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In order to understand the ecological effects of climate change it is essential to forecast suitable areas for species in the future. However, species’ ability to reach potentially suitable areas is also critical for species survival. These ‘range-shift’ abilities can be studied using life-history traits related to four range-shift stages: emigration, movement, establishment, and proliferation. Here, we use the extent to which species’ ranges fill the climatically suitable area available (‘range filling’) as a proxy for the ability of European mammals and birds to shift their ranges under climate change. We detect which traits associate most closely with range filling. Drawing comparisons with a recent analysis for plants, we ask whether the latitudinal position of species’ ranges supports the assertion that post-glacial range-shift limitations cause disequilibrium between ranges and climate. We also disentangle which of the three taxonomic groups has greatest range filling. For mammals, generalists and early-reproducing species have the greatest range filling. For birds, generalist species with high annual fecundity, which live longer than expected based on body size, have the greatest range filling. Although we consider traits related to the four range-shift stages, only traits related to establishment and proliferation ability significantly influence range filling of mammals and birds. Species with the greatest range filling are those whose range centroid falls in the latitudinal centre of Europe, suggesting that post-glacial range expansion is a leading cause of disequilibrium with climate, although other explanations are also possible. Range filling of plants is lower than that of mammals or birds, suggesting that plants are more range-limited by non-climatic factors. Therefore, plants might be face greater non-climatic restraints on range shifts than mammals or birds.

Little is known about the relative importance of mechanistic drivers of plant spread, particularly when long-distance dispersal (LDD) events occur. Most methods to date approach LDD phenomenologically, and all mechanistic models, with one exception, have been implemented through simulation. Furthermore, the few recent mechanistically derived spread models have examined the relative role of different dispersal parameters using simulations, and a formal analytical approach has not yet been implemented. Here we incorporate an analytical mechanistic wind dispersal model (WALD) into a demographic matrix model within an analytical integrodifference equation spread model. We carry out analytical perturbation analysis on the combined model to determine the relative effects of dispersal and demographic traits and wind statistics on the spread of an invasive tree. Models are parameterized using data collected in situ and tested using independent data on historical spread. Predicted spread rates and direction match well the two historical phases of observed spread. Seed terminal velocity has the greatest potential influence on spread rate, and three wind properties (turbulence coefficient, mean horizontal wind speed, and standard deviation of vertical wind speed) are also important. Fecundity has marginal importance for spread rate, but juvenile survival and establishment are consistently important. This coupled empirical/theoretical framework enables prediction of plant spread rate and direction using fundamental dispersal and demographic parameters and identifies the traits and environmental conditions that facilitate spread. The development of an analytical perturbation analysis for a mechanistic spread model will enable multispecies comparative studies to be easily implemented in the future.

Understanding how ecological communities assemble in relation to natural and human‐induced environmental changes is critical, particularly for communities of pollinators that deliver essential ecosystem services. Despite widespread attention to interactions between functional traits and community responses to environmental changes, the importance of sensory traits has received little attention. To address this, we asked whether visual traits of bumblebee communities varied at large geographical scales along a habitat gradient of increased tree cover. Because trees generate challenging light conditions for flying insects, in particular a reduced light intensity, we hypothesised that differences in tree cover would correlate with shifts in the visual and taxonomical composition of bumblebee communities. We quantified 11 visual traits across 36 specimens from 20 species of bumblebees using micro‐CT and optical modelling of compound eyes and ocelli, and investigated how these traits scale with body size. Using an inventory of bumblebee communities across Sweden and our visual trait dataset, we then explored how visual traits (both absolute and relative to body size) differed in relation to tree cover. We found positive shifts of the community weighted means of visual traits along the increasingly forested habitat gradient (facet diameter, inter‐ommatidial angle, eye parameter of the compound eye and alignment of the three ocelli) that were consistent regardless of body size, while other traits decreased when more forest was present in the landscape (facet number). These functional patterns were associated with differences in the abundance of six common species that likely explains the community‐wide shift of visual traits along the habitat gradient. Our study demonstrates the interaction between vision, habitat and community assembly in bumblebees, while highlighting a promising research topic at the interface between sensory biology and landscape ecology. Do visual traits of bumblebee communities vary at large scales with increasing tree cover? We found shifts of visual traits along forested habitat gradient, suggesting that sensory properties not only of species, but also of whole communities interact with the optical constraints of their habitat niche.

The separation of abiotic and biotic factors affecting populations and communities is an important step in understanding how climate change can influence ecological processes, but quantifying their relative contribution to community changes is a challenge. We assessed the effect of temperature and species interactions on the population dynamics of a forest bird community with a hierarchical dynamic population model in a Bayesian framework. We used a long‐term time‐series (1956–2012) of four secondary cavity‐nesting birds with similar food and nesting requirements but different migration habits, to analyse the effects of the four species population size and the local weather fluctuations on each species’ population dynamics. We found clear evidence of a negative effect of two resident species (blue tit and great tit) on a long‐distance migrant (pied flycatcher). Among the residents we only found a competition effect of the great tit on the marsh tit. The birds showed opposite responses to weather: the pied flycatcher favoured colder springs whereas the blue tit and great tit favoured warmer springs. Although alternative mechanisms cannot be ruled out, our results suggest that the resident species (blue tit and great tit) could adjust to increasing spring temperature while the migrant species (pied flycatcher) could not, leading progressively to the exclusion of the pied flycatcher from the area. These results point out the potential role of competitive interactions by providing insightful clues, call for refined research, and support recent efforts to include population dynamics in species distribution models.

To fully understand ecosystem functioning under global change, we need to be able to measure the stability of ecosystem functioning at multiple spatial scales. Although a number of stability components have been established at small spatial scales, there has been little progress in scaling these measures up to the landscape. Remote sensing data holds huge potential for studying processes at landscape scales but requires quantitative measures that are comparable from experimental field data to satellite remote sensing. Here we present a methodology to extract four components of ecosystem functioning stability from satellite‐derived time series of Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) data. The four stability components are as follows: variability, resistance, recovery time and recovery rate in ecosystem functioning. We apply our method to the island of Ireland to demonstrate the use of remotely sensed data to identify large disturbance events in productivity. Our method uses stability measures that have been established at the field‐plot scale to quantify the stability of ecosystem functioning. This makes our method consistent with previous small‐scale stability research, whilst dealing with the unique challenges of using remotely sensed data including noise. We encourage the use of remotely‐sensed data in assessing the stability of ecosystems at a scale that is relevant to conservation and management practices. This paper presents a new methodological approach to measure multiple stability components of ecosystem functioning at large spatial scales using remotely sensed data. The measures of resistance, recovery time, recovery rate and temporal variability are comparable to those previously established at small scales whilst accounting for inherent noise within the data.

1. Succession theory focuses on the position of species along the shade tolerance gradient and their ability to colonize recently disturbed patches and has for decades overlooked resprouting as a key trait in community patterns. 2. We study how different species traits interact with disturbance frequency to change species dominance in the canopy, focusing on the effects of resprouting ability. 3. We develop an individual-based model that simulates the dynamics of three species paper birch Betula papyrifera Marsh, white pine Pinus strobus L. and sugar maple Acer saccharum Marsh., characterized by different successional strategies, as observed in northern Minnesota forests. We tested (i) how different disturbance frequencies, (ii) sugar maple resprouting and (iii) paper birch resprouting change successional patterns. 4. We show that three disturbance frequency classes produce three different outcomes, each dominated by a different species, with lower disturbance frequency favouring later successional species. 5. The importance of resprouting ability for success in the canopy depends on the species' other life-history traits. Sugar maple is able to dominate the community at all disturbance frequency classes with resprouting, whereas the inclusion of resprouting for paper birch does not change the successional patterns. 6. White pine is indirectly favoured by sugar maple's resprouting ability, excluding paper birch from the community at disturbance frequency classes that would see paper birch dominance in the absence of resprouting. 7. Synthesis. We model tree life histories in a disturbed environment and test how the inclusion of resprouting changes succession patterns. Our results confirm the recent interest of taking into account resprouting, as it can bend succession directionality, and thus change community composition in response to disturbance. This has wide consequences for predicting forest diversity patterns as well as invasion phenomena in a changing world.

Puffinosis is a disease of a range of seabirds characterised by dorsal and ventral blistering of their webbed feet, conjunctivitis, dry necrosis, leg spasticity, head shaking, loss of balance, tremors, and death. It is associated with Manx shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus), frequently affecting chicks within their underground nesting burrows. The aetiology of the disease is unclear but has been attributed to a type-2 coronavirus associated with Neotombicula mites as a potential vector. However, there is some uncertainty given potential laboratory contamination with mouse hepatitis virus and failure to fulfil Koch’s postulates, with birds injected with isolates remaining healthy. We describe a detailed case report of puffinosis in a Manx Shearwater covering necropsy, histology, bacteriology, and metagenomics including viral sequencing. We found no evidence of viral infection or parasites. Our results are consistent with an entirely environmental aetiology, with caustic faecal ammonia in damp nesting burrows causing conjunctivitis and foot dermatitis breaking the skin, allowing common soil bacteria (i.e., Flavobacterium, Staphylococcus and Serratia spp., Clostridia perfringens and Enterococcus faecalis) to cause opportunistic infection, debilitating the bird and leading to death. A similar condition (foot pad dermatitis or FPD) has been reported in broiler chickens, attributed to caustic faeces, high humidity, and poor environmental conditions during indoor rearing, preventable by adequate ventilation and husbandry. This is consistent with puffinosis being observed in Shearwater nesting burrows situated in tall, dense, vegetation (e.g., bracken Pteridium aquilinum) but rarely reported in burrows situated in well-ventilated, short coastal grasslands. This proposed environmental aetiology accounts for the disease’s non-epizootic prevalence, spatial variation within colonies, and higher frequency in chicks that are restricted to nesting burrows.

Background and aims - Agricultural intensification and loss of farmland heterogeneity have contributed to population declines of wild bees and other pollinators, which may have caused subsequent declines in insect-pollinated wild plants. Material and methods - Using data from 37 studies on 22 pollinator-dependent wild plant species across Europe, we investigated whether flower visitation and seed set of insect-pollinated plants decline with an increasing proportion of arable land within 1 km. Key results - Seed set increased with increasing flower visitation by bees, most of which were wild bees, but not with increasing flower visitation by other insects. Increasing proportion of arable land had a strongly variable effect on seed set and flower visitation by bees across studies. Conclusion - Factors such as landscape configuration, local habitat quality, and temporally changing resource availability (e.g. due to mass-flowering crops or honey bee hives) could have modified the effect of arable land on pollination. While our results highlight that the persistence of wild bees is crucial to maintain plant diversity, we also show that pollen limitation due to declining bee populations in homogenized agricultural landscapes is not a universal driver causing parallel losses of bees and insect-pollinated plants.

The impact of productivity on species diversity is often studied at small spatial scales and without taking additional environmental factors into account. Focusing on small spatial scales removes important regional scale effects, such as the role of land cover heterogeneity. Here, we use a regional spatial scale (10 km square) to establish the relationship between productivity and vascular plant species richness across the island of Ireland that takes into account variation in land cover. We used generalized additive mixed effects models to relate species richness, estimated from biological records, to plant productivity. Productivity was quantified by the satellite-derived enhanced vegetation index. The productivity-diversity relationship was fitted for three land cover types: pasture-dominated, heterogeneous, and non-pasture-dominated landscapes. We find that species richness decreases with increasing productivity, especially at higher productivity levels. This decreasing relationship appears to be driven by pasture-dominated areas. The relationship between species richness and heterogeneity in productivity (both spatial and temporal) varies with land cover. Our results suggest that the impact of pasture on species richness extends beyond field level. The effect of human modified landscapes, therefore, is important to consider when investigating classical ecological relationships, particularly at the wider landscape scale.

Aim: The impact of multiple stressors on biodiversity is one of the most pressing questions in ecology and biodiversity conservation. Here we critically assess how often and efficiently two main drivers of global change have been simultaneously integrated into research, with the aim of providing practical solutions for better integration in the future. We focus on the integration of climate change (CC) and land‐use change (LUC) when studying changes in species distributions. Location: Global. Methods: We analysed the peer‐reviewed literature on the effects of CC and LUC on observed changes in species distributions, i.e. including species range and abundance, between 2000 and 2014. Results: Studies integrating CC and LUC remain extremely scarce, which hampers our ability to develop appropriate conservation strategies. The lack of CC–LUC integration is likely to be a result of insufficient recognition of the co‐occurrence of CC and LUC at all scales, covariation and interactions between CC and LUC, as well as correlations between species thermal and habitat requirements. Practical guidelines for the study of these interactive effects include considering multiple drivers and processes when designing studies, using available long‐term datasets on multiple drivers, revisiting single‐driver studies with additional drivers or conducting comparative studies and meta‐analyses. Combining various methodological approaches, including time lags and adaptation processes, represent further avenues to improve global change science. Main conclusions: Despite repeated claims for a better integration of multiple drivers, the effects of CC and LUC on species distributions and abundances have been mostly studied in isolation, which calls for a shift of standards towards more integrative global change science. The guidelines proposed here will encourage study designs that account for multiple drivers and improve our understanding of synergies or antagonisms among drivers.