Publications related to Dispersal vector

Aerobiology over the Southern Ocean – implications for bacterial colonization of Antarctica

Parts of the Antarctic are experiencing dramatic ecosystem change due to rapid and record warming, which may weaken biogeographic boundaries and dispersal barriers, increasing the risks of biological invasions. In this study, we collected air samples from ...

2022

Trait-specific dispersal of bacteria in heterogeneous porous environments: from pore to porous medium scale

Tom Ian Battin, Hannes Markus Peter, David Scheidweiler, Filippo Miele

The dispersal of organisms controls the structure and dynamics of populations and communities, and can regulate ecosystem functioning. Predicting dispersal patterns across scales is important to understand microbial life in heterogeneous porous environment ...

2020

Species conservation in the face of global environmental changes: surface-based modelling of geo-environmental data to identify vulnerable populations

Estelle Rochat

Human activities are resulting in many land-use changes, particularly due to urbanisation and intensification of agricultural practices. Because of these changes, in addition to climate change, many species are facing habitat degradation. In order to avoid ...

EPFL2020

Dispersal limitations and historical factors determine the biogeography of specialized terrestrial protists

Edward Mitchell, Luca Bragazza, Mariusz Lamentowicz, Enrique Lara, Bertrand Fournier

Recent studies show that soil eukaryotic diversity is immense and dominated by micro-organisms. However, it is unclear to what extent the processes that shape the distribution of diversity in plants and animals also apply to micro-organisms. Major diversif ...

WILEY2019

Evolving biodiversity patterns in changing river networks

Andrea Rinaldo, Enrico Bertuzzo

Biodiversity patterns are governed by landscape structure and dispersal strategies of residing organisms. Landscape, however, changes, and dispersal strategies evolve with it. It is unclear how these biological and geomorphological changes interplay to aff ...

2019

Persistence of butterfly populations in fragmented habitats along urban density gradients: motility helps

Stéphane Joost, Estelle Rochat, Ivo Widmer

In a simulation study of genotypes conducted over 100 generations for more than 1600 butterfly’s individuals, we evaluate how the increase of anthropogenic fragmentation and reduction of habitat size along urbanisation gradients (from 7% to 59% of impervio ...

Nature Publishing Group2017

Ecological strategies in stable and disturbed environments depend on species specialisation

Séverine Vuilleumier Varisco

Ecological strategies are integral to understanding species survival in different environments. However, how habitat specialisation is involved in such strategies is not fully understood, particularly in heterogeneous and disturbed environments. Here, we s ...

2016

Multi-scale feedbacks between tree regeneration traits and herbivore behavior explain the structure of pasture-woodland mosaics

Alexandre Buttler, François Gillet, Alexander Ludwig Johannes Peringer

The pasture-woodlands of Central Europe are low-intensity grazing systems in which the structural richness of dynamic forest-grassland mosaics is causal for their high biodiversity. Distinct mosaic patterns in Picea abies- and Fagus sylvatica-dominated pas ...

Springer Verlag2016

Coalescent inferences in conservation genetics: should the exception become the rule?

Valeria Montano

Genetic estimates of effective population size (Ne) are an established means to develop informed conservation policies. Another key goal to pursue the conservation of endangered species is keeping the connectivity across fragmented environments, to which g ...

Royal Soc2016

Coexistence of specialist and generalist species is shaped by dispersal and environmental factors

Séverine Vuilleumier Varisco

Disentangling the mechanisms mediating the coexistence of habitat specialists and generalists has been a long-standing subject of investigation. However, the roles of species traits and environmental and spatial factors have not been assessed in a unifying ...

2014

Measuring the relative effect of factors affecting species distribution model predictions

Anthony Christopher Davison, Emeric Rolland Georges Thibaud

Species distribution models are increasingly used to address conservation questions, so their predictive capacity requires careful evaluation. Previous studies have shown how individual factors used in model construction can affect prediction. Although som ...

Wiley-Blackwell2014

Emerging predictable features of replicated biological invasion fronts

Andrea Rinaldo, Andrea Giometto, Francesco Carrara, Florian Altermatt

Biological dispersal shapes species' distribution and affects their coexistence. The spread of organisms governs the dynamics of invasive species, the spread of pathogens, and the shifts in species ranges due to climate or environmental change. Despite its ...

National Academy of Sciences2013

Vegetation-environment relationships in alpine mires of the West Carpathians and the Alps

Lucia Sekulova

QuestionsHow do two distant mountain ranges differ in their vegetation-environment relationships, overall species composition and its variability and species richness of vascular plants and bryophytes in alpine fens and bogs? Is the floristic difference co ...

Wiley-Blackwell2013

Theoretical and Experimental Studies of Dendritic Metacommunities

Francesco Carrara

The present thesis deals with the understanding of the origins and the mechanisms of maintenance of biodiversity in natural landscapes, in particular by identifying key processes that define large-scale patterns of abundance and diversity. Biological commu ...

EPFL2013

Dendritic connectivity controls biodiversity patterns in experimental metacommunities

Andrea Rinaldo, Francesco Carrara, Florian Altermatt

Biological communities often occur in spatially structured habitats where connectivity directly affects dispersal and metacommunity processes. Recent theoretical work suggests that dispersal constrained by the connectivity of specific habitat structures, s ...

National Academy of Sciences2012

On the role of human mobility in the spread of cholera epidemics: towards an epidemiological movement ecology

Andrea Rinaldo, Enrico Bertuzzo, Lorenzo Mari, Lorenzo Righetto, Marino Gatto

We investigate the role of human mobility as a driver for long-range spreading of cholera infections, which otherwise primarily propagate through hydrologically controlled ecological corridors. We rely on a recent mechanistic, field-data validated, spatial ...

Wiley-Blackwell2012

Evolution of dispersal in explicitly spatial metacommunities

Andrea Rinaldo

We apply an evolutionary game theoretic approach to the evolution of dispersal in explicitly spatial metacommunities, using a flexible parametric class of dispersal kernels, namely 2Dt kernels, and study the resulting evolutionary dynamics and outcomes. We ...

Elsevier2011

Effects of Connectivity and Recurrent Local Disturbances on Community Structure and Population Density in Experimental Metacommunities

Andrea Rinaldo, Francesco Carrara, Florian Altermatt

Metacommunity theory poses that the occurrence and abundance of species is a product of local factors, including disturbance, and regional factors, like dispersal among patches. While metacommunity ideas have been broadly tested there is relatively little ...

Public Library of Science2011

COI gene reveals size-dependent high dispersal and low intra-specific diversity in free-living terrestrial protists (Euglyphida; Assulina)

Edward Mitchell, Enrique Lara, Thierry Jean Heger

Aim Propagule size and ecological requirements are believed to be major factors influencing the passive dispersal of free-living terrestrial protists. We compared the colonization potential of three closely related testate amoeba species (Assulina muscoru ...

Wiley-Blackwell2011

Hydrologic controls and anthropogenic drivers of the zebra mussel invasion of the Mississippi-Missouri river system

Andrea Rinaldo, Enrico Bertuzzo, Lorenzo Mari, Marino Gatto

We propose a novel ecohydrological model for the invasion of inland waters by the zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha and test it against field data gathered within the Mississippi-Missouri river system in North America. This biological invasion poses major ...

American Geophysical Union2011