Insectivorous birds have ecologically important effects on prey abundance, behavior, and evolution, and through top-down control birds indirectly reduce herbivory and promote plant growth. While several studies sought to characterize biogeographic patterns in top-down control by birds, variation in

The waveform Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data in this package were generated through a National Ecological Observatory Network Airborne Observation Platform (NEON AOP) acquisition over watersheds of interest surrounding Crested Butte, Colorado. The remote sensing imagery acquired by the NEON

Microorganisms frequently colonize the nectar of angiosperm species. Though capable of altering a suite of traits important for pollinator attraction, few studies exist that test the degree to which they mediate pollinator foraging behavior. The objective of our study was to fill this gap by assessi

AbstractMany animals assess their risk of predation by listening to and evaluating predators' vocalizations. We reviewed the literature to draw generalizations about predator discrimination abilities, the retention of these abilities over evolutionary time, and the potential underlying proximate mec

In mammals, prenatal exposure to sex steroid hormones may have profound effects on later behavior and fitness and have been reported under both laboratory and field conditions. Anogenital distance is a non-invasive measure of prenatal exposure to sex steroid hormones. While we know that intra-uterin

This study examined interspecific competition between mountain white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha) and Lincoln’s sparrows (Melospiza lincolnii) through a playback experiment. Interspecific competitive interactions influence avian fitness by affecting the distribution of species

Characterizing the factors that determine the geographic range limits of species is a major goal of ecology. Historically, abiotic factors (e.g. light environment) have been the focus of research of species geographical distributions. While recent work has shown that pairwise species interactions (e

Animals that experience fear or stress may produce alarm calls, fear screams and mobbing calls and by doing so communicate their current state to conspecifics. These sounds are created by often easily identified because they contain nonlinear acoustic attributes that are somewhat acoustically unpred

Abiotic stressors can affect organisms both directly and indirectly by causing behavioral changes and altering species interactions. Metal pollution caused by mining activities is a major stressor on freshwater ecosystems, particularly affecting macroinvertebrate communities. Historical mining has l

Although reciprocity of affiliative exchanges within cohorts increased as individuals matured, competition among genetic relatives emerged early in ontogeny and persisted into adulthood, suggesting that close affiliates are each other's closest competitors.

Caching decisions have been studied for many species, but large-scale variation of selective preferences due to environmental heterogeneity has rarely been examined. We investigated large-scale patterns of selective caching behavior in the American pika (Ochotona princeps), a non-hibernating general

The development of personality traits may facilitate animal’s coping with age-dependent requirements and constraints, and suggests an adaptive hypothesis: that these personality traits develop independently and at potentially age-appropriate times.

The hypothesis that patterns of sex-biased dispersal are related to social mating system in mammals and birds has gained widespread acceptance over the past 30 years. However, two major complications have obscured the relationship between these two behaviors: 1) dispersal frequency and dispersal dis

AbstractPatterns of infection and prevalence result from complex interactions between hosts and parasites, the effects of which are likely to vary by species. We investigated the effects of age, sex and season on the likelihood of individual infection, and the effects of host population size, sex ra