Influence and Management of Herbivores in Forests

Tree Species Composition and Harvest Intensity Affect Herbivore Density and Leaf Damage on Beech, Fagus sylvatica, in Different Landscape Contexts

Most forests are exposed to anthropogenic management activities that affect tree species composition and natural ecosystem processes. Changes in ecosystem processes such as herbivory depend on management intensity, and on regional environmental conditions and species pools. Whereas influences of specific forest management measures have already been addressed for different herbivore taxa on a lo...

Mind the gap: how open were European primeval forests?

There are two competing hypotheses about the structure and dynamics of primeval forests in lowland Europe: the high-forest and the wood-pasture hypotheses, both of which influence current European forest conservation policies. In a recent study using pollen-analytical data from across lowland Europe, Mitchell provides support for rejecting the wood-pasture hypothesis. His study is important for...

Differences in Genetic Structure among Fagus orientalis Lipsky (Oriental Beech) Populations under Different Management Conditions: Implications for in situ Gene Conservation

Resource sustainability requires a thorough understanding of the influence of forest management programs on the conservation of genetic diversity in tree populations. To observe how differences in forest management affect the genetic structure of Fagus orientalis Lipsky (oriental beech), we evaluated thirteen beech sites across Hyrcanian forests, based on six microsatellite loci. Significant di...

Prevalence of Echinococcus grallulosus Infection in Stray Dogs and Herbivores in Shiraz, Iran

Response to Comment on “Why Are There So Many Species of Herbivorous Insects in Tropical Rainforests?”

Norton and Didham (1) argue that differences in plant abundance between tropical and temperate forests may limit the general conclusion that herbivore diversity scales directly with host plant diversity. They point out that our study (2) did not include locally rare tree species. Our temperate/tropical comparison was standardized for sample size and plant phylogeny but not for plant abundance a...