Spatial Ecology Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

2025, Journal of mathematical neuroscience

We introduce a test for robustness of heteroclinic cycles that appear in neural microcircuits modeled as coupled dynamical cells. Robust heteroclinic cycles (RHCs) can appear as robust attractors in Lotka-Volterra-type winnerless competition (WLC) models as well as in more general coupled and/or symmetric systems. It has been previously suggested that RHCs may be relevant to a range of neural activities, from encoding and binding to spatio-temporal sequence generation.The robustness or otherwise of such cycles depends both on the coupling structure and the internal structure of the neurons. We verify that robust heteroclinic cycles can appear in systems of three identical cells, but only if we require perturbations to preserve some invariant subspaces for the individual cells. On the other hand, heteroclinic attractors can appear robustly in systems of four or more identical cells for some symmetric coupling patterns, without restriction on the internal dynamics of the cells.

2025, The American Naturalist

Environmental fluctuations can mediate coexistence between competing species via the storage effect. This fluctuation-dependent coexistence mechanism requires three conditions: (i) a positive covariance between environment conditions and the strength of competition, (ii) species-specific environmental responses, and (iii) species are less sensitive to competition in environmentally unfavorable years. In serially uncorrelated environments, condition (i) only occurs if favorable environmental conditions immediately and directly increase the strength of competition. For many demographic parameters, this direct link between favorable years and competition may not exist. Moreover, many environmental variables are temporal autocorrelated, but theory has largely focused on serially uncorrelated environments. To address this gap, a model of competing species in autocorrelated environments is analyzed. This analysis shows that positive autocorrelations in demographic rates that increase fitness (e.g. maximal fecundity or adult survival) produce the positive environment-competition covariance. Hence, when these demographic rates contribute to buffered population growth, positive temporal autocorrelations generate a storage effect, otherwise they destabilize competitive interactions. For negatively autocorrelated environments, this theory highlights an alternative stabilizing mechanism that requires three conditions: (i') a negative environmental-competition covariance, (ii) species-specific environmental responses, and (iii') species are less sensitive to competition in more favorable years. When the conditions for either of these stabilizing mechanisms are violated, temporal autocorrelations can generate stochastic priority effects or hasten competitive exclusion. Collectively, these results highlight that temporal autocorrelations in environmental conditions can play a fundamental role in determining ecological outcomes of competing species.

2025, Biology Letters

predicts that the prey species that supports the highest mean predator density (P*) excludes the other prey species. This prediction is re-examined in the presence of temporal fluctuations in the vital rates of the interacting species including predator attack rates. When the fluctuations in predator attack rates are temporally uncorrelated, the P* rule still holds even when the other vital rates are temporally auto-correlated. However, when temporal auto-correlations in attack rates are positive but not too strong, the prey species can coexist due to the emergence of a positive covariance between predator density and prey vulnerability. This coexistence mechanism is similar to the storage effect for species regulated by a common resource. Negative or strongly positive auto-correlations in attack rates generate a negative covariance between predator density and prey vulnerability and a stochastic priority effect can emerge: with non-zero probability either prey species is excluded. These results highlight how temporally autocorrelated species' interaction rates impact the structure and dynamics of ecological communities.

2025

Spatial-temporal variation in environmental conditions is ubiquitous in nature. This variation simultaneously impacts survival, reproduction, and movement of individuals and, thereby, the rate at which metapopulations grow. Using the tools of stochastic demography, the metapopulation growth rate is decomposed five components corresponding to temporal, spatial, and spatial-temporal variation in fitness, and spatial and spatial-temporal covariation in dispersal and fitness. While temporal variation in fitness always reduces the metapopulation growth rate, all other sources of variation can either increase or reduce the metapopulation growth rate. Increases occur either by marginalizing the impacts of temporal variation or by generating a positive fitness-density covariance where individuals tend to concentrate in higher-quality patches. For example, positive auto-correlated fluctuations in spatial-temporal variability in fitness generate this positive fitness-density covariance for un...

2025, bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)

Modern coexistence theory (MCT) is one of the leading methods to understand species coexistence. It uses invasion growth rates -the average, per-capita growth rate of a rare species -to identify when and why species coexist. Despite significant advances in dissecting coexistence mechanisms when coexistence occurs, MCT relies on a "mutual invasibility" condition designed for two species communities, but poorly defined for species rich communities. Here, we review well-known issues with this component of MCT and propose a solution based on recent mathematical advances. We propose a clear framework for expanding MCT to species rich communities and for understanding invasion resistance as well as coexistence, especially for communities which could not be analyzed with MCT so far. Using two data-driven community models from the literature, we illustrate the utility of our framework and highlight the opportunities for bridging the fields of community assembly and species coexistence.

2025, arXiv (Cornell University)

To understand the mechanisms underlying species coexistence, ecologists often study invasion growth rates of theoretical and data-driven models. These growth rates correspond to average per-capita growth rates of one species with respect to an ergodic measure supporting other species. In the ecological literature, coexistence often is equated with the invasion growth rates being positive. Intuitively, positive invasion growth rates ensure that species recover from being rare. To provide a mathematically rigorous framework for this approach, we prove theorems that answer two questions: (i) When do the signs of the invasion growth rates determine coexistence? (ii) When signs are sufficient, which invasion growth rates need to be positive? We focus on deterministic models and equate coexistence with permanence, i.e., a global attractor bounded away from extinction. For models satisfying certain technical assumptions, we introduce invasion graphs where vertices correspond to proper subsets of species (communities) supporting an ergodic measure and directed edges correspond to potential transitions between communities due to invasions by missing species. These directed edges are determined by the signs of invasion growth rates. When the invasion graph is acyclic (i.e. there is no sequence of invasions starting and ending at the same community), we show that permanence is determined by the signs of the invasion growth rates. In this case, permanence is characterized by the invasibility of all -i communities, i.e., communities without species i where all other missing species having negative invasion growth rates. To illustrate the applicability of the results, we show that dissipative Lotka-Volterra models generically satisfy our technical assumptions and computing their invasion graphs reduces to solving systems of linear equations. We also apply our results to models of competing species with pulsed resources or sharing a predator that exhibits switching behavior. Open problems for both deterministic and stochastic models are discussed. Our results highlight the importance of using concepts about community assembly to study coexistence.

2025, Ices Journal of Marine Science

Environmental conditions can create spatial and temporal variability in growth and distribution processes, yet contemporary stock assessment methods often do not explicitly address the consequences of these patterns. For example, stock assessments often assume that body weightat-age (i.e. size) is constant across the stocks' range, and may thereby miss important spatio-temporal patterns. This is becoming increasingly relevant given climate-driven distributional shifts, because samples for estimating size-at-age can be spatially unbalanced and lead to biases when extrapolating into unsampled areas. Here, we jointly analysed data on the local abundance and size of walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) in the Bering Sea, to demonstrate a tractable first step in expanding spatially unbalanced size-at-age samples, while incorporating fine-scale spatial and temporal variation for inclusion in stock assessments. The data come from NOAA's bottom trawl survey data and were evaluated using a multivariate spatio-temporal statistical model. We found extensive variation in size-at-age at fine spatial scales, though specific patterns differed between age classes. In addition to persistent spatial patterns, we also documented year-to-year differences in the spatial patterning of size-at-age. Intra-annual variation in the population-level size-at-age (used to generate the size-at-age matrix in the stock assessment) was largely driven by localized changes in fish size, while shifts in species distribution had a smaller effect. The spatio-temporal size-at-age matrix led to marginal improvement in the stock assessment fit to the survey biomass index. Results from our case study suggest that accounting for spatially unbalanced sampling improved stock assessment consistency. Additionally, it improved our understanding on the dynamics of how local and population-level demographic processes interact. As climate change affects fish distribution and growth, integrating spatiotemporally explicit size-at-age processes with anticipated environmental conditions may improve stock-assessment forecasts used to set annual harvest limits.

2025, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences

Accurate estimates of abundance are imperative for successful conservation and management. Classical, stratified abundance estimators provide unbiased estimates of abundance, but such estimators may be imprecise and impede assessment of population status and trend when the distribution of individuals is highly variable in space. Model-based procedures that account for important environmental covariates can improve overall precision, but frequently there is uncertainty about the contribution of particular environmental variables and a lack of information about variables that are important determinants of abundance. We develop a general semiparametric mixture model that incorporates measured habitat variables and a nonparametric smoothing term to account for unmeasured variables. We contrast this spatial habitat approach with two stratified abundance estimators and compare the three models using an intensively managed marine fish, darkblotched rockfish (Sebastes crameri). We show that...

2025, Silva Fennica

The spatial dependence present in a natural stand of Eucalyptus pilularis (Smith) dominated mixed species forest was characterised and modelled. Two wildfires imposed a significant spatial dependence on the post disturbance stand. It was hypothesised that spatial variation in the intensity of the wildfires generated the observed structures. The influence of patch formation, micro-site variability and competitive influences were also noted in the residuals of a distance-dependent individual-tree growth model. A methodology capable of modelling these complicated patterns of observed dependence was sought, and candidates included the spatial interaction, direct specification and Papadakis methods. The spatial interaction method with a moving average autoregression was identified as the most appropriate method for explicitly modelling spatial dependence. Both the direct specification and Papadakis methods failed to capture the influence of competition. This study highlights the possibil...

2025

Our goal was to investigate the spatial scale-dependence of synphysiological measurements in three different vegetation types: a loess steppe grassland, a sandy grassland and a ruderal weed community. The former two are widely distributed in the Carpathian Basin and completed with the weed association these are well representing the Hungarian non- arborescent, herbaceous vegetation. To carry out the stand physiological measurements we have constucted gas exchange chambers of several sizes. This size series allowed us to investigate the scale dependence of gas exchange measurements. In all of the three investigated vegetation the variability of CO2-assimilation showed spatial scale-dependence. The highest variability was seen at smaller scales (smaller chamber sizes). The variability of the spatial scale-dependence of the stand photosynthesis was the highest in the sandy grassland, the least organised out of the three investigated community. Acta Biol Szeged 46(3-4):219-220 (2002) KE...

2025, FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Ectomycorrhizal fungal (EMF) communities are highly diverse at the stand level. To begin to understand what might lead to such diversity, and to improve sampling designs, we investigated the spatial structure of these communities. We used EMF community data from a number of studies carried out in seven mature and one recently fire-initiated forest stand. We applied various measures of spatial pattern to characterize distributions at EMF community and species levels: Mantel tests, Mantel correlograms, variance/mean and standardized variograms. Mantel tests indicated that in four of eight sites community similarity decreased with distance, whereas Mantel correlograms also found spatial autocorrelation in those four plus two additional sites. In all but one of these sites elevated similarity was evident only at relatively small spatial scales (<2.6 m), whereas one exhibited a larger scale pattern ($25 m). Evenness of biomass distribution among cores varied widely among taxa. Standardized variograms indicated that most of the dominant taxa showed patchiness at a scale of less than 3 m, with a range from 0 to P17 m. These results have implications for both sampling scale and intensity to achieve maximum efficiency of community sampling. In the systems we examined, cores should be at least 3 m apart to achieve the greatest sampling efficiency for stand-level community analysis. In some cases even this spacing may result in reduced sampling efficiency arising from patterns of spatial autocorrelation. Interpretation of the causes and significance of these patterns requires information on the genetic identity of individuals in the communities.

2025, International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research

Recent studies have implied the importance of incorporating configuration metrics into landscape-aquatic ecological integrity research; however few have addressed the needs of spatial data while exploring non-linear relationships. This study investigates spatial dependence of a measure of aquatic ecological condition at two basin scales, and the spatial and non-linear role of landscape in explaining that measure across 92 watersheds in Southern Wisconsin. It hypothesizes that: (1) indicators of ecological condition have different spatial needs at subwatershed and watershed scales; (2) land cover composition, urban configuration, and landscape diversity can explain aquatic ecological integrity differently; and (3) global non-linear analysis improve local spatial statistical techniques for explaining and interpreting landscape impacts on aquatic ecological integrity. Results revealed spatial autocorrelation in the measure of aquatic ecological condition at the HUC-12 subwatershed scal...

2025, Marine Ecology Progress Series

2025, Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation

Each year, billions of birds migrate across the continents by day and night through airspaces increasingly altered by human activity, resulting in the deaths of millions of birds every year through collisions with man-made structures. To reduce these negative impacts on wildlife, forecasts of high migration intensities are needed to apply mitigation actions. While existing weather radar networks offer a unique possibility to monitor and forecast bird migration at large spatial scales, forecasts at the fine spatial scale within a complex terrain, such as the mountainous Swiss landscape, require a small-scale network of ornithological radars. Before attempting to build such a network, it is crucial to first investigate the consistency of the migratory flow across space and time. In this study, we simultaneously operated three ornithological radar systems across the Swiss lowlands to assess the spatio-temporal consistency of diurnal and nocturnal bird movements during the spring and autumn migration season. The relative temporal course of migration intensities was generally consistent between sites during peak migration, in particular for nocturnal movements in autumn, but absolute intensities differed greatly between sites. Outside peak migration, bird movement patterns were much less consistent and, unexpectedly, some presumably non-migratory bird activity achieved intensities close to peak migration intensities, but without spatial correlations. Only nocturnal migration intensity in autumn could be predicted with consistently high accuracy, but including parameters of atmospheric conditions in the model improved predictability of diurnal movements considerably. Predictions for spring were less reliable, probably because we missed an important part of the migration season. Our results show that reliable forecasts of bird movements within a complex terrain call for a network of year-round bird monitoring systems, whereas accurate information of atmospheric conditions can help to limit the number of measurement points. 198

2025, VLIZ Special Publication

2025, Book of

Lamu Archipelago is located at the northernmost stretch of the Kenyan coastline and it contains the Kiunga Marine Protected Area (MPA), which is situated in the North. Lamu Archipelago is one of most productive fishing grounds along the Kenyan coast. Artisanal fishing is the main economic activity, contributing 70% of the household income. The study seeks to examine the effectiveness of the Kiunga MPA in fisheries resource management. The analysed dataset spans four years (2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008) and data were ...

2025, Advances in Geocomputation

In this research, we present an empirical case study to illustrate the new framework called "space beats time" (SBT). SBT is rooted in the expectation that predictions based on temporal autocorrelation typically outperform predictions based on spatial autocorrelation, except in the aftermath of abrupt disruptive events. Following such disruption scenarios, space is likely to outperform time, albeit often for a brief post event period. We illustrate the SBT concept by assessing the impact of Hurricane Dean on vegetation greenness using a remotely sensed spatiotemporal data series. We predict the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) using separate temporal-only and spatial-only models without the aid of covariates. We then compare each prediction model's performance before and after the hurricane event. Results suggest that SBT expected behaviors are valid in general terms but that some issues require attention. Our case study shows conspicuous SBT effects in the aftermath of the hurricane event in question, including increased performance in the geographic areas where the hurricane impact was more severe. In addition, we B. Parmentier

2025, Journal of Hydrology

2025, Water Resources Research

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery offers an appealing way of remotely monitoring the complex and rapidly changing forms of braided rivers. These rivers are often found in scarcely inhabited regions and are so dynamic that in situ measurements are almost impossible. In this paper, SAR imagery was used to extract braided river patterns such that their spatial scaling characteristics could be studied. From analysis of several reaches of a braided river in Alaska (the Tanana River), self‐affine spatial scaling of the river patterns was found to be present under different flow rates and in different seasons when the river was undisturbed (free of external topographic controls). In regions where predominant geologic controls (i.e., mountains) or predominant flow paths (several tens of times the size of the other channels) were present, no spatial scaling was found. When scaling was found, the values of the anisotropic scaling exponents vx and vy had very similar values to those found...

2025

Currently, Long Island, NY is without a breeding population of northeastern coyote (Canis latras var.), yet recent evidence of dispersing individuals on the island, coupled with the “dogged” momentum of coyote range expansion across North America, suggests a Long Island coyote population is close at hand. We highlighted the fleeting opportunity to takes advantage of this natural experiment by developing a multidisciplinary research framework to investigate the ecological and social impacts of the coyote, pre- and post- range expansion. We reviewed coyote spatial ecology, community ecology, and human dimensions research and identified three components of future investigation: predicting future occupancy, monitoring colonization, testing hypotheses of trophic cascades by leveraging and expanding existing ecological data, and exploring attitudes towards coyotes to better understand and mitigate human-wildlife conflicts. Each proposed component will integrate for a comprehensive investi...

2025, Vegetación asociada a un parche de ciénaga costera en La Coloma, Pinar del Río

Las ciénagas costeras contribuyen a
prevenir inundaciones del litoral,
ayudan a retener el avance de la
intrusión salina, son fuentes de
biodiversidad, aportan nutrientes al mar y ayudan a la conectividad del
paisaje. La flora asociada a la
formación de ciénaga costera en La
Coloma ha sido pobremente
estudiada, lo que se evidencia en la
escasa información al respecto, por lo
que esta investigación ha tenido como
objetivo: inventariar la flora asociada
a un parche de ciénaga costera en La
Coloma, Pinar del Río. Se levantaron
un total de 10 parcelas de 100 m² de
forma aleatoria simple, determinando
la intensidad de muestreo a partir de
la curva especie-área. Se emplearon
claves taxonómicas reconocidas
internacionalmente como
enciclopedias online. Se identificaron
las especies, género y familia; así
como su clasificación de acuerdo al
tamaño en herbáceas, arbustivas y
epífitas. Se determinaron las especies
más representativas y de mayor
importancia ecológica a partir del
cálculo de la frecuencia absoluta y
relativa, la abundancia absoluta y
relativa, dominancia relativa, así
como el índice de Valor de
Importancia Ecológica. El parche se
encuentra dominado por tres grandes
grupos, el jucaral, el guanal y
herbazal de ciénaga. Se identificaron
40 especies, distribuidas en 38
géneros y 30 familias. Las especies
más representativas y mayor valor de
importancia ecológica para el
ecosistema fueron Paspalum
vaginatum (Sw.), Copernicia hospital
(Mart.), Sesuvium portulacastrum
(L.), Cameraria latifolia (L.) y
Tillandsia utriculata (L.).

2025, Biotropica

ABSTRACTThis study examined whether the population density and home range size of red‐rumped agoutis were affected by the spatial distribution of Brazil nut trees, at the Pinkaiti Research Station, in eastern Amazonia. Agouti densities in a Brazil nut grove were two‐fold higher and home ranges were half the size than those outside it. This indicates that the large supply of Brazil nuts results in higher densities and smaller home ranges of agoutis in this seasonally dry Amazonian forest.

2025, International Journal of Wildland Fire

The spatial variability (i.e. heterogeneity) of environmental variables determines a wide range of ecosystem features and plays a key role in regulating key ecosystem services. Wildfires are among the most significant natural disturbances that forests face, but our knowledge about their effect on ecosystem spatial variability is still limited. We used a 19-year fire chronosequence of natural, unmanaged Pinus canariensis C. Sm. ex DC forests to investigate how wildfires affect overall ecosystem spatial variability, as well as that of key faunal, plant and soil ecosystem attributes. The spatial variability of most soil variables and of the overall ecosystem tended to decrease after the fire and remain lower than the unburned plots even after 19 years. The spatial variability of plant-related variables, except for litter decomposition, as well as that of soil arthropods abundance, decreased more gradually than that of soil variables, reaching the lowest values in the plots burned 19 ye...

2025, Landscape Ecology

Context Marine restoration is increasingly recognized as a key activity to regenerate ecosystem integrity, safeguard biodiversity, and enable ocean sustainability. Global policies such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework... more

2025, PLOS ONE

Spatial variation in the composition of communities is the product of many biotic and environmental interactions. A neglected factor in the analysis of community distribution patterns is the multi-scale nature of the data, which has implications for understanding ecological processes and the development of conservation and environmental management practice. Drawing on recently established multivariate spatial analyses, we investigate whether including relationships between spatial structure and abiotic variables enable us to better discern patterns of species and communities across scales. Data comprised 1200 macrozoobenthic samples collected over an array of distances (30 cm to 1 km) in three New Zealand harbours, as well as commonly used abiotic variables, such as sediment characteristics and chlorophyll a concentrations, measured at the same scales. Moran's eigenvector mapping was used to extract spatial scales at which communities were structured. Benthic communities, representing primarily bivalves, polychaetes and crustaceans, were spatially structured at four spatial scales, i.e. >100 m, 50-100 m, 50-15 m, and < 15 m. A broad selection of abiotic variables contributed to the large-scale variation, whereas a more limited set explained part of the fine-scale community structure. Across all scales, less than 30% of the variation in spatial structure was captured by our analysis. The large number of species (48) making up the 10 highest species scores based on redundancy analyses illustrate the variability of species-scale associations. Our results emphasise that abiotic variables and biodiversity are related at all scales investigated and stress the importance of assessing the relationship between environmental variables and the abundance and distribution of biological assemblages across a range of different scales.

2025, Landscape Ecology

underestimated denitrification (81.9% less) but overestimated NH 4 + efflux and organic matter degradation (2594.1 and 14,879.9% more). Kriging produced more accurate results and the predicted functions only differed from the estimated values by 14.7, 29.4 and 3.9% respectively. Conclusions Our work shows that the choice of the scaling method is crucial in estimating intertidal soft sediment functions and highlights the need for empirical and theoretical models that link ecosystem functioning to biological attributes that can be measured remotely over large areas. Integrating measures of heterogeneity through the spatial structure of the data leads to outcomes that are more realistic and relevant to resource management.

2025, Journal of Biogeography

ABSTRACTAimThe aim of this study was to investigate whether the equilibrium theory of island biogeography (ETIB) is equally applicable at regional and local spatial scales, and whether the ‘echo pattern’, the correlation between regional species pool and local diversity by which the diversity of the regional species pool ‘trickles down’ to local scales, influences local diversity equally across a range of sampling scales.LocationTwelve mountain regions on islands having different sizes, degrees of isolation and environmental conditions in Indonesia and the Philippines.MethodsWe sampled ferns in standardized field plots within a fixed spatial design at six spatial scales (with the grain size varying from plot to island). Using ordinary least squares regression and relative variable importance, we tested for the predictive power of area and isolation as well as of local and regional environmental factors for explaining diversity at the chosen spatial scales.ResultsConsistent with MacA...

2025, saskiaa

Dasar Dasar Pembangunan Wilayah

2025

Wilayah menurut KBBI adalah daerah (kekuasaan, pemerintahan, pengawasan, dll); lingkungan daerah (provinsi, kabupaten, kecamatan). Pontoh (2009) menyatakan bahwa wilayah umumnya merupakan bagian dari permukaan bumi yang didefinisikan secara pengertian, batas, dan representasi geografis fisik. Menurut UU No. 26 Tahun 2007 tentang Penataan Ruang, wilayah adalah ruang yang merupakan kesatuan geografis beserta segala unsur yang berkaitan dengan batas dan sistem yang ditetapkan berdasarkan aspek administratif dan/atau fungsional. Wilayah merupakan unit geografi yang dibatasi oleh kriteria tertentu dan bagian-bagiannya tergantung secara internal.

2025, PLOS ONE

Tropical bird assemblages display patterns of high alpha and beta diversity and, as tropical birds exhibit strong habitat specificity, their spatial distributions are generally assumed to be driven primarily by environmental heterogeneity and interspecific interactions. However, spatial distributions of some Amazonian forest birds are also often restricted by large rivers and other large-scale topographic features, suggesting that dispersal limitation may also play a role in driving species' turnover. In this study, we evaluated the effects of environmental characteristics, topographic and spatial variables on variation in local assemblage structure and diversity of birds in an old-growth forest in central Amazonia. Birds were mist-netted in 72 plots distributed systematically across a 10,000 ha reserve in each of three years. Alpha diversity remained stable through time, but species composition changed. Spatial variation in bird-assemblage structure was significantly related to environmental and topographic variables but not strongly related to spatial variables. At a broad scale, we found bird assemblages to be significantly distinct between two watersheds that are divided by a central ridgeline. We did not detect an effect of the ridgeline per se in driving these patterns, indicating that most birds are able to fly across it, and that differences in assemblage structure between watersheds may be due to unmeasured environmental variables or unique combinations of measured variables. Our study indicates that complex geography and landscape features can act together with environmental variables to drive changes in the diversity and composition of tropical bird assemblages at local scales, but highlights that we still know very little about what makes different parts of tropical forest suitable for different species.

2025, Notes

Alien plants have invaded nearly all regions of the world. In the United States, approximately 5,000 species of alien plants have escaped into native communities. These introductions have resulted in a range of community-and ecosystem-level effects. Among terrestrial communities, invasive plants can out-compete native plants and alter community characteristics. The profound effects that invasive organisms are having has caused ecologists to consider their spread as second only to habitat destruction as a threat to global biodiversity. The establishment of an invasive plant is dependent on three factors: availability and transport of seeds, life-history characteristics of the alien plant, and the susceptibility of a habitat to invasion. Among the factors influencing susceptibility is the frequency and intensity of physical disturbance that removes native vegetation.

2025, Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation

One of the processes by which microorganisms are able to rapidly adapt to changing conditions is horizontal gene transfer, whereby an organism incorporates additional genetic material from sources other than its parent. These genetic elements may encode a wide variety of beneficial traits. Under certain conditions, many computational models capture the evolutionary dynamics of adaptive behaviors such as toxin production, quorum sensing, and biofilm formation, and have even provided new insights into otherwise unknown or misunderstood phenomena. However, such models rarely incorporate horizontal gene transfer, so they may be incapable of fully representing the vast repertoire of behaviors exhibited by natural populations. Although models of horizontal gene transfer exist, they rarely account for the spatial structure of populations, which is often critical to adaptive behaviors. In this work we develop a spatial model to examine how conjugation, one mechanism of horizontal gene transfer, can be maintained in populations. We investigate how both the costs of transfer and the benefits conferred affect evolutionary outcomes. Further, we examine how rates of transmission evolve, allowing this system to adapt to different environments. Through spatial models such as these, we can gain a greater understanding of the conditions under which horizontally-acquired behaviors are evolved and are maintained.

2025, Vol. 25 Núm. 2 (2023): Julio - Diciembre

El presente artículo de cohorte cualitativo e inscrito en los márgenes de la psicología social, se centra en la percepción social de las mujeres Embera Chamí del resguardo Kurmadó sobre las resistencias que ellas han ejercido contra el patriarcado, considerando que el pueblo embera ha enfrentado la violencia del conflicto armado colombiano y que las mujeres han tenido una afectación diferenciada en sus vivencias no solo por el desplazamiento, sino también por los problemas de acceso a formación educativa y espacios de participación política dentro y fuera de la comunidad. Por este motivo, se plantea un abordaje teórico desde el feminismo comunitario en diálogo con elementos conceptuales propios de la sociología y la psicología social a partir de la noción de percepción social, bajo la perspec-tiva metodológica del diseño etnográfico. Es así como se reconocen expresiones de resistencia a las estructuras patriarcales a través de prácticas entre mujeres, las cuales les han permitido ocupar espacios de participación política, aun con los retos que esto supone, permitiendo también que la socialización de las futuras generaciones de niñas y niños embera construyan nuevos aprendizajes en torno al género, problematizando algunas pautas tradi-cionales aprehendidas en la comunidad.

2025, Muhammad Hafizhurrahman

Makalah ini disusun dengan tujuan untuk menguraikan bagaimana langkah demi langkah dalam menyusun Sinkronisasi Program Pemanfaatan Ruang Jangka Menengah (SPPR-JM) 5 Tahunan dan Sinkronisasi Program Pemanfaatan Ruang Jangka Pendek (SPPR-JP) 1 Tahunan yang dilaksanakan oleh Pemerintah Pusat dan Pemerintah Daerah (Provinsi, Kabupaten, dan Kota) sebagaimana amanat dalam Undang-Undang Nomor 26 Tahun 2007 tentang Penataan Ruang (sebagaimana diubah dengan Undang-Undang Nomor 6 Tahun 2023 tentang Penetapan Peraturan Pemerintah Pengganti Undang-Undang Nomor 2 Tahun 2022 tentang Cipta Kerja Menjadi Undang-Undang) dan Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 21 Tahun 2021 tentang Penyelenggaraan Penataan Ruang. Fokus makalah ini akan berkonsentrasi pada SPPR yang dilaksanakan oleh Pemerintah Daerah. Kerangka penalaran ini mengacu pada Peraturan Menteria Agraria dan Tata Ruang/Badan Pertanahan Nasional (Kementerian ATR/BPN) Nomor 13 Tahun 2021 tentang Pelaksanaan Kesesuaian Kegiatan Pemanfaatan Ruang (KKPR) dan Sinkronisasi Program Pemanfaatan Ruang. Pelaksanaan Sinkronisasi Program Pemanfaatan Ruang dilakukan dengan menyelaraskan indikasi program utama dengan program sektoral dan kewilayahan dalam dokumen rencana pembangunan secara terpadu. Penyusunan SPPR-JM 5 Tahunan bertujuan untuk mewujudkan keterpaduan program Pemanfaatan Ruang dan pelaksanaannya terdiri dari 4 tahap utama, yaitu (1) identifikasi arahan spasial, (2) inventarisasi dan sintesis rencana tata ruang dengan rencana pembangunan, (3) analisis SPPR-JM, dan (4) perumusan rencana terpadu program pemanfaatan ruang jangka menengah yang mendukung rencana tata ruang. Penyusunan SPPR-JP 1 Tahunan bertujuan untuk menentukan prioritas program Pemanfaatan Ruang dan pelaksanaannya terdiri dari 3 tahap, yaitu (1) identifikasi keterlaksanaan rencana terpadu program pemanfaatan ruang jangka menengah, (2) penilaian prioritas program pemanfaatan ruang jangka pendek, dan (3) usulan prioritas program pemanfaatan ruang jangka pendek.

2025

Evaluación y recomendaciones para el manejo y control de la salinización en un ecosistema costero en Pinar del Río Evaluación y recomendaciones para el manejo y control de la salinización en un ecosistema costero en Pinar del Río Agrisost Año 2017, Vol.23, No.1: páginas:21-27 21 Evaluación y recomendaciones para el manejo y control de la salinización en un ecosistema costero en Pinar del Río RESUMEN Con el objetivo de evaluar los factores causantes salinización en la Llanura baja costera Sur del municipio Los Palacios, para ello se tuvieron en cuenta la vegetación, clima, relieve, biodiversidad, hidrología y estado del litoral costero, se determinó la agro productividad de los suelos para el cultivo del arroz como cultivo principal y otras especies utilizadas para la rotación. Como resultado se concluye que concluyó, que la zona de estudio constituye un ecosistema frágil potencialmente salino, donde las principales causas de la salinidad son: manto freático superficial, métodos de r...

2025, Microbial Ecology

Microbial spatial distribution has mostly been studied at field to global scales (i.e. ecosystem scales). However, the spatial organization at small scales (i.e. centimeter to millimeter scales), which can help improve our understanding of the impacts of spatial communities structure on microbial functioning, has received comparatively little attention. Previous work has shown that small scale spatial structure exists in soil microbial communities, but these studies have not compared soils from geographically distant locations. Nor have they utilized community ecology approaches, such as the core and satellite hypothesis and/or abundance-occupancy relationships, often used in macro-ecology, to improve the description of the spatial organization of communities. In the present work, we focused on bacterial diversity (i.e.16SrRNA gene sequencing) occurring in micro-samples from a variety of locations with different pedo-climatic histories (i.e. from semi-arid, alpine and temperate climates) and physicochemical properties. The forms of ecological spatial relationships in bacterial communities (i.e. occupancy-frequency and abundance-occupancy) and taxa distributions (i.e. habitat generalists and specialists) were investigated. The results showed that bacterial composition differed in the four soils at the small scale. Moreover, one soil presented a satellite mode distribution whereas the three others presented bimodal distributions. Interestingly, numerous core taxa were present in the four soils among which 8 OTUs were common to the four sites. These results confirm that analyses of the small-scale spatial distribution are necessary to understand consequent functional processes taking place in soils, affecting thus ecosystem functioning.

2025, Microbial Ecology

Microbial spatial distribution has mostly been studied at field to global scales (i.e., ecosystem scales). However, the spatial organization at small scales (i.e., centimeter to millimeter scales), which can help improve our understanding of the impacts of spatial communities structure on microbial functioning, has received comparatively little attention. Previous work has shown that small-scale spatial structure exists in soil microbial communities, but these studies have not compared soils from geographically distant locations, nor have they utilized community ecology approaches, such as the core and satellite hypothesis and/or abundance-occupancy relationships, often used in macro-ecology, to improve the description of the spatial organization of communities. In the present work, we focused on bacterial diversity (i.e., 16S rRNA gene sequencing) occurring in microsamples from a variety of locations with different pedo-climatic histories (i.e., from semi-arid, alpine, and temperate climates) and physicochemical properties. The forms of ecological spatial relationships in bacterial communities (i.e., occupancy-frequency and abundance-occupancy) and taxa distributions (i.e., habitat generalists and specialists) were investigated. The results showed that bacterial composition differed in the four soils at the small scale. Moreover, one soil presented a satellite mode distribution, whereas the three others presented bimodal distributions. Interestingly, numerous core taxa were present in the four soils among which 8 OTUs were common to the four sites. These results confirm that analyses of the small-scale spatial distribution are necessary to understand consequent functional processes taking place in soils, affecting thus ecosystem functioning.

2025, arXiv (Cornell University)

During outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases, internationally connected cities often experience large and early outbreaks, while rural regions follow after some delay [1][2][3][4][5][6]. This hierarchical structure of disease spread is influenced primarily by the multiscale structure of human mobility [7][8][9]. However, during the COVID-19 epidemic, public health responses typically did not take into consideration the explicit spatial structure of human mobility when designing non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). NPIs were applied primarily at national or regional scales [10]. Here we use weekly anonymized and aggregated human mobility data and spatially highly resolved data on COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations at the municipality level in Mexico to investigate how behavioural changes in response to the pandemic have altered the spatial scales of transmission and interventions during its first wave (March -June 2020). We find that the epidemic dynamics in Mexico were initially driven by SARS-CoV-2 exports from Mexico State and Mexico City, where early outbreaks occurred. The mobility network shifted after the implementation of interventions in late March 2020, and the mobility network communities became more disjointed while epidemics in these communities became increasingly synchronised. Our results provide actionable and dynamic insights into how to use network science and epidemiological modelling to inform the spatial scale at which interventions are most impactful in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 and infectious diseases in general. Structuring interventions based on spatial mobility may be more effective compared to interventions based on administrative boundaries. Future pandemic control interventions should consider empirical human mobility networks when designing interventions.

2025, Applied Geography

Biogeographic regionalization, the categorization of geographical areas on the basis of their biotas, provides a valuable approach for understanding biogeographical and ecological patterns and processes and serves as a valuable tool in conservation management practices. Contemporary, quantitative approaches for delineating and mapping biogeographic regions that make use of increasingly available species occurrence data have typically been conducted using clustering methods that do not consider spatial information of sample sites during the aggregation processes. This shortcoming has led to challenges in identifying spatial patterns and interpreting the underlying ecological factors responsible for these patterns. To address the shortcomings of non-spatial clustering methods and to highlight the value of utilizing spatial information during regionalization, we conducted biogeographic regionalization on a dataset of observed mammalian species locations in Angola using a nonspatial clustering method (Ward's clustering) and a spatial clustering method (Regionalization with Dynamically Constrained Agglomerative Clustering and Partitioning). When compared to results from the non-spatial method, biogeographic regions delineated by the spatial clustering method were more closely associated with distinct climatic conditions, had greater concurrence to accepted ecoregions, and were more strongly associated with species assemblages within these regions. We argue that the spatial clustering method makes regions more meaningful and interpretable; as a result, biogeographic regions identified by our approach could facilitate prioritizing conservation plans, developing natural resources management strategies, and reducing data complexity for spatial representation and ecological interpretation of species distribution.

2025

We compared the spatial characteristics of fire severity patches within individual fire "runs" (contiguous polygons burned during a given day) resulting from a 72,000 ha fire in central Idaho in 1994. Our hypothesis was that patch characteristics of four fire severity classes (high, moderate, low, and unburned), as captured by five landscape metrics, would vary with the size of the run (ranging from 1 to 6,200 ha). Our results indicated that high severity patches (i.e., crown fires) were typically larger and more complex in larger runs than in smaller runs. Moderate severity, low severity, and unburned patch characteristics were relatively insensitive to fire run size, with most metrics showing little or no trend.

2025, Oikos

Prey availability and predation risk are important determinants of habitat use, but their importance may vary across spatial scales. In many marine systems, predator and prey distributions covary at large spatial scales, but do no coincide at small spatial scales. We investigated the influences of prey abundance and tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) predation risk on Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) habitat use across multiple spatial scales, in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Dolphins were distributed between deep and shallow habitats and across microhabitats within patches approximately proportional to prey density when shark abundance was low. When shark abundance was high, foraging dolphins greatly reduced their use of dangerous, but productive, shallow patches relative to safer deep ones. Also, dolphins reduced their use of interior portions of shallow patches relative to their edges, which have higher predator density but lower intrinsic risk (i.e. a higher proba...

2025

The heterogeneity of precipitation rates in high mountain regions is not sufficiently captured by state of the art climate reanalysis products due to their limited spatial resolution. Thus there exists a large gap between the available data sets and the demands of climate impact studies. The presented approach aims to generate spatially high resolution precipitation fields for a target area in Central Asia, covering the Tibetan Plateau, the adjacent mountain ranges and lowlands. Based on the assumption, that observed local scale precipitation amounts are triggered by varying large scale atmospheric situations and modified by local scale topographic characteristics, the statistical downscaling approach estimates local scale precipitation rates as a function of large scale atmospheric conditions, derived from the ERA-Interim reanalysis, and high resolution terrain parameters. Since the relationships of the predictor variables with local scale observations are rather unknown and highly non-linear, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was utilized for the development of adequate transfer functions. Different ANN-architectures were evaluated with regard to their predictive performance. The final downscaling model was used for the cellwise estimation of monthly precipitation sums, the number of rainy days and the maximum daily precipitation amount with a spatial resolution of 1 km 2 . The model was found to sufficiently capture the temporal and spatial variations of precipitation rates in the highly structured target area and allows a detailed analysis of the precipitation distribution. A concluding sensitivity analysis of the ANN model reveals the effect of the atmospheric and topographic predictor variables on the precipitation estimations in the climatically diverse subregions.

2025, Journal of Hydrology

2025, Journal of Ecology

1. Despite recent advances in understanding community ecology of ectomycorrhizal fungi, little is known about their spatial patterning and the underlying mechanisms driving these patterns across different ecosystems. 2. This meta-study aimed to elucidate the scale, rate and causes of spatial structure of ectomycorrhizal fungal communities in different ecosystems by analysing 16 and 55 sites at the local and global scales, respectively. We examined the distance decay of similarity relationship in species-and phylogenetic lineage-based communities in relation to sampling and environmental variables. 3. Tropical ectomycorrhizal fungal communities exhibited stronger distance-decay patterns compared to non-tropical communities. Distance from the equator and sampling area were the main determinants of the extent of distance decay in fungal communities. The rate of distance decay was negatively related to host density at the local scale. At the global scale, lineage-level community similarity decayed faster with latitude than with longitude. 4. Synthesis. Spatial processes play a stronger role and over a greater scale in structuring local communities of ectomycorrhizal fungi than previously anticipated, particularly in ecosystems with greater vegetation age and closer to the equator. Greater rate of distance decay occurs in ecosystems with lower host density that may stem from increasing dispersal and establishment limitation. The relatively strong latitude effect on distance decay of lineage-level community similarity suggests that climate affects large-scale spatial processes and may cause phylogenetic clustering of ectomycorrhizal fungi at the global scale.

2025, Anthropocene Coasts

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) worldwide are under increasing pressure to balance biodiversity conservation with the growing demands of tourism, often exacerbated by anthropogenic impacts on coastal ecosystems. Exogenous shocks, such as environmental or policy-driven events, can offer opportunities for shifts in natural resource governance. This longitudinal study examines how a 2016 tourism ban in Mexico Islas Marietas National Park, prompted by coral reef degradation, influenced its polycentric governance. We use a mixed-methods approach, analyzing data from 53 governance meetings held before (March 2015 to April 2016) and after (May 2016 to November 2017) the regulatory shock. We compare stakeholder participation, affiliation networks, rules, and institutions to assess changes in the polycentric governance system. Our results show an increase in stakeholder engagement and two new decision-making forums have emerged. Network analysis reveals a rise in network density and social ties, suggesting enhanced trust and collaboration among stakeholders, although individual stakeholder responses to the shock varied. The tourism ban triggered a shift towards formalizing collaboration agreements, increasing stakeholder involvement in shaping public use norms, and decentralizing revenue generation. The coastal MPA also implemented a specific regulatory framework with recalculated carrying capacity, improved monitoring, and stricter accountability for tour operators. The Islas Marietas case offers valuable insights into coastal management in the Anthropocene, emphasizing the need for adaptive polycentric governance approaches that foster collaboration, and empower stakeholders to safeguard the long-term sustainability of both marine commons and livelihoods.