Dendrochronology in Neotropical dry forests: methods, advances and applications

Phyllostomid Bat Occurrence in Successional Stages of Neotropical Dry Forests

Tropical dry forests (TDFs) are highly endangered tropical ecosystems being replaced by a complex mosaic of patches of different successional stages, agricultural fields and pasturelands. In this context, it is urgent to understand how taxa playing critical ecosystem roles respond to habitat modification. Because Phyllostomid bats provide important ecosystem services (e.g. facilitate gene flow ...

Advances in Research and Applications of Smart Hydrogels Part I: Preparation Methods and Classification

Tracing the history of South-American neotropical savannas and seasonally dry forests evidences from comparative phylogeography

Background The Neotropical Seasonally Dry Forests (SDF) are treedominated ecosystems that occur in disjunct areas of fertile soils throughout the Neotropics. The hypothesis that the vicariance of a formerly continuous seasonal woodland formation, which may have reached its maximum extension during a dry-cool period 18,000–12,000 bp (the LGM), the Pleistocenic Arc Hypothesis, has been raised to ...

Advances in Global Optimization: Methods and Applications

Semi-deteministic optimization methods We consider with : J Ω → Ω ⊂. We make the following assump tions: 1 (,) J C ∈ Ω and is coercive. The infimum of J is denoted by J m (when J m is unknown, we set J m to a low value). Many deterministic minimization algorithms can be seen as discrete dynamical systems coming from the discretization of first or second order Cauchy problems. On the other hand,...

Community and ecosystem ramifications of increasing lianas in neotropical forests.

Lianas (woody vines) are increasing in neotropical forests, representing one of the first large-scale structural changes documented for these important ecosystems. The potential ramifications of increasing lianas are huge, as lianas alter both tropical forest diversity and ecosystem functioning. At the community level, lianas affect tree species co-existence and diversity by competing more inte...