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How can the shape of biodiversity inform us about cities’ ecoclimatic fitness and guide their development? Can we use species as the harbingers of climatic extremes? Eco-climatically sensitive species carry information about hydroclimatic change in their distribution, fitness, and preferential gradients of habitat suitability. Conversely, environmental features outside of the species’ fitness convey information on potential ecological anomalies in response to extremes to adapt or mitigate, such as through urban parks. Here, to quantify ecosystems’ fitness, we propose a novel computational model to extract multivariate functional ecological networks and their basins, which carry the distributed signature of the compounding hydroclimatic pressures on sentinel species. Specifically, we consider butterflies and their habitat suitability (HS) to infer maximum suitability gradients that are meaningful of potential species networks and flows, with the smallest hydroclimatic resistance across urban landscapes. These flows are compared to the distribution of urban parks to identify parks’ ecological attractiveness, actual and potential connectivity, and park potential to reduce hydroclimatic impacts. The ecosystem fitness index (EFI) is novelly introduced by combining HS and the divergence of the relative species abundance (RSA) from the optimal log-normal Preston plot. In Shenzhen, as a case study, eco-flow networks are found to be spatially very extended, scale-free, and clustering for low HS gradient and EFI areas, where large water bodies act as sources of ecological corridors draining into urban parks. Conversely, parks with higher HS, HS gradients, and EFIs have small-world connectivity non-overlapping with hydrological networks. Diverging patterns of abundance and richness are inferred as increasing and decreasing with HS. HS is largely determined by temperature and precipitation of the coldest quarter and seasonality, which are critical hydrologic variables. Interestingly, a U-shape pattern is found between abundance and diversity, similar to the one in natural ecosystems. Additionally, both abundance and richness are mildly associated with park area according to a power function, unrelated to longitude but linked to the degree of urbanization or park centrality, counterintuitively. The Preston plot’s richness–abundance and abundance-rank patterns were verified to reflect the stationarity or ecological meta-equilibrium with the environment, where both are a reflection of community connectivity. Ecological fitness is grounded on the ecohydrological structure and flows where maximum HS gradients are indicative of the largest eco-changes like climate-driven species flows. These flows, as distributed stress-response functions, inform about the collective eco-fitness of communities, like parks in cities. Flow-based networks can serve as blueprints for designing ecotones that regulate key ecosystem functions, such as temperature and evapotranspiration, while generating cascading ecological benefits across scales. The proposed model, novelly infers HS eco-networks and calculates the EFI, is adaptable to diverse sensitive species and environmental layers, offering a robust tool for precise ecosystem assessment and design.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi play important functional roles in ecosystems, including the uptake and transfer of nutrients, modification of the physical soil environment and alteration of plant interactions with other biota. Several studies have demonstrated the potential for variation in AM fungal diversity to also affect ecosystem functioning, mainly via effects on primary productivity. Diversity in these studies is usually characterized in terms of the number of species, unique evolutionary lineages or complementary mycorrhizal traits, as well as the ability of plants to discriminate among AM fungi in space and time. However, the emergent outcomes of these relationships are usually indirect, and thus context dependent, and difficult to predict with certainty. Here, we advocate a fungal-centric view of AM fungal biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships that focuses on the direct and specific links betweenAMfungal fitness and consequences for their roles in ecosystems, especially highlighting functional diversity in hyphal resource economics. We conclude by arguing that an understanding of AM fungal functional diversity is fundamental to determine whether AM fungi have a role in the exploitation of marginal/novel environments (whether past, present or future) and highlight avenues for future research.

Humans challenge the phenotypic, genetic, and cultural makeup of species by affecting the fitness landscapes on which they evolve. Recent studies show that cities might play a major role in contemporary evolution by accelerating phenotypic changes in wildlife, including animals, plants, fungi, and other organisms. Many studies of ecoevolutionary change have focused on anthropogenic drivers, but none of these studies has specifically examined the role that urbanization plays in ecoevolution or explicitly examined its mechanisms. This paper presents evidence on the mechanisms linking urban development patterns to rapid evolutionary changes for species that play important functional roles in communities and ecosystems. Through a metaanalysis of experimental and observational studies reporting more than 1,600 phenotypic changes in species across multiple regions, we ask whether we can discriminate an urban signature of phenotypic change beyond the established natural baselines and other anthropogenic signals. We then assess the relative impact of five types of urban disturbances including habitat modifications, biotic interactions, habitat heterogeneity, novel disturbances, and social interactions. Our study shows a clear urban signal; rates of phenotypic change are greater in urbanizing systems compared with natural and nonurban anthropogenic systems. By explicitly linking urban development to traits that affect ecosystem function, we can map potential ecoevolutionary implications of emerging patterns of urban agglomerations and uncover insights for maintaining key ecosystem functions upon which the sustainability of human well-being depends.

Microplastic particles are ubiquitous not only in marine but also in freshwater ecosystems. However, the impacts of microplastics, consisting of a large variety of synthetic polymers, on freshwater organisms remains poorly understood. We examined the effects of two polymer mixtures on the morphology, life history and on the molecular level of the waterflea Daphnia magna (three different clones). Microplastic particles of ~40 μm were supplied at a low concentration (1% of the food particles) leading to an average of ~30 particles in the digestive tract which reflects a high microplastic contamination but still resembles a natural situation. Neither increased mortality nor changes on the morphological (body length, width and tail spine length) or reproductive parameters were observed for adult Daphnia. The analyses of juvenile Daphnia revealed a variety of small and rather subtle responses of morphological traits (body length, width and tail spine length). For adult Daphnia, alterations in expression of genes related to stress responses (i.e. HSP60, HSP70 & GST) as well as of other genes involved in body function and body composition (i.e. SERCA) were observed already 48h after exposure. We anticipate that the adverse effects of microplastic might be influenced by many additional factors like size, shape, type and even age of the particles and that the rather weak effects, as detected in a laboratory, may lead to reduced fitness in a natural multi-stressor environment.

Spatial diversity gradients are a pervasive feature of life on Earth. We examined a global ocean circulation, biogeochemistry, and ecosystem model that indicated a decrease in phytoplankton diversity with increasing latitude, consistent with observations of many marine and terrestrial taxa. In the modeled subpolar oceans, seasonal variability of the environment led to competitive exclusion of phytoplankton with slower growth rates and lower diversity. The relatively weak seasonality of the stable subtropical and tropical oceans in the global model enabled long exclusion time scales and prolonged coexistence of multiple phytoplankton with comparable fitness. Superimposed on the decline in diversity seen from equator to pole were \"hot spots\" of enhanced diversity in some regions of energetic ocean circulation, which reflected lateral dispersal.

Urban ecologists have demonstrated that cities are functioning ecosystems. It follows then that species living in these contexts should participate in and experience the same suite of biological processes, including evolution, that have occupied scientists for centuries in more \"natural\" contexts. In fact, urban ecosystems with myriad novel contexts, pressures, and species rosters provide unprecedentedly potent evolutionary stimuli. Here, we present the case for studying adaptive evolution in urban settings. We then review and synthesize techniques into a coherent approach for studying adaptive evolution in urban settings that combines observations of phenotypic divergence, measurements of fitness benefits of novel genetically based phenotypes, and experimental manipulations of potential drivers of adaptation. We believe that studying evolution in urban contexts can provide insights into fundamental evolutionary biology questions on rate, direction, and repeatability of evolution, and may inform species and ecosystem service conservation efforts.

Climate change and catastrophic events have contributed to rice shortages in several regions due to decreased water availability and soil salinization. Although not adapted to salt or drought stress, two commercial rice varieties achieved tolerance to these stresses by colonizing them with Class 2 fungal endophytes isolated from plants growing across moisture and salinity gradients.Plant growth and development, water usage, ROS sensitivity and osmolytes were measured with and without stress under controlled conditions.The endophytes conferred salt, drought and cold tolerance to growth chamber and greenhouse grown plants. Endophytes reduced water consumption by 20-30% and increased growth rate, reproductive yield, and biomass of greenhouse grown plants. In the absence of stress, there was no apparent cost of the endophytes to plants, however, endophyte colonization decreased from 100% at planting to 65% compared to greenhouse plants grown under continual stress (maintained 100% colonization).These findings indicate that rice plants can exhibit enhanced stress tolerance via symbiosis with Class 2 endophytes, and suggest that symbiotic technology may be useful in mitigating impacts of climate change on other crops and expanding agricultural production onto marginal lands.

Urban habitats are characterized by impervious surfaces, which increase temperatures and reduce water availability to plants. The effects of these conditions on herbivorous insects are not well understood, but may provide insight into future conditions. Three primary hypotheses have been proposed to explain why multiple herbivorous arthropods are more abundant and damaging in cities, and support has been found for each. First, less complex vegetation may reduce biological control of pests. Second, plant stress can increase plant quality for pests. And third, urban warming can directly increase pest fitness and abundance. These hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, and the effects of temperature and plant stress are particularly related. Thus, we test the hypothesis that urban warming and drought stress combine to increase the fitness and abundance of the scale insect, Melanaspis tenebricosa, an urban tree pest that is more abundant in urban than rural areas of the southeastern U.S. We did this by manipulating drought stress across an existing mosaic of urban warming. We found support for the additive effect of temperature and drought stress such that female embryo production and body size increased with temperature and was greater on drought-stressed than watered trees. This study provides further evidence that drivers of pest insect outbreaks act in concert, rather than independently, and calls for more research that manipulates multiple abiotic factors related to urbanization and climate change to predict their effects on ecological interactions. As cities expand and the climate changes, warmer temperatures and drought conditions may become more widespread in the native range of this pest. These changes have direct physiological benefits for M. tenebricosa, and potentially other pests, that may increase their fitness and abundance in urban and natural forests.

1. Ants are recognized as one of the major sources of soil disturbance world-wide. However, this view is largely based on isolated studies and qualitative reviews. Here, for the first time, we quantitatively determined whether ant nests affect soil fertility and plant performance, and identified the possible sources of variation of these effects. 2. Using Bayesian mixed-models meta-analysis, we tested the hypotheses that ant effects on soil fertility and plant performance depend on the substrate sampled, ant feeding type, latitude, habitat and the plant response variable measured. 3. Ant nests showed higher nutrient and cation content than adjacent non-nest soil samples, but similar pH. Nutrient content was higher in ant refuse materials than in nest soils. The fertilizer effect of ant nests was also higher in dry habitats than in grasslands or savannas. Cation content was higher in nests of plant-feeding ants than in nests of omnivorous species, and lower in nests from agro-ecosystems than in nests from any other habitat. 4. Plants showed higher green/root biomass and fitness on ant nests soils than in adjacent, non-nest sites; but plant density and diversity were unaffected by the presence of ant nests. Root growth was particularly higher in refuse materials than in ant nest soils, in leaf-cutting ant nests and in deserts habitats. 5. Our results confirm the major role of ant nests in influencing soil fertility and vegetation patterns and provide information about the factors that mediate these effects. First, ant nests improve soil fertility mainly through the accumulation of refuse materials. Thus, different refuse dump locations (external or in underground nest chambers) could benefit different vegetation life-forms. Second, ant nests could increase plant diversity at larger spatial scales only if the identity of favoured plants changes along environmental gradients (i.e. enhancing β-diversity). Third, ant species that feed on plants play a relevant role fertilizing soils, which may balance their known influence as primary consumers. Fourth, the effects of ant nests as fertility islands are larger in arid lands, possibly because fertility is intrinsically lower in these habitats. Overall, this study provide novel and quantitative evidence confirming that ant nests are key soil modifiers, emphasizing their role as ecological engineers.

Where direct killing is rare and niche overlap low, sympatric carnivores may appear to coexist without conflict. Interference interactions, harassment and injury from larger carnivores may still pose a risk to smaller mesopredators. Foraging theory suggests that animals should adjust their behaviour accordingly to optimise foraging efficiency and overall fitness, trading off harvest rate with costs to fitness. The foraging behaviour of red foxes, Vulpes vulpes, was studied with automated cameras and a repeated measures giving-up density (GUD) experiment where olfactory risk cues were manipulated. In Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia, red foxes increased GUDs by 34% and quitting harvest rates by 29% in response to wolf urine. In addition to leaving more food behind, foxes also responded to wolf urine by spending less time visiting food patches each day and altering their behaviour in order to compensate for the increased risk when foraging from patches. Thus, red foxes utilised olfaction to assess risk and experienced foraging costs due to the presence of a cue from gray wolves, Canis lupus. This study identifies behavioural mechanisms which may enable competing predators to coexist, and highlights the potential for additional ecosystem service pathways arising from the behaviour of large carnivores. Given the vulnerability of large carnivores to anthropogenic disturbance, a growing human population and intensifying resource consumption, it becomes increasingly important to understand ecological processes so that land can be managed appropriately.