Abstract Science education reform in the United States is shifting toward multidimensional learning as a means to prepare students to tackle authentic scientific challenges. In ecology, the Four‐Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) Framework aims to equip students to address complex ecological challenges, such as biodiversity loss in the Anthropocene and beyond. 4DEE emphasizes engaging students in ecological practices as well as concepts, and the bidirectional interactions of humans and the environment. A key component of the 4DEE framework is integration of dimensions, where students engage in scientific practices as tools for constructing conceptual knowledge, and to use their conceptual knowledge to provide meaning and purpose to scientific practices. Despite the potential of 4DEE‐aligned integrated teaching to transform how ecology is taught, instructor engagement has been slow. To explore ecology instructors' perspectives on 4DEE‐aligned integrated teaching, we investigated how instructors define and describe integration of the 4DEE dimensions in their teaching and how they evaluate assessment questions using 4DEE. We also explored how participation in a 4DEE‐focused faculty mentoring network (FMN) influenced instructors' perspectives. We qualitatively analyzed semi‐structured interviews with 10 instructors who participated in a 4DEE FMN and 10 who did not. Through thematic analysis, we identified four 4DEE Integration Definition Types that varied from highly aligned to unaligned with the science education literature. Instructors with highly aligned definitions drew on their ecology disciplinary expertise in their teaching. They expressed learning goals for their students to engage with ecology in a similar fashion as professional ecologists, in which dimensions are used to inform each other. We found that many instructors viewed 4DEE integration in assessment questions along a continuum rather than as a clear distinction between integrated and non‐integrated questions, with some not recognizing the presence of an ecological practice in the assessment question. Instructors who had participated in a 4DEE‐focused FMN appeared more likely to identify ecological practices in assessments and to include them at the lesson level, though we did not observe other clear differences. We suggest recommendations for professional development that can support ecology instructors in developing knowledge and skills for 4DEE‐aligned instruction and assessment.
Abstract Snowpack regimes are projected to change in western North America in the coming decades. Average spring snowpack disappearance date is predicted to occur earlier, and snow‐to‐rain transition will become more common across the region. There is uncertainty about how forests will respond to these changes and the potential heterogeneity of this response across species and topography. In the absence of experimental data, growth–climate correlations from tree‐ring data offer an indirect window into tree physiology and may enable eco‐physiologists to develop new questions about the physiological mechanisms behind the relationships observed in the dendrochronological record. We analyzed new and existing tree‐ring data from ponderosa pine ( Pinus ponderosa ) from four sites in central Idaho, USA, to examine relationships between radial growth and snow‐water equivalence (SWE) data from SNOTEL for the period 1981–2023, and radial growth, precipitation, and temperature data from Parameter‐elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM) for the period 1920–2023. Our analysis suggests an elevation‐dependent combination of current‐water‐year spring snowpack growth limitation during high‐SWE springs and an unexpected positive biological memory effect of previous‐water‐year SWE on subsequent year ring width at sites above 1500 m ( r = 0.33–0.54 by site; p < 0.05). We posit that this effect may result from carbon sink limitation followed by release. Future field experiments that manipulate snowpack are needed to confirm or refute these physiological explanations so that we can better understand the impacts that the projected decline in snowpack may have on this important conifer species in coming decades.
Abstract Wildfire activity in different parts of the world is characterized by an acceleration of various components of the fire regime. In India, wildfires that affect human lives and ecological functioning have been reported; however, they remain understudied. Our objectives were to gain new insights into current fire patterns—especially annual burned areas (BAs), seasonality, and burning frequency—across an extensive study area of about 20,000 km 2 , spanning 13 wildlife reserves in Central India, the Eastern Ghats, and the Western Ghats, from 2002 to 2022. We used satellite‐derived monthly BA obtained from Moderate Resolution Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to assess relationships between annual BAs and climatic and human variables. We found that a total of about 16,667 km 2 burned in the study area during the 21 years of analysis, with moderate activity in the Central India region (16.6%), high fire activity in the Eastern Ghats region (59%), and low fire activity in the Western Ghats region (8.4%). Trends in annual BA revealed varied patterns: marginally increasing in the Central Indian region (4.6% year −1 ), significantly increasing in the Eastern Ghats (9.3% year −1 ), and declining in the Western Ghats (−10.8% year −1 ). Our correlation analysis of climate variables across different time scales, human population densities, and forest cover loss revealed significant relationships across the different wildlife reserves. Climate and human factors accounted for between 21% and 77% of annual fire activity in some wildlife reserves; however, the strength of the relationships depended on the geographical context. Protecting vulnerable communities, resilient ecosystems, and livelihoods will require improved land management, proactive steps, and innovative research insights.
Abstract Agriculture and urban areas are the dominant forms of human land use globally and contribute to declines in avian biodiversity and the homogenization of avian communities relative to natural landscapes. However, how avian communities differ between agricultural and urbanized landscapes remains unclear. As human land use expands and intensifies, it is critical to understand how community structure differs across heterogenous urban agroecosystems. We conducted year‐round point count surveys of avian communities at 54 sites across a gradient of natural, agricultural, and urbanized landscapes in Southern California. We asked whether avian species richness and abundance varied among habitat types and investigated whether differences in community composition were primarily due to nestedness or turnover. Additionally, we asked if richness, abundance, and community composition varied seasonally in different habitats and determined whether different dietary guilds were associated with different habitat types. We found that different habitat types supported unique avian communities. Orchards and urban habitats generally had lower species richness and abundance compared to natural landscapes and suburban habitats. However, agricultural landscapes shared many species with the natural landscapes (nestedness), while most birds found in urbanized landscapes were unique species (turnover). Nestedness and turnover both contributed to the differences in community composition between agricultural and urbanized landscapes. Urbanized landscapes supported a distinct set of dietary guilds and more non‐native species compared to either the natural or agricultural communities, whereas species identified in the agricultural landscapes could be found in other landscapes as well. Seasonal differences within habitats were generally minor, although both species richness and abundance dropped substantially in the riparian habitat during the nonbreeding season. Our results suggest that avian communities display divergent patterns of habitat use between disparate types of anthropogenic landscapes. Conversion between any of these three landscapes (natural, agricultural, urbanized) will likely lead to altered ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services.
Abstract How species coexist within shared spaces can provide insights into guild structures and resource requirements, and has wide‐ranging implications for conservation managers. Within arid, multiuse landscapes, carnivore space use is compressed into predictable resource patches, potentially shifting coexistence from broad spatial segregation to finer‐scale temporal strategies. We tested four hypothesis‐driven predictions drawn from dynamic landscapes of fear, hierarchical guild theory, and resource‐pulse ecology: that carnivores would show (1) broad nocturnal overlap but fine‐scale temporal staggering, (2) temporal response asymmetry centered on lion activity, (3) stronger overlap under dry‐season resource compression, and (4) context‐dependent associations under certain habitat structures. Using trail camera detections of lions ( Panthera leo ), spotted hyenas ( Crocuta crocuta ), brown hyenas ( Parahyaena brunnea ), and black‐backed jackals ( Lupulella mesomelas ) in northwest Namibia, we analyzed 5268 independent images of carnivores and herbivores collected over 8288 camera‐days. We combined hierarchical Bayesian models of carnivore detections and environmental mediation with diel activity overlap (Δ 4 ), and directional timing models across 3‐, 6‐, 12‐h, and 1‐day intervals. All focal carnivores were primarily nocturnal and exhibited high diel overlap (Δ 4 ≈ 0.61–0.84), indicating broadly similar activity schedules within the sampled resource‐patch network. Dry‐season progression was an important mediator of carnivore detections, and habitat structure also shaped space use—underscoring the importance of spatial concentration at resources. Despite high diel overlap, directional timing models detected temporal sequencing only at coarser grains (12‐h and 1‐day), with no consistent signal at 3‐ or 6‐h intervals. These results suggest that when space is constrained, coexistence may be negotiated through temporal staggering within shared patches, with dominance hierarchy shaping asymmetric responses and resource compression intensifying when such strategies matter most.
