Ecological disturbances are discrete events that alter or transform the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of ecosystems. Disturbance can cause animal populations to decline and, according to the risk‐disturbance hypothesis and population collapse framework, these declines can be predicted by declines in animal body condition. However, no research has empirically examined the general relationship between body co...

Novel interactions between invaders and native species that have evolved in their absence may impose strong selective pressures that drive species to extinction or prompt rapid co-evolution and learning. Here, we report on the effects that invasive cane toads, a toxic prey species, have had on freshwater crocodile populations in 7 waterholes of the Victoria River, Australia, before and up to 14 years after toads invaded. We re...

Population and conservation genetics studies have greatly benefited from the development of new techniques and bioinformatic tools associated with next‐generation sequencing. Analysis of extensive data sets from whole‐genome sequencing of even a few individuals allows the detection of patterns of fine‐scale population structure and detailed reconstruction of demographic dynamics through time. In this study, we investigated the...

Aim The aim was to determine how reptile populations respond to anthropogenic habitat modification and determine whether species traits and environmental factors influence such responses. Location Global. Time period 1981–2018. Major taxa studied Squamata. Methods We compiled a database of 56 studies reporting how habitat modification affects reptile abundance and calculated standardized mean differences in abundance (Hedges’...

Invasive vertebrates are frequently reported to have catastrophic effects on the populations of species which they directly impact. It follows then, that if invaders exert strong suppressive effects on some species then other species will indirectly benefit due to ecological release from interactions with directly impacted species. However, evidence that invasive vertebrates trigger such trophic cascades and alter community st...

Apex predators can have substantial and complex ecological roles in ecosystems. However, differences in species‐specific traits, population densities, and interspecific interactions are likely to determine the strength of apex predators’ roles. Here we report complementary studies examining how interactions between predator per capita metabolic rate and population density influenced the biomass, population energy use, and ecol...

Aim Across eastern Australia, mountain ranges (the Great Dividing Range) and river catchments (the Murray–Darling Basin) are likely to have shaped the phylogeographical structure of many species. We address how such processes have influenced the phylogeography of the lace monitor, Varanus varius , a large mobile lizard. Location Eastern and south‐eastern Australia. Methods Phylogeographical hypotheses were tested using up to 9...

To examine the effects of recent habitat fragmentation, we assayed genetic diversity in a rain forest endemic lizard, the prickly forest skink ( Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae ), from seven forest fragments and five sites in continuous forest on the Atherton tableland of northeastern Queensland, Australia. The rain forest in this region was fragmented by logging and clearing for dairy farms in the early 1900s and most forest fra...