Moving “Ecological Niches” from species to interactions

Ecological Niche - The concept "Ecological niche" is on of the most used expressions in Ecological literature. But, what is it? What are we talking about when we talk about Ecological Niche? Would it be useful to define an ecological niche for biotic interactions rather than for isolated species? I think so, considering that formalising such a concept would help us guide the ecological interpretation of the ecological context in which two species interact.

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Metawebs and the Geography of Interactions

From Wallace to modern species distribution models, biodiversity science has become extraordinarily good at mapping life across the planet. However, a forest is not just trees, birds, fungi, and insects occupying the same coordinates on a map. It is pollination, predation, competition, parasitism, decomposition, seed dispersal, scavenging, facilitation, and countless flows of energy and matter connecting organisms into functioning ecological systems…

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Road Effects on Species Interactions

Roads promote different positive and negative effects on biodiversity, and consequently on species interactions (mutualism, predation, parasitism, competition, commensalism, and amensalism). Yet, such...

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“Road Ecology – Synthesis and Perspectives”

Infrastructure is often framed as progress. Roads, in particular, are symbols of connectivity, mobility, and economic development. But ecologically, they are also one of the most pervasive and transformative forces reshaping the planet. This new volume, "Road Ecology - Synthesis and Perspectives", tackles that tension head-on. It offers a comprehensive synthesis of how transportation infrastructure affects ecosystems, species, and landscape processes, while also outlining where the science needs to go next.

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The conflict between cetaceans and marine traffic goes viral

Vessels and marine species are, quite literally, on a collision course... and sometimes an image is worth a thousand words. Recently, Greenpeace has shared in Instagram at least a small reel depicting a blue whale trying to navigate heavy traffic in the Gulf od Ancud, Chile (the video was created by Luis Bedriñana-Romano, a researcher at the Austral University of Chile.

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Landscape Features and Species Traits Drive Wildlife Road-Crossing Behaviour: A Mechanistic Modelling Approach

For us, roads are beneficial, connecting places, people, and goods. But for biodiversity, roads are far less welcoming: they fragment habitat, affect animal movement, and cause roadkill. Although roadkill is widely studied, we still know little about road crossings themselves. And it is precisely to understand how crossings occur that we developed our new work. Why does it matter to know more about wildlife road crossings?

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Contrasting Roles of Threatened and Non‐Threatened Species in European Food Webs

Aim Assess the structural importance of threatened and non-threatened species within European food webs by quantifying their roles in maintaining network connectivity. Location Europe. Methods W.....

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Why Common Species Matter: Rethinking Conservation Through Food Webs

Conservation efforts have traditionally been focused on saving the rarest, most threatened species, and for good reason. But what if our singular focus on endangered species is causing us to overlook something crucial? I've been involved in two studies stressing this point. The first, published back in 2024 in Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation and led by Pamela González-del-Pliego…

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Happy birthday, Charles…

A baby was born 217 years ago in Shrewsbury. This child, Charles, would grow into a reluctant revolutionary. At 22, he set out on a voyage that would change both his life and the course of science. Later, he laid out his ideas in a book. Books have a remarkable power: they let their authors whisper their ideas directly into our minds, and they may revolutionise the way we think.

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Beautiful Models, Ugly Policies

Ecology in 2025 talked big about transformation, but mostly just optimised business‑as‑usual conservation. Knowledge moved faster, models got smarter (AI moved from experimental applications to wid…

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Diversity and Extinction Risk of Amphibians in the Colombian Andes

The Andean mountain range in South America is characterized by a remarkable topological diversity, with steep altitudinal gradients occurring over a relatively small spatial extent. This rapid shif…

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Scientific Dialogues

This list focuses on (what I’m calling) scientific dialogues—in which researchers respond to each other’s work using published papers as messengers. Often, a paper sparks a reply, which may, …

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