Drought-induced dieback episodes are globally reported among forest ecosystems but they have been understudied in scrublands. Chronically-stressed individuals are supposed to be more vulnerable prior to drought which triggers death. Drought-triggered dieback and mortality events affecting Mediterranean Juniperus phoenicea scrublands were analyzed in two sites with contrasting climate and soil conditions located in Spain. The radial growth patterns of coexisting living and dead junipers,...

Biological invasions are a global consequence of an increasingly connected world and the rise in human population size. The numbers of invasive alien species – the subset of alien species that spread widely in areas where they are not native, affecting the environment or human livelihoods – are increasing. Synergies with other global changes are exacerbating current invasions and facilitating new ones, thereby escalating the extent and impacts of invaders. Invasions have complex...

Fish have somehow colonized isolated water bodies all over the world without human assistance. It has long been speculated that these colonization events are assisted by waterbirds, transporting fish eggs attached to their feet and feathers, yet empirical support for this is lacking. Recently, it was suggested that endozoochory (i.e., internal transport within the gut) might play a more important role, but only highly resistant diapause eggs of killifish have been found to survive passage...

Ample variation in body size is common in vertebrates over extensive geographical distances, or in isolated populations, where effective geographical barriers may cause dwarfism or gigantism. The potential causes of extreme size reduction in continental populations of amphibians within a short geographical distance and in the absence of geographical barriers were studied. Natterjack toads Epidalea calamita in Doñana National Park (Spain) experience up to 2.1?fold difference in body mass in as...

Every year more than 1 million commercial bumblebee colonies are deployed in greenhouses worldwide for their pollination services. While commercial pollinators have been an enormous benefit for crop production, their use is emerging as an important threat. Commercial pollinators have been linked to pathogen spillover, and their introduction outside their native area has had devastating effects on native pollinators. A more pervasive but underappreciated threat is their potential impact on the...