Impacts of environmental change on ecosystems are seemingly highly context‐dependent and contingent on details. Here, we provide mathematical and numerical evidence that there is some generality to the resistance of food webs to species loss. To this end, we mathematically analyse simple food web models, run simulations with randomly wired food webs, develop a spatially explicit meta‐community model for realistic macroinverteb...

Cetacean skin microbiome samples are traditionally collected by swabbing the skin of captured animals or using skin tissue from remote biopsies. The effects of different sampling methods are not well understood, and factors such as swab type and storage methods may affect the microbiome. The objective of this study was to determine if samples collected by swabbing biopsied skin from bottlenose dolphins yield sufficient microbi...

Aim To determine which riverine invertebrate traits respond consistently to anthropogenic impacts across multiple biogeographic regions. Location Europe. Time Period 1981–2021. Major Taxa Studied Riverine invertebrates. Methods We compiled a database of riverine invertebrate community time series for 673 sites across six European countries spanning six freshwater ecoregions. We compared trait responses to anthropogenic impacts...

Aim Temperature is regarded as an important driver of broad‐scale biodiversity patterns. However, less is known of the role of dispersal in shaping broad‐scale species and trait distributions, particularly given that species had to disperse out of glacial refugia after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Here, we used a unique dataset describing the distributions of freshwater fauna combined with trait information to evaluate biod...

Environmental temperature is an important determinant of physiological processes and life histories in ectotherms. Over latitudinal scales, variation in temperature has been linked to changes in life‐history traits and demographic rates, with growth and mortality rates generally being greatest at low latitudes, and longevity and maximum length being greater at higher latitudes. Using the two‐spined angelfish, Centropyge bispin...

Over the past decades, Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar, Salmonidae) has emerged as a model system for sexual maturation research, owing to the high diversity of life history strategies, knowledge of trait genetic architecture, and their high economic value. The aim of this synthesis is to summarize the current state of knowledge concerning maturation in Atlantic salmon, outline knowledge gaps, and provide a roadmap for future wo...

Aim Inferences of the predominant processes that structure communities are commonly based on single ‘snapshots’ in time, which may miss temporally transient but important mechanisms. In this study, we compared key environmental and spatial drivers of zooplankton composition across multiple years to quantify shifts in their relative importance through time, and to identify any drivers of temporal change. Location Southern Ontar...

Understanding the spatial and environmental variation in demographic processes of fisheries target species, such as coral grouper (Genus: Plectropomus ), is important for establishing effective management and conservation strategies. Herein we compare the demography of Plectropomus leopardus and P. laevis between Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP), which has been subject to sustained and extensive fishing press...

Thermal performance curves ( TPC s), which quantify how an ectotherm's body temperature ( T b ) affects its performance or fitness, are often used in an attempt to predict organismal responses to climate change. Here, we examine the key – but often biologically unreasonable – assumptions underlying this approach; for example, that physiology and thermal regimes are invariant over ontogeny, space and time, and also that TPC s a...

Aim The Red Sea is characterised by a unique fauna and historical periods of desiccation, hypersalinity and intermittent isolation. The origin and contemporary composition of reef‐associated taxa in this region can illuminate biogeographical principles about vicariance and the establishment (or local extirpation) of existing species. Here we aim to: (1) outline the distribution of shallow water fauna between the Red Sea and ad...

Aim Tropical forests store 25% of global carbon and harbour 96% of the world's tree species, but it is not clear whether this high biodiversity matters for carbon storage. Few studies have teased apart the relative importance of forest attributes and environmental drivers for ecosystem functioning, and no such study exists for the tropics. Location Neotropics. Methods We relate aboveground biomass ( AGB ) to forest attributes...

In widespread and genetically structured populations, temperature variation may lead to among‐population differentiation of thermal biology. The New Zealand stick insect genus Micrarchus contains four species that inhabit different thermal environments, two of which are geographically widespread. RNA ‐Seq and quantitative PCR were used to investigate the transcriptional responses to cold shock among lowland and alpine species...

Packer et al . reported that fenced lion populations attain densities closer to carrying capacity than unfenced populations. However, fenced populations are often maintained above carrying capacity, and most are small. Many more lions are conserved per dollar invested in unfenced ecosystems, which avoid the ecological and economic costs of fencing.