O F T H E DISSERTATION Impacts of hunting on seed dispersal in a Central African tropical forest

Phylogenetic analysis of representatives from 18 wild populations of the giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, utilising a fragment of the 16S rRNA mitochondrial gene, identified two major reciprocally monophyletic clades either side of a well-known biogeographic barrier, Huxley's line. The level of divergence between the two clades (maximum 6.2%) far exceeds divergence levels with...

Models are presented for a single species that disperses between two patches of a heterogeneous environment with barriers between patches and a predator for which the dispersal between patches does not involve a barrier. Conditions are established for the existence, uniform persistence, and local and global stability of positive steady states. In particular, an example that demonstrates both th...

Among marine species distributed in the Indian Ocean and Pacific, Indo–Pacific Barrier (IPB) has been found to be an important barrier of divergence on both sides. five genus Pampus, only Pampus chinensis P. cinereus are across western Pacific Oceans have not studied comparatively using extensive sampling gene markers. Furthermore, origin history remain unrevealed. We used thousands nuclear loc...

The house mouse hybrid zone (HMHZ) is a species barrier thought to be maintained by a balance between dispersal and natural selection against hybrids. While the HMHZ is characterized by frequency discontinuities for some sex chromosome markers, there is an unexpected large-scale regional introgression of a Y chromosome across the barrier, in defiance of Haldane's rule. Recent work suggests that...

Mechanisms controlling germination of > 2600 Arecaceae species adapted to the tropical forests are not clearly understood. This contribution underpins notion that coexistence dormancy and desiccation sensitivity in some could significantly affect ecology. Although evolutionary ecological significance behind this occurrence is unknown, these traits together limit from inappropriate depths allow ...

Classical old-field succession studies focused on vegetation changes after the abandonment of annual croplands or on succession after the elimination of cultivated crops. Perennial-crop-mediated succession, where fields are initially covered by perennial crops, reveals alternative aspects of old-field succession theories. We tested the validity of classical theories of old-field succession for ...

The gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, is a non-native species that continues to invade areas in North America. It spreads generally through stratified dispersal where local growth and diffusive spread are coupled with long-distance jumps ahead of the leading edge. Long-distance jumps due to anthropogenic movement of life stages is a well-documented spread mechanism. Another mechanism is the atmosph...

The wide distribution of many seagrasses may be attributable to exploitation of currents. However, many species have seeds heavier than seawater, limiting surface floating, and thus, deep water becomes a potential barrier between suitable habitats. In this investigation, we studied the dispersal potential of various life history stages of two species of seagrasses, Thalassia hemprichii and Halo...

Delineating populations of pantropical marine fish is a difficult process, due to widespread geographic ranges and complex life history traits in most species. Exocoetus volitans, a species of two-winged flyingfish, is a good model for understanding large-scale patterns of epipelagic fish population structure because it has a circumtropical geographic range and completes its entire life cycle i...