering. The favourability hypothesis in biogeography proposes that in climatically difficult regions abiotic filtering should produce a regional assemblage that is less functionally diverse than that exp...