Aim Trait‐based approaches are increasingly recognised as tools for understanding species' vulnerabilities to intensifying global change. For species with complex life histories that involve a parasitic life stage, a combination of traits associated with either the host or parasite could influence extinction risk. Location United States of America. Taxon Freshwater mussels are a highly threatened assemblage of bivalves with an...

Trait‐based approaches can improve ecological understanding by linking fitness to the environment. The trilateral life history model is an expansion of r‐ and K‐selection theory that reflects trade‐offs between juvenile survival, fecundity, and generation time and describes differential survival of species across environmental gradients. We used this framework to generate and test hypotheses regarding community assembly and th...

Freshwater bivalves are globally distributed, diverse, and common in benthic communities. Many taxa, particularly in the most species‐rich order, Unionida, are declining due to anthropogenic stressors, while a small number of non‐native species have become increasingly abundant and widespread, commonly replacing native bivalve assemblages. To understand how these global changes may impact ecosystems and people, we conducted a...

Aim Understanding the extent of morphological variation across diverse habitats and species can provide valuable insights into how organisms respond to environmental gradients. We quantified intraspecific morphological variation of unionid mussels and assessed how it varied in relation to genetic differentiation and environmental characteristics. Location Mobile and Tennessee River Basins, Alabama and Tennessee, U.S.A. Taxon U...

Understanding patterns of diversity across macro (e.g. species‐level) and micro (e.g. molecular‐level) scales can shed light on community function and stability by elucidating the abiotic and biotic drivers of diversity within ecological communities. We examined the relationships among taxonomic and genetic metrics of diversity in freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae), an ecologically important and species‐rich group in the...