Biology subjects

Ekroos, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Ekroos, J..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Bee phylosymbiosis: the relative importance of host phylogeny, behavioral traits, and environment

Phylosymbiotic studies investigate how microbiomes recapitulate their host phylogeny and can thus reveal the evolution of host-microbe relationships. In bees, the extent of phylosymbiosis and its relationship with host ecological traits remain unclear. We integrated public bee 16S rRNA metabarcoding data to investigate how host phylogeny and ecological traits affected the bacterial community associated with 178 bee species. Our results highlight only moderate phylosymbiosis patterns in bees, with the corbiculates associated with diverse lineage-specific microbial communities, while the non-corbiculates were predominantly associated with Wolbachia. Across all bee taxa, Wolbachia was also consistently negatively associated with Lactobacillus. Finally, our analysis revealed that the host ecological traits had only marginal effects on microbial composition. Although eusocial bees harbored distinct microbiomes, the effect of social behavior was confounded by host phylogeny. Climate showed no general effect across bee taxa, but within some genera, microbiomes were more homogeneous among bees from arid and semi-arid regions than among those from other climatic regions. Together, our findings reveal that broad-scale patterns in bee microbiomes emerge primarily as lineage-specific host-microbe associations, with ecological traits acting only weakly and often at a taxon-specific level.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2026

Operationalising the context in regenerative agriculture: decision-making and farm variability

Soil degradation is a widespread challenge that requires a broad response at the individual farm level. To ensure effectivity, the practices should be tailored to the farm context: land manager objectives and farm specific challenges. These have however been difficult to quantify. Here we demonstrate that a workable farm context can be created based on a value survey, open satellite and soil data, and published models for vegetation gross primary productivity and soil erosion. Based on the findings, despite individual differences, farmers value profitability and operational efficiency, but also biodiversity and soil health. At least the regenerative farmers surveyed also value working for the greater good more than maintaining tradition or power. In spite of wide differences in farm production orientation, we also found that each farm also had a broad variation in individual fields GPP. Most fields have a stable GPP level, which is either high or low, and that there is a 2-3-fold difference between the weakest and best producing fields indicating the potential for improving GPP by improving the growing conditions on currently weak fields. In addition, soil loss was found to be highly concentrated in critical source areas, where 10% of the field area contributed to 50% of the soil loss. Overall, open data can be linked to modelling workflows to rapidly produce a decision-making context for farmers. This facilitates benchmarking and co-learning as well as enables land managers and advisors to identify the farm context for planning effective responses to soil degradation.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2026

The microbiota of a wild butterfly species over three decades of climate change

Thermal stress can disturb microbial communities associated with host species. As microbes can support essential functions related to host metabolism, physiology, nutrition and immunity, changes in microbial communities can have severe fitness consequences for the host. Although the effects of thermal conditions on host-associated microbiomes have been demonstrated in controlled laboratory settings, how climate change might affect the structure and functionality of microbial communities in wild populations remain poorly understood. Here, we took advantage of the well-characterized long-term field survey of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) metapopulation on the [A]land islands, in the Baltic Sea, to fill this gap. We investigated whether bacterial communities associated with larvae show signs of gradual temporal change in response to slow environmental warming across a 28-year period, or whether these communities responded through abrupt change following a sudden drought event that triggered bottlenecks in their butterfly host population. Using a combination of 16S rRNA metabarcoding and metagenomic sequencing, we first showed that M. cinxia harbours a set of stable resident bacteria, including Pseudomonas, Telluria, and Enterobacteriaceae bacteria. But we also characterized a gradual shift in the M. cinxia associated bacterial community over three decades of increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitations. This shift was not unidirectional for all bacterial taxa, as the dominant Telluria and Pseudomonas showed opposing responses to environmental trends. Additionally, the 2018 extreme drought, which triggered acute host population bottlenecks, was associated with a severe disruption of M. cinxia microbiota, and the loss of key Enterobacteriaceae taxa. However, the M. cinxia bacterial community seemed to be able to recover towards pre-drought structure in subsequent years, suggesting a degree of resilience to acute climatic perturbations in this microbial system.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2022

Large-scale assessment of habitat quality and quantity change on declining European butterflies

The rapid decline of biodiversity as a consequence of increased environmental impact by human activities requires urgent action against the ongoing crisis. At the heart of conservation policy is the debate on quality versus quantity: should the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework focus on maximising total protected area, or pursue instead qualitative targets? To improve conservation practices, we need to both understand the current trend of biodiversity and the factors driving the decline. We address this by: (1) projecting current European butterfly population trends for the next 50 and 100 years, (2) comparing the decline in species richness, phylogenetic diversity and habitat specialization among different habitats, and (3) estimating the relationship between recent trends in habitat quality or quantity and the decline of multiple metrics of European butterfly diversity. We do not find any significant relationship between diversity loss and habitat area loss and conclude that neither long-term nor short-term changes in habitat area are primary predictors of large-scale butterfly decline in Europe. Habitat quality emerges as the most crucial factor in our analyses - both the area affected and the severity of habitat quality reduction. Habitat degradation causes vegetation changes in structure and diversity, which affect butterfly survival. We also estimate a higher decline of habitat specialists than generalist species. We conclude that habitat protection cannot focus solely on the maximization of habitat area but urgently needs to restore high quality ecosystems to provide the full range of ecological requirements for biodiversity.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

Reducing ecological complexity using the archetype approach - an application to natural pest control

Natural control of crop pests has the potential to complement or replace intensive agricultural practices, but its mainstream application requires reliable predictions in diverse socioecological settings. In lack of a widely accepted model of natural pest control, we review existing modelling approaches and critically examine their potential to provide understanding and predictions across agricultural landscapes. Models that explicitly represent the underlying mechanisms are better positioned to represent the diversity and context sensitivity of natural pest control than correlative models. Such mechanistic models have used diverse techniques to represent crop-pest-enemy combinations at various spatiotemporal scales. However, certain regions of the world and socioeconomic aspects of natural pest control are underrepresented, while modelling approaches are restricted by a fundamental trade-off between generality and realism. We propose that modelling natural pest control across agroecosystems requires a framework of context-specific generalizations, based on empirical evidence and theoretical expectations. Reviewed models of natural pest control indicate potential attributes of such a general predictive framework.

ecology↗