Open Access
SYNTHESIS Niche conservatism as an emerging principle in ecology and conservation biology
John J. Wiens,Andrew P. Allen,Brian L. Anacker,Howard V. Cornell,Ellen I. Damschen,John-Arvid Grytnes,Susan Harrison,Robert D. Holt,Christy M. McCain,Patrick R. Stephens +9 more
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TLDR
In this paper, the authors describe the mounting evidence for the importance of niche conservatism to major topics in ecology (e.g., species richness, ecosystem function) and conservation (i.e., climate change, invasive species).Abstract:
The diversity of life is ultimately generated by evolution, and much attention has focused on the rapid evolution of ecological traits. Yet, the tendency for many ecological traits to instead remain similar over time [niche conservatism (NC)] has many consequences for the fundamental patterns and processes studied in ecology and conservation biology. Here, we describe the mounting evidence for the importance of NC to major topics in ecology (e.g. species richness, ecosystem function) and conservation (e.g. climate change, invasive species). We also review other areas where it may be important but has generally been overlooked, in both ecology (e.g. food webs, disease ecology, mutualistic interactions) and conservation (e.g. habitat modification). We summarize methods for testing for NC, and suggest that a commonly used and advocated method (involving a test for phylogenetic signal) is potentially problematic, and describe alternative approaches. We suggest that considering NC: (1) focuses attention on the withinspecies processes that cause traits to be conserved over time, (2) emphasizes connections between questions and research areas that are not obviously related (e.g. invasives, global warming, tropical richness), and (3) suggests new areas for research (e.g. why are some clades largely nocturnal? why do related species share diseases?).read more
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Posted Content
Food Webs: Experts Consuming Families of Experts
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Integrating remote sensing with ecology and evolution to advance biodiversity conservation
Jeannine Cavender-Bares,Fabian D. Schneider,Maria José Santos,A. H. Armstrong,Ana Carolina Carnaval,Kyla M. Dahlin,Lola Fatoyinbo,George C. Hurtt,David S. Schimel,Philip A. Townsend,Susan L. Ustin,Zhihui Wang,Adam M. Wilson +12 more
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Dataset
Data from: The evolutionary legacy of diversification predicts ecosystem function
Benjamin Yguel,Hervé Jactel,Ian S. Pearse,Daniel S. Moen,M. de Winter,Joaquín Hortal,Matthew R. Helmus,Ingolf Kühn,Sandrine Pavoine,Oliver Purschke,Evan Weiher,Cyrille Violle,Wim A. Ozinga,Martin Brändle,Igor V. Bartish,Andreas Prinzing +15 more
TL;DR: In this article, Yguel et al. used simulated phylogenies and lineage through time plots of these simulations to calculate phylogenetic structure parameters on Cadotte Zanne phylog.
References
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A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systems
Camille Parmesan,Gary W. Yohe +1 more
TL;DR: A diagnostic fingerprint of temporal and spatial ‘sign-switching’ responses uniquely predicted by twentieth century climate trends is defined and generates ‘very high confidence’ (as laid down by the IPCC) that climate change is already affecting living systems.
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Extinction risk from climate change
Chris D. Thomas,Alison Cameron,Rhys E. Green,Rhys E. Green,Michel Bakkenes,Linda J. Beaumont,Yvonne C. Collingham,Barend F.N. Erasmus,Marinez Ferreira de Siqueira,Alan Grainger,Lee Hannah,Lesley Hughes,Brian Huntley,Albert S. van Jaarsveld,Guy F. Midgley,Lera Miles,Lera Miles,Miguel A. Ortega-Huerta,A. Townsend Peterson,Oliver L. Phillips,Stephen E. Williams +20 more
TL;DR: Estimates of extinction risks for sample regions that cover some 20% of the Earth's terrestrial surface show the importance of rapid implementation of technologies to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and strategies for carbon sequestration.
Book
The comparative method in evolutionary biology
Paul H. Harvey,Mark Pagel +1 more
TL;DR: The comparative method for studying adaptation why worry about phylogeny?
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Inferring the historical patterns of biological evolution
TL;DR: The combination of these phylogenies with powerful new statistical approaches for the analysis of biological evolution is challenging widely held beliefs about the history and evolution of life on Earth.
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Testing for phylogenetic signal in comparative data: behavioral traits are more labile.
TL;DR: Analysis of variance of log K for all 121 traits indicated that behavioral traits exhibit lower signal than body size, morphological, life-history, or physiological traits, and this work presents new methods for continuous-valued characters that can be implemented with either phylogenetically independent contrasts or generalized least-squares models.