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Evolutionary ecology and behaviour

This section considers studies in the areas of evolutionary behaviour and ecology including sexual conflict and selection.

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  1. Habitat disturbance affects the biology and health of animals globally. Understanding the factors that contribute to the differential responses of animals to habitat disturbance is critical for conservation. T...

    Authors: Nicolette McManus, Sheila M. Holmes, Edward E. Louis Jr., Steig E. Johnson, Andrea L. Baden and Katherine R. Amato
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:222
  2. Agroforestry is a production system combining trees with crops or livestock. It has the potential to increase biodiversity in relation to single-use systems, such as pastures or cropland, by providing a higher...

    Authors: Anne-Christine Mupepele, Matteo Keller and Carsten F. Dormann
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:193
  3. Industrial wastewater is a human health hazard upon exposure. Aquatic organisms in contaminated wastewater may accumulate the toxic elements with time. Human population living in informal settlements in Nairob...

    Authors: Geoffrey Kariuki Kinuthia, Veronica Ngure and Luna Kamau
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:188
  4. Chemical communication is an important aspect of the behavioural ecology of a wide range of mammals. In dogs and other carnivores, anal sac glands are thought to convey information to conspecifics by secreting...

    Authors: Sunita Janssenswillen, Kim Roelants, Sebastien Carpentier, Hilde de Rooster, Mieke Metzemaekers, Bram Vanschoenwinkel, Paul Proost and Franky Bossuyt
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:182
  5. Evolutionary processes can cause strong spatial genetic signatures, such as local loss of genetic diversity, or conflicting histories from mitochondrial versus nuclear markers. Investigating these genetic patt...

    Authors: Junchen Deng, Giacomo Assandri, Pallavi Chauhan, Ryo Futahashi, Andrea Galimberti, Bengt Hansson, Lesley T. Lancaster, Yuma Takahashi, Erik I. Svensson and Anne Duplouy
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:181
  6. Evolution of reproductive isolation is an important process, generating biodiversity and driving speciation. To better understand this process, it is necessary to investigate factors underlying reproductive is...

    Authors: Yukie Sato, Satoshi Fujiwara, Martijn Egas, Tomoko Matsuda and Tetsuo Gotoh
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:177
  7. One of the ecological impacts of exotic plant invasions may be alteration of the soil microbial community, which may cause changes to the diversity, richness and function of these communities. In order to expl...

    Authors: Nardi Torres, Ileana Herrera, Laurie Fajardo and Ramiro O. Bustamante
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:172
  8. The host specificity and host range of the dry bean beetle, Acanthoscelides obtectus (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae, Bruchinae), a seed predator of beans, is poorly known. In addition, the female oviposition preferen...

    Authors: Árpád Szentesi
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:171
  9. The dominant Gasterophilus species in the desert steppe (Xinjiang, China) Gasterophilus pecorum poses a serious threat to the reintroduced Przewalski’s horses. We investigated the distribution pattern of G. pecor...

    Authors: Heqing Huang, Ke Zhang, Changliang Shao, Chen Wang, Make Ente, Zhenbiao Wang, Dong Zhang and Kai Li
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:169
  10. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is the causative agent of chytridiomycosis, one of the major causes of worldwide amphibian biodiversity loss. Many amphibians exhibit skin-based chemical defences, which may pl...

    Authors: János Ujszegi, Krisztina Ludányi, Ágnes M. Móricz, Dániel Krüzselyi, László Drahos, Tamás Drexler, Márk Z. Németh, Judit Vörös, Trenton W. J. Garner and Attila Hettyey
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:135
  11. Populations living in fragmented habitats may suffer from loss of genetic variation and reduced between-patch dispersal, which are processes that can result in genetic differentiation. This occurs frequently i...

    Authors: Nelli Rönkä, Veli-Matti Pakanen, Angela Pauliny, Robert L. Thomson, Kimmo Nuotio, Hannes Pehlak, Ole Thorup, Petteri Lehikoinen, Antti Rönkä, Donald Blomqvist, Kari Koivula and Laura Kvist
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:125
  12. Tracing the association between insect cold tolerance and latitudinally and locally varying environmental conditions, as well as key morphological traits and molecular mechanisms, is essential for understandin...

    Authors: Noora Poikela, Venera Tyukmaeva, Anneli Hoikkala and Maaria Kankare
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:117
  13. In contrast to the explosive increase of a population following biological invasion, natural dispersal, i.e., when a population disperses from its original range into a new range, is a passive process that is ...

    Authors: Liqun Yu, Shuai Zhao, Fanbing Meng, Yanshuang Shi and Chunzhu Xu
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:111
  14. The European population of hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) is declining. It is therefore essential to optimise conservation initiatives such as the rehabilitation of sick, injured and orphaned hedgehogs. Wild ani...

    Authors: Sophie Lund Rasmussen, Otto Kalliokoski, Torben Dabelsteen and Klas Abelson
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:96
  15. The functioning of ecosystems is highly variable through space and time. Climatic and edaphic factors are forcing ecological communities to converge, whereas the diversity of plant assemblages dampens these ef...

    Authors: Guillaume Rheault, Esther Lévesque and Raphaël Proulx
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:91
  16. Population size and densities are key parameters in both fundamental and applied ecology, as they affect population resilience to density-dependent processes, habitat changes and stochastic events. Efficient m...

    Authors: Mickaël Jacquier, Jean-Michel Vandel, François Léger, Jeanne Duhayer, Sylvia Pardonnet, Ludovic Say, Sébastien Devillard and Sandrine Ruette
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:82
  17. In holometabolous insects, environmental factors experienced in pre-imaginal life stages affect the life-history traits within that stage and can also influence subsequent life stages. Here, I assessed toleran...

    Authors: Steve B. S. Baleba
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:78
  18. In temperate regions many small mammals including bats hibernate during winter. During hibernation these small mammals occasionally wake up (arouse) to restore electrolyte and water balance. However, field dat...

    Authors: Heungjin Ryu, Kodzue Kinoshita, Sungbae Joo and Sun-Sook Kim
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:77
  19. During recognition process, multiple parameters of the encountered stimulus may play a role. Previous studies with wild birds identified the importance of several salient features (e.g., eyes, beak, prominent ...

    Authors: Kateřina Antonová, Petr Veselý and Roman Fuchs
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:74
  20. Refaunation/rewilding by large ungulates represents a cost-efficient approach to managing natural biotopes and may be particularly useful for areas whose biodiversity depends on disturbance dynamics and is imp...

    Authors: Martin Konvička, David Ričl, Veronika Vodičková, Jiří Beneš and Miloslav Jirků
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:73
  21. Although the immediate consequences of biological invasions on ecosystems and conservation have been widely studied, the long-term effects remain unclear. Invaders can either cause the extinction of native spe...

    Authors: Carlos García, Josefina G. Campoy and Rubén Retuerto
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:69
  22. A striking aspect of evolution is that it often converges on similar trajectories. Evolutionary convergence can occur in deep time or over short time scales, and is associated with the imposition of similar se...

    Authors: Cory A. Berger, Michael S. Brewer, Nobuaki Kono, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Kazuharu Arakawa, Susan R. Kennedy, Hannah M. Wood, Seira A. Adams and Rosemary G. Gillespie
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:48
  23. Sexual dimorphism is widespread in insects. The certain specialized structures may be used as weapons in male–male combats or as ornaments to enhance mating opportunities.

    Authors: Yan-jie Zhang, Peter J. M. Shih, Jun-you Wang, Maria E. McNamara, Chungkun Shih, Dong Ren and Tai-ping Gao
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:47
  24. Lake Tanganyika belongs to the East African Great Lakes and is well known for harbouring a high proportion of endemic and morphologically distinct genera, in cichlids but also in paludomid gastropods. With abo...

    Authors: Wencke Krings, Marco T. Neiber, Alexander Kovalev, Stanislav N. Gorb and Matthias Glaubrecht
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:35
  25. There is widespread interkingdom signalling between insects and microbes. For example, microbes found in floral nectar may modify its nutritional composition and produce odorants that alter the floral odor bou...

    Authors: D. A. H. Peach, C. Carroll, S. Meraj, S. Gomes, E. Galloway, A. Balcita, H. Coatsworth, N. Young, Y. Uriel, R. Gries, C. Lowenberger, M. Moore and G. Gries
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:29

    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:37

  26. Land use practices are noted to contribute to changes in forest landscape composition. However, whereas studies have reported the intermix of land uses and forest patches and measured the direct impacts of lan...

    Authors: Williams Agyemang-Duah, Joseph Oduro Appiah and Dina Adei
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:28
  27. Animals use diverse antipredator mechanisms, including visual signalling of aversive chemical defence (aposematism). However, the initial evolution of aposematism poses the problem that the first aposematic in...

    Authors: Lingzi Wang, Stephen J. Cornell, Michael P. Speed and Kevin Arbuckle
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:25
  28. Social insects vary widely in social organization, yet the genetical and ecological factors influencing this variation remain poorly known. In particular, whether spatially varying selection influences the mai...

    Authors: Sacha Zahnd, Amaranta Fontcuberta, Mesut Koken, Aline Cardinaux and Michel Chapuisat
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:24
  29. Male genitalia are thought to ensure transfer of sperm through direct physical contact with female during copulation. However, little attention has been given to their pre-copulatory role with respect to sexua...

    Authors: Bénédicte M. Lefèvre, Diane Catté, Virginie Courtier-Orgogozo and Michael Lang
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:23
  30. The developmental fates of offspring have the potential to be influenced by the identity of their care-givers and by the nature of the care that they receive. In animals that exhibit both parental and allopare...

    Authors: Claudinéia P. Costa, Kaleigh Fisher, Blanca M. Guillén, Naoki Yamanaka, Guy Bloch and S. Hollis Woodard
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:20
  31. Invasive species are increasingly driving biodiversity decline, and knowledge of colonization dynamics, including both drivers and dispersal modes, are important to prevent future invasions. The bee species Megac...

    Authors: Julia Lanner, Fabian Gstöttenmayer, Manuel Curto, Benoît Geslin, Katharina Huchler, Michael C. Orr, Bärbel Pachinger, Claudio Sedivy and Harald Meimberg
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:17

    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:30

  32. How land use shapes biodiversity and functional trait composition of animal communities is an important question and frequently addressed. Land-use intensification is associated with changes in abiotic and bio...

    Authors: Katja Wehner, Carsten Renker, Nadja K. Simons, Wolfgang W. Weisser and Nico Blüthgen
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:15
  33. Monoculture farming poses significant disease challenges, but fungus-farming termites are able to successfully keep their monoculture crop free from contamination by other fungi. It has been hypothesised that ...

    Authors: Nick Bos, Leandro Guimaraes, Romen Palenzuela, Justinn Renelies-Hamilton, Lorrie Maccario, Simon Kolotchèlèma Silue, N.’golo Abdoulaye Koné and Michael Poulsen
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:163

    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:10

  34. Life history theory predicts that during the lifespan of an organism, resources are allocated to either growth, somatic maintenance or reproduction. Resource allocation trade-offs determine the evolution and e...

    Authors: Falk Eckhardt, Angela Pauliny, Nicky Rollings, Frank Mutschmann, Mats Olsson, Cornelia Kraus and Peter M. Kappeler
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:160
  35. The white-backed planthopper (WBPH), Sogatella furcifera (Horváth) (Hemiptera, Delphacidae), is a migratory pest of rice in Asia. Shandong Province, in northern China, is located on the migration pathway of WBPH ...

    Authors: Nan Yang, Zhaoke Dong, Aidong Chen, Yanqiong Yin, Xiangyong Li and Dong Chu
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:154
  36. Fruit scent is increasingly recognized as an evolved signal whose function is to attract animal seed dispersers and facilitate plant reproduction. However, like all traits, fruit scent is likely to evolve in r...

    Authors: Omer Nevo, Kim Valenta, Annemarie Kleiner, Diary Razafimandimby, Juan Antonio James Jeffrey, Colin A. Chapman and Manfred Ayasse
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:138
  37. One hypothesis for the function of sleep is that it serves as a mechanism to conserve energy. Recent studies have suggested that increased sleep can be an adaptive mechanism to improve survival under food depr...

    Authors: Didem P. Sarikaya, Julie Cridland, Adam Tarakji, Hayley Sheehy, Sophia Davis, Ashley Kochummen, Ryan Hatmaker, Nossin Khan, Joanna Chiu and David J. Begun
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:126
  38. Studies on marine community dynamics and population structures are limited by the lack of exhaustive knowledge on the larval dispersal component of connectivity. Genetic data represents a powerful tool in unde...

    Authors: A. Iannucci, S. Cannicci, I. Caliani, M. Baratti, C. Pretti and S. Fratini
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:108
  39. Vertebrates exhibit diverse sex determination systems and reptiles stand out by having highly variable sex determinations that include temperature-dependent and genotypic sex determination (TSD and GSD, respec...

    Authors: Paola Cornejo-Páramo, Andrés Lira-Noriega, Ciro Ramírez-Suástegui, Fausto R. Méndez-de-la-Cruz, Tamás Székely, Araxi O. Urrutia and Diego Cortez
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:103
  40. Women’s morphological femininity is perceived to develop under the influence of sex hormones and to serve as a cue of estradiol level, fertility and health in mating context. However, as the studies on direct ...

    Authors: Agnieszka Żelaźniewicz, Judyta Nowak and Bogusław Pawłowski
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:102
  41. Under the threat of climate change populations can disperse, acclimatise or evolve in order to avoid fitness loss. In light of this, it is important to understand neutral gene flow patterns as a measure of dis...

    Authors: Anna P. Muir, Stanislas F. Dubois, Rebecca E. Ross, Louise B. Firth, Antony M. Knights, Fernando P. Lima, Rui Seabra, Erwan Corre, Gildas Le Corguillé and Flavia L. D. Nunes
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:100
  42. The adaptive significance of phenotypic changes elicited by environmental conditions experienced early in life has long attracted attention in evolutionary biology. In this study, we used Drosophila melanogaster ...

    Authors: Peter Klepsatel, Diana Knoblochová, Thirnahalli Nagaraj Girish, Heinrich Dircksen and Martina Gáliková
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:93
  43. Local coexistence of distinct, genetically determined color morphs can be unstable and transitional. Stable, long-term coexistence requires some form of balancing selection to protect morphs from getting lost ...

    Authors: Holger Schielzeth and Petra Dieker
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:63
  44. Ever since Darwin, evolutionary biologists have studied sexual selection driving differences in appearance and behaviour between males and females. An unchallenged paradigm in such studies is that one sex (usu...

    Authors: Ke Gao, Michiel van Wijk, Zoe Clement, Martijn Egas and Astrid T. Groot
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:53
  45. Taste is fundamental to diet selection in vertebrates. Genetic basis of sweet taste receptor in the shaping of food habits has been extensively studied in mammals and birds, but scarcely studied in fishes. Gra...

    Authors: Xiao-Chen Yuan, Xu-Fang Liang, Wen-Jing Cai, Shan He, Wen-Jie Guo and Kang-Sen Mai
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:25

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