ORCID Profile
0000-0002-3548-6253
Current Organisation
National University of Ireland Galway
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-10-2023
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.06787
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-12-2016
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.02817
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-12-2017
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.03371
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 07-2020
Abstract: Analyses of morphological disparity have been used to characterize and investigate the evolution of variation in the anatomy, function and ecology of organisms since the 1980s. While a ersity of methods have been employed, it is unclear whether they provide equivalent insights. Here, we review the most commonly used approaches for characterizing and analysing morphological disparity, all of which have associated limitations that, if ignored, can lead to misinterpretation. We propose best practice guidelines for disparity analyses, while noting that there can be no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. The available tools should always be used in the context of a specific biological question that will determine data and method selection at every stage of the analysis.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-07-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-019-0938-7
Abstract: Animals exhibit an extraordinary ersity of life history strategies. These realized combinations of survival, development and reproduction are predicted to be constrained by physiological limitations and by trade-offs in resource allocation. However, our understanding of these patterns is restricted to a few taxonomic groups. Using demographic data from 121 species, ranging from humans to sponges, we test whether such trade-offs universally shape animal life history strategies. We show that, after accounting for body mass and phylogenetic relatedness, 71% of the variation in animal life history strategies can be explained by life history traits associated with the fast-slow continuum (pace of life) and with a second axis defined by the distribution of age-specific mortality hazards and the spread of reproduction. While we found that life history strategies are associated with metabolic rate and ecological modes of life, surprisingly similar life history strategies can be found across the phylogenetic and physiological ersity of animals.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-02-2013
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.12086
Abstract: Ecological stability is touted as a complex and multifaceted concept, including components such as variability, resistance, resilience, persistence and robustness. Even though a complete appreciation of the effects of perturbations on ecosystems requires the simultaneous measurement of these multiple components of stability, most ecological research has focused on one or a few of those components analysed in isolation. Here, we present a new view of ecological stability that recognises explicitly the non-independence of components of stability. This provides an approach for simplifying the concept of stability. We illustrate the concept and approach using results from a field experiment, and show that the effective dimensionality of ecological stability is considerably lower than if the various components of stability were unrelated. However, strong perturbations can modify, and even decouple, relationships among in idual components of stability. Thus, perturbations not only increase the dimensionality of stability but they can also alter the relationships among components of stability in different ways. Studies that focus on single forms of stability in isolation therefore risk underestimating significantly the potential of perturbations to destabilise ecosystems. In contrast, application of the multidimensional stability framework that we propose gives a far richer understanding of how communities respond to perturbations.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 07-06-2014
Abstract: Maximum lifespan in birds and mammals varies strongly with body mass such that large species tend to live longer than smaller species. However, many species live far longer than expected given their body mass. This may reflect interspecific variation in extrinsic mortality, as life-history theory predicts investment in long-term survival is under positive selection when extrinsic mortality is reduced. Here, we investigate how multiple ecological and mode-of-life traits that should reduce extrinsic mortality (including volancy (flight capability), activity period, foraging environment and fossoriality), simultaneously influence lifespan across endotherms. Using novel phylogenetic comparative analyses and to our knowledge, the most species analysed to date ( n = 1368), we show that, over and above the effect of body mass, the most important factor enabling longer lifespan is the ability to fly. Within volant species, lifespan depended upon when (day, night, dusk or dawn), but not where (in the air, in trees or on the ground), species are active. However, the opposite was true for non-volant species, where lifespan correlated positively with both arboreality and fossoriality. Our results highlight that when studying the molecular basis behind cellular processes such as those underlying lifespan, it is important to consider the ecological selection pressures that shaped them over evolutionary time.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-02-2020
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-020-14303-2
Abstract: Zoos contribute substantial resources to in situ conservation projects in natural habitats using revenue from visitor attendance, as well as other sources. We use a global dataset of over 450 zoos to develop a model of how zoo composition and socio-economic factors directly and indirectly influence visitor attendance and in situ project activity. We find that zoos with many animals, large animals, high species richness (particularly of mammals), and which are dissimilar to other zoos achieve higher numbers of visitors and contribute to more in situ conservation projects. However, the model strongly supports a trade-off between number of animals and body mass indicating that alternative composition strategies, such as having many small animals, may also be effective. The evidence-base presented here can be used to help guide collection planning processes and increase the in situ contributions from zoos, helping to reduce global bio ersity loss.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-02-2021
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.13704
Abstract: Life history strategies are fundamental to the ecology and evolution of organisms and are important for understanding extinction risk and responses to global change. Using global datasets and a multiple response modelling framework we show that trait‐climate interactions are associated with life history strategies for a erse range of plant species at the global scale. Our modelling framework informs our understanding of trade‐offs and positive correlations between elements of life history after accounting for environmental context and evolutionary and trait‐based constraints. Interactions between plant traits and climatic context were needed to explain variation in age at maturity, distribution of mortality across the lifespan and generation times of species. Mean age at maturity and the distribution of mortality across plants’ lifespan were under evolutionary constraints. These findings provide empirical support for the theoretical expectation that climatic context is key to understanding trait to life history relationships globally.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-07-2016
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.12648
Abstract: Human actions challenge nature in many ways. Ecological responses are ineluctably complex, demanding measures that describe them succinctly. Collectively, these measures encapsulate the overall 'stability' of the system. Many international bodies, including the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Bio ersity and Ecosystem Services, broadly aspire to maintain or enhance ecological stability. Such bodies frequently use terms pertaining to stability that lack clear definition. Consequently, we cannot measure them and so they disconnect from a large body of theoretical and empirical understanding. We assess the scientific and policy literature and show that this disconnect is one consequence of an inconsistent and one-dimensional approach that ecologists have taken to both disturbances and stability. This has led to confused communication of the nature of stability and the level of our insight into it. Disturbances and stability are multidimensional. Our understanding of them is not. We have a remarkably poor understanding of the impacts on stability of the characteristics that define many, perhaps all, of the most important elements of global change. We provide recommendations for theoreticians, empiricists and policymakers on how to better integrate the multidimensional nature of ecological stability into their research, policies and actions.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-01-2023
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.14532
Abstract: Spatial processes and environmental filtering are important factors shaping community composition, but their effects are rarely tested across all aspects and components of beta ersity. We investigate both of these factors to explain patterns of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic beta ersity of small mammals across Sub‐Saharan Africa. We predict that groups with poorest dispersal ability will experience the highest taxonomic and phylogenetic turnover but a nesting of functional ersity independent of dispersal. Africa. Rodents, bats, shrews. We amassed a continent‐spanning dataset of 97 bat assemblages, 166 rodent assemblages and 153 shrew assemblages comprising a total of 183, 225 and 109 species, respectively, from six bioregions of Sub‐Saharan Africa. We calculated three aspects of beta ersity: taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic. For each of these, we first calculated total beta ersity based on the Sørensen index ( β sor ) and then decomposed this into turnover ( β sim ) and nestedness ( β nes ) components. We then used Moran's Eigenvector Maps to examine the relationships between each aspect of beta ersity and environmental gradients (environmental filtering) and geographical distance between sites (spatial processes). We found consistent patterns across the three taxa in all aspects of beta ersity, with taxonomic beta ersity being greatest and phylogenetic beta ersity being lowest. The turnover component was typically greater than the nestedness component for taxonomic and functional beta ersity, but not for phylogenetic beta ersity, for all three groups. Beta ersity was also linked with the dispersal ability of the three groups, with the highest levels of beta ersity found in shrews, intermediate levels in rodents and the lowest levels in bats. Spatial processes, which are linked to the dispersal abilities of the three taxa of small mammal, dominate environmental drivers in structuring African small‐mammal communities with phylogenetic comparisons suggesting a relatively permeable continent.
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Kevin Healy.