Life‐history innovation to climate change: can single‐brooded migrant birds become multiple breeders?

When climatic conditions change and become outside the range experienced in the past, species may show life‐history innovations allowing them to adapt in new ways. We report such an innovation for pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca. Decades of breeding biological studies on pied flycatchers have rarely reported multiple breeding in this long‐distance migrant. In two populations, we found 12 recent incidents of females with second broods, all produced by extremely early laying females in warm springs. As such early first broods are a recent phenomenon, because laying dates have gradually advanced over time, this innovation now allows individual females to enhance their reproductive success considerably. If laying dates continue advancing, potentially more females may become multiple breeders and selection for early (and multiple) breeding phenotypes increases, which may accelerate adaptation to climatic change.     

Is Port Stephens,eastern Australia,a global hotspot for biodiversity of Aplysiidae (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia)?

Port Stephens, a large natural harbour on the central New South Wales (NSW) coast, provides ideal oceanographic and benthic conditions for the growth of marine algae and seagrasses, and this promotes a suite of herbivorous heterobranch sea slugs such as sea hares and sap-sucking sea slugs. In this article we document both historic and recent observations of sea hares (family Aplysiidae) from Port Stephens with the intention of recording species diversity. The western South Pacific region has the richest aplysiid fauna in the world, with 16 species now recorded in Port Stephens. This location is the most taxonomically diverse for this family in Australia. Despite this hotspot of aplysiid diversity, the taxonomy and nomenclature of 12 species is uncertain, a fact highlighted by a series of nomenclatural notes included in this article. We herein report the first observation of Petalifera sp. in Australian waters. Dolabrifera jacksoniensis Pilsbry, 1896 Pilsbry, H. (1896) Genus III. Dolabrifera Gray, 1847. Manual of Conchology series 1, volume 16, part 63, 113–160, pls 32–43. [Google Scholar] is newly synonymised with D. brazieri G.B. Sowerby II, 1870. Recent reports of southern range extensions for other heterobranch sea slugs, both in Port Stephens and elsewhere in NSW, highlight the importance of recording the existing aplysiid diversity in the port. Thus, any future alteration to species composition and range shifts driven by climate change may be detected.     

Adult activity and temperature preference drives region-wide damselfly (Zygoptera) distributions under a warming climate

We analysed a recently completed statewide odonate Atlas using multivariate linear models. Within a phylogenetically explicit framework, we developed a suite of data-derived traits to assess the mechanistic distributional drivers of 59 species of damselflies in New York State (NYS). We found that length of the flight season (adult breeding activity period) mediated by thermal preference drives regional distributions at broad (10⁵ km²) scales. Species that had longer adult flight periods, in conjunction with longer growing seasons, had significantly wider distributions. These intrinsic traits shape species'' responses to changing climates and the mechanisms behind such range shifts are fitness-based metapopulation processes that adjust phenology to the prevailing habitat and climate regime through a photoperiod filter.     

Do species’ traits predict recent shifts at expanding range edges?

Although some organisms have moved to higher elevations and latitudes in response to recent climate change, there is little consensus regarding the capacity of different species to track rapid climate change via range shifts. Understanding species' abilities to shift ranges has important implications for assessing extinction risk and predicting future community structure. At an expanding front, colonization rates are determined jointly by rates of reproduction and dispersal. In addition, establishment of viable populations requires that individuals find suitable resources in novel habitats. Thus, species with greater dispersal ability, reproductive rate and ecological generalization should be more likely to expand into new regions under climate change. Here, we assess current evidence for the relationship between leading-edge range shifts and species' traits. We found expected relationships for several datasets, including diet breadth in North American Passeriformes and egg-laying habitat in British Odonata. However, models generally had low explanatory power. Thus, even statistically and biologically meaningful relationships are unlikely to be of predictive utility for conservation and management. Trait-based range shift forecasts face several challenges, including quantifying relevant natural history variation across large numbers of species and coupling these data with extrinsic factors such as habitat fragmentation and availability.     

Riparian Beetles,a Unique,but Vulnerable Element in the Fauna of Fennoscandia

A survey of the distribution and ecology of riparian beetles in Fennoscandia and adjacent countries is presented and the conservation value of, and threats to, the element are discussed. Contrary to most other taxa or ecological groups, the number of riparian species increases from south to north in Scandinavia. The inner parts of the counties of Sør-Trøndelag (STI) in Central Norway and Troms (TRI) in North Norway have the largest total number of riparian species, the largest number of vulnerable (red-listed) riparian species, and the largest importance index, rarity factor and algorithmic ranking in Fennoscandia. These provinces may be regarded as hot spots for riparian species in northwestern Europe and therefore have high conservation value. In addition to river regulation, river banks are exposed to a number of impacts such as removal of sediment and fluvial woodlands, wear and tear, construction of flood-prevention walls, canalization and various other developments (road building, industrial activity, etc.). These impacts seem to be more severe in Norway than in Northern Sweden and Finland. Due to human impacts, riparian carabid beetles have become extinct in parts of their former range in Scandinavia. The possibility of re-invasion of species after restoration is discussed.     

云南窗萤的形态学及其生物学特性（鞘翅目：萤科）

研究了云南窗萤卵到成虫不同发育阶段的形态学。根据野外观察和实验室饲养结果,记录了其生物学特性。卵、幼虫、蛹和雌成虫可发弱光,但雄成虫仅在受刺激时才发出更弱的光,云南窗萤可归属于昼行性萤火虫,而化学信号则是其雌雄在求偶时的主要识别方式。     

Toward a synthetic understanding of the role of phenology in ecology and evolution

Phenology affects nearly all aspects of ecology and evolution. Virtually all biological phenomena—from individual physiology to interspecific relationships to global nutrient fluxes—have annual cycles and are influenced by the timing of abiotic events. Recent years have seen a surge of interest in this topic, as an increasing number of studies document phenological responses to climate change. Much recent research has addressed the genetic controls on phenology, modelling techniques and ecosystem-level and evolutionary consequences of phenological change. To date, however, these efforts have tended to proceed independently. Here, we bring together some of these disparate lines of inquiry to clarify vocabulary, facilitate comparisons among habitat types and promote the integration of ideas and methodologies across different disciplines and scales. We discuss the relationship between phenology and life history, the distinction between organismal- and population-level perspectives on phenology and the influence of phenology on evolutionary processes, communities and ecosystems. Future work should focus on linking ecological and physiological aspects of phenology, understanding the demographic effects of phenological change and explicitly accounting for seasonality and phenology in forecasts of ecological and evolutionary responses to climate change.