The evolution of thermal performance can constrain dispersal during range shifting

Organisms can cope with changing temperature under climate change by either adapting to the temperature at which they perform best and/or by dispersing to more benign locations. The evolution of a new thermal niche during range shifting is, however, expected to be strongly constrained by genetic load because spatial sorting is known to induce fast evolution of dispersal. To broaden our understanding of this interaction, we studied the joint evolution of dispersal and thermal performance curves (TPCs) of a population during range shifting by applying an individual-based spatially explicit model. Always, TPCs adapted to the local thermal conditions. Remarkably, this adaptation coincided with an evolution of dispersal at the shifting range front being equally high or lower than at the trailing edge. This optimal strategy reduces genetic load and highlights that evolutionary dynamics during range shifting change when crucial traits such as dispersal and thermal performance jointly evolve

Size-dependent movement explains why bigger is better in fragmented landscapes

Body size is a fundamental trait known to allometrically scale with metabolic rate and therefore a key determinant of individual development, life history, and consequently fitness. In spatially structured environments, movement is an equally important driver of fitness. Because movement is tightly coupled with body size, we expect habitat fragmentation to induce a strong selection pressure on size variation across and within species. Changes in body size distributions are then, in turn, expected to alter food web dynamics. However, no consensus has been reached on how spatial isolation and resource growth affect consumer body size distributions. Our aim was to investigate how these two factors shape the body size distribution of consumers under scenarios of size-dependent and size-independent consumer movement by applying a mechanistic, individual-based resource-consumer model. We also assessed the consequences of altered body size distributions for important ecosystem traits such as resource abundance and consumer stability. Finally, we determined those factors that explain most variation in size distributions. We demonstrate that decreasing connectivity and resource growth select for communities (or populations) consisting of larger species (or individuals) due to strong selection for the ability to move over longer distances if the movement is size-dependent. When including size-dependent movement, intermediate levels of connectivity result in increases in local size diversity. Due to this elevated functional diversity, resource uptake is maximized at the metapopulation or metacommunity level. At these intermediate levels of connectivity, size-dependent movement explains most of the observed variation in size distributions. Interestingly, local and spatial stability of consumer biomass is lowest when isolation and resource growth are high. Finally, we highlight that size-dependent movement is of vital importance for the survival of populations or communities within highly fragmented landscapes. Our results demonstrate that considering size-dependent movement is essential to understand how habitat fragmentation and resource growth shape body size distributions-and the resulting metapopulation or metacommunity dynamics-of consumers

Overcoming biodiversity blindness: Secondary data in primary citizen science observations

1. In the face of the global biodiversity crisis, collecting comprehensive data and making the best use of existing data are becoming increasingly important to understand patterns and drivers of environmental and biological phenomena at different scales. 2. Here we address the concept of secondary data, which refers to additional information unintentionally captured in species records, especially in multimedia-based citizen science reports. We argue that secondary data can provide a wealth of ecologically relevant information, the utilisation of which can enhance our understanding of traits and interactions among individual organisms, populations and biodiversity dynamics in general. 3. We explore the possibilities offered by secondary data and describe their main types and sources. An overview of research in this field provides a synthesis of the results already achieved using secondary data and different approaches to information extraction. 4. Finally, we discuss challenges to the widespread use of secondary data, such as biases, licensing issues, use of metadata and lack of awareness of this trove of data due to a missing common terminology, as well as possible solutions to overcome these barriers. 5. Although the exploration and use of secondary data is only emerging, the many opportunities identified show how these data can enrich biodiversity research and monitoring

Habitat loss and fragmentation increase realized predator-prey body size ratios

In the absence of predators, habitat fragmentation favours large body sizes to facilitate gap crossing. The size of primary consumers is, however, also shaped by top-down effects as predators select prey of a certain size. Therefore, higher trophic levels should be taken into consideration when studying the effect of habitat loss and fragmentation on size distributions of herbivores. We built a model to study the effect of habitat loss and fragmentation within a tri-trophic food chain. Body size is directly linked to movement capacity and metabolic processes and considered as a master trait under selection. We show that basal resources accumulate locally if a predator causes top-down control of the herbivore. Due to this increasing spatiotemporal variability in resource availability, larger herbivores are selected than in scenarios without predator as they are able to move further. As predators cause herbivores to be intrinsically much larger than the optimal sizes selected by habitat fragmentation in the absence of predators, habitat fragmentation is no longer a significant driver of herbivore size. However, there is selection for increased predator size with habitat fragmentation as herbivores become less abundant, hence favouring gap-crossing ability of the predator. Since herbivore and predator body size respond differently to habitat loss and fragmentation, realized predator-herbivore body size ratios increase along this fragmentation gradient. Our model demonstrates how feedbacks between the abundance, body size and mobility of predators and prey ultimately determine body size distributions in food webs. These new insights shed light on the impact of habitat destruction and fragmentation on overall food web structure. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article

Information use during movement regulates how fragmentation and loss of habitat affect body size

An individual's body size is central to its behaviour and physiology, and tightly linked to its movement ability. The spatial arrangement of resources and a consumer's capacity to locate them are therefore expected to exert strong selection on consumer body size. We investigated the evolutionary impact of both the fragmentation and loss of habitat on consumer body size and its feedback effects on resource distribution, under varying levels of information used during habitat choice. We developed a mechanistic, individual-based, spatially explicit model, including several allometric rules for key consumer traits. Our model reveals that as resources become more fragmented and scarce, informed habitat choice selects for larger body sizes while random habitat choice promotes small sizes. Information use may thus be an overlooked explanation for the observed variation in body size responses to habitat fragmentation. Moreover, we find that resources can accumulate and aggregate if information about resource abundance is incomplete. Informed movement results in stable resource-consumer dynamics and controlled resources across space. However, habitat loss and fragmentation destabilize local dynamics and disturb resource suppression by the consumer. Considering information use during movement is thus critical to understand the eco-evolutionary dynamics underlying the functioning and structuring of consumer communities

Towards Improved Data Flows for the Management of Invasive Alien Species and Wildlife: A LIFE RIPARIAS use case

Invasive alien species (IAS) are recognised as a major threat to biodiversity. To prevent the introduction and spread of IAS, the European Union Regulation (EU) 1143/2014 imposes an obligation on Member States to both develop management strategies for IAS of Union Concern and report on those interventions. For this, we need to collect and combine management data and streamline management actions. This is still a major challenge: the landscape of IAS management is diverse and includes different authorities, managers, businesses and non-governmental organizations. Some organizations have developed their own specific software applications for recording management actions. For other organizations, such a software system is lacking. Their management data are scattered, not harmonized, and often not openly available. For EU reporting, a workflow is needed to centralize all information about the applied management method, management effort, cost, effectiveness and impact of the performed actions on other biota or the environment. At this moment, such a workflow is lacking in Belgium.One of the aims of the LIFE RIPARIAS project is to set up a workflow for harmonizing IAS management data in Belgium. Based on the input from the IAS management community in Belgium, we were able to:draft a community-driven data model and exchange format called manIAS (MANagement of Invasive Alien Species, Reyserhove et al. 2022), andidentify the minimal requirements a software application should have for being successfully used in the field (Hillaert et al. 2022).In this presentation, we will explore both outputs, the lessons learned and the way forward. With our work, we aim to facilitate coordination and transfer of information between the different actors involved in IAS and wildlife management, not only on a Belgian scale, but also within an international context.

Towards Improved Data Flows for the Management of Invasive Alien Species and Wildlife: A LIFE RIPARIAS use case

Invasive alien species (IAS) are recognised as a major threat to biodiversity. To prevent the introduction and spread of IAS, the European Union Regulation (EU) 1143/2014 imposes an obligation on Member States to both develop management strategies for IAS of Union Concern and report on those interventions. For this, we need to collect and combine management data and streamline management actions. This is still a major challenge: the landscape of IAS management is diverse and includes different authorities, managers, businesses and non-governmental organizations. Some organizations have developed their own specific software applications for recording management actions. For other organizations, such a software system is lacking. Their management data are scattered, not harmonized, and often not openly available. For EU reporting, a workflow is needed to centralize all information about the applied management method, management effort, cost, effectiveness and impact of the performed actions on other biota or the environment. At this moment, such a workflow is lacking in Belgium.One of the aims of the LIFE RIPARIAS project is to set up a workflow for harmonizing IAS management data in Belgium. Based on the input from the IAS management community in Belgium, we were able to:draft a community-driven data model and exchange format called manIAS (MANagement of Invasive Alien Species, Reyserhove et al. 2022), andidentify the minimal requirements a software application should have for being successfully used in the field (Hillaert et al. 2022).In this presentation, we will explore both outputs, the lessons learned and the way forward. With our work, we aim to facilitate coordination and transfer of information between the different actors involved in IAS and wildlife management, not only on a Belgian scale, but also within an international context.

Supplementary material part 7 from Information use during movement regulates how fragmentation and loss of habitat affect body size

Understanding outcome of model with P=50, H=1 and uninformed movement. In order to better understand the outcome of the model, an extra type of simulation was run (see discussion)

manIAS: A community-driven data model and data exchange format for the management of invasive alien species and wildlife

Invasive alien species (IAS) are recognised as one of the major threats to biodiversity. The European Union (EU) Regulation 1143/2014 on the prevention of introduction and spread of invasive alien species imposes an obligation on Member States to develop management responses against a list of IAS of Union Concern and requires reporting on those interventions. However, the actors involved in IAS management are typically diverse and include authorities, managers, businesses and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Reporting on management actions, if performed at all, is often crude and does not capture essential information. Data on management are heterogeneous both in quality and format as well as what information is captured. They are recorded using a plethora of tools, are managed in data silos and not openly available.Here, we propose a community-driven data model and data exchange format for IAS and wildlife management data, called manIAS (management of Invasive Alien Species, Fig. 1). This was drafted in two consecutive workshops (Oldoni et al. 2022), building on the experience of the managerial community, combined with the existing european network of wildlife professionals (ENETWILD) standard (Body et al. 2020) for management reporting in the framework of animal health. We feel the development of such a data model is necessary and can bring multiple benefits within and outside the IAS management community. First, the data model can create awareness with data providers and project managers on the minimum quality standards for reporting on IAS management such as the target species, the management objective, the methods used, the effort spent, the results of the action and any encountered non-target effects. Second, the data exchange format will allow for easy aggregation of management data across taxa, regions, management actors and projects. Such exchanges of data on management, for example through visualisations, are necessary for running coordinated management programmes. Thirdly, it will ease the reporting on management for the EU IAS Regulation since authorities will have to spend less time in collecting and standardizing data from different actors. Lastly, the standardisation will allow more straightforward analysis of the effectiveness of management methods and the efficiency of control programmes