Extremes in rangeland management, varying from too-frequent fire and intensive grazing to the suppression of both, threaten rangeland ecosystems worldwide. Intensive fire and grazing denude and homogenize vegetation whereas their suppression increases woody cover. Although habitat loss is implicated in grassland bird declines, degradation through intensive management or neglect also decreases breeding habitat and may reduce nesting success through increased rates of nest predation. Snakes are important nest predators, but little is known about how habitat use in snakes relates to predation risk for grassland birds nesting within tallgrass prairie subjected to different grazing and fire frequencies. We evaluated nest survival in the context of habitat used by nesting songbirds and two bird-eating snakes, the eastern yellowbelly racer Coluber constrictor flaviventris and Great Plains ratsnake Pantherophis emoryi. Daily nest survival rates decreased with increasing shrub cover and decreasing vegetation height, which characterize grasslands that have been neglected or intensively managed, respectively. Discriminant function analysis revealed that snake habitats were characterized by higher shrub cover, whereas successful nests were more likely to occur in areas with tall grass and forbs but reduced shrub cover. Because snakes often use shrub habitat, birds nesting in areas with increased shrub cover may be at higher risk of nest predation by snakes in addition to other predators known to use shrub habitat (e.g., mid-sized carnivores and avian predators). Depredated nests also occurred outside the discriminant space of the snakes, indicating that other predators (e.g., ground squirrels Spermophilus spp. and bullsnakes Pituophis catenifer) may be important in areas with denuded cover. Targeted removal of shrubs may increase nest success by minimizing the activity of nest predators attracted to shrub cover.

Insights into symbiosis between eukaryotic hosts and their microbiomes have shifted paradigms on what determines host fitness, ecology, and behavior. Questions remain regarding the roles of host versus environment in shaping microbiomes, and how microbiome composition affects host fitness. Using a model system in ecology, phytoplankton, we tested whether microbiomes are host-specific, confer fitness benefits that are host-specific, and remain conserved in time in their composition and fitness effects. We used an experimental approach in which hosts were cleaned of bacteria and then exposed to bacterial communities from natural environments to permit recruitment of microbiomes. We found that phytoplankton microbiomes consisted of a subset of taxa recruited from these natural environments. Microbiome recruitment was host-specific, with host species explaining more variation in microbiome composition than environment. While microbiome composition shifted and then stabilized over time, host specificity remained for dozens of generations. Microbiomes increased host fitness, but these fitness effects were host-specific for only two of the five species. The shifts in microbiome composition over time amplified fitness benefits to the hosts. Overall, this work solidifies the importance of host factors in shaping microbiomes and elucidates the temporal dynamics of microbiome compositional and fitness effects.

Abstract. Cross-ecosystem fluxes can intertwine otherwise disparate food webs, but the effects of biodiversity at the genotypic level on fluxes across ecosystems boundaries is not known. Fresh leaves, which vary in traits such as defensive compounds against terrestrial herbivores, drop off trees and enter streams, providing a vital resource for riverine organisms. We demonstrate substantial variation in decomposition rates among individual trees in four different rivers in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, USA. We show that locally derived red alder leaf litter decomposes on average 24% faster than red alder leaf litter introduced from other riparian zones. Within rivers, leaves downstream of their parent trees decompose nearly as quickly as leaves from local trees. Leaves upstream of the parent tree decomposed as slowly as leaves from trees growing alongside different rivers. Over time, aquatic decomposer communities have locally adapted to the specific trees supplying the riparian subsidies. In energy-limited environments, such as small shaded streams, consumers must be efficient foragers. Our results indicate that this pressure for efficiency has led to adaptation at a particularly fine scale. More broadly, these results illustrate how genetic diversity and the effects of selection in one ecosystem can indirectly shape the structure of other ecosystems through ecological fluxes across boundaries.

Intraspecific niche divergence is an important driver of species range, population abundance and impacts on ecosystem functions. Genetic changes are the primary focus when studying intraspecific divergence; however, the role of ecological interactions, particularly host‐microbiome symbioses, is receiving increased attention. The relative importance of these evolutionary and ecological mechanisms has seen only limited evaluation. To address this question, we used Microcystis aeruginosa, the globally distributed cyanobacterium that dominates freshwater harmful algal blooms. These blooms have been increasing in occurrence and intensity worldwide, causing major economic and ecological damages. We evaluated 46 isolates of M. aeruginosa and their microbiomes, collected from 14 lakes in Michigan, USA, that vary over 20‐fold in phosphorus levels, the primary limiting nutrient in freshwater systems. Genomes of M. aeruginosa diverged along this phosphorus gradient in genomic architecture and protein functions. Fitness in low‐phosphorus lakes corresponded with additional shifts within M. aeruginosa including genome‐wide reductions in nitrogen use, an expansion of phosphorus assimilation genes and an alternative life history strategy of nonclonal colony formation. In addition to host shifts, despite culturing in common‐garden conditions, host‐microbiomes diverged along the gradient in taxonomy, but converged in function with evidence of metabolic interdependence between the host and its microbiome. Divergence corresponded with a physiological trade‐off between fitness in low‐phosphorus environments and growth rate in phosphorus‐rich conditions. Co‐occurrence of genotypes adapted to different nutrient environments in phosphorus‐rich lakes may have critical implications for understanding how M. aeruginosa blooms persist after initial nutrient depletion. Ultimately, we demonstrate that the intertwined effects of genome evolution, host life history strategy and ecological interactions between a host and its microbiome correspond with an intraspecific niche shift with important implications for whole ecosystem function.

Herbivores induce plants to undergo diverse processes that minimize costs to the plant, such as producing defences to deter herbivory or reallocating limited resources to inaccessible portions of the plant. Yet most plant tissue is consumed by decomposers, not herbivores, and these defensive processes aimed to deter herbivores may alter plant tissue even after detachment from the plant. All consumers value nutrients, but plants also require these nutrients for primary functions and defensive processes. We experimentally simulated herbivory with and without nutrient additions on red alder (Alnus rubra), which supplies the majority of leaf litter for many rivers in western North America. Simulated herbivory induced a defence response with cascading effects: terrestrial herbivores and aquatic decomposers fed less on leaves from stressed trees. This effect was context dependent: leaves from fertilizedonly trees decomposed most rapidly while leaves from fertilized trees receiving the herbivory treatment decomposed least, suggesting plants funnelled a nutritionally valuable resource into enhanced defence. One component of the defence response was a decrease in leaf nitrogen leading to elevated carbon : nitrogen. Aquatic decomposers prefer leaves naturally low in C : N and this altered nutrient profile largely explains the lower rate of aquatic decomposition. Furthermore, terrestrial soil decomposers were unaffected by either treatment but did show a preference for local and nitrogen-rich leaves. Our study illustrates the ecological implications of terrestrial herbivory and these findings demonstrate that the effects of selection caused by terrestrial herbivory in one ecosystem can indirectly shape the structure of other ecosystems through ecological fluxes across boundaries.

No abstract

Resource patchiness influences consumer foraging, movement, and physiology. Fluxes across ecosystem boundaries can extend these effects to otherwise distinct food webs. Intraspecific diversity of these cross-ecosystem subsidies can have large consequences for recipient systems. Here, we show intraspecific variation in leaf defensive chemistry of riparian trees drives local adaptation among terrestrial and riverine decomposers that consume shed leaf litter. We found extensive geographic structuring of ellagitannins, diarylheptanoids, and flavonoids in red alder trees. Ellagitannins, particularly those with strong oxidative activity, drive aquatic leaf decomposition. Further, spatial variation in these leaf components drives local ecological matching: in experiments using artificial food sources distinguished only by the chemical content of individual trees, we found decomposers both on land and in rivers more quickly consumed locally derived food sources. These results illustrate that terrestrial processes can change the chemistry of cross-ecosystem subsidies in ways that ultimately alter ecosystem function in donor and recipient systems.

Plants in terrestrial and aquatic environments contain a diverse microbiome. Yet, the chloroplast and mitochondria organelles of the plant eukaryotic cell originate from free-living cyanobacteria and Rickettsiales. This represents a challenge for sequencing the plant microbiome with universal primers, as ~99% of 16S rRNA sequences may consist of chloroplast and mitochondrial sequences. Peptide nucleic acid clamps offer a potential solution by blocking amplification of host-associated sequences. We assessed the efficacy of chloroplast and mitochondria-blocking clamps against a range of microbial taxa from soil, freshwater and marine environments. While we found that the mitochondrial blocking clamps appear to be a robust method for assessing animal-associated microbiota, Proteobacterial 16S rRNA binds to the chloroplast-blocking clamp, resulting in a strong sequencing bias against this group. We attribute this bias to a conserved 14-bp sequence in the Proteobacteria that matches the 17-bp chloroplast-blocking clamp sequence. By scanning the Greengenes database, we provide a reference list of nearly 1500 taxa that contain this 14-bp sequence, including 48 families such as the Rhodobacteraceae, Phyllobacteriaceae, Rhizobiaceae, Kiloniellaceae and Caulobacteraceae. To determine where these taxa are found in nature, we mapped this taxa reference list against the Earth Microbiome Project database. These taxa are abundant in a variety of environments, particularly aquatic and semiaquatic freshwater and marine habitats. To facilitate informed decisions on effective use of organelle-blocking clamps, we provide a searchable database of microbial taxa in the Greengenes and Silva databases matching various n-mer oligonucleotides of each PNA sequence.