Abstract Fungi are essential to maintaining ecosystem functions; fungal functional traits are impacted simultaneously by long‐term ecological interplay. However, how fungal types with different ecological strategies mediate functional traits remain poorly understood. Here, we examined the role of ecotypes (specialists, opportunists or generalists) in shaping fungal community structure and function traits by employing a network of four long‐term (>10 years) nitrogen (N) gradient experiments across distinct regions with contrasting soil fertility. By combining amplicon sequencing and metagenomics, we evaluated the functional guilds and metabolic traits of these distinct ecotypes and determined the fungal carbon (C) mineralization rate to evaluate their contribution to carbon cycling. The results showed that the overall abundance of fungi increased with increasing soil fertility, while the alpha diversity decreased and the ecological niche of fungi narrowed. Critically, specialists and opportunists exhibited different performances in the community, namely, the relative abundance of specialists increased, while that of opportunists decreased with increasing soil fertility. Specialists characterized by high‐energy metabolism and respiration became enriched in high‐fertility soils, which favours the dominance of saprotrophic fungi following N addition. Such community shift drives functionality alteration, for example, the diversity of carbohydrate metabolism and the capacity for cellulose degradation increased. A key saprotrophic specialist, Mortierella elongata , was significantly enriched in high‐fertility soils. Opportunists were suppressed by specialists in high‐fertility soils, whereas in low‐fertility soils their abundance increased and pathogen proliferation was promoted, particularly in N enrichment. These shifts showed no correlation with cellulose mineralization; yet, as predicted, was accompanied by enhanced amino acid decomposition. By comparison, generalists with low abundance remain stable across all soils. Synthesis and applications . Our study highlights the dynamics of organic carbon and eventually soil fertility that fungi change with different ecological strategies, advancing a mechanistic understanding of how fungal communities maintain and modulate soil fertility. Utilizing key microbial traits as predictors significantly improves the assessment of agroecosystem services. Integrating the interplay of microbial functional and ecological attributes into models will enable more reliable forecasts of ecosystem sustainability.
Abstract Biodiversity is lost through habitat loss and fragmentation, but the independent role of landscape configuration in moderating ecological processes is empirically contentious. Landscape and fragmentation theories suggest that the spatial arrangement of habitat patches influences species distribution, but testing these effects in terrestrial landscapes undergoing anthropogenic change is challenging due to replication demands from multiple patches in multiple landscapes. We investigate the role of landscape structure altered by natural resource development (hydrocarbon extraction and timber harvest), measured at multiple spatial scales, on the spatial distribution of American red squirrel ( Tamiasciurus hudsonicus ), a small mammal forager. With occurrence data from a uniquely large dataset of 430 camera traps across 10 regions of Canada's industrialized western boreal forest, we tested whether industrial development affected red squirrel distribution through changes to landscape composition, configuration or context‐dependent combinations of both. Red squirrel occurrence was best explained by the interacting effects of landscape‐level industrial footprint and edge creation. Squirrel occurrence increased with cumulative footprint, consistent with resource complementation theory. Red squirrel occurrence decreased with a higher amount of edge created by industrial features. Edge density interacted with cumulative industrial footprint, such that these edge effects were more strongly negative in intensively disturbed landscapes, and less so in more intact landscapes. We suggest that the negative population‐level change due to edge density arises from increased encounters with mammalian and avian predators at forest edges. Anthropogenic disturbances that create a high amount of edge habitat, such as seismic lines, have a disproportionately negative impact on red squirrels. Synthesis and applications. While management in the oil sands typically focuses on the amount of habitat lost and looks to ‘spatial offsets’ of undisturbed habitat elsewhere as a solution, we demonstrate that both composition and spatial configuration must be considered on appropriate spatial scales when developing land‐use strategies in patchy ecosystems undergoing anthropogenic change.
Abstract Human–wildlife conflicts in agricultural landscapes are a major challenge for wildlife management and conservation, yet crop damage remain difficult to predict without a mechanistic understanding of both use and damage processes. Here, we modelled the crop damage process as a sequence of two distinct stages (i) wild boar selection of agricultural parcels, estimated using a resource selection function, and (ii) the crop damage occurrence, modelled with a binomial generalised linear model. This decomposition allows us to distinguish non‐damaged parcels that were not visited from those that were visited but not damaged, thus identifying ecological drivers specific to each stage of the damage process. Applied to wild boar ( Sus scrofa ), one of the most damaging species to crops, our results reveal contrasting crop vulnerability profiles emerging from the interaction between relative intensity of use and damage. Maize and legumes appeared as the most sensitive crops, exhibiting high relative damage probability despite low relative intensity of use. In contrast, cereals and oilseed showed intermediate and more variable vulnerability, with damage risk more linked to the relative intensity of use. Meadows were associated with low relative probabilities of both use and damage, indicating low vulnerability. Proximity to forest edges were generally associated with both greater crop selection and higher damage occurrence, although this effect varied depending on crop type. Our models, validated on an independent dataset, demonstrate reasonably good predictive accuracy and enable spatial identification of the most vulnerable parcels. Synthesis and applications . This framework provides a valuable tool for developing targeted mitigation strategies. By classifying crops according to their vulnerability profiles, it enables prioritisation of management actions and development of preventive measures that are tailored to specific crop types and landscape configurations. The approach can also be extended to other species and contexts and can contribute to early‐warning systems to help farmers anticipate and minimise wildlife‐induced crop damage.
Abstract Professional culling is frequently used in efforts to control wildlife diseases, but it can alter the movement behaviour of targeted animals, especially in socially structured wildlife species such as wild pigs ( Sus scrofa ). These responses could have unintended consequences on the spread of disease when trying to contain new outbreaks. African Swine Fever virus has been spreading throughout many regions of the world, causing uninfected countries (e.g. US and AU) to develop plans for quickly eliminating potential outbreaks. To understand how intensive culling impacts the movements of wild pigs, we used a before–after, control‐impact (BACI) study design to compare six movement and contact responses of 122 GPS‐collared wild pigs using three different culling methods (aerial operations, trapping and an experimental toxic bait). Trapping and toxic baiting resulted in substantially greater movement compared with control animals, likely from intensive human disturbance and extensive baiting. We also observed increases in contact duration and number of unique contacts between wild pigs during trapping removals. In contrast, quick but intensive aerial operations stimulated minimal changes in movement, only resulting in reduced movement speed compared to controls. These results demonstrate that intensive culling using bait can induce changes in wild pig behaviours that may unintentionally increase disease transmission risk, potentially undermining management objectives. Conversely, aerial operations quickly reduced the wild pig population with minimal impact on behaviours, highlighting their potential as a primary tool for intensive disease management scenarios. Synthesis and applications . Overall, our results indicate that intensive culling methods have varying, context‐dependent effects on target species that should be considered in wildlife disease intervention to minimize unintended consequences.
Abstract Altered streamflow is a major threat to river ecosystems globally. Environmental flows aim to ameliorate the impacts of altered streamflow and are critical to the conservation and management of many freshwater ecosystems. Environmental flow deliveries are often guided by set‐and‐forget strategies based on predicted long‐term outcomes, which introduces considerable uncertainty when attempting to design flow deliveries robust to future climatic variability and management constraints. Here, we demonstrate how near‐term ecological forecasts can be used to guide the delivery of environmental flows in highly variable ecosystems. We illustrate our approach using a process‐explicit population model for Murray cod ( Maccullochella peelii ), a long‐lived riverine fish species that occurs across the Murray‐Darling Basin in south‐eastern Australia. Near‐term forecasts highlighted potential benefits of sustained baseflows in some rivers, but validation with independent data identified situations in which predicted population outcomes diverged from empirical data. Forecasts indicated that environmental flows may have small effects on Murray cod populations in some reaches, with population‐level responses taking several years to emerge. Synthesis and applications . Near‐term forecasts present an alternative to set‐and‐forget environmental flows strategies, providing managers with the information to adapt decisions in the face of changing environmental conditions, objectives or constraints. Near‐term forecasts are compatible with existing water planning frameworks and provide dual benefits of more nuanced adaptation to current circumstances and more frequent model updates to improve forecast accuracy. Used in this way, near‐term forecasts have considerable potential to increase the timeliness and effectiveness of environmental flows. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog .
