Human-induced Rapid Environmental Change Research Articles

Eco-evolutionary experience and behavioral innovation in interactions with non-native species

Behavioral changes play an important role for animals to cope with human-induced rapid environmental change such as biological invasions. The concept of eco-evolutionary experience (EEE) postulates that native species are more strongly impacted by non-native species the more these differ from species they have coevolved with. Also, EEE could influence the degree of innovation in new behaviors shown by native species. We conceived categorization schemes to assess both EEE and innovation and applied them to 86 records of behavioral change in native birds (n= 50), mammals (n= 19), and amphibians (n= 17). The results of this proof-of-concept study suggest an interconnectedness of EEE, innovation, and resulting population dynamics of native species. However, quantitative analyses were limited by the small size of our dataset. We encourage the use of the categorization schemes proposed here to close important knowledge gaps, so that our findings can be revisited with larger datasets in the future.

HPA flexibility and FKBP5: promising physiological targets for conservation.

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) flexibility is an emerging concept recognizing that individuals that will cope best with stressors will probably be those using their hormones in the most adaptive way. The HPA flexibility concept considers glucocorticoids as molecules that convey information about the environment from the brain to the body so that the organismal phenotype comes to complement prevailing conditions. In this context, FKBP5 protein appears to set the extent to which circulating glucocorticoid concentrations can vary within and across stressors. Thus, FKBP5 expression, and the HPA flexibility it causes, seem to represent an individual's ability to regulate its hormones to orchestrate organismal responses to stressors. As FKBP5 expression can also be easily measured in blood, it could be a worthy target of conservation-oriented research attention. We first review the known and likely roles of HPA flexibility and FKBP5 in wildlife. We then describe putative genetic, environmental and epigenetic causes of variation in HPA flexibility and FKBP5 expression among and within individuals. Finally, we hypothesize how HPA flexibility and FKBP5 expression should affect organismal fitness and hence population viability in response to human-induced rapid environmental changes, particularly urbanization. This article is part of the theme issue 'Endocrine responses to environmental variation: conceptual approaches and recent developments'.

Grand challenges at the frontiers of fish science

We provide a review of what we consider to be grand research challenges for fish science in an era of human-induced rapid environmental change.

Broad-scale impacts of coastal mega-infrastructure project on obligatory inshore delphinids: A cautionary tale from Hong Kong

Inshore marine habitats experience considerable anthropogenic pressure, as this is where many adverse effects of human activities concentrate. In the rapidly-changing seascape of the Anthropocene, Hong Kong waters at the heart of world's fastest developing coastal region can serve as a preview-window into coastal seas of the future, with ever-growing anthropogenic footprint. Here, we quantify how large-scale coastal infrastructure projects can affect obligatory inshore cetaceans, bringing about population-level consequences that may compromise their long-term demographic viability. As a case in point, we look at the construction of world's longest sea crossing system and broad-scale demographic, social and spatial responses it has caused in a shallow-water delphinid, the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis). Soon after the infrastructure project began, dolphins markedly altered their home range near construction sites such that these waters no longer functioned as dolphin core areas despite the apparent presence of prey, indicating that anthropogenic impacts outweighed foraging benefits. The contraction of key habitats has in turn led individuals to interact over spatially more constricted area, reshaping their group dynamics and social network. Although there was no apparent decline in dolphin numbers that could be detected with mark-recapture estimates, adult survival rates decreased drastically from 0.960 to 0.904, the lowest estimate for these animals anywhere across the region to date, notably below the previously estimated demographic threshold of their long-term persistence (0.955). It is apparent that during an advanced stage of this coastal infrastructure project, dolphins were under a major anthropogenic pressure that, if sustained, could be detrimental to their long-term persistence as a viable demographic unit. As effective conservation of species and habitats depends on informed management decisions, this study offers a valuable lesson in environmental risk assessment, underscoring the implications of human-induced rapid environmental change on obligatory inshore delphinids—sentinels of coastal habitats that are increasingly degraded in fast-changing coastal seas.

How can we apply decision-making theories to wild animal behavior? Predictions arising from dual process theory and Bayesian decision theory.

Our understanding of decision-making processes and cognitive biases is ever increasing, thanks to an accumulation of testable models and a large body of research over the last several decades. The vast majority of this work has been done in humans and laboratory animals because these study subjects and situations allow for tightly controlled experiments. However, it raises questions about how this knowledge can be applied to wild animals in their complex environments. Here, we review two prominent decision-making theories, dual process theory and Bayesian decision theory, to assess the similarities in these approaches and consider how they may apply to wild animals living in heterogenous environments within complicated social groupings. In particular, we wanted to assess when wild animals are likely to respond to a situation with a quick heuristic decision and when they are likely to spend more time and energy on the decision-making process. Based on the literature and evidence from our multi-destination routing experiments on primates, we find that individuals are likely to make quick, heuristic decisions when they encounter routine situations, or signals/cues that accurately predict a certain outcome, or easy problems that experience or evolutionary history has prepared them for. Conversely, effortful decision-making is likely in novel or surprising situations, when signals and cues have unpredictable or uncertain relationships to an outcome, and when problems are computationally complex. Though if problems are overly complex, satisficing via heuristics is likely, to avoid costly mental effort. We present hypotheses for how animals with different socio-ecologies may have to distribute their cognitive effort. Finally, we examine the conservation implications and potential cognitive overload for animals experiencing increasingly novel situations caused by current human-induced rapid environmental change.

The endangered brain: actively preserving ex-situ animal behaviour and cognition will benefit in-situ conservation.

Endangered species have small, unsustainable population sizes that are geographically or genetically restricted. Ex-situ conservation programmes are therefore faced with the challenge of breeding sufficiently sized, genetically diverse populations earmarked for reintroduction that have the behavioural skills to survive and breed in the wild. Yet, maintaining historically beneficial behaviours may be insufficient, as research continues to suggest that certain cognitive-behavioural skills and flexibility are necessary to cope with human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC). This paper begins by reviewing interdisciplinary studies on the 'captivity effect' in laboratory, farmed, domesticated and feral vertebrates and finds that captivity imposes rapid yet often reversible changes to the brain, cognition and behaviour. However, research on this effect in ex-situ conservation sites is lacking. This paper reveals an apparent mismatch between ex-situ enrichment aims and the cognitive-behavioural skills possessed by animals currently coping with HIREC. After synthesizing literature across neuroscience, behavioural biology, comparative cognition and field conservation, it seems that ex-situ endangered species deemed for reintroduction may have better chances of coping with HIREC if their natural cognition and behavioural repertoires are actively preserved. Evaluating the effects of environmental challenges rather than captivity per se is recommended, in addition to using targeted cognitive enrichment.

The effect of anthropogenic noise on foraging and vigilance in zoo housed pied tamarins

The phenomenon of human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC) is a great challenge in the modern world that presents a threat to all species. Research on the effect of anthropogenic noise on free-living wildlife is increasing but the effect of anthropogenic noise on the behaviour and welfare of captive wildlife has received limited attention, even though captive settings are full of human activity and a wide range of sounds. Moreover, studies in captivity tend to classify noise subjectively by volume according to human hearing and as part of the overall ‘visitor effect’ rather than a stressor in its own right. Research on free-living wildlife suggests that anthropogenic noise can negatively impact foraging behaviour; similar impacts in captive species could have a detrimental effect on their health and welfare if animals cannot perform functional feeding behaviours and access adequate nutrition. In the current study, we designed a forage box experiment for captive pied tamarins, a Critically Endangered callitrichid primate species that is prone to poor physical health and breeding success in captivity. Ten pairs of tamarins housed at Jersey Zoo were provided with a forage box containing cryptic (hidden) prey items (waxworms). Using a within-subjects design, tamarins were provided access to the forage box in noise and non-noise conditions of anthropogenic noise (machinery used for gardening in the zoo). Both active (foraging with the hands) and observational (looking into the forage box) foraging were significantly less frequent in the presence of anthropogenic noise; however, there was no difference in the duration of these behaviours or in foraging success. Furthermore, the presence of anthropogenic noise did not significantly affect vigilance behaviour. We found no sex differences in the effect of noise, and our results suggest that the anthropogenic noise we tested was only a minimal distractor for tamarins. However, large individual differences in foraging suggest that other factors may have a larger impact on foraging than the anthropogenic noise used in this experiment. More research into how captive animals may respond to the presence of anthropogenic noise is needed.

Human-induced rapid environmental change: A case study showing negative impact on animal culture

Changes in land use in recent decades have caused substantial biodiversity loss. Some authors suggest that animal cultures could be threatened by human pressure. The tradition of nut-cracking has been thoroughly studied since 2005 in the capuchin monkeys (S. libidinosus) of Fazenda Boa Vista (FBV). Despite being a relatively well-preserved area, the advance of intensive monocultures in the proximity of FBV, among other factors, may have affected the environmental features of the region. In this contribution we investigated the hypothesis that the tradition of nut-cracking using stone tools by bearded capuchin monkeys at FBV is threatened by the rapid transformation of the habitat. We analyzed longitudinal climatic data (mean maximum and minimum temperature and mean maximum and minimum humidity) from 2006 to 2020, and data from the periods 2006–2010 and 2015–2020 for the variables related to nut-cracking: availability of palm trees bearing fruits, ground use and consumption of palm nuts by the monkeys. We show an increase in maximum temperature and a decrease in minimum temperature and minimum humidity over the study years. There was a sharp drop in the number of fruiting palm trees per hectare between the two study periods and a decrease in the time that monkeys spent on the ground, eating palm nuts, and nut-cracking with tools. We confirmed the hypothesis that the tradition of using tools in feeding is threatened. Our results show that in less than two decades, habitat anthropization already negatively impacts animal cultures. We emphasize the importance of considering behavioral diversity in conservation criteria.

Correlations begin at home: drivers of co-occurrence patterns in personality and cognitive ability in wild populations of zebrafish.

Aquatic habitats are extremely dynamic, with constantly changing ecological factors, which has now been exacerbated due to human-induced rapid environmental change. In such variable environments, it becomes essential to understand how personality and cognition in organisms affect the adaptability of individuals to different habitat conditions. To test this, we studied how personality-related traits as well as cognitive ability differ between populations of wild-caught zebrafish (Danio rerio) from habitats that differed in various environmental factors. We measured emergence into a novel environment as an indicator of boldness, and performance in a spatial task inferred from feeding latencies in a maze over repeated trials to assess learning and memory, as an indicator of cognitive ability. We found that personality affects cognition and although bolder fish are better learners, they show poorer retention of memory across populations. Although personality and cognitive ability varied between habitats, the patterns of their correlations remained similar within each population. However, the individual traits (such as sex and size) that were drivers of personality and cognition differed between the habitats, suggesting that not only do behavioral traits vary between populations, but also the factors that are important in determining them. Personality and cognitive ability and the correlations between these traits determine how well an organism performs in its habitat, as well as how likely it is to find new habitats and adapt to them. Studying these across wild zebrafish populations helps predict performance efficiencies among individuals and also explains how fish adapt to extremely dynamic environments that can lead to variation in behavioral traits and correlations between them. This study not only sheds light on the drivers of interindividual variation and co-occurrence patterns of personality and cognition, but also individual and population factors that might have an effect on them.

Divergent foraging strategies between populations of sympatric matrilineal killer whales.

In cooperative species, human-induced rapid environmental change may threaten cost-benefit tradeoffs of group behavioral strategies that evolved in past environments. Capacity for behavioral flexibility can increase population viability in novel environments. Whether the partitioning of individual responsibilities within social groups is fixed or flexible across populations is poorly understood, despite its relevance for predicting responses to global change at the population and species levels and designing successful conservation programs. We leveraged bio-logging data from two populations of fish-eating killer whales (Orcinus orca) to quantify patterns of fine-scale foraging movements and their relationships with demography. We reveal striking interpopulation differences in patterns of individual foraging behavior. Females from the endangered Southern Resident (SRKW) population captured less prey and spent less time pursuing prey than SRKW males or Northern Resident (NRKW) females, whereas NRKW females captured more prey than NRKW males. The presence of a calf (≤3 years) reduced the number of prey captured by adult females from both populations, but disproportionately so for SRKW. SRKW adult males with a living mother captured more prey than those whose mother had died, whereas the opposite was true for NRKW adult males. Across populations, males foraged in deeper areas than females, and SRKW captured prey deeper than NRKW. These population-level differences in patterns of individual foraging behavior challenge the existing paradigm that females are the disproportionate foragers in gregarious resident killer whales, and demonstrate considerable variation in the foraging strategies across populations of an apex marine predator experiencing different environmental stressors.

Assessing chronic stress in wild mammals using claw-derived cortisol: a validation using European badgers (Meles meles).

Measuring stress experienced by wild mammals is increasingly important in the context of human-induced rapid environmental change and initiatives to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts. Glucocorticoids (GC), such as cortisol, mediate responses by promoting physiological adjustments during environmental perturbations. Measuring cortisol is a popular technique; however, this often reveals only recent short-term stress such as that incurred by restraining the animal to sample blood, corrupting the veracity of this approach. Here we present a protocol using claw cortisol, compared with hair cortisol, as a long-term stress bio-indicator, which circumvents this constraint, where claw tissue archives the individual's GC concentration over preceding weeks. We then correlate our findings against detailed knowledge of European badger life history stressors. Based on a solid-phase extraction method, we assessed how claw cortisol concentrations related to season and badger sex, age and body-condition using a combination of generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) (n= 668 samples from 273 unique individuals) followed by finer scale mixed models for repeated measures (MMRM) (n= 152 re-captured individuals). Claw and hair cortisol assays achieved high accuracy, precision and repeatability, with similar sensitivity. The top GLMM model for claw cortisol included age, sex, season and the sex*season interaction. Overall, claw cortisol levels were significantly higher among males than females, but strongly influenced by season, where females had higher levels than males in autumn. The top fine scale MMRM model included sex, age and body condition, with claw cortisol significantly higher in males, older and thinner individuals. Hair cortisol was more variable than claw; nevertheless, there was a positive correlation after removing 34 outliers. We discuss strong support for these stress-related claw cortisol patterns from previous studies of badger biology. Given the potential of this technique, we conclude that it has broad application in conservation biology.

What About Females? Urban Female Song Sparrows Elevate Aggressive Signaling Compared to Rural.

The costs and benefits of breeding behaviors are influenced by environmental conditions, and habitat variation can shift the degree to which behaviors are expressed. Novel urban habitats have been shown to differ significantly in disturbances such as noise, light at night, and human presence, as well as resource availability, compared to rural habitats. Perhaps because of these environmental differences, urban males of several species are consistently more aggressive than rural males, raising the hypothesis that greater territorial aggression is beneficial in urban habitats. Though often ignored, female songbirds of many species also perform aggressive territorial behaviors towards conspecifics during the breeding season. For socially monogamous songbirds, this aggression functions to ensure partner fidelity and secure resources for reproduction. Studies of the effects of urbanization on songbird behavior have yet to determine if urban females also express greater territorial aggression. Importantly, energetically demanding behaviors such as territoriality and parental care should constrain one another, leading to behavioral trade-offs during the breeding season. Though territorial aggression and parental care are inversely related in males of several species of songbird, this relationship is understudied in female songbirds, particularly those facing environmental change such as urbanization. In this study, we compared aggressive signaling and a measure of parental care (maternal nest visitation rates) between female song sparrows (Melospiza melodia), living in urban and rural habitats. We hypothesized that female aggressive signaling would be higher in urban environments compared to rural, and negatively correlated with maternal visitation rates. We found that urban females, like males, expressed increased aggressive signaling compared to rural. However, female aggressive signaling was not related to our measure of maternal care, suggesting females aren't facing a trade-off between these two behaviors. Collectively, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that urban habitats promote territorial aggression in female song sparrows. As urbanization continues to spread, understanding the behavioral changes animals employ in urban environments requires studying individuals of different sexes and age classes, and will help us understand how some species are able to cope with human induced rapid environmental change.

Responses to natural gas development differ by season for two migratory ungulates.

While migrating, animals make directionally persistent movements and may only respond to human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC), such as climate and land-use change, once a threshold of HIREC is surpassed. In contrast, animals on other seasonal ranges (e.g., winter range) make more localized and tortuous movements while foraging and may have the flexibility to adjust the location of their range and the intensity of use within it to minimize interactions with HIREC. Because of these seasonal differences in movement, animals on seasonal ranges should avoid areas that contain any level of HIREC, however, during migration, animals should use areas that contain low levels of HIREC, avoiding it only once a threshold of HIREC has been surpassed. We tested this hypothesis using a decade of GPS collar data collected from migratory mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus; n=56 migration, 143 winter) and pronghorn (Antilocapra americana; n=70 migration, 89 winter) that winter on and migrate through a natural gas field in western Wyoming. Using surface disturbance caused by well pads and roads as an index of HIREC, we evaluated behavioral responses across three spatial scales during winter and migration seasons. During migration, both species tolerated low levels of disturbance. Once a disturbance threshold was surpassed, however, they avoided HIREC. For mule deer, thresholds were consistently ~3%, whereas thresholds for pronghorn ranged from 1% to 9.25% surface disturbance. In contrast to migration, both species generally avoided all levels of HIREC while on winter range. Our study suggests that animal responses to HIREC are mediated by season-specific movement patterns. Our results provide further evidence of ungulates avoiding human disturbance on winter range and reveal disturbance thresholds that trigger mule deer and pronghorn responses during migration: information that managers can use to maintain the ecological function of migration routes and winter ranges.

Sex-specific responses to anthropogenic risk shape wild chimpanzee social networks in a human-impacted landscape

Large animal species are most likely to survive human-induced rapid environmental change if they display high levels of behavioural flexibility. Examining social responses in species that form closely bonded social groups and display high fission–fusion dynamics, such as chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes , will help determine their resilience to dynamic human activities and the potential for sustainable human–wildlife interactions. Coinciding with the seasonal availability of cultivated jackfruit, Artocarpus heterophyllus , a dominant food available in croplands and village gardens, we examined the social adjustments of wild chimpanzees to risks presented by a human-modified landscape at Bulindi, Uganda. Absolute party size decreased when chimpanzees moved from low-risk ‘natural’ habitat (forest fragments) to high-risk ‘anthropogenic’ habitat (croplands and other village areas), driven mainly by parties containing fewer females. Using social network analysis, we found that chimpanzee social structure showed partial flexibility in response to anthropogenic risk. The strength of social ties in a 5 m proximity network stayed similar and individual centrality measures were correlated between low- and high-risk habitats. Nevertheless, in high-risk habitat males were more central than females and exclusively dominated the core of the network's core–periphery structure. However, sex differences were not apparent when we corrected for party membership, indicating that differences were driven by changes to party membership between habitat types rather than changes in social proximity within parties. We suggest that perception of anthropogenic risk can drive continual adjustments to grouping dynamics in response to changing conditions that modify social lives of male and female chimpanzees in different ways. Consequently, changes in grouping patterns induced by continuing anthropogenic change could impact ecological and evolutionary processes influenced by social structure, including cultural evolution and the spread of infectious disease. • Party size decreased from low-risk ‘natural’ to high-risk ‘anthropogenic’ habitat. • Males had higher social centrality than females in high-risk habitat only. • Sex differences in centrality were caused by females avoiding high-risk habitat. • No sex difference in centrality was apparent when controlling for party membership. • Chimpanzee social structure showed partial flexibility to anthropogenic risk.

Invasive alien species as an environmental stressor and its effects on coping style in a native competitor, the Eurasian red squirrel

Free-living animals cope with environmental stressors through physiological and behavioural responses. According to the unidimensional model, these responses are integrated within a coping style: proactive individuals (bold, active-explorative and social) have a lower hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity than reactive ones (shy, less active-explorative, less social). These associations may change when individuals are exposed to human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC), such as the introduction of invasive alien species (IAS). Here, we studied Eurasian red squirrels to investigate the relationship between personality traits and one integrated measure of HPA axis activity, both in areas uncolonized (natural populations) and colonized by an IAS, the Eastern grey squirrel (invaded populations). We expected an association between physiological and behavioural responses, and that activity, exploration and social tendency would covary, forming a behavioural syndrome in natural populations, while competition with the IAS was predicted to disrupt these associations. We used faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGMs) as an integrated measure of adrenocortical activity, and measured the levels of four personality traits (exploration, activity, activity-exploration and social tendency) with an open field test and a mirror image stimulation test. We found no correlation between FGMs and personality traits, neither in natural nor invaded populations. However, we found correlations among personality traits in areas without interspecific competition, indicating a behavioural syndrome, which was disrupted in invaded populations. This is one of the few studies showing that an IAS, acting as an environmental stressor, alters a native species' behavioural syndrome, but does not influence its coping style.

动物个性研究进展

“个性”是指不同时空条件下动物种群个体间行为的稳定差异。大量的理论和实验性研究表明，个性差异在动物界普遍存在，其是种群多度和分布、物种共存及群落构建的重要驱动因子。介绍了动物个性的概念、分类及衡量指标，将前人测量个性类型的方法加以总结；随后介绍了动物个性的生态学意义，尤其是个性对动物生活史策略、种群分布与多度、群落结构和动态、生态系统功能和过程以及疾病与信息传播等的影响。在此基础上，进一步分析了在人类活动增加等全球变化背景下，动物个性如何调控动物个体行为、种群和群落动态对这些环境变化的响应。阐述了动物个性的形成与维持机制，并对未来的研究方向进行了展望。;Interspecific trait variation has long been considered as a conceptual foundation for our understanding of species interactions and community structure. In particular, ecologists realize the important role that animal behavior plays in shaping ecological processes. Although most studies commonly supposed that the functional diversity occurs at the level of the species and ignored individual variation. Recently, an emerging field of interest in animal behavior, the studies of animal personalities focus on how individual differences in behavior, as well as behavioral correlations affect the fitness of individuals in various ecological contexts. Animal personality describes the common phenomenon that individual behavioral differences are consistent over time and across situations, which covers numerous traits, such as willingness to take risks, the reaction of an animal to novel environment, activity, aggressiveness, and sociality. The majority of theoretical and empirical studies suggest that personality differences are a widespread phenomenon throughout the animal kingdom, and it limits behavioral plasticity and explains non-optimal behavior, which has far-reaching implications for understanding the mechanism of species interactions and coexistence. In this article, we review the concepts, trait categories, and measurement methods of animal personality. We then aim to provide a comprehensive inventory of the potential consequences of personality differences for ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes, we discuss the ecological implications of personality, including life-history strategies, population distribution and abundance, species interactions, community structure and dynamics, ecosystem processes and disease and information transmission. In addition, a critical ecological and evolutionary issue is the need to better understand individual responses to human-induced rapid environmental change that often puts organisms in evolutionarily novel conditions. Behavior is predicted to be a major factor driving responses of individuals to global change because it largely determines how animals interact with the environment. This intraspecific trait variation differs strikingly in their ability to cope with responses to human activity and urbanization induced rapidly environmental change. Thus, incorporating animal personalities can provide great insight into our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary consequences of global change and help either aid declining species or better manage invasive or pest species. Moreover, we discuss the proximate and ultimate mechanisms underlying individual variation in personality traits, including the effects of ecological, genetic, physiological, and neuroendocrine factors on the maintenance of variation in personality traits in natural animal populations. The animal personality can form a key bridge in an interdisciplinary approach that integrates proximate mechanisms (genetics, development, and neuroendocrine bases) with ecology and evolution. Finally, the future research direction is prospected.

Fine scale prediction of ecological community composition using a two-step sequential Machine Learning ensemble.

Prediction is one of the last frontiers in ecology. Indeed, predicting fine-scale species composition in natural systems is a complex challenge as multiple abiotic and biotic processes operate simultaneously to determine local species abundances. On the one hand, species intrinsic performance and their tolerance limits to different abiotic pressures modulate species abundances. On the other hand, there is growing recognition that species interactions play an equally important role in limiting or promoting such abundances within ecological communities. Here, we present a joint effort between ecologists and data scientists to use data-driven models to predict species abundances using reasonably easy to obtain data. We propose a sequential data-driven modeling approach that in a first step predicts the potential species abundances based on abiotic variables, and in a second step uses these predictions to model the realized abundances once accounting for species competition. Using a curated data set over five years we predict fine-scale species abundances in a highly diverse annual plant community. Our models show a remarkable spatial predictive accuracy using only easy-to-measure variables in the field, yet such predictive power is lost when temporal dynamics are taken into account. This result suggests that predicting future abundances requires longer time series analysis to capture enough variability. In addition, we show that these data-driven models can also suggest how to improve mechanistic models by adding missing variables that affect species performance such as particular soil conditions (e.g. carbonate availability in our case). Robust models for predicting fine-scale species composition informed by the mechanistic understanding of the underlying abiotic and biotic processes can be a pivotal tool for conservation, especially given the human-induced rapid environmental changes we are experiencing. This objective can be achieved by promoting the knowledge gained with classic modelling approaches in ecology and recently developed data-driven models.

Exploring the social network of European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) in captivity

Socially flexible species might be at an advantage when facing environmental unpredictability, human-induced rapid environmental changes, or unnatural conditions such as encountered in captivity. The European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) was originally described as solitarily living forest-dwelling species. In recent decades, it has expanded its range into urban and agricultural areas forming large aggregations in open habitats. Captive environments are thought to mimic some challenges encountered in rapidly changing habitats, however, to date no study has assessed how roe deer social structure changes in captive conditions. In this study, we explored the social network of a small group of captive and unrelated roe deer over the course of a ten-month period using camera traps. We found that the roe deer established a temporally stable and non-random social network with the buck as the most central and dominant individual. In addition, we analysed affiliative interactions, which have not been described in roe deer yet. We found that the affiliation network consisted not only of preferential associations between the buck and other females, but also between females, whereby a young female played a central role. The seasonal changes in roe deer’ gregariousness observed in the wild were also observed in the captive population with an increase in association strength and social interactions in autumn. These results suggest that roe deer kept in a group setting in captivity seem to flexibly adjust their social behaviour; thus, supporting the assumption that roe deer show a high social flexibility that facilitates adaptations to various habitats.

Dietary flexibility of Wood Storks in response to human-induced rapid environmental change

Human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC) has altered landscape processes and negatively impacted many species globally. Some of the most dramatic changes have been in wetlands where flows have been disrupted, and new wetlands have been created to retain runoff. In response to disrupted natural wetland conditions, Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) populations in South Florida have significantly declined over the past several decades. Despite the well-documented sensitivity of Wood Storks to natural wetland conditions, Wood Storks are often observed foraging in roadside created wetlands; however, the availability of prey in created wetlands is currently unknown. We sampled natural and created wetlands to determine aquatic fauna available for foraging Wood Storks. To determine prey use, we collected food boluses from Wood Storks in both natural wetland and urban landscapes. Historical studies found nonnative fish were absent in Wood Stork diet prior to the dominance of created wetlands in the landscape; however, we found nonnative fish frequently in both created wetlands and boluses. Furthermore, urban nesting Wood Storks consumed large-bodied prey species that were more characteristic of created wetlands whereas Wood Storks nesting in natural wetlands consumed large-bodied prey more characteristic of natural wetlands. Overall, Wood Storks consumed prey that were more similar to the fish community in created wetlands than those in natural wetlands. These dietary patterns suggest that Wood Storks have behavioral plasticity in both foraging habitat and prey use to cope with HIREC. Conservation efforts for species existing in both natural and urban habitats should consider the importance of novel prey and foraging habitats, as they may assist in sustaining populations in a rapidly changing world.

Ecological trap for seabirds due to the contamination caused by the Fundão dam collapse, Brazil

Human-induced rapid environmental changes can disrupt habitat quality in the short term. A decrease in quality of habitats associated with preference for these over other available higher quality is referred as ecological trap. In 2015, the Fundão dam containing iron mining tailings, eastern Brazil, collapsed and released about 50 million cubic meters of metal-rich mud composed by Fe, As, Cd, Hg, Pb in three rivers and the adjacent continental shelf. The area is a foraging site for dozens of seabird and shorebird species. In this study, we used a dataset from before and after Fundão dam collapse containing information on at-sea distribution during foraging activities (biologging), dietary aspects (stable isotopes), and trace elements concentration in feathers and blood from three seabird species known to use the area as foraging site: Phaethon aethereus, Sula leucogaster, and Pterodroma arminjoniana. In general, a substantial change in foraging strategies was not detected, as seabirds remain using areas and food resources similar to those used before the dam collapse. However, concentration of non-essential elements increased (e.g., Cd and As) while essential elements decreased (e.g., Mn and Zn), suggesting that the prey are contaminated by trace elements from tailings. This scenario represents evidence of an ecological trap as seabirds did not change habitat use, even though it had its quality reduced by contamination. The sinking-resuspension dynamics of tailings deposited on the continental shelf can temporally increase seabird exposure to contaminants, which can promote deleterious effects on populations using the region as foraging sites in medium and long terms.