http://www.journalofanimalecology.org EarlyView RSS Feed http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/details/journalArticle/1473801/Spatial_variation_in_egg_size_and_egg_number_reflects_tradeoffs_and_bethedging_i.html Summary 1. Maternal reproductive investment is thought to reflect a trade‐off between offspring size and fecundity, and models generally predict that mothers inhabiting adverse environments will produce fewer, larger offspring. More recently, the importance of environmental unpredictability in influencing maternal investment has been considered, with some models predicting that mothers should adopt a diversified bet‐hedging strategy... 2012-02-06T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/details/journalArticle/1473803/Social_environment_affects_juvenile_dispersal_in_great_tits__Parus_major_.html Summary 1. Habitat selection can affect individual fitness, and therefore, individuals are expected to assess habitat quality of potential breeding sites before settlement. 2. We investigated the role of social environment on juvenile dispersal behaviour in the great tit (Parus major). Two main contradictory hypotheses can be formulated regarding social effects on juvenile dispersal as follows: (i) High ... 2012-02-06T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/details/journalArticle/1458029/Are_there_tradeoffs_between_pre_and_postfledging_survival_in_black_brent_geese.html Summary 1. The growth period is an important determinant of fitness later in life through its effects on first‐year survival and future reproduction. Choices by adult females about where to rear their offspring strongly affect growth rates and offspring fitness in geese. 2. Individual female black brent (Branta bernicla nigricans) tend to raise their broods in the same areas each year, and these areas are... 2012-02-03T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/details/journalArticle/1458031/Tradeoffs_between_offspring_fitness_and_future_reproduction_of_adult_female_blac.html Summary 1. Successful reproduction requires numerous decisions, and some of which may require trade‐offs between current and future reproduction. We studied effects of choice of foraging patches on gosling growth and future breeding by mothers in black brent (Branta bernicla nigricans) geese. 2. Specific foraging areas consistently produced high‐quality goslings over 21 years. We found a consistent ranking of... 2012-02-03T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/details/journalArticle/1456847/Seasonal_cycles_of_species_diversity_and_similarity_in_a_tropical_butterfly_comm.html Summary 1. Studies of seasonality in ecological diversity rarely extend over more than a few years, and few studies of seasonal diversity have explicitly investigated the influence of environmental factors on seasonal community composition, especially in tropical communities. 2. Our 10 years of monthly sampling in Amazonian Ecuador yielded 20 996 individuals of 137 fruit‐feeding butterfly species. ... 2012-02-01T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/details/journalArticle/1456259/Imported_fire_ants_near_the_edge_of_their_range_disturbance_and_moisture_determi.html Summary 1. Habitat disturbance and species invasions interact in natural systems, making it difficult to isolate the primary cause of ecosystem degradation. A general understanding requires case studies of how disturbance and invasion interact across a variety of ecosystem – invasive species combinations. 2. Dramatic losses in ant diversity followed the invasion of central Texas by red imported fire ants... 2012-01-31T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/details/journalArticle/1456261/Complexity_of_multitrophic_interactions_in_a_grassland_ecosystem_depends_on_plan.html Summary 1. We studied the theoretical prediction that a loss of plant species richness has a strong impact on community interactions among all trophic levels and tested whether decreased plant species diversity results in a less complex structure and reduced interactions in ecological networks. 2. Using plant species‐specific biomass and arthropod abundance data from experimental grassland plots (Jena... 2012-01-31T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/details/journalArticle/1451785/Response_of_butterflies_to_structural_and_resource_boundaries.html Summary 1. Two aspects of landscape composition shape the behavioural response of animals to habitat heterogeneity: physical habitat structure and abundance of key resources. In general, within‐habitat movement behaviour has been investigated in relation to resources, and preference at boundaries has been quantified in response to physical structure. 2. Habitat preference studies suggest that responses to... 2012-01-24T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/details/journalArticle/1451787/Habitat_use_throughout_migration_linking_individual_consistency_prior_breeding_s.html Summary 1. Habitat use can influence individual performance in a wide range of animals, either immediately or through carry‐over effects in subsequent seasons. Given that many animal species also show consistent individual differences in reproductive success, it seems plausible that individuals may have consistent patterns of habitat use representing individual specializations, with concomitant fitness consequences. ... 2012-01-24T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/details/journalArticle/1451075/Benefiting_from_a_migratory_prey_spatiotemporal_patterns_in_allochthonous_subsid.html Summary 1. Flows of nutrients and energy across ecosystem boundaries have the potential to subsidize consumer populations and modify the dynamics of food webs, but how spatio‐temporal variations in autochthonous and allochthonous resources affect consumers’ subsidization remains largely unexplored. 2. We studied spatio‐temporal patterns in the allochthonous subsidization of a predator living in a relatively... 2012-01-23T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/details/journalArticle/1451077/Quantitative_analysis_of_compensatory_and_catchup_growth_in_diverse_taxa.html Summary 1. ‘Compensatory growth’ and ‘catch‐up growth’ are often used interchangeably to describe the faster than optimal growth that occurs following a period of dietary restriction in the development of many animals. Concerns about the statistical analysis of these studies have drawn attention to the risk of false detection in reports of compensatory and catch‐up growth. 2. This study aims to quantify the... 2012-01-23T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/details/journalArticle/1444639/Interspecific_interactions_drive_cultural_coevolution_and_acoustic_convergence_i.html Summary 1. Antagonistic interactions have been favourite subjects of studies on species co‐evolution, because coexistence among competing species often results in quantifiable character displacement. A common output for competitive interactions is trait divergence, although the opposite phenomenon, convergence, has been proposed to evolve in some instances, for example in the communication behaviour of species that maintain mutually... 2012-01-19T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/details/journalArticle/1444641/Seasonal_patterns_of_predation_for_gray_wolves_in_the_multiprey_system_of_Yellow.html Summary 1. For large predators living in seasonal environments, patterns of predation are likely to vary among seasons because of related changes in prey vulnerability. Variation in prey vulnerability underlies the influence of predators on prey populations and the response of predators to seasonal variation in rates of biomass acquisition. Despite its importance, seasonal variation in predation is poorly understood. ... 2012-01-19T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/details/journalArticle/1443831/Wet_season_range_fidelity_in_a_tropical_migratory_ungulate.html Summary 1. In migratory populations, the degree of fidelity and dispersal among seasonal ranges is an important population process with consequences for demography, management, sensitivity to habitat change and adaptation to local environmental conditions. 2. Characterizing patterns of range fidelity in ungulates, however, has remained challenging because of the difficulties of following large numbers of marked... 2012-01-18T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofanimalecology.org/details/journalArticle/1443833/Mutualistic_cleaner_fish_initiate_traitmediated_indirect_interactions_by_influen.html Summary 1. Indirect interactions resulting from changes in organismal traits such as behaviour [i.e. trait‐mediated indirect interactions (TMIIs)] are widespread in biological communities, yet few studies have explored the potential for mutualisms to initiate TMIIs. 2. This study used a combination of behavioural observations and manipulative field experiments to investigate potential TMIIs resulting... 2012-01-18T00:00:00Z