How far do forest container mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) invade rural and urban areas in Japan? - Simple landscape ecology with comparison of the invasive Aedes ecology between native and invasive ranges.

The distribution of container mosquitoes in relation to distances from forests was studied in temperate Japan. Mosquito larvae were collected between May and September in 4 years from tree holes, bamboo stumps, riverine rock pools, and artificial containers; sampling ranged spatially from the mountain forest across the deforested plain developed as agriculture and urban areas to the seacoast. Although tree holes, bamboo stumps, and artificial containers existed throughout the deforested plain area, 10 container species of 6 genera were found virtually only within 5 km from the nearest forest edge. Worldwide invasive Aedes albopictus (Skuse) and Aedes japonicus (Theobald) of Asian origin showed unique occurrence patterns different from other container species and from each other. Ae. japonicus was dominant in artificial containers in and near the forest but minor in forest natural containers and only occurred within 5 km from the forest. Ae. albopictus was minor in the forest irrespective of container types but not bound to the forest and dominant in natural and artificial containers throughout rural and urban areas. The 5-km range was designated as the circum-forest zone for container mosquitoes (except Ae. albopictus) in Japan, and an expanded concept, circum-boundary zone, is proposed. The widths of these zones primarily depend on the dispersal traits of mosquitoes. Whether the relation of Ae. albopictus and Ae. japonicus to forests we observed are common in the native and invasive ranges is discussed. The study of across-ecosystem dispersal is important for mosquito management under anthropogenically changing environments due to either deforestation or green restoration.

Exploring fine-scale urban landscapes using satellite data to predict the distribution of Aedes mosquito breeding sites.

BACKGROUND: The spread of mosquito-transmitted diseases such as dengue is a major public health issue worldwide. The Aedes aegypti mosquito, a primary vector for dengue, thrives in urban environments and breeds mainly in artificial or natural water containers. While the relationship between urban landscapes and potential breeding sites remains poorly understood, such a knowledge could help mitigate the risks associated with these diseases. This study aimed to analyze the relationships between urban landscape characteristics and potential breeding site abundance and type in cities of French Guiana (South America), and to evaluate the potential of such variables to be used in predictive models. METHODS: We use Multifactorial Analysis to explore the relationship between urban landscape characteristics derived from very high resolution satellite imagery, and potential breeding sites recorded from in-situ surveys. We then applied Random Forest models with different sets of urban variables to predict the number of potential breeding sites where entomological data are not available. RESULTS: Landscape analyses applied to satellite images showed that urban types can be clearly identified using texture indices. The Multiple Factor Analysis helped identify variables related to the distribution of potential breeding sites, such as buildings class area, landscape shape index, building number, and the first component of texture indices. Models predicting the number of potential breeding sites using the entire dataset provided an R² of 0.90, possibly influenced by overfitting, but allowing the prediction over all the study sites. Predictions of potential breeding sites varied highly depending on their type, with better results on breeding sites types commonly found in urban landscapes, such as containers of less than 200 L, large volumes and barrels. The study also outlined the limitation offered by the entomological data, whose sampling was not specifically designed for this study. Model outputs could be used as input to a mosquito dynamics model when no accurate field data are available. CONCLUSION: This study offers a first use of routinely collected data on potential breeding sites in a research study. It highlights the potential benefits of including satellite-based characterizations of the urban environment to improve vector control strategies.

Forest Orchids under Future Climate Scenarios: Habitat Suitability Modelling to Inform Conservation Strategies.

Orchidaceae is one of the largest and most diverse families of flowering plants in the world but also one of the most threatened. Climate change is a global driver of plant distribution and may be the cause of their disappearance in some regions. Forest orchids are associated with specific biotic and abiotic environmental factors, that influence their local presence/absence. Changes in these conditions can lead to significant differences in species distribution. We studied three forest orchids belonging to different genera (Cephalanthera, Epipactis and Limodorum) for their potential current and future distribution in a protected area (PA) of the Northern Apennines. A Habitat Suitability Model was constructed for each species based on presence-only data and the Maximum Entropy algorithm (MaxEnt) was used for the modelling. Climatic, edaphic, topographic, anthropogenic and land cover variables were used as environmental predictors and processed in the model. The aim is to identify the environmental factors that most influence the current species distribution and the areas that are likely to contain habitats suitable for providing refuge for forest orchids and ensuring their survival under future scenarios. This will allow PA authorities to decide whether to invest more resources in conserving areas that are potential refuges for threatened species.

Rubber plantations are impermeable to an avian understory specialist in Sri Lanka.

BACKGROUND: Understanding how landscape characteristics affect animal movement is essential for conservation in human-dominated habitats. A fundamental question is how monoculture agroforests, including rubber and tea plantations, affect wildlife and its movement. Experimental translocations represent an important technique to assess animals' habitat selection while moving through agricultural matrices, especially when complemented with observations of birds' natural movements, and with "control" translocations, in which birds are moved within their natural habitat such as forest. Yet, experimental translocations have been little used for birds outside the Western Hemisphere. METHODS: We conducted experimental translocations and home-range measurements on an understory forest specialist, Brown-capped Babbler (BCBA, Pellorneum fuscocapillus), and a forest generalist, Tickell's Blue Flycatcher (TBFL, Cyornis tickelliae). These species were studied in three rubber plantations, which also included some open areas mostly planted with tea, and in three forest reserves of Sri Lanka. RESULTS: Four of the five BCBAs translocated within disturbed habitats (rubber plantations) could not return to their capture locations. However, all four individuals within undisturbed habitats (forest reserves) successfully returned to their point of origin within 10.5 daytime hours. In contrast, all TBFLs returned to their capture locations in both disturbed (n = 7) and undisturbed habitats (n = 3) within 11.3 daytime hours. A Cox-proportional survival model demonstrated that the percentage of rubber cover decreased return time, similar to the effect of open-area cover. The home range surveys (n = 13 for BCBA, n = 10 for TBFL) revealed that very little of the birds' natural home-ranges was covered by rubber (0.2% for BCBA, 13.1% for TBFL at 50% Kernel Density Estimates KDE). Home range size for BCBA was approximately half the size in disturbed habitats compared to undisturbed ones, although there was no significant difference between habitats for TBFL. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that rubber plantations can be impermeable to understory habitat specialist birds, and even generalist species may avoid them long-term. Our findings highlight the potential utility of strips of native vegetation, particularly those featuring understory layers, as corridors to facilitate the movement of forest specialists in landscapes dominated by rubber plantations and other types of disturbed habitats.

Flower-bee versus pollen-bee metanetworks in fragmented landscapes.

Understanding the organization of mutualistic networks at multiple spatial scales is key to ensure biological conservation and functionality in human-modified ecosystems. Yet, how changing habitat and landscape features affect pollen-bee interaction networks is still poorly understood. Here, we analysed how bee-flower visitation and bee-pollen-transport interactions respond to habitat fragmentation at the local network and regional metanetwork scales, combining data from 29 fragments of calcareous grasslands, an endangered biodiversity hotspot in central Europe. We found that only 37% of the total unique pairwise species interactions occurred in both pollen-transport and flower visitation networks, whereas 28% and 35% were exclusive to pollen-transport and flower visitation networks, respectively. At local level, network specialization was higher in pollen-transport networks, and was negatively related to the diversity of land cover types in both network types. At metanetwork level, pollen transport data revealed that the proportion of single-fragment interactions increased with landscape diversity. Our results show that the specialization of calcareous grasslands' plant-pollinator networks decreases with landscape diversity, but network specialization is underestimated when only based on flower visitation information. Pollen transport data, more than flower visitation, and multi-scale analyses of metanetworks are fundamental for understanding plant-pollinator interactions in human-dominated landscapes.

Ecological Requirements for Abundance and Dispersion of Brazilian Yellow Fever Vectors in Tropical Areas.

In the Americas, wild yellow fever (WYF) is an infectious disease that is highly lethal for some non-human primate species and non-vaccinated people. Specifically, in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Haemagogus leucocelaenus and Haemagogus janthinomys mosquitoes act as the major vectors. Despite transmission risk being related to vector densities, little is known about how landscape structure affects vector abundance and movement. To fill these gaps, we used vector abundance data and a model-selection approach to assess how landscape structure affects vector abundance, aiming to identify connecting elements for virus dispersion in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Our findings show that Hg. leucocelaenus and Hg. janthinomys abundances, in highly degraded and fragmented landscapes, are mainly affected by increases in forest cover at scales of 2.0 and 2.5 km, respectively. Fragmented landscapes provide ecological corridors for vector dispersion, which, along with high vector abundance, promotes the creation of risk areas for WYF virus spread, especially along the border with Minas Gerais state, the upper edges of the Serra do Mar, in the Serra da Cantareira, and in areas of the metropolitan regions of São Paulo and Campinas.

Landscape fragmentation overturns classical metapopulation thinking.

Habitat loss and isolation caused by landscape fragmentation represent a growing threat to global biodiversity. Existing theory suggests that the process will lead to a decline in metapopulation viability. However, since most metapopulation models are restricted to simple networks of discrete habitat patches, the effects of real landscape fragmentation, particularly in stochastic environments, are not well understood. To close this major gap in ecological theory, we developed a spatially explicit, individual-based model applicable to realistic landscape structures, bridging metapopulation ecology and landscape ecology. This model reproduced classical metapopulation dynamics under conventional model assumptions, but on fragmented landscapes, it uncovered general dynamics that are in stark contradiction to the prevailing views in the ecological and conservation literature. Notably, fragmentation can give rise to a series of dualities: a) positive and negative responses to environmental noise, b) relative slowdown and acceleration in density decline, and c) synchronization and desynchronization of local population dynamics. Furthermore, counter to common intuition, species that interact locally ("residents") were often more resilient to fragmentation than long-ranging "migrants." This set of findings signals a need to fundamentally reconsider our approach to ecosystem management in a noisy and fragmented world.

Quantifying the production of plant pollen at the farm scale.

Plant pollen is rich in protein, sterols and lipids, providing crucial nutrition for many pollinators. However, we know very little about the quantity, quality and timing of pollen availability in real landscapes, limiting our ability to improve food supply for pollinators. We quantify the floral longevity and pollen production of a whole plant community for the first time, enabling us to calculate daily pollen availability. We combine these data with floral abundance and nectar measures from UK farmland to quantify pollen and nectar production at the landscape scale throughout the year. Pollen and nectar production were significantly correlated at the floral unit, and landscape level. The species providing the highest quantity of pollen on farmland were Salix spp. (38%), Filipendula ulmaria (14%), Rubus fruticosus (10%) and Taraxacum officinale (9%). Hedgerows were the most pollen-rich habitats, but permanent pasture provided the majority of pollen at the landscape scale, because of its large area. Pollen and nectar were closely associated in their phenology, with both peaking in late April, before declining steeply in June and remaining low throughout the year. Our data provide a starting point for including pollen in floral resource assessments and ensuring the nutritional requirements of pollinators are met in farmland landscapes.

Blending Indigenous and western science: Quantifying cultural burning impacts in Karuk Aboriginal Territory.

The combined effects of Indigenous fire stewardship and lightning ignitions shaped historical fire regimes, landscape patterns, and available resources in many ecosystems globally. The resulting fire regimes created complex fire-vegetation dynamics that were further influenced by biophysical setting, disturbance history, and climate. While there is increasing recognition of Indigenous fire stewardship among western scientists and managers, the extent and purpose of cultural burning is generally absent from the landscape-fire modeling literature and our understanding of ecosystem processes and development. In collaboration with the Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources, we developed a transdisciplinary Monte Carlo simulation model of cultural ignition location, frequency, and timing to simulate spatially explicit cultural ignitions across a 264,399-ha landscape within Karuk Aboriginal Territory in northern California. Estimates of cultural ignition parameters were developed with Tribal members and knowledge holders using existing interviews, historical maps, ethnographies, recent ecological studies, contemporary maps, and generational knowledge. Spatial and temporal attributes of cultural burning were explicitly tied to the ecology of specific cultural resources, fuel receptivity, seasonal movement patterns, and spiritual practices. Prior to colonization, cultural burning practices were extensive across the study landscape with an estimated 6972 annual ignitions, averaging approximately 6.5 ignitions per Indigenous fire steward per year. The ignition characteristics we document align closely with data on historical fire regimes and vegetation but differ substantially from the location and timing of contemporary ignitions. This work demonstrates the importance of cultural burning for developing and maintaining the ecosystems present at the time of colonization and underscores the need to work collaboratively with Indigenous communities to restore ecocultural processes in these systems.

Recruitment of a threatened foundation oyster species varies with large and small spatial scales.

Understanding how habitat attributes (e.g., patch area and sizes, connectivity) control recruitment and how this is modified by processes operating at larger spatial scales is fundamental to understanding population sustainability and developing successful long-term restoration strategies for marine foundation species-including for globally threatened reef-forming oysters. In two experiments, we assessed the recruitment and energy reserves of oyster recruits onto remnant reefs of the oyster Saccostrea glomerata in estuaries spanning 550 km of coastline in southeastern Australia. In the first experiment, we determined whether recruitment of oysters to settlement plates in three estuaries was correlated with reef attributes within patches (distances to patch edges and surface elevation), whole-patch attributes (shape and size of patches), and landscape attributes (connectivity). We also determined whether environmental factors (e.g., sedimentation and water temperature) explained the differences among recruitment plates. We also tested whether differences in energy reserves of recruits could explain the differences between two of the estuaries (one high- and one low-sedimentation estuary). In the second experiment, across six estuaries (three with nominally high and three with nominally low sedimentation rates), we tested the hypothesis that, at the estuary scale, recruitment and survival were negatively correlated to sedimentation. Overall, total oyster recruitment varied mostly at the scale of estuaries rather than with reef attributes and was negatively correlated with sedimentation. Percentage recruit survival was, however, similar among estuaries, although energy reserves and condition of recruits were lower at a high- compared to a low-sediment estuary. Within each estuary, total oyster recruitment increased with patch area and decreased with increasing tidal height. Our results showed that differences among estuaries have the largest influence on oyster recruitment and recruit health and this may be explained by environmental processes operating at the same scale. While survival was high across all estuaries, growth and reproduction of oysters on remnant reefs may be affected by sublethal effects on the health of recruits in high-sediment estuaries. Thus, restoration programs should consider lethal and sublethal effects of whole-estuary environmental processes when selecting sites and include environmental mitigation actions to maximize recruitment success.

Assessing habitat connectivity of rare species to inform urban conservation planning.

Urbanization is commonly associated with biodiversity loss and habitat fragmentation. However, urban environments often have greenspaces that can support wildlife populations, including rare species. The challenge for conservation planners working in these systems is identifying priority habitats and corridors for protection before they are lost. In a rapidly changing urban environment, this requires prompt decisions informed by accurate spatial information. Here, we combine several approaches to map habitat and assess connectivity for a diverse set of rare species in seven urban study areas across southern Michigan, USA. We incorporated multiple connectivity tools for a comprehensive appraisal of species-habitat patterns across these urban landscapes. We observed distinct differences in connectivity by taxonomic group and site. The three turtle species (Blanding's, Eastern Box, and Spotted) consistently had more habitat predicted to be suitable per site than other evaluated species. This is promising for this at-risk taxonomic group and allows conservation efforts to focus on mitigating threats such as road mortality. Grassland and prairie-associated species (American Bumble Bee, Black and Gold Bumble Bee, and Henslow's Sparrow) had the least amount of habitat on a site-by-site basis. Kalamazoo and the northern Detroit sites had the highest levels of multi-species connectivity across the entire study area based on the least cost paths. These connectivity results have direct applications in urban planning. Kalamazoo, one of the focal urban regions, has implemented a Natural Features Protection (NFP) plan to bolster natural area protections within the city. We compared our connectivity results to the NFP area and show where this plan will have an immediate positive impact and additional areas for potential consideration in future expansions of the protection network. Our results show that conservation opportunities exist within each of the assessed urban areas for maintaining rare species, a key benefit of this multi-species and multi-site approach.

Where the small things are: Modelling edge effects on mouse lemur population density and distribution in northwestern Madagascar.

Edge effects result from the penetration to varying depths and intensities, of abiotic and biotic conditions from the surrounding non-forest matrix into the forest interior. Although 70% of the world's forests are within 1 km of a forest edge, making edge effects a dominant feature of most forest habitats, there are few empirical data on inter-site differences in edge responses in primates. We used spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) models to determine spatial patterns of density for two species of mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus and Microcebus ravelobensis) in two forest landscapes in northwestern Madagascar. The goal of our study was to determine if mouse lemurs displayed spatially variable responses to edge effects. We trapped animals using Sherman live traps in the Mariarano Classified Forest (MCF) and in the Ambanjabe Forest Fragment Site (AFFS) site within Ankarafantsika National Park. We trapped 126 M. murinus and 79 M. ravelobensis at MCF and 78 M. murinus and 308 M. ravelobensis at AFFS. For M. murinus, our top model predicted a positive edge response, where density increased towards edge habitats. In M. ravelobensis, our top model predicted a negative edge response, where density was lower near the forest edges and increased towards the forest interior. At regional and landscape-specific scales, SECR models estimated different density patterns between M. murinus and M. ravelobensis as a result of variation in edge distance. The spatial variability of our results using SECR models indicate the importance of studying the population ecology of primates at varying scales that are appropriate to the processes of interest. Our results lend further support to the theory that some lemurs exhibit a form of ecological flexibility in their responses to forest loss, forest fragmentation, and associated edge effects.

Crop and landscape heterogeneity increase biodiversity in agricultural landscapes: A global review and meta-analysis.

Agricultural intensification not only increases food production but also drives widespread biodiversity decline. Increasing landscape heterogeneity has been suggested to increase biodiversity across habitats, while increasing crop heterogeneity may support biodiversity within agroecosystems. These spatial heterogeneity effects can be partitioned into compositional (land-cover type diversity) and configurational heterogeneity (land-cover type arrangement), measured either for the crop mosaic or across the landscape for both crops and semi-natural habitats. However, studies have reported mixed responses of biodiversity to increases in these heterogeneity components across taxa and contexts. Our meta-analysis covering 6397 fields across 122 studies conducted in Asia, Europe, North and South America reveals consistently positive effects of crop and landscape heterogeneity, as well as compositional and configurational heterogeneity for plant, invertebrate, vertebrate, pollinator and predator biodiversity. Vertebrates and plants benefit more from landscape heterogeneity, while invertebrates derive similar benefits from both crop and landscape heterogeneity. Pollinators benefit more from configurational heterogeneity, but predators favour compositional heterogeneity. These positive effects are consistent for invertebrates and vertebrates in both tropical/subtropical and temperate agroecosystems, and in annual and perennial cropping systems, and at small to large spatial scales. Our results suggest that promoting increased landscape heterogeneity by diversifying crops and semi-natural habitats, as suggested in the current UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, is key for restoring biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.

"Patchiness" in mechanical stiffness across a tumor as an early-stage marker for malignancy.

Mechanical phenotyping of tumors, either at an individual cell level or tumor cell population level is gaining traction as a diagnostic tool. However, the extent of diagnostic and prognostic information that can be gained through these measurements is still unclear. In this work, we focus on the heterogeneity in mechanical properties of cells obtained from a single source such as a tissue or tumor as a potential novel biomarker. We believe that this heterogeneity is a conventionally overlooked source of information in mechanical phenotyping data. We use mechanics-based in-silico models of cell-cell interactions and cell population dynamics within 3D environments to probe how heterogeneity in cell mechanics drives tissue and tumor dynamics. Our simulations show that the initial heterogeneity in the mechanical properties of individual cells and the arrangement of these heterogenous sub-populations within the environment can dictate overall cell population dynamics and cause a shift towards the growth of malignant cell phenotypes within healthy tissue environments. The overall heterogeneity in the cellular mechanotype and their spatial distributions is quantified by a "patchiness" index, which is the ratio of the global to local heterogeneity in cell populations. We observe that there exists a threshold value of the patchiness index beyond which an overall healthy population of cells will show a steady shift towards a more malignant phenotype. Based on these results, we propose that the "patchiness" of a tumor or tissue sample, can be an early indicator for malignant transformation and cancer occurrence in benign tumors or healthy tissues. Additionally, we suggest that tissue patchiness, measured either by biochemical or biophysical markers, can become an important metric in predicting tissue health and disease likelihood just as landscape patchiness is an important metric in ecology.

Exploring biodiversity patterns at the landscape scale by linking landscape energy and land use/land cover heterogeneity.

Agricultural Biodiversity dynamics has been evaluated by social metabolism or by landscape structure-function analysis. In this study, by using ELIA modeling, we used both methods in combination to understand how the interplay between social metabolism and landscape structure-function can affect biodiversity pattern distribution. We used energy reinvestment (E) as an indicator of social metabolism and landscape heterogeneity (Le) as an indicator of landscape structure-function. We propose a research hypothesis to analyze biodiversity patterns considering four different clusters identified based on high or low E or Le. As cluster 1, we defined E as high and Le as low and associated natural ecosystems to it. These ecosystems are expected to contain high species abundance but low richness. As cluster 2, both E and Le were defined as high and semi-natural ecosystems were associated to it, where nature friendly farm system developed. In these ecosystems, high species abundance and richness are expected. Cluster 3 with low E and Le was associated intensive farmland, which is due to the simplification of the landscape. Here, low energy reinvestment and landscape heterogeneity confirm that ecosystem services related to biodiversity have been drastically reduced. Lastly, cluster 4 with low E but high Le refers to intensive mosaics of farmland and pasture. In this cluster, the biodiversity richness index is high due to spatial landscape diversity, but the biodiversity abundance index is low due to the lack of energy reinvestment. We evaluate the proposed hypothesis for biodiversity analysis in the Qazvin province, emphasizing the interplay between energy availability and landscape heterogeneity in shaping ecological communities. This study highlights the importance of understanding biodiversity patterns at spatial scale and emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary research to address conservation and sustainability challenges. Our approach would be very useful where there is lack of biodiversity data.

Euglossini bee diversity is driven by forest cover in coastal Amazon.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are drivers of biodiversity loss, such as Euglossini bees in continental regions. Knowledge about these effects on this group of pollinators in coastal regions is still incipient and needs to be further investigated. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of landscape structure on the abundance, richness, diversity and species composition of Euglossini bees on the coast of the Brazilian Amazon. We mapped the surrounding landscape around 48 sampling points in the east of the island of Marajó, Pará, Brazil where we collected bees using chemical baits. We used Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) to evaluate the effects of landscape structure (composition and configuration) on the abundance, richness, diversity and composition of Euglossini bees. We collected a total of 1017 males belonging to four genera and 22 species. Forest cover (%) and landscape heterogeneity were the best predictors of the bee community. Increased forest cover positively affected the abundance, richness and diversity of bees at a local scale. On the other hand, abundance, richness and diversity decreased with increasing landscape heterogeneity, also at a local scale. The hypothesis that the amount of habitat favors Euglossini communities was corroborated by our results. Based on our conclusions, landscapes with greater forest cover can effectively contribute to the conservation of these bees and their pollination services along the Amazon coast.

Urban Trees and Hydrological Ecosystem Service: A Novel Approach to Analyzing the Relationship Between Landscape Structure and Runoff Reduction.

Urban stormwater runoff has posed significant challenges in the face of urbanization and climate change, emphasizing the importance of trees in providing runoff reduction ecosystem services (RRES). However, the sustainability of RRES can be disturbed by urban landscape modification. Understanding the impact of landscape structure on RRES is crucial to manage urban landscapes effectively to sustain supply of RRES. So, this study developed a new approach that analyzes the relationship between the landscape structural pattern and the RRES in Tabriz, Iran. The provision of RRES was estimated using the i-Tree Eco model. Landscape structure-related metrics of land use and cover (LULC) were derived using FRAGSTATS to quantify the landscape structure. Stepwise regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between landscape structure metrics and the provision of RRES. The results indicated that throughout the city, the trees prevented 196854.15 m3 of runoff annually. Regression models (p ≤ 0.05) suggested that the provision of RRES could be predicted using the measures of the related circumscribing circle metric (0.889 ≤ r2 ≤ 0.954) and the shape index (r2 = 0.983) of LULC patches. The findings also revealed that the regularity or regularity of the given LULC patches' shape could impact the patches' functions, which, in turn, affects the provision of RRES. The landscape metrics can serve as proxies to predict the capacity of trees for potential RRES using the obtained regression models. This helps to allocate suitable LULC through optimizing landscape metrics and management guidance to sustain RRES.

How landscape traits affect boreal mammal responses to anthropogenic disturbance.

Understanding mammalian responses to anthropogenic disturbance is challenging, as ecological processes and the patterns arising therefrom notoriously change across spatial and temporal scales, and among different landscape contexts. Responses to local scale disturbances are likely influenced by landscape context (e.g., overall landscape-level disturbance, landscape-level productivity). Hierarchical approaches considering small-scale sampling sites as nested holons within larger-scale landscapes, which constrain processes in lower-level holons, can potentially explain differences in ecological processes between multiple locations. We tested hypotheses about mammal responses to disturbance and interactions among holons using collected images from 957 camera sites across 9 landscapes in Alberta from 2007 to 2020 and examined occurrence for 11 mammal species using generalized linear mixed models. White-tailed deer occurred more in higher disturbed sites within lower disturbed landscapes (ß = -0.30 [-0.4 to -0.15]), whereas occurrence was greater in highly disturbed sites within highly disturbed landscapes for moose (ß = 0.20 [0.09-0.31]), coyote (ß = 0.20 [0.08-0.26]), and lynx (ß = 0.20 [0.07-0.26]). High disturbance sites in high productivity landscapes had higher occurrence of black bears (ß = -0.20 [-0.46 to -0.01]), lynx (ß = -0.70 [-0.97 to -0.34]), and wolves (ß = -0.50 [-0.73 to -0.21]). Conversely, we found higher probability of occurrence in low productivity landscapes with increasing site disturbance for mule deer (ß = 0.80 [0.39-1.14]), and white-tailed deer (ß = 0.20 [0.01-0.47]). We found the ecological context created by aggregate sums (high overall landscape disturbance), and by subcontinental hydrogeological processes in which that landscape is embedded (high landscape productivity), alter mammalian responses to anthropogenic disturbance at local scales. These responses also vary by species, which has implications for large-scale conservation planning. Management interventions must consider large-scale geoclimatic processes and geographic location of a landscape when assessing wildlife responses to disturbance.

Insularization drives physiological condition of Amazonian dung beetles.

The fragmentation and degradation of otherwise continuous natural landscapes pose serious threats to the health of animal populations, consequently impairing their fitness and survival. While most fragmentation ecology studies focus on habitat remnants embedded withinn terrestrial matrices, the effects of true insularization remains poorly understood. Land-bridge islands created by major dams leads to habitat loss and fragmentation, negatively affecting terrestrial biodiversity. To assess the effects of insularization, we conducted a study on the key aspects of dung beetle physiological condition and body size throughout the Balbina Hydroelectric Reservoir located in the Central Amazon. We assessed these traits at the population and assemblage levels, collecting dung beetles from both forest islands and continuous forest areas while analyzing various landscape variables. We show that landscapes with higher forest cover positively affected dung beetle body size. Interestingly, dung beetle responses to insularization were species-dependent; larger islands tended to host larger individuals of Deltochilum aspericole, while in Canthon triangularis, smaller islands showed larger body sizes. However, individuals from the mainland were larger than those from the islands. Moreover, the proportion of closed-canopy forest in the landscapes also impacted physiological attributes. It negatively affected the body size of Deltochilum aspericole and the lipid mass of Dichotomius boreus, but positively affected the lipid mass of Canthon triangularis. These findings contribute to a better understanding of how habitat fragmentation in aquatic matrices affects the size structure and physiology of insect assemblages. This is essential in formulating effective conservation strategies for preserving biodiversity loss in tropical forest regions and mitigating the consequences of hydropower infrastructure.

Like an "espresso" but not like a "cappuccino": landscape metrics are useful for predicting coffee production at the farm level but not at the municipality level.

Coffee farms receive ecosystem services that rely on pollinators and pest predators. Landscape-scale processes regulate the flow of these biodiversity-based services. Consequently, the coffee farms' surrounding landscape impacts coffee production. This paper investigates how landscape structure can influence coffee production at different scales. We also evaluated the predictive utility of landscape metrics in a spatial (farm level) and aspatial approach (municipality level). We tested the effect of landscape structure on coffee production for 25 farms and 30 municipalities in southern Brazil. We used seven landscape metrics at landscape and class levels to measure the effect of landscape structure. At the farm level, we calculated metrics in five buffers from 1 to 5 km from the farm centroid to measure their scale of effect. We conducted a model selection using the generalized linear model (GLM) with a Gamma error distribution and inverse link function to evaluate the impact of landscape metrics on coffee production in both spatial and aspatial approaches. The landscape intensity index had a negative effect on coffee production (AICc = 375.59, p < 0.001). The native forest patch density (AICc = 390.14, p = 0.011) and landscape diversity (AICc = 391.18, p = 0.023) had a positive effect on production. All significant factors had effects at the farm level in the 2 km buffer but no effects at the municipality level. Our findings suggest that the landscape composition in the immediate surroundings of coffee farms helps predict production in a spatially explicit approach. However, these metrics cannot detect the impact of the landscape when analyzed in an aspatial approach. These findings highlight the importance of the landscape spatial structure, mainly the natural one, in the stability of coffee production. This study enhanced the knowledge of coffee production dependence on landscape-level processes. This advance can help to improve the sustainability of land use and better planning of agriculture, ensuring food and economic safety. Furthermore, our framework provides a method that can be useful to scrutinize any cropping system with census data that is either spatialized or not.