@article{10284, abstract = {Infections early in life can have enduring effects on an organism's development and immunity. In this study, we show that this equally applies to developing ‘superorganisms’––incipient social insect colonies. When we exposed newly mated Lasius niger ant queens to a low pathogen dose, their colonies grew more slowly than controls before winter, but reached similar sizes afterwards. Independent of exposure, queen hibernation survival improved when the ratio of pupae to workers was small. Queens that reared fewer pupae before worker emergence exhibited lower pathogen levels, indicating that high brood rearing efforts interfere with the ability of the queen's immune system to suppress pathogen proliferation. Early-life queen pathogen exposure also improved the immunocompetence of her worker offspring, as demonstrated by challenging the workers to the same pathogen a year later. Transgenerational transfer of the queen's pathogen experience to her workforce can hence durably reduce the disease susceptibility of the whole superorganism.}, author = {Casillas Perez, Barbara E and Pull, Christopher and Naiser, Filip and Naderlinger, Elisabeth and Matas, Jiri and Cremer, Sylvia}, issn = {1461-0248}, journal = {Ecology Letters}, number = {1}, pages = {89--100}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies}}, doi = {10.1111/ele.13907}, volume = {25}, year = {2022}, } @article{7224, abstract = {Habitat loss is one of the key drivers of the ongoing decline of biodiversity. However, ecologists still argue about how fragmentation of habitat (independent of habitat loss) affects species richness. The recently proposed habitat amount hypothesis posits that species richness only depends on the total amount of habitat in a local landscape. In contrast, empirical studies report contrasting patterns: some find positive and others negative effects of fragmentation per se on species richness. To explain this apparent disparity, we devise a stochastic, spatially explicit model of competitive species communities in heterogeneous habitats. The model shows that habitat loss and fragmentation have complex effects on species diversity in competitive communities. When the total amount of habitat is large, fragmentation per se tends to increase species diversity, but if the total amount of habitat is small, the situation is reversed: fragmentation per se decreases species diversity.}, author = {Rybicki, Joel and Abrego, Nerea and Ovaskainen, Otso}, issn = {1461-0248}, journal = {Ecology Letters}, number = {3}, pages = {506--517}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Habitat fragmentation and species diversity in competitive communities}}, doi = {10.1111/ele.13450}, volume = {23}, year = {2020}, } @article{7343, abstract = {Coinfections with multiple pathogens can result in complex within‐host dynamics affecting virulence and transmission. While multiple infections are intensively studied in solitary hosts, it is so far unresolved how social host interactions interfere with pathogen competition, and if this depends on coinfection diversity. We studied how the collective disease defences of ants – their social immunity – influence pathogen competition in coinfections of same or different fungal pathogen species. Social immunity reduced virulence for all pathogen combinations, but interfered with spore production only in different‐species coinfections. Here, it decreased overall pathogen sporulation success while increasing co‐sporulation on individual cadavers and maintaining a higher pathogen diversity at the community level. Mathematical modelling revealed that host sanitary care alone can modulate competitive outcomes between pathogens, giving advantage to fast‐germinating, thus less grooming‐sensitive ones. Host social interactions can hence modulate infection dynamics in coinfected group members, thereby altering pathogen communities at the host level and population level.}, author = {Milutinovic, Barbara and Stock, Miriam and Grasse, Anna V and Naderlinger, Elisabeth and Hilbe, Christian and Cremer, Sylvia}, issn = {1461-0248}, journal = {Ecology Letters}, number = {3}, pages = {565--574}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Social immunity modulates competition between coinfecting pathogens}}, doi = {10.1111/ele.13458}, volume = {23}, year = {2020}, } @article{7747, abstract = {Acquisition and allocation of resources are central to life‐history theory. However, empirical work typically focuses only on allocation despite the fact that relationships between fitness components may be governed by differences in the ability of individuals to acquire resources across environments. Here, we outline a statistical framework to partition the genetic basis of multivariate plasticity into independent axes of genetic variation, and quantify for the first time, the extent to which specific traits drive multitrait genotype–environment interactions. Our framework generalises to analyses of plasticity, growth and ageing. We apply this approach to a unique, large‐scale, multivariate study of acquisition, allocation and plasticity in the life history of the cricket, Gryllus firmus. We demonstrate that resource acquisition and allocation are genetically correlated, and that plasticity in trade‐offs between allocation to components of fitness is 90% dependent on genetic variance for total resource acquisition. These results suggest that genotype–environment effects for resource acquisition can maintain variation in life‐history components that are typically observed in the wild.}, author = {Robinson, Matthew Richard and Beckerman, Andrew P.}, issn = {1461-023X}, journal = {Ecology Letters}, number = {3}, pages = {281--290}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Quantifying multivariate plasticity: Genetic variation in resource acquisition drives plasticity in resource allocation to components of life history}}, doi = {10.1111/ele.12047}, volume = {16}, year = {2013}, } @article{7748, abstract = {Female mate choice acts as an important evolutionary force, yet the influence of the environment on both its expression and the selective pressures acting upon it remains unknown. We found consistent heritable differences between females in their choice of mate based on ornament size during a 25‐year study of a population of collared flycatchers. However, the fitness consequences of mate choice were dependent on environmental conditions experienced whilst breeding. Females breeding with highly ornamented males experienced high relative fitness during dry summer conditions, but low relative fitness during wetter years. Our results imply that sexual selection within a population can be highly variable and dependent upon the prevailing weather conditions experienced by individuals.}, author = {Robinson, Matthew Richard and Sander van Doorn, G. and Gustafsson, Lars and Qvarnström, Anna}, issn = {1461-023X}, journal = {Ecology Letters}, number = {6}, pages = {611--618}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Environment-dependent selection on mate choice in a natural population of birds}}, doi = {10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01780.x}, volume = {15}, year = {2012}, } @article{7749, abstract = {Although studies on laboratory species and natural populations of vertebrates have shown reproduction to impair later performance, little is known of the age‐specific associations between reproduction and survival, and how such findings apply to the ageing of large, long‐lived species. Herein we develop a framework to examine population‐level patterns of reproduction and survival across lifespan in long‐lived organisms, and decompose those changes into individual‐level effects, and the effects of age‐specific trade‐offs between fitness components. We apply this to an extensive longitudinal dataset on female semi‐captive Asian timber elephants (Elephas maximus) and report the first evidence of age‐specific fitness declines that are driven by age‐specific associations between fitness components in a long‐lived mammal. Associations between reproduction and survival are positive in early life, but negative in later life with up to 71% of later‐life survival declines associated with investing in the production of offspring within this population of this critically endangered species.}, author = {Robinson, Matthew Richard and Mar, Khyne U and Lummaa, Virpi}, issn = {1461-023X}, journal = {Ecology Letters}, number = {3}, pages = {260--266}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Senescence and age-specific trade-offs between reproduction and survival in female Asian elephants}}, doi = {10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01735.x}, volume = {15}, year = {2012}, }