Ecosphere

O_LINitrogen (N) is limiting for terrestrial herbivores, particularly over winter. Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) have adapted to seasonal scarcity of N by accruing muscle mass during the growing season when N is more abundant. C_LIO_LINitrogen stored in muscle tissue is then relied upon during winter to compensate for dietary deficits. Once their diet shifts from N-rich vascular plants to N-poor lichen over winter, caribou can lose [~]30% of their muscle mass. As catabolized N is shed in urine on wintering grounds, caribou could act as elemental transport across seasons and landscapes. Furthermore, if deposited N is taken up by lichen or other winter forage, it might enrich the nitrogen-poor winter diet of caribou in the future. C_LIO_LIWe tested this potential transport via three steps. We analysed Cladonia spp. lichen and vascular plants upon which caribou forage across Fogo Island, Newfoundland, using %N content as our metric of forage quality. We then compared seasonal habitat selection responses to forage quality by caribou using integrated step selection analyses. In summer, caribou selected areas with higher vascular plant %N but did not select nor avoid Cladonia quality. In contrast, caribou selected sites with higher quality Cladonia in winter but responded neutrally to vascular plant quality. C_LIO_LIWe compared seasonal distributions of caribou to determine whether nitrogen consumed in summer and deposited in winter would occur in spatially discrete locations. Population-level kernel density estimates for summer and winter in this island herd were mostly non-overlapping, lending credence to the potential landscape effects of N transport. C_LIO_LIWhen viewed together with established seasonal changes in woodland caribou physiology, sociality, and forage preferences, the shifts in habitat selection and seasonal ranges we observe here could serve as an adaptive strategy for caribou to recycle N and mitigate winter nutrient scarcity. C_LI

Habitat structure, food availability, and predation risk have spatiotemporal variation on the landscape that creates tradeoffs between risk and rewards for animals as they use habitat. These tradeoffs are associated with survival consequences and can vary by life or breeding stage, but stage-specific shifts in these relationships are often not considered in studies of habitat use and survival. We investigated habitat use for nests and broods in the Mountain plover as an exemplar of a ground-nesting species with precocial, mobile young to explore site- and breeding stage-specific responses to vegetation structure, food availability, and predation risk. We located and monitored nests and broods at two study sites in Colorado occupied by geographically separated breeding populations of plovers. We quantified the three covariate categories across standardized site-wide grids in 2021 and 2022. We employed a resource selection analysis to evaluate 10 a priori working hypotheses for how environmental covariates may influence the habitat used by plovers for nesting and brood-rearing. Model comparison results suggest that habitat use relative to availability is best explained by a quadratic relationship with vegetation structure dependent on breeding stage and site but not influenced by food availability or predation risk. Specifically, probability of use for nest sites was highest in areas with shorter vegetation, consistent with previous research, while probability of use for broods was lowest in areas with moderate groundcover height and bare ground coverage and highest at the extremes. These results emphasize the importance of investigating stage-specific habitat use for species with precocial young.

With the peak of the wildfire season in North America typically occurring during the core part of fall bird migration, migratory birds are likely to be increasingly impacted by worsening wildfire seasons during their southerly movements. In this study, we combined two approaches to assess the impact of wildfires on migratory birds captured in southern Utah. First, we used five years of bird banding data to assess how bird movement and physical condition patterns are impacted. Second, we used stable hydrogen isotopes from collected feathers to identify the geographic origin of the individuals of several migratory species in order to better understand how fires may be influencing migration. We found that when there were more wildfires active in western North America, there were more captures of birds at our banding station, likely a result of birds shifting their movements to avoid areas of fire and smoke, and that birds had worse body condition and overall health as shown from lower body masses. We also found that during periods when wildfires are especially active and severe, wildfire activity has the most significant influence on bird movements and health compared to other prominent environmental variables. Our isotopic results provide evidence that two species migration patterns varied across the year in both migration timing and likely summer origin, and show how fire activity could have affected the migratory window for some species. More broadly, our isotope data improves our knowledge of the likely geographic origins of migratory birds in this particular flyway, adds to the literature on feather-based hydrogen isotope analyses, provides some of the first published isotope data for two species, and streamlines a workflow that can aid future researchers working with feather hydrogen isotope data.

O_LIChanges in habitat structure across species distributions may contribute to the generation and maintenance of range limits, but few studies have evaluated this by directly measuring habitat availability across relevant spatial scales. C_LIO_LIHere, we test the predictions that coarse-scale and patch-level habitat availability decline towards and beyond the northern range limit of Pacific coastal dune endemic Camissoniopsis cheiranthifolia. We used aerial imagery and geographic information system (GIS) tools to measure the coarse-scale availability of coastal dune habitat in California and Oregon. The availability of finer-scale habitat patches specifically suitable for C. cheiranthifolia was measured in a 2-generation field survey of > 4,200 5m x 5m plots randomly distributed across 1100 km of coastal dune habitat transcending the species northern range limit. At each plot, we estimated the proportion of area that contained suitable habitat as well as recorded occupancy by C. cheiranthifolia. As an alternative approach to visually estimating habitat suitability, we recorded plant community composition at each plot to predict beyond-range habitat suitability using a random forest model. C_LIO_LIContrary to our predictions, we found that coastal dune habitat, measured coarsely from aerial imagery, was more abundant and continuous towards and beyond the northern range limit. At the fine scale, however, the proportion of plots with suitable habitat (patch suitability) and the proportion of habitat within plots that was suitable (patch size) declined across the range limit. Moreover, patches were more isolated from one another and, in one survey year, less temporally stable towards and beyond the range limit. Finally, occupancy by C. cheiranthifolia was less likely in smaller, more isolated, and temporally unstable patches, providing mechanistic insight to the previously observed decline in occupancy towards the range limit. C_LIO_LISynthesis: Taken together, our results suggest that fine-scale habitat patch configuration changes in ways that likely impede patch colonization, thereby reducing occupancy and limiting the species northern distribution. Thus, consideration of geographic variation in patch and landscape structure, rather than only coarse-scale habitat availability, may be essential for understanding the processes that limit species ranges. C_LI

Red Knots (Calidris canutus rufa) rely on Atlantic horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) eggs in the Delaware Bay to refuel during northward migration. Intensive harvest of horseshoe crabs in the 1990s contributed to declines in Red Knot numbers. In 2013, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission adopted an Adaptive Resource Management (ARM) framework to balance sustainable horseshoe crab harvest with ecosystem integrity and Red Knot recovery, requiring annual stopover population estimates. We estimated the 2025 passage population of Red Knots at Delaware Bay using a Bayesian analysis of a Jolly-Seber mark-resight model which accounts for population turnover and imperfect detection. We also evaluated change in migration timing between 2011 and 2025 with model-derived estimates of arrival at the Delaware Bay each year. The 2025 passage population was 54,043 individuals (95% credible interval: 47,926-61,928), an increase of approximately 17% over 2024 and only the second year since 2011 to exceed 50,000 individuals. Despite the increase, overlapping credible intervals across years indicate a stable stopover population. Migration timing has remained consistent, with 50% of the population typically arriving by 18 May and no evidence of advancement since 2011. These findings provide meaningful input for the ARM framework, supporting sustainable harvest of horseshoe crabs while maintaining adequate foraging opportunities for Red Knots and other shorebirds. Parts of the Introduction, Methods, and Appendices were originally published in Lyons (2024) and are summarized herein.

Invasive round goby Neogobius melanostomus have advanced eastward through the state of New York and provinces of Ontario and Quebec over the past two decades and are approaching Lake Champlain, one of the largest lakes in North America. This manuscript describes international efforts to monitor round goby populations during 2021-2025 on (a) the southern approach to Lake Champlain via the Hudson River and Champlain Canal, and (b) the northern approach to Lake Champlain via the Saint Lawrence River and Richelieu River. Monitoring utilized environmental DNA (eDNA), backpack electrofishing, beach seining, benthic trawling, and viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) testing. In the Champlain Canal, round goby were captured as far north as the downstream side of the C1 dam (97 kilometers [km] from Lake Champlain) while eDNA detections occurred as far north as the upstream side of the C2 dam (90 km from Lake Champlain). In the Richelieu River, round goby were captured as far south as Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu (82 km from Lake Champlain) while the southern-most eDNA detections occurred near the Canadian side of the international border (4 km from Lake Champlain). Water temperature influenced habitat usage of round goby in the Champlain Canal, with catch rates in near-shore areas declining at < 10 {degrees}C. All VHSV test results were non-detections at the mouth of the Richelieu River, while one positive and two inconclusive results occurred along the Champlain Canal. Together, these data have informed multiple mitigation measures and have implications for management of aquatic invasive species across North America.

Carolinian old-growth forests in southwestern Ontario are among the most biodiverse ecosystems in Canada, yet regeneration of several canopy tree species is increasingly constrained by intense white-tailed deer browsing and changing disturbance regimes. Windstorms frequently uproot trees in this region, creating tip-up mounds that alter soil structure, drainage, and microtopography. These microsites may provide important opportunities for seedling establishment, but their role in forest regeneration remains poorly understood. This study examined how tip-up mound microsites differ from adjacent ground microsites in soil properties and how these differences influence seedling survival. A total of 84 tip-up mounds were sampled across several conservation areas in Hamilton, Ontario. For each mound, soil samples were collected from the mound top and adjacent forest floor and analyzed for soil moisture, pH, organic matter, and texture. Seedlings of two deer-preferred native species, red oak (Quercus rubra) and black cherry (Prunus serotina), were planted on mound tops and adjacent ground microsites, and their survival was monitored over the growing season. Ground microsites had significantly higher soil moisture and organic matter than mound tops, whereas mound tops were consistently drier. Seedling responses differed between species: red oak survival was higher on ground microsites, while black cherry survival was higher on mound tops. Logistic regression analyses indicated that soil moisture was the strongest predictor of seedling survival, with contrasting responses between the two species. These results suggest that tip-up mounds create distinct environmental conditions that selectively favor different regeneration strategies. As white-tailed deer browsing continues to suppress regeneration on the forest floor - particularly in areas of high deer activity and low wildlife species richness - while windthrow frequency rises under climate change, tip-up mounds are poised to become increasingly critical regeneration niches for species capable of establishing under drier, well-aerated microsite conditions.

O_LISubmerged macrophytes are central to freshwater ecosystems functioning but are declining globally under multiple anthropogenic stressors. We aimed to identify general patterns in physiological responses and interaction types, and to assess whether a mechanistic understanding of stressor interactions can be developed from published evidence. C_LIO_LIWe systematically reviewed 12,858 records, identified 172 relevant papers, and extracted effect sizes from 124 experiments included in the meta-analysis. C_LIO_LIMost studies examined combinations of nutrient enrichment, shading, toxic trace metals, warming, and emerging contaminants such as PFAS and microplastics, typically under simplified 2 x 2 factorial laboratory designs. Additive effects dominated (50%), while synergistic interactions were relatively infrequent (14%). Antagonistic interactions often reflected dominance of a single stressor or compensatory responses, whereas synergisms were most frequent with metals combined with co-stressors enhancing bioavailability. C_LIO_LIOur synthesis suggests that accumulated stressors cause negative, but not necessarily amplified, responses, although the limited number of experiments testing more than two stressors means synergistic effects may be underestimated. We propose Stuckenia pectinata as a model organism because of its cosmopolitan distribution, experimental tractability, and available genomic resources, and argue that expanding stressor complexity, duration, and taxonomic breadth will strengthen predictions of macrophyte responses and inform freshwater conservation under global change. C_LI

IntroductionHuman land-use intensification and the resulting habitat loss are primary drivers of insect pollinator declines. Habitat restoration offers a promising approach to counteract these declines, yet landscape-level evaluations of bee responses to restoration and management remain limited. We conducted a two-year, landscape-scale study in Wisconsin, USA, to assess how different intensities of tallgrass prairie restoration and management affect bumble bees (Bombus spp.). ObjectivesThis study aimed to determine whether (1) bumble bee abundance and diversity increase with assisted restoration, and (2) outcomes differ between low-(seeded only) and moderate-intensity (seeded and managed with prescribed fire) interventions. MethodsUsing catch-and-release surveys, we measured bumble bee abundance and diversity at 32 sites representing a gradient in restoration intervention: no intervention (unassisted recovery), low intervention, and moderate intervention. ResultsBumble bee abundance and diversity were higher at assisted restoration sites (low and moderate intervention) than at unassisted sites. Although both tended to be greater at moderate than low intervention intensities, these differences were not statistically significant. Bumble bee community composition also differed across intervention intensity, driven by shifts in dominant species (e.g., B. impatiens and B. griseocollis). Rarer taxa, including endangered and vulnerable species, occurred only at assisted restoration sites, with the largest populations at moderate intervention sites. Across all sites, bumble bee responses were strongly and positively associated with floral abundance, but not with semi-natural habitat in the surrounding landscape. ConclusionOur findings demonstrate that assisted grassland restoration can effectively increase bumble bee abundance and diversity, supporting its value as a conservation practice for pollinators. Implications for Practice: (1) Grassland restorations targeting plant communities can successfully support nontarget pollinators across a range of management intensities and landscape contexts. Adding seeds of pollinator-preferred plants could improve restorations with low floral abundance and diversity. (2) Management of existing restorations is important to maintain abundant floral resources and diverse pollinator communities. Because sites varied widely in prescribed fire use, our findings likely represent a conservative estimate of its benefits, and higher intervention intensity (e.g., repeated seeding, regular fire, mechanical or chemical shrub and invasive plants control) may further enhance outcomes for bumble bees.

Plant communities within a metacommunity can vary widely in their degree of invasion by introduced species. Disturbance, propagule pressure, and biotic resistance are common explanations for this variation, but empirical evidence for these hypotheses is mixed. Alternatively, the community assembly framework predicts that local assembly filters determine both native and exotic composition, but lower trait variation in the introduced species pool may exclude them from certain sites. We examined evidence for this framework using observational data from forests and woodlands of Long Island, NY, USA. These forests vary in vegetation composition and invasion along a soil gradient. They are also highly disturbed and fragmented, yet some stands have almost no introduced plants. Using data collected in 1998 and 2021-22, we quantified relationships between community composition, soil characteristics, and functional traits for native and exotic assemblages, as indicators of environmental filtering. We found similar trait-environment relationships in native and introduced species, suggesting that both groups follow the same local assembly rules. Introduced species were predominantly found in sites with more nutrient-rich soils and were absent from sites with nutrient-poor soils. At the regional scale, the exotic species pool was biased toward trait values favored in more nutrient-rich environments, particularly high growth rates and low leaf C:N ratios, which explains their absence from nutrient-poor environments. These patterns were consistent over time, and stands that were uninvaded in 1998 remained so in 2021-22, supporting the robustness and reliability of short-term studies. This study shows that invasion patterns in plant communities can be explained by the assembly rules that govern native species. By linking local environmental filtering with regional species pool characteristics, this work advances our understanding of how some communities remain uninvaded despite high disturbance and propagule pressure. Overall, these results highlight the utility of the community assembly framework, and emphasize the importance of regional processes in constraining the local distribution of introduced species.

Spatial and spatiotemporal models are increasingly critical for understanding species distributions, tracking population change, and informing conservation decisions. As biological processes are influenced by increasing external pressures, including human disturbance or environmental change, accurate model predictions become essential for adaptive management. However, the reliability of spatial predictions depends on often-overlooked modelling choices, including the spatial resolution used to approximate underlying processes. Using long term monitoring data from a large-scale groundfish survey in the California Current ecosystem, we investigated how spatial model complexity affects the quality of ecological predictions and derived indices used for management. We fit spatial and spatiotemporal models of ocean temperature and fish biomass density for 27 commercially important species using varying levels of spatial resolution. We evaluated both in-sample and out-of-sample prediction, and effects on area-weighted biomass indices. Counter to common assumptions, increasing spatial approximation resolution did not universally improve predictions. Our case studies demonstrate that for many datasets, out-of-sample prediction quality peaked at intermediate spatial resolutions and declined at the finest scales. Through simulation testing, we found this pattern was strongest when spatial patterning had a small range and high spatial variance, and observation error was low. For most species, spatial resolution had a minimal effect on biomass trend estimates used in management, but for several commercially important rockfish species, resolution choices substantially affected both the scale and uncertainty of population indices. Our findings demonstrate that spatial model specification can substantially affect ecological inference, with direct implications for management and conservation planning. We provide practical guidance for ecologists on selecting appropriate spatial complexity through cross-validation. When out-of-sample prediction is a focus, appropriate approximation complexity should improve both parameter estimation accuracy and derived quantities.

Intensive agricultural practices directly affect farmland bird and non-target insect populations by modifying their habitats, but may also act indirectly by altering their interactions. Notably, the breeding success of insectivorous birds has been shown to suffer from reduced prey availability. Yet little is known about how agriculture influences host-parasite relationships in wild birds. How agricultural intensity affects parasites, and whether this alleviates or exacerbates the trophic stress imposed on birds therefore remains to be determined. We estimated the number of obligate hematophagous Protocalliphora blowfly larva (Diptera: Calliphoridae) that parasitized nestlings in 2,560 Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) broods along a 10,200-km{superscript 2} gradient of agricultural intensity between 2004 and 2019 in Quebec, Canada. We first modeled two key variables along the causal paths expected to affect Protocalliphora prevalence and load (abundance) within infested broods: nestling hatching date and nestling host availability. Hatching phenology varied by several days with early-spring meteorological conditions and parental age, as for nestling availability (nestling-days), which also decreased along the agriculture intensity gradient as pastures and hay fields were replaced by large-scale, cereal row crops. Nestling availability peaked under low precipitation rates when temperatures reached 18 to 25 {degrees}C. Prevalence and load of blowfly larvae directly increased with nestling availability as well as with the temperature and precipitation that occurred during the larval development and pupation stages. Controlling for nestling availability, Protocalliphora prevalence and load peaked in forested landscapes interspersed by pastures and hay fields and reached their lowest in landscapes dominated by corn and soybean monocultures with minimal tree cover. Agricultural intensity thus reduced infestation likelihood and severity both directly and indirectly, by limiting nestling host availability. This finding is notable given the documented negative effects of agricultural intensity on fledgling number and body condition in farmland birds, even after controlling for insect prey reduction. If agricultural intensity indeed reduces the parasitic pressure exerted by bird blowflies and its consequences for fledgling condition and recruitment, this suggests that other agricultural impacts (e.g., toxicological effects from pesticides) may play a larger role than previously recognized in the severe declines of farmland bird populations observed across the Holarctic. Open research statementThe data supporting this study are not yet publicly available, as they require final harmonization, documentation and anonymization prior to archiving. Upon acceptance of the manuscript, all underlying data and associated code will be permanently deposited in the Zenodo repository and made fully accessible with a DOI.

O_LIStage-dependent interactions, in which different life cycle stages (e.g., juveniles, adults) exert different per-capita competitive effects, are widespread across ecological communities. However, whether explicitly accounting for such ontogenetic variation improves forecasts of stochastic community dynamics remains unclear. We tested how the strength of stage dependence and species life-history strategy influence the predictive accuracy of community models that either include or ignore stage-specific interactions. C_LIO_LIWe constructed stochastic two-species competition models using stage-structured matrix population models spanning five virtual life histories along the fast-slow continuum. Density dependence was imposed separately on juvenile survival, adult survival, progression, retrogression, or fertility, and the strength of stage dependence varied from adult-driven to juvenile-driven competition. We then fitted deterministic projection models with and without stage-dependent interaction terms to simulated time series and quantified predictive performance over 100 time-step forecasts using mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). C_LIO_LIIncreasing stage dependence consistently reduced the predictive accuracy of models that ignored stage structure. However, absolute prediction errors remained small across all scenarios (MAPE < 0.7%), even under strong stage dependence. The influence of life-history strategy depended on which vital rate was density dependent: when juvenile survival was density dependent, faster life histories showed larger errors; when progression, retrogression, or fertility were density dependent, slower life histories exhibited greater errors; and when adult survival was density dependent, no consistent life-history effect emerged. Across simulations, temporal variation in population structure was low (coefficient of variation < 0.036), and prediction error was strongly associated with the magnitude of structural fluctuations rather than life-history pace per se. C_LIO_LISynthesis. Stage-dependent interactions can, in principle, alter stochastic competitive dynamics, but their practical importance for ecological forecasting depends on the extent to which population stage structure fluctuates through time. When environmental stochasticity dominates and stage structure remains near equilibrium, simpler models that ignore stage dependence provide robust approximations of community dynamics. Our results identify conditions under which demographic detail is necessary for forecasting and highlight the central role of structural variability in linking life-history strategy to community-level dynamics. C_LI

Microbial communities can shift under drought in ways that enhance plant performance during drought ("microbe-mediated acclimation"). However, it is also possible for microbial communities to shift in ways that worsen the effects of drought ("mal-acclimation"). It is unclear how and where microbe-mediated acclimation vs. mal-acclimation occurs, or if there are types of soils or microbial communities that are more likely to harbor microbes that enhance plant acclimation and limit mal-acclimation. We tested for microbe-mediated plant acclimation/mal-acclimation to drought in soils from 21 maize farms in the midwestern United States, spanning a range of climate, soil types, and management practices. We first conditioned soil microbial communities to drought vs. well-watered conditions in a greenhouse and then tested for microbe-mediated acclimation by growing maize in soils inoculated with the conditioned microbial communities under drought and well-watered conditions. Drought-conditioned soils did not enhance plant performance under drought. In fact, one third of the farms exhibited mal-acclimation, especially under well-watered conditions where wet-conditioned soils reduced plant performance in well-watered contemporary conditions. Farm management practices, climate, soil texture, and microbial diversity generally did not predict when this microbe-mediated mal-acclimation occurred. Overall, these results suggest that in agricultural soils, microbes may frequently impede-rather than facilitate-plant acclimation to soil moisture levels. Open research statementThe plant and soil data used in this study are available via the Environmental Data Initiative repository at https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/f4a0db3a076cf6d8cef908947f82736e. The bacterial and fungal amplicon sequence data are available via the European Nucleotide Archive under accessions PRJEB110071 and PRJEB109827, respectively.

O_LICurtailment of wind farms effectively reduces collision mortality in bats. Implementing this measure in offshore wind farms requires knowledge on the spatiotemporal occurrence and environmental predictors of migration over sea. In bats, such information can be obtained through acoustic monitoring and individual tracking. However, these techniques provide seemingly contradictory insights into migration patterns. C_LIO_LIWe used a Bayesian capture-recapture state-space model to investigate how environmental predictors influence spring departure decisions of Nathusius pipistrelle Pipistrellus nathusii migrating over the North Sea. The model was applied to both acoustic and tracking data, enabling comparable analyses across methods and incorporating uncertainty in migration dates of tracked bats. Additionally, we examined nightly offshore bat occurrence to further explore differences in movement patterns detected by the two techniques. C_LIO_LIWind conditions at 200 m above sea level were identified as key driver of Nathusius pipistrelle spring migration. In May-June, most bats migrated from the United Kingdom under westerly and northwesterly tailwinds. Tracked individuals flew in stronger supportive winds than acoustically recorded bats, which were also detected under crosswinds and headwinds. In March-April, acoustic detections occurred mainly during strong southerly winds, suggesting that early-season migrants largely consisted of individuals migrating over the European mainland and drifted northwards onto the North Sea by strong crosswinds. C_LIO_LIAcoustic detectors primarily recorded bats that landed on offshore platforms, likely because they were unable to cross the North Sea in a single flight due to less favorable wind conditions, or because they departed from more inland locations. In contrast, tracking data mainly represented bats that successfully crossed the North Sea in a non-stop flight under moderate supportive tailwinds. C_LIO_LISynthesis and applications: Combining observation techniques improves our understanding of bat migration patterns. Additionally, acoustic monitoring can capture migration from different geographic origins. Current mitigation measures for offshore wind farms at the North Sea rely solely on acoustic data, likely overlooking the part of the population that crosses over sea with optimal wind support. Acoustic and tracking data are therefore complementary rather than contradictory, and both methods should be used together when developing mitigation measures. C_LI

Climate change is increasing the frequency of wildfires in ecosystems that historically rarely burn, such as wet heaths and peatlands, thereby threatening carbon storage, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning. We conducted a three-year, multi-level study to assess early post-fire recovery trajectories of soil physicochemical properties, vegetation, and soil microbial communities in a wet peatland-heathland mosaic affected by a flaming wildfire. Using a paired-plot design of burned and adjacent intact plots, we observed immediate spikes in bioavailable nitrogen (NH, NO-) and phosphorus (POlsen) and a reduction in soil moisture in burned plots, yet two years later these parameters had normalized, indicating rapid abiotic recovery. Vegetation was also strongly altered in the year of the fire, quantifiable by a distinct destruction of herb, moss, tree and litter cover. Although initial regrowth was dominated by a relatively fast resprouting of the graminoid Molinia caerulea, its absolute cover in burned plots never exceeded its cover in intact plots, suggesting this species did not expand post-fire. More typical peatland and wet heath species, including ericoid shrubs and Sphagnum mosses, recovered more gradually but largely returned to pre-fire levels within the timespan of our study, highlighting high vegetation resilience. Soil microbial communities showed contrasting responses. Prokaryotic communities shifted immediately after burning but largely recovered within one year. Fungal communities, however, exhibited stronger and more persistent changes and followed a distinct recovery trajectory shaped by succession of immediate and delayed fungal responders. Overall, pyrophilous and fire-tolerant fungi, such as Coniochaeta spp., increased, as did many presumably generalist or opportunistic saprotrophs. Litter and wood-associated saprotrophs as well as many mycorrhizal taxa, however, declined. Ongoing fungal shifts occurred even after soil chemistry and vegetation had largely returned to baseline, reflecting a temporary decoupling between above- and belowground communities that may have cascading effects on ecosystem functioning. In conclusion, our results reveal differential recovery trajectories across the soil-microbiome-vegetation interface and highlight that seemingly rapid abiotic and aboveground biotic recovery can mask prolonged microbial disruptions. We emphasize the importance of multi-level assessments for understanding ecosystem resilience. HighlightsO_LISoil physicochemistry, vegetation and prokaryotes recovered rapidly after a peatland wildfire C_LIO_LIFungal communities lagged behind and followed a slower recovery trajectory C_LIO_LIThe timing and duration of fungal responses to fire varied across taxa and included immediate or delayed as well as short-lived or persistent responders C_LIO_LIThere was a mismatch between vegetation and fungal recovery trajectories, evidenced by a transient post-disturbance decoupling between above- and belowground biotic communities C_LIO_LIPresumed aboveground recovery can mask prolonged belowground disruptions, with potential implications for decomposition, nutrient cycling, and plant-microbe interactions C_LI

Humans are profoundly reshaping the natural world. These changes are giving rise to complex and mutually risky dynamics between people and large carnivores. In protected areas across North America, bears (Ursus sp.) face rapidly rising recreation pressures that can alter their use of the landscape, either displacing them from high-quality habitats or drawing them into human-wildlife conflicts through habituation or attraction to anthropogenic resources. However, disentangling responses to recreation from other drivers can be difficult because human activity covaries with environmental and seasonal processes that also shape bear activity. We leveraged the partial closure of the popular Berg Lake Trail in Mount Robson Park, British Columbia, Canada, to investigate whether black (Ursus americanus) and grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) showed fear, attraction or neutral behavioural responses to varying recreation levels across multiple spatiotemporal scales. To understand both anticipatory responses to predictable patterns of human activity, and reactive responses to hiker events, we used detections from 43 camera traps over two years (July 2023-June 2025). We compared weekly habitat use, daily activity patterns, and direct responses to hikers (using Avoidance-Attraction Ratios; AARs) among camera sites and between open and closed sections of the trail. Our results revealed that both bear species exhibited patterns consistent with fear responses, while some black bear behaviours were also consistent with attraction responses. Both kinds of responses reflect anticipatory strategies rather than reactionary behaviours (i.e., no AAR effect). Neither species avoided recreation spatially at the weekly scale: black bears were detected more at site-weeks with greater recreation intensity, while grizzly bears were consistently detected more at sites closer to hiking trails. However, both species used daily temporal partitioning to avoid direct encounters with humans. These findings demonstrate scope for human-bear coexistence when recreation levels are managed to be moderate and predictable, and bears have sufficient space to segregate from humans during peak times. Thus, successful coexistence will hinge on co-adaptation by both bears and people. Understanding how recreation influences bear behaviour, and the spatiotemporal scale at which that occurs, is critical for guiding effective adaptive management aimed at fostering human-bear coexistence in high-traffic protected areas.

Habitat selection analyses, which discern the environmental conditions individuals select, often inform conservation planning. Through a literature review, we demonstrate that recent habitat selection studies rarely include fitness and health information. With a simulation study, we show that ignoring such information could support the protection of sink habitats. Our case studies demonstrate how health and fitness proxies can modify our understanding of habitat selection: (1) incorporating mass gain of thick-billed murres shows the energetic benefit of areas deemed secondary by a naive resource selection function; (2) including number of chicks in a step selection function (SSF) exposes the complex relationships glaucous-winged gulls have with landscapes impacted by humans; and (3) including external signs of trauma in the movement kernel of SSFs demonstrate others ways in which narwhal distribution can be altered. We urge movement ecologists to collect and use health and fitness data to improve ecological inference and conservation action.

There is growing interest in establishing more protective regulations for native fishes historically classified as "rough fish"- a term ascribed to species of low-to-zero perceived commercial value. Yet high-quality population data are lacking for most species and populations, precluding determination of sustainable harvest limits using standard methods. Here, we present an inductive and ecosystem -based approach for comparing and aligning harvest limits of diverse fish species. Our approach centers on the production/biomass (P/B) ratio as the key instrument for gauging sustainable harvest. P/B is the biomass turnover rate in populations and therefore quantifies the return rate of any removed biomass in populations. We extracted and summarized data from existing studies, representing a total of 517 empirical estimates of secondary production, biomass, and P/B ratios. We subsequently developed a highly predictive statistical model (R2 = 0.90), demonstrating P/B is largely a function of maximum age across species. We then developed a separate database on age, growth, and longevity data for most native fishes of interest across the USA. For each species and population, we leveraged the above statistical model to predict and compare mean P/B across species. Results show most native fishes express P/B values similar to, or lower than, traditional game fish species. Accordingly, harvest limits across species groups can be harmonized with those of other managed species. For example, native nongame species like Bigmouth Buffalo Ictiobus cyprinellus and Freshwater Drum Aplodinotus grunniens are long-lived with slow replacement rates that are statistically clustered with those observed in Lake Sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens and trophy Muskellunge Esox masquinongy populations, two popular game fish species. Harvest limits for these nongame species would therefore need to be similarly low for these species to ensure comparable sustainability. To understand broad patterns of harvest limit alignment, we modeled relationships between daily bag limits of managed species and P/B for five test states. Model uniformly showed non-linear trends with high residuals (suggesting excessive bag limits) common for panfish species and low residuals (suggesting overly conservative bag limits) common for trout species. Managers can use the results of this study to estimate harvest limits native fishes.

O_LIMegaherbivores are increasingly promoted as agents of nature restoration, yet most research on their ecological effects has focused on temperate and non-forested systems, with limited consideration of tropical forests and their historical land-use contexts. C_LIO_LIA better understanding of megaherbivore impacts in tropical forests is essential to inform rewilding and restoration efforts. This is particularly important in regenerating secondary systems that historically supported megafaunga and remain highly valuable targets for ecological recovery. C_LIO_LIWe address this knowledge gap by comparing tree species composition, forest structural attributes, and understory habitat composition across three disturbance regimes in an East African tropical dry forest: (1) primary forest with megaherbivores, (2) secondary forest with megaherbivores, and (3) primary forest without megaherbivores. C_LIO_LIUnder megaherbivore presence, understory habitat and tree branching architecture converged across primary and secondary forests, suggesting functional consistency in disturbance effects imposed by large herbivores and indicating that key structural ecosystem processes can be rapidly restored. In contrast, canopy structure and tree species composition remained distinct between forest types and strongly constrained by persistent legacies of past human land use. C_LIO_LIOur findings underscore that restoration strategies relying on megaherbivores must explicitly account for historical land-use constraints rather than assuming spontaneous convergence toward primary-forest conditions. C_LI