Connectivity is a species- and landscape-specific measure that is key to species conservation in fragmented landscapes. However, information on connectivity is often lacking, especially for insects which are known to be severely declining. Patterns of gene flow constitute an indirect measure of functional landscape connectivity. We studied the popu...
A new saprotrophic species was discovered during our fungal inventory at the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area (Massachusetts), which consists of 34 islands and peninsulas. Simocybe ramosa sp. nov. (Agaricales, Crepidotaceae) is described based on morphology and molecular phylogenetic data. The holotype collection was found in a Quercu...
Polyploidy, resulting from whole-genome duplication (WGD), is ubiquitous in nature and reportedly associated with extreme environments and biological invasions. However, WGD usually comes with great costs, raising questions about the establishment chance of newly formed polyploids. The surprisingly high number of polyploid and mixed-ploidy species ...
Symbionts form intricate associations with their hosts. They can only establish when potential hosts are present, but in addition, their distribution is often influenced by microhabitat preferences, which may not overlap those of their hosts. This leads to a patchy local distribution of the symbiont, being present with some hosts and absent with ot...
peer reviewed / Agroforestry practices provide multiple ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. However, within the local context, local communities hold divergent perceptions regarding the various roles of agroforestry, particularly in the Afrotropical Region. Hence, understanding these drivers is critical for adopting and promoting sustain...
MotivationA well-constructed nest is a key element of successful reproduction in most species of birds, and nest morphology varies widely across the class. Macroecological and macroevolutionary studies tend to group nest design into a small number of discrete categories, often based on taxonomic inference. In reality, however, many species display ...
The Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 records abrupt transitions from cold stadial to temperate interstadial climate conditions, termed Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events. Reconstructing these rapid climate changes is crucial for documenting the prevailing climatic conditions in Europe during the extinction of the Neanderthals. However, only few continental...
Citizen science is an increasingly powerful tool to gather large quantities of biological data and to engage the public. The number of citizen science initiatives has rapidly increased in the last 15 years. Invasive alien species such as the harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae), provide a particularly good opportunity f...
Ecosystem management aims at providing many ecosystem services simultaneously. Such ecosystem service multifunctionality can be limited by tradeoffs and increased by synergies among the underlying ecosystem functions (EF), which need to be understood to develop targeted management. Previous studies found differences in the correlation between EFs. ...
