African dryland antelope trade-off behaviours in response to heat extremes.

Climate change is predicted to narrow the prescriptive zone of dryland species, potentially leading to behavioural modifications with fitness consequences. This study explores the behavioural responses of three widespread African antelope species-springbok, kudu and eland-to extreme heat in a dryland savanna. We classified the behaviour of 29 individuals during the hot, dry season on the basis of accelerometer data using supervised machine learning and analysed the impact of afternoon heat on behaviour-specific time allocation and overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA), a proxy for energy expenditure, along with compensatory changes over the 24-hour cycle. Extreme afternoon heat reduced feeding time in all three antelope species, increased ruminating and resting time, while only minimally affecting walking time. With rising heat, all three species reduced ODBA on feeding, while eland reduced and kudu increased ODBA on walking. Diel responses in behaviour differed between species, but were generally characterised by daytime reductions in feeding and increases in ruminating or resting on hot days compared to cool days. While antelope compensated for heat-driven behavioural change over the 24-hour cycle in some cases, significant differences persisted in others, including reduced feeding and increased rumination and resting. The impact of heat on antelope behaviour reveals trade-offs between feeding and thermoregulation, as well as between feeding and rumination, the latter suggesting a strategy to enhance nutrient uptake through increased digestive efficiency, while the walking response suggests narrow constraints between cost and necessity. Our findings suggest that heat influences both behaviour-specific time allocation and energy expenditure. Altered diel behaviour patterns and incomplete compensation over the 24-hour cycle point to fitness consequences. The need to prioritise thermoregulation over feeding is likely to narrow the prescriptive zone of these dryland antelope.

Hotspots of biogeochemical activity linked to aridity and plant traits across global drylands.

Perennial plants create productive and biodiverse hotspots, known as fertile islands, beneath their canopies. These hotspots largely determine the structure and functioning of drylands worldwide. Despite their ubiquity, the factors controlling fertile islands under conditions of contrasting grazing by livestock, the most prevalent land use in drylands, remain virtually unknown. Here we evaluated the relative importance of grazing pressure and herbivore type, climate and plant functional traits on 24 soil physical and chemical attributes that represent proxies of key ecosystem services related to decomposition, soil fertility, and soil and water conservation. To do this, we conducted a standardized global survey of 288 plots at 88 sites in 25 countries worldwide. We show that aridity and plant traits are the major factors associated with the magnitude of plant effects on fertile islands in grazed drylands worldwide. Grazing pressure had little influence on the capacity of plants to support fertile islands. Taller and wider shrubs and grasses supported stronger island effects. Stable and functional soils tended to be linked to species-rich sites with taller plants. Together, our findings dispel the notion that grazing pressure or herbivore type are linked to the formation or intensification of fertile islands in drylands. Rather, our study suggests that changes in aridity, and processes that alter island identity and therefore plant traits, will have marked effects on how perennial plants support and maintain the functioning of drylands in a more arid and grazed world.

Resource asynchrony and landscape homogenization as drivers of virulence evolution: The case of a directly transmitted disease in a social host.

Throughout the last decades, the emergence of zoonotic diseases and the frequency of disease outbreaks have increased substantially, fuelled by habitat encroachment and vectors overlapping with more hosts due to global change. The virulence of pathogens is one key trait for successful invasion. In order to understand how global change drivers such as habitat homogenization and climate change drive pathogen virulence evolution, we adapted an established individual-based model of host-pathogen dynamics. Our model simulates a population of social hosts affected by a directly transmitted evolving pathogen in a dynamic landscape. Pathogen virulence evolution results in multiple strains in the model that differ in their transmission capability and lethality. We represent the effects of global change by simulating environmental changes both in time (resource asynchrony) and space (homogenization). We found an increase in pathogenic virulence and a shift in strain dominance with increasing landscape homogenization. Our model further indicated that lower virulence is dominant in fragmented landscapes, although pulses of highly virulent strains emerged under resource asynchrony. While all landscape scenarios favoured co-occurrence of low- and high-virulent strains, the high-virulence strains capitalized on the possibility for transmission when host density increased and were likely to become dominant. With asynchrony likely to occur more often due to global change, our model showed that a subsequent evolution towards lower virulence could lead to some diseases becoming endemic in their host populations.

Behavioral responses of terrestrial mammals to COVID-19 lockdowns.

COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020 reduced human mobility, providing an opportunity to disentangle its effects on animals from those of landscape modifications. Using GPS data, we compared movements and road avoidance of 2300 terrestrial mammals (43 species) during the lockdowns to the same period in 2019. Individual responses were variable with no change in average movements or road avoidance behavior, likely due to variable lockdown conditions. However, under strict lockdowns 10-day 95th percentile displacements increased by 73%, suggesting increased landscape permeability. Animals' 1-hour 95th percentile displacements declined by 12% and animals were 36% closer to roads in areas of high human footprint, indicating reduced avoidance during lockdowns. Overall, lockdowns rapidly altered some spatial behaviors, highlighting variable but substantial impacts of human mobility on wildlife worldwide.

Grazing and ecosystem service delivery in global drylands.

Grazing represents the most extensive use of land worldwide. Yet its impacts on ecosystem services remain uncertain because pervasive interactions between grazing pressure, climate, soil properties, and biodiversity may occur but have never been addressed simultaneously. Using a standardized survey at 98 sites across six continents, we show that interactions between grazing pressure, climate, soil, and biodiversity are critical to explain the delivery of fundamental ecosystem services across drylands worldwide. Increasing grazing pressure reduced ecosystem service delivery in warmer and species-poor drylands, whereas positive effects of grazing were observed in colder and species-rich areas. Considering interactions between grazing and local abiotic and biotic factors is key for understanding the fate of dryland ecosystems under climate change and increasing human pressure.

Evaluating expert-based habitat suitability information of terrestrial mammals with GPS-tracking data.

Aim: Macroecological studies that require habitat suitability data for many species often derive this information from expert opinion. However, expert-based information is inherently subjective and thus prone to errors. The increasing availability of GPS tracking data offers opportunities to evaluate and supplement expert-based information with detailed empirical evidence. Here, we compared expert-based habitat suitability information from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with habitat suitability information derived from GPS-tracking data of 1,498 individuals from 49 mammal species. Location: Worldwide. Time period: 1998-2021. Major taxa studied: Forty-nine terrestrial mammal species. Methods: Using GPS data, we estimated two measures of habitat suitability for each individual animal: proportional habitat use (proportion of GPS locations within a habitat type), and selection ratio (habitat use relative to its availability). For each individual we then evaluated whether the GPS-based habitat suitability measures were in agreement with the IUCN data. To that end, we calculated the probability that the ranking of empirical habitat suitability measures was in agreement with IUCN's classification into suitable, marginal and unsuitable habitat types. Results: IUCN habitat suitability data were in accordance with the GPS data (> 95% probability of agreement) for 33 out of 49 species based on proportional habitat use estimates and for 25 out of 49 species based on selection ratios. In addition, 37 and 34 species had a > 50% probability of agreement based on proportional habitat use and selection ratios, respectively. Main conclusions: We show how GPS-tracking data can be used to evaluate IUCN habitat suitability data. Our findings indicate that for the majority of species included in this study, it is appropriate to use IUCN habitat suitability data in macroecological studies. Furthermore, we show that GPS-tracking data can be used to identify and prioritize species and habitat types for re-evaluation of IUCN habitat suitability data.

Personality drives activity and space use in a mammalian herbivore.

BACKGROUND: Animal personality has emerged as a key concept in behavioral ecology. While many studies have demonstrated the influence of personality traits on behavioral patterns, its quantification, especially in wild animal populations, remains a challenge. Only a few studies have established a link between personality and recurring movements within home ranges, although these small-scale movements are of key importance for identifying ecological interactions and forming individual niches. In this regard, differences in space use among individuals might reflect different exploration styles between behavioral types along the shy-bold continuum. METHODS: We assessed among-individual differences in behavior in the European hare (Lepus europaeus), a characteristic mammalian herbivore in agricultural landscapes using a standardized box emergence test for captive and wild hares. We determined an individuals' degree of boldness by measuring the latencies of behavioral responses in repeated emergence tests in captivity. During capture events of wild hares, we conducted a single emergence test and recorded behavioral responses proven to be stable over time in captive hares. Applying repeated novel environment tests in a near-natural enclosure, we further quantified aspects of exploration and activity in captive hares. Finally, we investigated whether and how this among-individual behavioral variation is related to general activity and space use in a wild hare population. Wild and captive hares were treated similarly and GPS-collared with internal accelerometers prior to release to the wild or the outdoor enclosure, respectively. General activity was quantified as overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA) obtained from accelerometers. Finally, we tested whether boldness explained variation in (i) ODBA in both settings and (ii) variation in home ranges and core areas across different time scales of GPS-collared hares in a wild population. RESULTS: We found three behavioral responses to be consistent over time in captive hares. ODBA was positively related to boldness (i.e., short latencies to make first contact with the new environment) in both captive and wild hares. Space use in wild hares also varied with boldness, with shy individuals having smaller core areas and larger home ranges than bold conspecifics (yet in some of the parameter space, this association was just marginally significant). CONCLUSIONS: Against our prediction, shy individuals occupied relatively large home ranges but with small core areas. We suggest that this space use pattern is due to them avoiding risky, and energy-demanding competition for valuable resources. Carefully validated, activity measurements (ODBA) from accelerometers provide a valuable tool to quantify aspects of animal personality along the shy-bold continuum remotely. Without directly observing-and possibly disturbing-focal individuals, this approach allows measuring variability in animal personality, especially in species that are difficult to assess with experiments. Considering that accelerometers are often already built into GPS units, we recommend activating them at least during the initial days of tracking to estimate individual variation in general activity and, if possible, match them with a simple novelty experiment. Furthermore, information on individual behavioral types will help to facilitate mechanistic understanding of processes that drive spatial and ecological dynamics in heterogeneous landscapes.

Browsing herbivores improve the state and functioning of savannas: A model assessment of alternative land-use strategies.

Changing climatic conditions and unsustainable land use are major threats to savannas worldwide. Historically, many African savannas were used intensively for livestock grazing, which contributed to widespread patterns of bush encroachment across savanna systems. To reverse bush encroachment, it has been proposed to change the cattle-dominated land use to one dominated by comparatively specialized browsers and usually native herbivores. However, the consequences for ecosystem properties and processes remain largely unclear. We used the ecohydrological, spatially explicit model EcoHyD to assess the impacts of two contrasting, herbivore land-use strategies on a Namibian savanna: grazer- versus browser-dominated herbivore communities. We varied the densities of grazers and browsers and determined the resulting composition and diversity of the plant community, total vegetation cover, soil moisture, and water use by plants. Our results showed that plant types that are less palatable to herbivores were best adapted to grazing or browsing animals in all simulated densities. Also, plant types that had a competitive advantage under limited water availability were among the dominant ones irrespective of land-use scenario. Overall, the results were in line with our expectations: under high grazer densities, we found heavy bush encroachment and the loss of the perennial grass matrix. Importantly, regardless of the density of browsers, grass cover and plant functional diversity were significantly higher in browsing scenarios. Browsing herbivores increased grass cover, and the higher total cover in turn improved water uptake by plants overall. We concluded that, in contrast to grazing-dominated land-use strategies, land-use strategies dominated by browsing herbivores, even at high herbivore densities, sustain diverse vegetation communities with high cover of perennial grasses, resulting in lower erosion risk and bolstering ecosystem services.

Movement can mediate temporal mismatches between resource availability and biological events in host-pathogen interactions.

Global change is shifting the timing of biological events, leading to temporal mismatches between biological events and resource availability. These temporal mismatches can threaten species' populations. Importantly, temporal mismatches not only exert strong pressures on the population dynamics of the focal species, but can also lead to substantial changes in pairwise species interactions such as host-pathogen systems. We adapted an established individual-based model of host-pathogen dynamics. The model describes a viral agent in a social host, while accounting for the host's explicit movement decisions. We aimed to investigate how temporal mismatches between seasonal resource availability and host life-history events affect host-pathogen coexistence, that is, disease persistence. Seasonal resource fluctuations only increased coexistence probability when in synchrony with the hosts' biological events. However, a temporal mismatch reduced host-pathogen coexistence, but only marginally. In tandem with an increasing temporal mismatch, our model showed a shift in the spatial distribution of infected hosts. It shifted from an even distribution under synchronous conditions toward the formation of disease hotspots, when host life history and resource availability mismatched completely. The spatial restriction of infected hosts to small hotspots in the landscape initially suggested a lower coexistence probability due to the critical loss of susceptible host individuals within those hotspots. However, the surrounding landscape facilitated demographic rescue through habitat-dependent movement. Our work demonstrates that the negative effects of temporal mismatches between host resource availability and host life history on host-pathogen coexistence can be reduced through the formation of temporary disease hotspots and host movement decisions, with implications for disease management under disturbances and global change.

Seed traits matter-Endozoochoric dispersal through a pervasive mobile linker.

Although many plants are dispersed by wind and seeds can travel long distances across unsuitable matrix areas, a large proportion relies on co-evolved zoochorous seed dispersal to connect populations in isolated habitat islands. Particularly in agricultural landscapes, where remaining habitat patches are often very small and highly isolated, mobile linkers as zoochorous seed dispersers are critical for the population dynamics of numerous plant species. However, knowledge about the quali- or quantification of such mobile link processes, especially in agricultural landscapes, is still limited. In a controlled feeding experiment, we recorded the seed intake and germination success after complete digestion by the European brown hare (Lepus europaeus) and explored its mobile link potential as an endozoochoric seed disperser. Utilizing a suite of common, rare, and potentially invasive plant species, we disentangled the effects of seed morphological traits on germination success while controlling for phylogenetic relatedness. Further, we measured the landscape connectivity via hares in two contrasting agricultural landscapes (simple: few natural and semi-natural structures, large fields; complex: high amount of natural and semi-natural structures, small fields) using GPS-based movement data. With 34,710 seeds of 44 plant species fed, one of 200 seeds (0.51%) with seedlings of 33 species germinated from feces. Germination after complete digestion was positively related to denser seeds with comparatively small surface area and a relatively slender and elongated shape, suggesting that, for hares, the most critical seed characteristics for successful endozoochorous seed dispersal minimize exposure of the seed to the stomach and the associated digestive system. Furthermore, we could show that a hare's retention time is long enough to interconnect different habitats, especially grasslands and fields. Thus, besides other seed dispersal mechanisms, this most likely allows hares to act as effective mobile linkers contributing to ecosystem stability in times of agricultural intensification, not only in complex but also in simple landscapes.

Movement-mediated community assembly and coexistence.

Organismal movement is ubiquitous and facilitates important ecological mechanisms that drive community and metacommunity composition and hence biodiversity. In most existing ecological theories and models in biodiversity research, movement is represented simplistically, ignoring the behavioural basis of movement and consequently the variation in behaviour at species and individual levels. However, as human endeavours modify climate and land use, the behavioural processes of organisms in response to these changes, including movement, become critical to understanding the resulting biodiversity loss. Here, we draw together research from different subdisciplines in ecology to understand the impact of individual-level movement processes on community-level patterns in species composition and coexistence. We join the movement ecology framework with the key concepts from metacommunity theory, community assembly and modern coexistence theory using the idea of micro-macro links, where various aspects of emergent movement behaviour scale up to local and regional patterns in species mobility and mobile-link-generated patterns in abiotic and biotic environmental conditions. These in turn influence both individual movement and, at ecological timescales, mechanisms such as dispersal limitation, environmental filtering, and niche partitioning. We conclude by highlighting challenges to and promising future avenues for data generation, data analysis and complementary modelling approaches and provide a brief outlook on how a new behaviour-based view on movement becomes important in understanding the responses of communities under ongoing environmental change.

Effects of body size on estimation of mammalian area requirements.

Accurately quantifying species' area requirements is a prerequisite for effective area-based conservation. This typically involves collecting tracking data on species of interest and then conducting home-range analyses. Problematically, autocorrelation in tracking data can result in space needs being severely underestimated. Based on the previous work, we hypothesized the magnitude of underestimation varies with body mass, a relationship that could have serious conservation implications. To evaluate this hypothesis for terrestrial mammals, we estimated home-range areas with global positioning system (GPS) locations from 757 individuals across 61 globally distributed mammalian species with body masses ranging from 0.4 to 4000 kg. We then applied block cross-validation to quantify bias in empirical home-range estimates. Area requirements of mammals <10 kg were underestimated by a mean approximately15%, and species weighing approximately100 kg were underestimated by approximately50% on average. Thus, we found area estimation was subject to autocorrelation-induced bias that was worse for large species. Combined with the fact that extinction risk increases as body mass increases, the allometric scaling of bias we observed suggests the most threatened species are also likely to be those with the least accurate home-range estimates. As a correction, we tested whether data thinning or autocorrelation-informed home-range estimation minimized the scaling effect of autocorrelation on area estimates. Data thinning required an approximately93% data loss to achieve statistical independence with 95% confidence and was, therefore, not a viable solution. In contrast, autocorrelation-informed home-range estimation resulted in consistently accurate estimates irrespective of mass. When relating body mass to home range size, we detected that correcting for autocorrelation resulted in a scaling exponent significantly >1, meaning the scaling of the relationship changed substantially at the upper end of the mass spectrum.

Efectos del Tamaño Corporal sobre la Estimación de los Requerimientos de Área de Mamíferos Resumen La cuantificación precisa de los requerimientos de área de una especie es un prerrequisito para que la conservación basada en áreas sea efectiva. Esto comúnmente implica la recolección de datos de rastreo de la especie de interés para después realizar análisis de la distribución local. De manera problemática, la autocorrelación en los datos de rastreo puede resultar en una subestimación grave de las necesidades de espacio. Con base en trabajos previos, formulamos una hipótesis en la que supusimos que la magnitud de la subestimación varía con la masa corporal, una relación que podría tener implicaciones serias para la conservación. Para probar esta hipótesis en mamíferos terrestres, estimamos las áreas de distribución local con las ubicaciones en GPS de 757 individuos de 61 especies de mamíferos distribuidas mundialmente con una masa corporal entre 0.4 y 4,000 kg. Después aplicamos una validación cruzada en bloque para cuantificar el sesgo en estimaciones empíricas de la distribución local. Los requerimientos de área de los mamíferos <10 kg fueron subestimados por una media ∼15% y las especies con una masa ∼100 kg fueron subestimadas en ∼50% en promedio. Por lo tanto, encontramos que la estimación del área estaba sujeta al sesgo inducido por la autocorrelación, el cual era peor para las especies de talla grande. En combinación con el hecho de que el riesgo de extinción incrementa conforme aumenta la masa corporal, el escalamiento alométrico del sesgo que observamos sugiere que la mayoría de las especies amenazadas también tienen la probabilidad de ser aquellas especies con las estimaciones de distribución local menos acertadas. Como corrección, probamos si la reducción de datos o la estimación de la distribución local informada por la autocorrelación minimizan el efecto de escalamiento que tiene la autocorrelación sobre las estimaciones de área. La reducción de datos requirió una pérdida de datos del ∼93% para lograr la independencia estadística con un 95% de confianza y por lo tanto no fue una solución viable. Al contrario, la estimación de la distribución local informada por la autocorrelación resultó en estimaciones constantemente precisas sin importar la masa corporal. Cuando relacionamos la masa corporal con el tamaño de la distribución local, detectamos que la corrección de la autocorrelación resultó en un exponente de escalamiento significativamente >1, lo que significa que el escalamiento de la relación cambió sustancialmente en el extremo superior del espectro de la masa corporal.

Partitioning of Water Between Differently Sized Shrubs and Potential Groundwater Recharge in a Semiarid Savanna in Namibia.

Introduction: Many semiarid regions around the world are presently experiencing significant changes in both climatic conditions and vegetation. This includes a disturbed coexistence between grasses and bushes also known as bush encroachment, and altered precipitation patterns with larger rain events. Fewer, more intense precipitation events might promote groundwater recharge, but depending on the structure of the vegetation also encourage further woody encroachment. Materials and Methods: In this study, we investigated how patterns and sources of water uptake of Acacia mellifera (blackthorn), an important encroaching woody plant in southern African savannas, are associated with the intensity of rain events and the size of individual shrubs. The study was conducted at a commercial cattle farm in the semiarid Kalahari in Namibia (MAP 250 mm/a). We used soil moisture dynamics in different depths and natural stable isotopes as markers of water sources. Xylem water of fifteen differently sized individuals during eight rain events was extracted using a Scholander pressure bomb. Results and Discussion: Results suggest the main rooting activity zone of A. mellifera in 50 and 75 cm soil depth but a reasonable water uptake from 10 and 25 cm. Any apparent uptake pattern seems to be driven by water availability, not time in the season. Bushes prefer the deeper soil layers after heavier rain events, indicating some evidence for the classical Walter's two-layer hypothesis. However, rain events up to a threshold of 6 mm/day cause shallower depths of use and suggest several phases of intense competition with perennial grasses. The temporal uptake pattern does not depend on shrub size, suggesting a fast upwards water flow inside. δ2H and δ18O values in xylem water indicate that larger shrubs rely less on upper and very deep soil water than smaller shrubs. It supports the hypothesis that in environments where soil moisture is highly variable in the upper soil layers, the early investment in a deep tap-root to exploit deeper, more reliable water sources could reduce the probability of mortality during the establishment phase. Nevertheless, independent of size and time in the season, bushes do not compete with potential groundwater recharge. In a savanna encroached by A. mellifera, groundwater will most likely be affected indirectly.

Seasonal host life-history processes fuel disease dynamics at different spatial scales.

Understanding the drivers underlying disease dynamics is still a major challenge in disease ecology, especially in the case of long-term disease persistence. Even though there is a strong consensus that density-dependent factors play an important role for the spread of diseases, the main drivers are still discussed and, more importantly, might differ between invasion and persistence periods. Here, we analysed long-term outbreak data of classical swine fever, an important disease in both wild boar and livestock, prevalent in the wild boar population from 1993 to 2000 in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. We report outbreak characteristics and results from generalized linear mixed models to reveal what factors affected infection risk on both the landscape and the individual level. Spatiotemporal outbreak dynamics showed an initial wave-like spread with high incidence during the invasion period followed by a drop of incidence and an increase in seroprevalence during the persistence period. Velocity of spread increased with time during the first year of outbreak and decreased linearly afterwards, being on average 7.6 km per quarter. Landscape- and individual-level analyses of infection risk indicate contrasting seasonal patterns. During the persistence period, infection risk on the landscape level was highest during autumn and winter seasons, probably related to spatial behaviour such as increased long-distance movements and contacts induced by rutting and escaping movements. In contrast, individual-level infection risk peaked in spring, probably related to the concurrent birth season leading to higher densities, and was significantly higher in piglets than in reproductive animals. Our findings highlight that it is important to investigate both individual- and landscape-level patterns of infection risk to understand long-term persistence of wildlife diseases and to guide respective management actions. Furthermore, we highlight that exploring different temporal aggregation of the data helps to reveal important seasonal patterns, which might be masked otherwise.

Moving in the Anthropocene: Global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements.

Animal movement is fundamental for ecosystem functioning and species survival, yet the effects of the anthropogenic footprint on animal movements have not been estimated across species. Using a unique GPS-tracking database of 803 individuals across 57 species, we found that movements of mammals in areas with a comparatively high human footprint were on average one-half to one-third the extent of their movements in areas with a low human footprint. We attribute this reduction to behavioral changes of individual animals and to the exclusion of species with long-range movements from areas with higher human impact. Global loss of vagility alters a key ecological trait of animals that affects not only population persistence but also ecosystem processes such as predator-prey interactions, nutrient cycling, and disease transmission.

Habitat selection by the European hare in arable landscapes: The importance of small-scale habitat structure for conservation.

Agricultural land-use practices have intensified over the last decades, leading to population declines of various farmland species, including the European hare (Lepus europaeus). In many European countries, arable fields dominate agricultural landscapes. Compared to pastures, arable land is highly variable, resulting in a large spatial variation of food and cover for wildlife over the course of the year, which potentially affects habitat selection by hares. Here, we investigated within-home-range habitat selection by hares in arable areas in Denmark and Germany to identify habitat requirements for their conservation. We hypothesized that hare habitat selection would depend on local habitat structure, that is, vegetation height, but also on agricultural field size, vegetation type, and proximity to field edges. Active hares generally selected for short vegetation (1-25 cm) and avoided higher vegetation and bare ground, especially when fields were comparatively larger. Vegetation >50 cm potentially restricts hares from entering parts of their home range and does not provide good forage, the latter also being the case on bare ground. The vegetation type was important for habitat selection by inactive hares, with fabaceae, fallow, and maize being selected for, potentially providing both cover and forage. Our results indicate that patches of shorter vegetation could improve the forage quality and habitat accessibility for hares, especially in areas with large monocultures. Thus, policymakers should aim to increase areas with short vegetation throughout the year. Further, permanent set-asides, like fallow and wildflower areas, would provide year-round cover for inactive hares. Finally, the reduction in field sizes would increase the density of field margins, and farming different crop types within small areas could improve the habitat for hares and other farmland species.

Integrating movement ecology with biodiversity research - exploring new avenues to address spatiotemporal biodiversity dynamics.

Movement of organisms is one of the key mechanisms shaping biodiversity, e.g. the distribution of genes, individuals and species in space and time. Recent technological and conceptual advances have improved our ability to assess the causes and consequences of individual movement, and led to the emergence of the new field of 'movement ecology'. Here, we outline how movement ecology can contribute to the broad field of biodiversity research, i.e. the study of processes and patterns of life among and across different scales, from genes to ecosystems, and we propose a conceptual framework linking these hitherto largely separated fields of research. Our framework builds on the concept of movement ecology for individuals, and demonstrates its importance for linking individual organismal movement with biodiversity. First, organismal movements can provide 'mobile links' between habitats or ecosystems, thereby connecting resources, genes, and processes among otherwise separate locations. Understanding these mobile links and their impact on biodiversity will be facilitated by movement ecology, because mobile links can be created by different modes of movement (i.e., foraging, dispersal, migration) that relate to different spatiotemporal scales and have differential effects on biodiversity. Second, organismal movements can also mediate coexistence in communities, through 'equalizing' and 'stabilizing' mechanisms. This novel integrated framework provides a conceptual starting point for a better understanding of biodiversity dynamics in light of individual movement and space-use behavior across spatiotemporal scales. By illustrating this framework with examples, we argue that the integration of movement ecology and biodiversity research will also enhance our ability to conserve diversity at the genetic, species, and ecosystem levels.

Short-term transformation of matrix into hospitable habitat facilitates gene flow and mitigates fragmentation.

Habitat fragmentation has major implications for demography and genetic structure of natural plant and animal populations as small and isolated populations are more prone to extinction. Therefore, many recent studies focus on spatial fragmentation. However, the temporal configuration of suitable habitat may also influence dispersal and gene flow in fragmented landscapes. We hypothesize that short-term switching of inhospitable matrix areas into suitable habitat can mitigate effects of spatial fragmentation in natural and seminatural ecosystems. To test our hypothesis, we investigated the hairy-footed gerbil (Gerbillurus paeba, Smith 1836), a ground-dwelling rodent, in fragmented Kalahari savannah areas. Here, rare events of high above mean annual rainfall suggest short-term matrix suitability. During the field survey in 'matrix' areas in the Kalahari (shrub encroachment by heavy grazing) we never observed the hairy-footed gerbil in years of average rainfall, but observed mass occurrences of this species during rare events of exceptionally high rainfall. In a second step, we developed an agent-based model simulating subpopulations in two neighbouring habitats and the separating matrix. Our mechanistic model reproduces the mass occurrences as observed in the field and thus suggests the possibly underlying processes. In particular, the temporary improvement in matrix quality allows reproduction in the matrix, thereby causing a substantial increase in population size. The model demonstrates further how the environmental trigger (rainfall) impacts genetic connectivity of two separated subpopulations. We identified seasonality as a driver of fragmentation but stochasticity leading to higher connectivity. We found that our concept of temporal fragmentation can be applied to numerous other fragmented populations in various ecological systems and provide examples from recent literature. We conclude that temporal aspects of fragmentation must be considered in both ecological research and conservation management.