2026 September - 40 articles
Engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) are increasingly released into marine environments, raising concerns about their potential ecological risks. In this study, we evaluated the toxicity of four widely used ENPs—CuO, ZnO, TiO2, and SiO2—to the...
Trace elements are essential for plant growth, yet their dose-dependent effects on root system development still remain poorly characterized across diverse plant functional types. We investigated the effects of manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), and molybd...
Understanding how climate, altitude and evolutionary diversity affect regeneration is crucial for predicting species persistence in changing environments. Yet, in tropical forests, most research has focused on timber trees. This limits our understand...
Elasmobranchs play a major role in shaping the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems through their position in food webs. The Lusitanian cownose ray Rhinoptera marginata, a benthopelagic species classified as Critically Endangered on the IUC...
Urban parks serve as important conservation habitats for flower-visiting bees and butterflies in urban areas. However, systematic evaluation and screening of bee- and butterfly-friendly nectar plants adapted to the subtropical climate of South China...
Synthetic multi-species consortia provide valuable insights into the ecological and structural dynamics of complex microbial biofilms. However, the specialized functional contributions of individual components under severe nutrient limitations remain...
Ecological research on alpine plant communities (snow-bed grasslandnd alpine tundra) has been continuously conducted over the last 33 years at the Velino–Duchessa Long-Term Ecosystem Research (LTER) site in the Central Apennines. Following the...
High-Andean environments impose severe limitations on tree establishment, making early survival and growth decisive for restoration success. This study evaluated differences associated with four island-guano doses—0, 150, 300, and 450 g plant&m...
Suspended particles are key components of aquatic ecosystems that modulate the biogeochemical processes of natural waters. The filter feeder Daphnia magna can alter suspended particle characteristics and aquatic habitats, while habitat variations in...
Nitrogen cycling is a key determinant of ecosystem functioning, productivity, and carbon sequestration during forest development. This review synthesizes ecological evidence on nitrogen cycling in young forest ecosystems established through natural r...
Stream ecosystems are threatened by chemical contamination and altered vertical connectivity between surface water and groundwater. Vertical hydrological exchanges occur through the porous matrix—comprising coarse surface sediments and the hypo...
I am glad to present the Special Issue “Feature Papers of Ecologies 2024”, a good picture of what ecological research looks like today [...]
Despite the critical role of essential nutrients in maintaining overall health in freshwater organisms, the effects of nutritional deficiency remain largely unknown. This study investigated the biological and biochemical effects of single and combine...
The Andes serve as natural laboratories where biomes shape faunal communities into mosaics of habitats prone to fragmentation, making protected areas such as the Chimborazo Reserve (RC) critical refuges in the face of climate change. Based on this pr...
Riparian land use and land cover (LULC) exerts scale- and season-dependent controls on surface water quality, yet its influence in regulated agricultural–urban rivers is poorly characterized. We combined seasonal t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and red...
Environmental change is reshaping ecological communities, yet conservation efforts often continue to focus on protecting species rather than the interactions that sustain biodiversity. Butterfly–plant interaction networks include well-studied s...
Water hyacinth has become a major environmental problem in aquatic ecosystems worldwide, including Indonesia, due to its rapid growth and extensive surface coverage. Transforming this invasive biomass into high-quality compost offers a sustainable so...
The rapid recovery of wildlife populations can outpace the assumptions of integrated population models and make visually plausible reconstructions difficult to distinguish from diagnostically supported inference. We evaluated this problem for Kazakhs...
Sandy littorals are highly dynamic coastal ecosystems but remain poorly studied as wintering habitats for waterbirds in Mediterranean regions. We analysed mid-winter International Waterbird Census data collected along the 100 km sandy littoral of the...
Early establishment is a critical filter in restoration plantings, especially when seedlings must face seasonal water limitation after outplanting. This study evaluated whether nursery-derived functional trait profiles are associated with early field...
Ecological niche modeling (ENM) is widely used to predict species distributions and support biodiversity conservation under environmental change, yet its application to Amazonian wetland plants has not been systematically synthesized. We conducted a...
Glyphosate is one of the most widely used herbicides worldwide, and its extensive application has raised increasing concern regarding environmental occurrence, ecological exposure, and potential risks to non-target organisms. Its major degradation pr...
Iron oxides are crucial to soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration in wetland ecosystems. Whether vegetation drives soil microorganisms to regulate iron–carbon interactions and influence SOC sequestration capacity remains controversial. Thus, t...
Phengaris alcon is one of Europe’s emblematic invertebrate species and is currently classified as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. In Portugal, this endangered species occurs mainly in Alvão Natural Park (ANP). This study investigat...
Understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of dominant desert-steppe species under climate change is critical for sustainable management of arid ecosystems. Sophora alopecuroides L., a perennial drought-tolerant leguminous herb with substantial medici...
Background: Population sex ratios and age structure are fundamental demographic parameters in shorebird studies, and their accurate estimation depends on unbiased capture methods. Methods: To identify potential capture biases, we evaluated the random...
Ethnobiological gardens conserve both biological and cultural diversity, but their permeable boundaries may expose native wildlife inside the garden to chronic domestic carnivore activity. In this single-garden case study, we compare small mammal ass...
Tropical riparian ecosystems are among the most threatened biomes on Earth, yet decade-scale, spatially explicit documentation of vegetation loss and landscape fragmentation in community-based ecotourism corridors remains scarce. This study investiga...
Increased herbicide use in agriculture is a major threat to adjacent aquatic and wetland ecosystems. In Morocco, the herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) poses a risk to temporary ponds found in agricultural landscapes. This study used me...
Vachellia farnesiana is an important shrub in arid and semi-arid ecosystems because it provides resources for diverse insect communities. However, the factors influencing insect assemblages associated with this species under contrasting habitat condi...
Halimeda-dominated habitats are ecologically significant tropical benthic ecosystems whose structural complexity supports diverse marine organisms, particularly associated microbes. However, the characteristics and ecological roles of these bacterial...
Carnivores harbor gut microbial communities adapted to protein and fat-rich diets. These microbial communities play an important role in amino acid degradation and bile acid metabolism. The bobcat (Lynx rufus) spans diverse North America habitats, ye...
Mountain transition zones are highly sensitive to environmental change, yet the nonlinear coupling between topography and hydroclimate in controlling vegetation Net Primary Productivity (NPP) remains insufficiently constrained. Here, we reconstructed...
Managing invasive alien species (IAS) is a major challenge for conserving ecosystems because of their deleterious impacts. This study evaluated the efficacy of five selective herbicides and wheat straw mulch against six invasive alien plant (IAP) spe...
The seas around Sabah host the richest elasmobranch biodiversity in Malaysia. Currently, only 11 shark and ray species are protected under Malaysian legislation, while other species can be legally caught and sold in markets. Many of these species, in...
Coastal dune ecosystems of the Moroccan Atlantic coast are among the most threatened environments of the western Mediterranean basin, yet the ecological preferences of their constituent psammophilous flora remain poorly documented. Using the ecologic...
Lychee, an entomophilous fruit crop cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions, depends heavily on pollination services for optimal fruit yield and the economic sustainability of farmers. However, information on its pollinator interactions remain...
Maxillariinae is one of the most diverse Neotropical orchid groups, yet little is known about its reproduction and pollination. We studied Maxillaria carinulata and Maxillaria meridensis on the eastern slope of the Cordillera Oriental in Caquet&aacut...
The Brazil nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa Bonpl.) is a non-timber forest product of great ecological and economic importance in the southwestern Amazonian countries. The study aimed to analyze the effects of habitat (natural tree-fall gaps, logged ga...
Honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies are exposed to multiple environmental stressors, including pesticide contamination and landscape changes, which may affect colony dynamics and colony condition. This study evaluated pesticide residue occurrence, la...
