Biology subjects

Corradini, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Corradini, A..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Intra- and interspecific relationships of alpine ungulates reorganise along a wolf recolonisation gradient

Apex predators are recovering across many ecosystems after decades of decline, yet whether their return can restore ecological interactions disrupted by their loss remains poorly understood. Here, we used the ongoing recolonisation of grey wolves (Canis lupus) in the south-eastern Alps as a natural gradient of predator recovery to examine how predation risk and human disturbance shape relationships among red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), and Alpine chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra). Across a gradient of time since wolf establishment, roe deer increasingly occupied sites without red deer, suggesting predator recovery alters relationships between prey species. Red deer also formed larger groups, consistent with a shift in collective behaviour under increased predation risk. Human disturbance also affected group formation in red deer and chamois. Together, these findings show that prey community structure can vary with wolf recovery, even in human-dominated landscapes, through altered associations among species and grouping within species.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Movement responses to lethal risk: an integrative analysis of proactive and reactive antipredator behaviours in a large herbivore

Prey species can display antipredation movement behaviours to reduce predation risk including proactive responses to chronic or predictable risk, and reactive responses to acute or unpredictable risk. Thus, at any given time, prey movement choice may reflect the trade-off between proaction and reaction. In previous studies, proaction and reaction have generally been considered separately, which neglects their simultaneous influence on animal decisions. In this study, we analysed how proaction and reaction interact to shape the movements of GPS-collared red deer (Cervus elaphus), in response to human hunting of conspecifics. Our results show that red deer proactively selected canopy cover where and when risk was predictably high. However, when they were unable to avoid risk, canopy cover was no longer selected, but only modulated a reactive response along a freeze-to-escape continuum. This reaction was even more evident when the environment was unfamiliar, underlining the importance of memory in such reaction patterns. Therefore, to our knowledge, for the first time, we describe how proaction and reaction fuse in an antipredation sequence of interconnected movement decisions in a large herbivore, and we lay the foundations for further investigations into the evolutionary origins of similarities and differences between proactive and reactive behaviours.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

Including biotic interactions in species distribution models improves the understanding of species niche: a case of study with the brown bear in Europe

Biotic interactions are expected to influence species responses to climate change, but they are usually not included when predicting future range shifts. We assessed the importance of biotic interactions to understand future consequences of climate and land use change for biodiversity using as a model system the brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Europe. By including biotic interactions using the spatial variation of energy contribution and habitat models of each food species, we showed that the use of biotic factors considerably improves our understanding of the distribution of brown bears. Predicted future range shifts, which included changes in the distribution of food species, varied greatly when considering various scenarios of change in biotic factors, warning about future indirect climate change effects. Our study confirmed that advancing our understanding of ecological networks of species interactions will improve future scenarios of biodiversity change, which is key for conserving biodiversity and ecosystem services.

ecology↗