Evolution, Complexity, and Life History Theory.

In this article, we revisit the longstanding debate of whether there is a pattern in the evolution of organisms towards greater complexity, and how this hypothesis could be tested using an interdisciplinary lens. We argue that this debate remains alive today due to the lack of a quantitative measure of complexity that is related to the teleonomic (i.e.

Understanding and Predicting Population Response to Anthropogenic Disturbance: Current Approaches and Novel Opportunities.

Effective conservation of biodiversity depends on the successful management of wildlife populations and their habitats. Successful management, in turn, depends on our ability to understand and accurately forecast how populations and communities respond to human-induced changes in their environments. However, quantifying how these stressors impact population dynamics remains challenging.

Distinguishing Short-Term Versus Long-Term Responses in Cover-Class Structured Community Dynamics: A Test With Grassland Drought Response.

Climate change is increasing the magnitude and frequency of precipitation extremes. Consequently, grassland community dynamics are destabilising and becoming harder to predict since models typically simulate long-term (asymptotic) behaviour, potentially neglecting short-term (transient) behaviour. Here, we use cover data from an experiment performed over 8 years to model short- and long-term responses of three functional groups (grasses, legumes, and non-leguminous forbs) to precipitation extremes.

Call for new criteria for monitoring and registering Natura 2000 species data.

The European Union's Birds and Habitats Directives are intended to guarantee the persistence of species and natural habitats across member states. To achieve this laudable aim, the Natura 2000 network of protected areas was established in 1992. Since then, member states are required to regularly monitor species and habitats and report findings to the European Commission, which requires substantial investment from all countries.

Assessing limits of sustainable seed harvest in wild plant populations.

Seed harvesting from wild plant populations is key for ecological restoration, but it may threaten the persistence of the source populations. Consequently, several countries have set guidelines limiting the proportions of harvestable seeds. However, these guidelines are inconsistent and lack a solid empirical basis.

Increases in Arctic Extreme Climatic Events Are Linked to Negative Fitness Effects on the Local Biota.

The Arctic harbours uniquely adapted biodiversity and plays an important role in climate regulation. Strong warming trends in the terrestrial Arctic have been linked to an increase in aboveground biomass (Arctic greening) and community-wide shifts such as the northwards-expansion of boreal species (borealization). Whilst considerable efforts have been made to understand the effects of warming trends in average temperatures on Arctic biota, far fewer studies have focused on trends in extreme climate events and their biotic effects, which have been suggested to be particularly impactful during the Arctic winter months.

Structured Demographic Buffering: A Framework to Explore the Environmental Components and Demographic Mechanisms Underlying Demographic Buffering.

Environmental stochasticity is a key determinant of population viability. Decades of work exploring how environmental stochasticity influences population dynamics have highlighted the ability of some natural populations to limit the negative effects of environmental stochasticity, one of the strategies being demographic buffering. Whilst various methods exist to quantify demographic buffering, we still do not know which environmental components and demographic mechanisms are most responsible for the demographic buffering observed in natural populations.

Differences in adult survival drive divergent demographic responses to warming on the Tibetan Plateau.

A central question in biodiversity conservation is whether species will maintain viable populations under climate warming. Assessing species viability under climate warming requires demographic studies integrating vital rate responses to long-term warming throughout species' life cycles. However, studies of this nature are rare.

Integrating animal tracking and trait data to facilitate global ecological discoveries.

Understanding animal movement is at the core of ecology, evolution and conservation science. Big data approaches for animal tracking have facilitated impactful synthesis research on spatial biology and behavior in ecologically important and human-impacted regions. Similarly, databases of animal traits (e.

More social species live longer, have longer generation times and longer reproductive windows.

The role of sociality in the demography of animals has become an intense focus of research in recent decades. However, efforts to understand the sociality-demography nexus have hitherto focused on single species or isolated taxonomic groups. Consequently, we lack generality regarding how sociality associates with demographic traits within the Animal Kingdom.

Non-senescent species are not immortal: Stress and decline in two planaria species.

Potential immortality is observed in several species (e.g. prickly pear cactus, hydra and flatworms) and is indicative of their negligible or even negative senescence rates.

Severe fire regimes decrease resilience of ectothermic populations.

Understanding populations' responses to environmental change is crucial for mitigating human-induced disturbances. Here, we test hypotheses regarding how three essential components of demographic resilience (resistance, compensation and recovery) co-vary along the distinct life histories of three lizard species exposed to variable, prescribed fire regimes. Using a Bayesian hierarchical framework, we estimate vital rates (survival, growth and reproduction) with 14 years of monthly individual-level data and mark-recapture models to parameterize stochastic integral projection models from five sites in Brazilian savannas, each historically subjected to different fire regimes.

The impacts of host association and perturbation on symbiont fitness.

Unlabelled: Symbiosis can benefit hosts in numerous ways, but less is known about whether interactions with hosts benefit symbionts-the smaller species in the relationship. To determine the fitness impact of host association on symbionts in likely mutualisms, we conducted a meta-analysis across 91 unique host-symbiont pairings under a range of spatial and temporal contexts. Specifically, we assess the consequences to symbiont fitness when in and out of symbiosis, as well as when the symbiosis is under suboptimal or varying environments and biological conditions (e.

Meta-analysis shows no consistent evidence for senescence in ejaculate traits across animals.

Male reproductive traits such as ejaculate size and quality, are expected to decline with advancing age due to senescence. It is however unclear whether this expectation is upheld across taxa. We perform a meta-analysis on 379 studies, to quantify the effects of advancing male age on ejaculate traits across 157 species of non-human animals.

Inclusive fitness forces of selection in an age-structured population.

Hamilton's force of selection acting against age-specific mortality is constant and maximal prior to the age of first reproduction, before declining to zero at the age of last reproduction. The force of selection acting on age-specific reproduction declines monotonically from birth in a growing or stationary population. Central to these results is the assumption that individuals do not interact with one another.

Coral assemblages at higher latitudes favor short-term potential over long-term performance.

The persistent exposure of coral assemblages to more variable abiotic regimes is assumed to augment their resilience to future climatic variability. Yet, while the determinants of coral population resilience across species remain unknown, we are unable to predict the winners and losers across reef ecosystems exposed to increasingly variable conditions. Using annual surveys of 3171 coral individuals across Australia and Japan (2016-2019), we explore spatial variation across the short- and long-term dynamics of competitive, stress-tolerant, and weedy assemblages to evaluate how abiotic variability mediates the structural composition of coral assemblages.

MOSAIC - A Unified Trait Database to Complement Structured Population Models.

Despite exponential growth in ecological data availability, broader interoperability amongst datasets is needed to unlock the potential of open access. Our understanding of the interface of demography and functional traits is well-positioned to benefit from such interoperability. Here, we introduce MOSAIC, an open-access trait database that unlocks the demographic potential stored in the COMADRE, COMPADRE, and PADRINO open-access databases.

The Hunger Games as the Key to Happily Ever After?

The world's human population is reaching record longevities. Consequently, our societies are experiencing the impacts of prolonged longevity, such as increased retirement age. A major hypothesized influence on aging patterns is resource limitation, formalized under calorie restriction (CR) theory.