Rassim Khelifa

University of Zurich | UZH · Institut für Evolutionsbiologie und Umweltwissenschaften

Understanding how culture may influence biodiversity is fundamental to ensure effective conservation, especially when the practice is local but the implications are global. Despite that, little effort has been devoted to documenting cases of culturally-related biodiversity loss. Here, we investigate the cultural domestication of the European goldfi...

Theory predicts that within‐population differences in the pace‐of‐life can lead to cohort‐splitting and produce marked intraspecific variation in body size. While many studies showed that body size is positively correlated with fitness, many argue that selection for the larger body is counterbalanced by opposing physiological and ecological selecti...

Sneaky mating tactic has fascinated scientists for decades, and the mechanisms behind its evolution remains unclear. In many taxa, sneaker males are thought to outsmart the dominant males because they can secure fertilization of eggs either through pre‐copulatory or post‐copulatory processes (Shuster and Wade 2003). For instance, sneaker males of a...

Assessing biodiversity and prioritizing the conservation of sites requires a robust methodology that minimizes the estimation errors of biodiversity indices and thus maximizes management efficiency. In aquatic insects, while there is still a debate about the use of different life history stages to increase the reliability of the biodiversity estima...

1.Thermal performance curves (TPCs) have been estimated in multiple ectotherm species to understand their thermal plasticity and adaptation and to predict the effect of global warming. However, TPCs are typically assessed under constant temperature regimes, so their reliability for predicting thermal responses in the wild where temperature fluctuat...

This research-level text documents the latest advances in odonate biology and relates these to a broader ecological and evolutionary research agenda. Despite being one of the smallest insect orders, dragonflies offer a number of advantages for both laboratory and field studies. In fact, they continue to make a crucial contribution to the advancemen...

This research-level text documents the latest advances in odonate biology and relates these to a broader ecological and evolutionary research agenda. Despite being one of the smallest insect orders, dragonflies offer a number of advantages for both laboratory and field studies. In fact, they continue to make a crucial contribution to the advancemen...

Lack of diversity in editorial boards hinders multifaceted perspectives in fields such as ecology, evolution, and conservation. We outline ten key actions for editorial boards to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion, benefiting the journal in attracting a wider readership, enhancing diversity among authors, and overcoming biases in editorial de...

The odonates of Algeria have been studied for more than a century and a half, but the Northwestern part of the country has historically received little attention. A recent study in central North Algeria reported a species new to the country, suggesting that new investigations in unexplored areas are necessary to fully understand the local odonatofa...

Field biology is an area of research that involves working directly with living organisms in situ through a practice known as “fieldwork.” Conducting fieldwork often requires complex logistical planning within multiregional or multinational teams, interacting with local communities at field sites, and collaborative research led by one or a few of t...

Assessing temporal changes of the distribution of threatened species is paramount for effective management. Threatened species are sensitive to environmental changes and can be extirpated rapidly due to climatic and anthropogenic effects. Here, we monitor the distribution of the locally critically endangered Urothemis edwardsii in northeastern Alge...

Species adjust their behavior and life-history to adapt to local environmental conditions. Species with a broad ecological niche often show signatures of local adaptations to different environment, particularly in extreme ones. Here, we investigate local adaptation in different populations of the North African Sahara frog (Pelophylax saharicus) liv...

Field biology is an area of research that involves working directly with living organisms in situ through a practice known as “fieldwork.” Conducting fieldwork often requires complex logistical planning within multiregional or multinational teams, interacting with local communities at field sites, and collaborative research led by one or a few of t...

Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) have become essential considerations in different academic fields in recent years, attracting an increasing number of voices and perspectives from different groups. There is a need for an intersectionality framework that is inclusive of both the local and global diversity of researchers. Here, we present an in...

1. Historical museum records provide potentially useful data for identifying drivers of change in species occupancy. However, because museum records are typically obtained via many collection methods, methodological developments are needed in order to enable robust inferences. Occupancy‐detection models, a relatively new and powerful suite of stati...

Recent range expansion of many species northward and upward in elevation suggests that the expanding species are able to cope with new biotic interactions in the leading edge. To test this hypothesis, we used a common garden experiment expanding the elevation range of an obligatorily univoltine dragonfly (Sympetrum striolatum) to investigate whethe...

In the Mediterranean, Urothemis edwardsii is one of the most threatened dragonfly species with a relict population restricted to the northeast of Algeria. Despite the recent subtle local expansion in the geographic distribution of the species during the past decade, studies on the life history of the species are still lacking. We carried out a stud...

Anthropogenic wildlife exploitation threatens biodiversity worldwide. With the emergence of online trading which facilitates the physical movement of wildlife across countries and continents, wildlife conservation is more challenging than ever. One form of wildlife exploitation involves no physical movement of organisms, presenting new challenges....

The performance of graduate students in research varies greatly across countries due to various factors, mainly socioeconomic and linguistic. The current situation is critical because the wealthiest countries are also the most linguistically equipped to navigate the English-dominant landscape of academia. Here, we assess the language of citations a...

Historical museum records provide potentially useful data for identifying drivers of change in species occupancy. However, because museum records are typically obtained via many collection methods, methodological developments are needed in order to enable robust inferences. Occupancy-detection models, a relatively new and powerful suite of methods,...

Global problems require global scientific solutions, but the dominance of the English language creates a large barrier for many non-English-proficient researchers to make their findings and knowledge accessible globally. Here, we propose integrating peer-language proofing and translation systems in preprint platforms as a solution for promoting equ...

Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) have become essential considerations in different academic fields in recent years, attracting an increasing number of voices and perspectives from different groups. While recent contributions have shed light on the barriers faced by some groups, the concept of EDI and implementation of solutions are still in t...

Species adjust their behavior and life-history to adapt to local environmental conditions. Species with large ecological prevalence often show signatures of local adaptations to different environment, particularly in extreme ones. Here, we investigate local adaptation in different populations of the North African Sahara frog ( Pelophylax saharicus...

Climate change and anthropogenic perturbation threaten resilience of wetlands globally, particularly in regions where environmental conditions are already hot and dry, and human impacts are rapidly intensifying and expanding. Here we assess the vulnerability of Ramsar wetlands of six North African countries (Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisi...

Environmental education is crucial to tackling the pressing ecological and societal issues on our planet. Although there are various ways to approach environmental education and raise public awareness, games are potentially an effective vehicle of knowledge and engagement because they vulgarize the scientific information in a universal ‘language’ a...

Freshwater habitats worldwide are experiencing many threats from environmental and anthropogenic sources, affecting biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. In Africa, particularly in Mediterranean climate zones, rapid human population growth is predicted to have great impact on natural habitats besides naturally occurring events such as unpredictab...

Dragonflies never cease surprising me. I thought the most astonishing observation was the apparent “death feigning” (tonic immobility) of females to avoid male harassment. I observed this behavior during my PhD studies in the Swiss Alps in the holarctic Moorland Hawker (Sedge Darner) Aeshna juncea (Linnaeus) (Khelifa 2017). Ever since then, I have...

Capture–mark–recapture (CMR) studies have been used extensively in ecology and evolution. While it is feasible to apply CMR in some animals, it is considerably more challenging in small fast‐moving species such as insects. In these groups, low recapture rates can bias estimates of demographic parameters, thereby handicapping effective analysis and...

Agriculture can be pervasive in its effect on wild nature, affecting various types of natural habitats, including lotic ecosystems. Here, we assess the extent of agricultural expansion on lotic systems in Northern Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco) and document its overlap with the distribution of an endemic damselfly, Platycnemis subdilatata S...

While climate change severely affects some aquatic ecosystems, it may also interact with anthropogenic factors and exacerbate their impact. In dry climates, dams can cause hydrological drought during dry periods following a great reduction in dam water discharge. However, impact of these severe hydrological droughts on lotic fauna is poorly documen...

Capture-mark-recapture (CMR) studies have been used extensively in ecology and evolution. While it is feasible to apply CMR in some animals, it is considerably more challenging in small fast-moving species such as insects. In these groups, low recapture rates can bias estimates of demographic parameters, thereby, handicapping effective management o...

Females “assist” sneaker males to dupe dominant males in a rare endemic damselfly: sexual conflict at its finest

Capsule: Collective roosting behaviour of the Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis was influenced by the weather and the season. Aims: To document the roosting behaviour of the Cattle Egret and assess the relationship between weather conditions and four components of the roosting behaviour including the population size, duration of roost occupancy, the timin...

A new population of the endangered North African endemic damselfly Calopteryx exul Selys, 1853, is reported from Algeria. The species was found on the Bousselam river in Bejaia province, central North Algeria, in three different localities. Reproductive behaviour was observed. These new findings extend the known geographic range of the extant popul...

The reproductive behaviour of the Atlanto-Mediterranean Erythromma lindenii Selys has been studied before in Europe, but not in North Africa where the climate is warmer. We investigated the reproductive behaviour in a natural population in Northeast Algeria. We found that the species is non-territorial with quasi-exclusive underwater oviposition. T...

In 2018 we rediscovered the regionally critically endangered Lindenia tetraphylla (Vander Linden, 1825) in the El Kala National Park, Northeast Algeria, after 170 years with no record. A total of ten individuals were observed in the Ramsar listed Lac Noir along with dense populations of the regionally threatened Urothemis edwardsii and Acisoma infl...

Emergence is a critical phase in the life cycle of odonates because then they are highly susceptible to predation and damage. Thus the ecological understanding of this phenomenon is crucial, particularly for the conservation and management of threatened species. We studied the emergence ecology of the regionally endangered damselfly (Coenagrion mer...

Effective habitat management is predicted to have positive effects on populations and species of conservation concern. Although studies have shown that ecological processes such as colonization can be promoted after habitat management, we still need more information on the survival and reproductive consequences at the individual level in order to r...

Samraoui (J Insect Conserv. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-017-9966-2, 2017) claims that he shows evidence that our conservation plan of Urothemis edwardsii has failed and that natural dispersal was the only cause of the recent rapid range expansion of the species in Northeast Algeria. Here, we show that his analysis is biased, many of his argument...

In natural communities, closely related species are phenotypically similar but usually spatially and/or temporally isolated. In odonates, interspecific competition occurs not only at the larval or adult stage but also during emergence. We investigated the emergence of two sympatric Anax species, focusing on the temporal pattern, vertical stratifica...

Phenology – the timing of recurrent biological events – influences nearly all aspects of ecology and evolution. Phenological shifts have been recorded in a wide range of animals and plants worldwide during the past few decades. Although the phenological responses differ between taxa, they may also vary geographically, especially along gradients suc...

The field of odonatology has developed considerably during the past century. Three figures, namely E. Selys-Longchamps, R.J. Tillyard and P.S. Corbet, have undisputedly founded our current knowledge of odonatology and contributed massively to the understanding of systematics, biology, ecology and behaviour of odonates. The year 2017 will mark the 1...

1. Several species worldwide show rapid range retraction due to habitat degradation, and some of them have restricted distribution and specific resource needs. Such cases deserve particular attention and need urgent conservation actions to avoid extinction, and one way is to facilitate colonisation of new habitats by resource supplementation. 2. He...

The restoration of endangered relict populations is challenging in conservation biology because they require specific environmental conditions within an inhospitable regional climate. Urothemis edwardsii Selys is the most endangered dragonfly in the Mediterranean with only one known relict small population (Lac Bleu) left in Northeast Algeria. With...

Several odonate species are threatened in the Mediterranean basin and some of them show alarming decreasing trends. The distribution and population estimations provided by the IUCN are based on occasional field sampling or non-rigorous methodologies and could be erroneous and misleading. To obtain reliable estimations of the population size and dis...

A new strategy is needed to stop the illegal trapping and killing of millions of songbirds every year in the Mediterranean region, where gigantic vertical nets intercept major migration flyways (see also Nature 529, 452–455; 2016). In the western Mahgreb in North Africa, this carnage is collateral damage to the area’s cultural fancy for pet goldfin...

Although the endemic damselfly, Platycnemis subdilatata Selys, 1849, is widespread in the Maghreb, many aspects of its reproductive behaviour, biology and ecology are still unstudied. One particular feature of this species is that its coloration pattern continues to change during maturation and afterwards, which makes it a good model for assessing...

Calopteryx exul is an endemic endangered damselfly that suffers considerable habitat degradation and local extinctions throughout its geographic range. Although recent studies have investigated its distribution, ecology and larval systematics, the life history of the species is still unknown. In this study, a field survey was conducted to determine...

Sympatric territorial species are subject to interference competition when they share the same resources. The interaction becomes stronger when the coexisting species share similar traits, which is often the case in congenerics. In this study, we investigated the body size, reproductive behaviour, and microhabitat use of two congeneric dragonflies,...

The Algerian Cubtail (Gomphus lucasii Selys) (Odonata: Gomphidae) is a river-dwelling dragonfly and one of the least known gomphid in the Palearctic. A survey of the movement patterns and habitat requirements of adults was conducted in the largest currently known population, located in the Seybouse River (Northeast Algeria). Daily mark-release-resi...

The determination of seasonal regulation is important to understand how species have adapted to their local environmental conditions. In this study, we investigate the life history of a North African endemic damselfly, Platycnemis subdilatata, in a northeast Algerian population. We combined field and laboratory investigations to assess the embryoni...

Oviposition in odonate females is usually considered finished when the female leaves the oviposition site. However, considering that many species lay their eggs within a set of bouts it is difficult to distinguish between the end of the oviposition bout and the end of the oviposition episode because the females can change the oviposition site from...

Voltinism is an important life history trait that varies with the environment. In temperate zones, insect populations take a substantially longer time to reach the adult stage in the northern compared to the southern regions. In this study, emergence pattern and larval growth of the threatened zygopteran (Odonata)Coenagrion mercurialewere investiga...

Emergence and seasonal regulation of the dragonfly Onychogomphus costae Selys, 1885, were surveyed thoroughly during two consecutive years from two nearby stretches upstream the Seybouse River, northeastern Algeria. The emergence season started in mid-May and lasted 68 and 58 days showing a peak in late May and early June in 2011 and 2012, respecti...