Adriana Alzate

Wageningen University & Research | WUR · Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries

The drivers of variability in species range sizes remain an outstanding enigma in ecology. The theoretical expectation of a positive dispersal‐range size relationship has received mixed empirical support, despite dispersal being one of the most prominent hypothesised predictors of range size. Here, we synthesised results from 86 studies examining t...

Understanding what drives the vast variability in species range size is still an outstanding question. Among the several processes potentially affecting species ranges, dispersal is one of the most prominent hypothesized predictors. However, the theoretical expectation of a positive dispersal-range size relationship has received mixed empirical sup...

Community data on coral and rocky reef fish. Data includes information on 10 transects on coral and 10 transects on rocky reefs in Gorgona Island, Colombia, Tropical Eastern Pacific.

ABSTRACT The process of adaptation towards novel environments is directly connected to the acquisition of a higher fitness relative to others. Such an increased fitness is obtained by changes in life history traits that may directly impact population dynamics. From a functional perspective, increased fitness can be achieved through a higher resourc...

The extinction of all Madagascar's megafrugivores ca 1000 years ago, may have left its signature on the current distribution of vertebrate‐dispersed plants across the island, due to the loss of effective seed dispersal. In this study, we dissect the roles of extinct and extant frugivore distributions, abiotic variables, human impact and spatial pre...

Understanding what drives the vast variability in species range size is still an outstanding question. Among the several processes potentially affecting species ranges, dispersal is one of the most prominent hypothesized predictors. However, the theoretical expectation of a positive dispersal-range size relationship has received mixed empirical sup...

Earth is home to over 350,000 vascular plant species that differ in their traits in innumerable ways. A key challenge is to pre- dict how natural or anthropogenically driven changes in the identity, abundance and diversity of co-occurring plant species drive important ecosystem-level properties such as biomass production or carbon storage. Here, we...

To successfully colonize new habitats, organisms not only need to gain access to it, they also need to cope with the selective pressures imposed by the local biotic and abiotic conditions. The number of immigrants, the preadaptation to the local habitat and the presence of competitors are important factors determining the success of colonization. H...

Earth is home to over 350,000 vascular plant species ¹ that differ in their traits in innumerable ways. Yet, a handful of functional traits can help explaining major differences among species in photosynthetic rate, growth rate, reproductive output and other aspects of plant performance 2–6 . A key challenge, coined “the Holy Grail” in ecology, is...

To successfully colonize new habitats, organisms not only need to gain access to it, but also need to cope with the selective pressures imposed by the local biotic and abiotic conditions. The number of immigrants, the preadaptation to the local habitat and the presence of competitors are important factors determining the success of colonization. He...

Aim The great variation in range sizes among species has fascinated ecologists for decades. Reef‐associated fish species live in highly spatially structured habitats and adopt a wide range of dispersal strategies. We consequently expect species with greater dispersal ability to occupy larger ranges. However, empirical evidence for such a positive r...

Aim Island biogeography theory describes how island size and isolation determine population colonization success. Large islands sustain larger populations than small ones and experience less demographic stochasticity, thus a lower extinction risk. Nearby islands are more likely to be colonized than distant ones, because they receive more immigrants...

Dispersal is thought to be an important process determining range size, especially for species in highly spatially structured habitats, such as tropical reef fishes. Despite intensive research efforts, there is conflicting evidence about the role of dispersal in determining range size. We hypothesize that traits related to dispersal drive range siz...

Why some species occupy almost all of the Earth’s terrestrial (e.g. barn owl) or marine (e.g. moon fishes) systems, whereas others are only found in single freshwater springs (like the devils hole pupfish) or on small, isolated islands?. What is impeding species to occupy all of the Earth?. Is it that species cannot reach all places because of redu...

Aim The great variation in range sizes among species has fascinated ecologists for decades. In reef-associated fish species, which live in fragmented habitats and adopt a wide range of dispersal strategies, we may expect species with greater dispersal ability to spread over larger ranges. However, empirical evidence for such a positive relationship...

Dispersal and competition have both been suggested to drive variation in adaptability to a new environment, either positively or negatively. A simultaneous experimental test of both mechanisms is however lacking. Here, we experimentally investigate how population dynamics and local adaptation to a new host plant in a model species, the two-spotted...

The cichlid family features some of the most spectacular examples of adaptive radiation. Evolutionary studies have highlighted the importance of both trophic adaptation and sexual selection in cichlid speciation. However, it is poorly understood what processes drive the composition and diversity of local cichlid species assemblages on relatively sh...

The African Great Lakes are characterized by an extraordinary diversity of endemic cichlid fish species. The cause of this diversity is still largely unknown. Most studies have tried to solve this question by focusing on macro-evolutionary processes, such as speciation. However, the ecological processes determining local cichlid diversity have so f...

Recently, Lévy walks have been put forward as a new paradigm for animal search and many cases have been made for its presence in nature. However, it remains debated whether Lévy walks are an inherent behavioural strategy or emerge from the animal reacting to its habitat. Here, we demonstrate signatures of Lévy behaviour in the search movement of mu...

Gorgona Island, the major insular area in the Colombian Pacific Ocean, is characterized by a remarkably high biological and ecosystem diversity for this area of the world. Coral reefs are well developed and their fish communities have been described using conventional visual surveys. These methods, however, are known to be biased towards detecting...

Background/Question/Methods When searching for unpredictably distributed food items, animals are presumed to pursue random search strategies, such as Ballistic motion, Brownian walks or Lvy walks. The presence of Lvy walks in nature remains, however, highly disputed. Evidence from tracked free-living animals is open to alternative interpretation,...

Se hacen cuatro nuevos registros de especies en isla Gorgona, Pacífico colombiano: dos gobios (Gobulus crescentalis y Chriolepis cuneata) y un pez pipa (Cosmocampus arctus), colectados con anestésico en pequeñas colonias de coral aisladas; y un pez globo (Canthigaster janthinoptera) observado y fotografiado. Este estudio extiende el ámbito de distr...