The effects of forest-savanna-grassland gradients on bird communities of Chiquitano Dry Forests domain, in western Brazil.

Land use and habitat gradients determine bird community diversity and abundance in suburban, rural and reserve landscapes of Minnesota, USA

Bird species’ community responses to land use in the suburbanizing Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA, were contrasted among reserves, rural lands, and suburbs. For each land use type, bird composition, diversity, and abundance were recorded for 2 years in 99 plots in three sampling units (each 4500 ha). A habitat gradient defined by canopy structure (grasslands to savannas to forests) was influenced ...

The effects of habitat fragmentation on bird communities in Hyrcanian forests (Case study: Gorgan Township)

Post-fire reproduction of herbs at a savanna-gallery forest boundary in Distrito Federal, Brazil.

In Cerrado, studies of post-fire vegetation recovery show that some herbaceous species are able to flower shortly after fires. However, these were mainly short-term studies that focused on grasslands and savannas. Little is known about the effects of fire on ground layer of forests that border the savannas in Central Brazil. Thus, an accidental burning gave us the opportunity to describe the re...

Figs and the Persistence of Toco Toucan (ramphastos Toco) at Dry Forests from Western Brazil

– The Toco Toucan (Ramphastos toco) is a large canopy frugivore common in the seasonal areas of the interior of Brazil. In this study, I evaluated fruit production and analyzed the toucan’s feeding habits in two types of dry forests, one deciduous, although rich in figs, and another semi-deciduous, both in the western Brazil. Both areas exhibited marked fruiting patterns, which peaks overlapped...

Habitat modification and seasonality influence avian haemosporidian parasite distributions in southeastern Brazil

Habitat modification may change vertebrate and vector-borne disease distributions. However, natural forest regeneration through secondary succession may mitigate these effects. Here we tested the hypothesis that secondary succession influences the distribution of birds and their haemosporidian parasites (genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) in a seasonally dry tropical forest, a globally threate...