Large-scale reconstruction measures are being prepared and implemented in river basins of north-western Europe for the purpose of flood defence, ecological rehabilitation and infrastructural improvements. These measures will have far-reaching consequences for the physical structure, hydrodynamics, and hence for the ecological functioning and biodiversity of riverfloodplain ecosystems. River man...

The evolution of ecological trade-offs is an important component of ecological specialization and adaptive radiation. However, the pattern that would show that evolutionary trade-offs have occurred between traits among species has not been clearly defined. In this paper, we propose a phylogeny-based definition of an evolutionary trade-off, and apply it to an analysis of the evolution of trade-o...

Overwhelming evidence points to the importance of maintaining connectivity given rapidly fragmenting habitats and climate change. Many efforts identify where ecological corridors should be placed are based on estimates structural that take advantage readily available land-cover data. We provide an overview methodology review various limitations these methods for functional -- degree which facil...

Question: Under what conditions do species using distinct niches evolve and converge to become ecologically equivalent? Does evolution in a community context affect functional group diversity? Mathematical methods: We simulated the population dynamics and evolution of multiple species competing for discrete, substitutable resources. Key assumptions: Species’ competitive effect and response are ...

The effect of sexual selection on extinction risk remains unclear. In theory, sexual selection can lead to both increase and decrease extinction probability depending on the ecology of the study system. Thus, combining different groups might obscure patterns that can be found in groups that share similar ecological features. Using phylogenetic comparative analysis, we studied sexual plumage dim...

Thelodonts are an enigmatic group of Paleozoic jawless vertebrates that have been well studied from taxonomical, biostratigraphic and paleogeographic points of view, although our knowledge of their ecology and mode of life is still scant. Their bodies were covered by micrometric scales whose morphology, histology and the developmental process are extremely similar to those of extant sharks. Bas...

Animal personality, repeatable behaviour through time and across contexts, is ecologically and evolutionarily important as it can account for the exhibition of sub-optimal behaviours. Interspecific comparisons have been suggested as important for understanding the evolution of animal personality; however, these are seldom accomplished due, in part, to the lack of statistical tools for quantifyi...