Traditionally, community ecologists assumed that species differ in some aspects of their traits or responses to the environment (i.e. their niches), which allow them to coexist in the same habitat (Hutchinson 1957, 1959). Recently, Hubbell (2001) and others (e.g. Bell 2001, 2003) have suggested that this view is inadequate to explain the diversity often observed in speciose systems. For example...

Forecasting how species and ecosystems will respond to climate change has been a major aim of ecology in recent years. Much of this research has focused on phenology – the timing of life-history events. Phenology has well-demonstrated links to climate, from genetic to landscape scales; yet our ability to explain and predict variation in phenology across species, habitats and time remains poor. ...

The giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) is a strictly myrmecophagous xenarthran species that ranges from Honduras to northern Argentina, occupying various habitats, grassland and floodplains forests. According the IUCN, it vulnerable mainly threatened by poaching, habitat loss fragmentation, road kills. Here, we investigate phylogeography, distribution, ecology, historical demography of Br...

Habitat distribution models have a long history in ecological research. With the development of geospatial information technology, including remote sensing, these models are now applied to an ever-increasing number of species, particularly those located in areas in which it is logistically difficult to collect habitat data in the field. Many habitat studies have used data acquired by multi-spec...

Cryptic species are phylogenetically diverged taxa that are morphologically indistinguishable and may differ in their ecological and behavioral requirements. This may have important implications for ecosystem services and conservation of biodiversity. We investigated whether two ecologically important cryptic species of the freshwater amphipod Gammarus fossarum (types A and B) are associated wi...

The extraordinary species richness of teleost fishes has attracted much research on mechanisms and modes of speciation. We here review research on speciation in freshwater fish in light of speciation theory, and place this in a context of knowledge about broad-scale diversity patterns in freshwater fishes. We structure our review around the major axes of divergence during speciation in freshwat...

Ecological niche theory predicts that coexistence is facilitated by resource partitioning mechanisms that are influenced by abiotic and biotic interactions. Alternative hypotheses suggest that under certain conditions, species may become phenotypically similar and functionally equivalent, which invokes the possibility of other mechanisms, such as habitat filtering processes. To test these hypot...

Variation in daily activity patterns facilitates temporal partitioning of habitat and resources among species. Knowledge of temporal niche partitioning in paleobiological systems has been limited by the difficulty of obtaining reliable information about activity patterns from fossils. On the basis of an analysis of scleral ring and orbit morphology in 33 archosaurs, including dinosaurs and pter...

Research on the ecology of sympatric dolphins has increased worldwide in recent decades. However, many dolphin associations such as that between common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) and dusky dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obscurus) are poorly understood. The present study was conducted in the San Matías Gulf (SMG) ecosystem (North Patagonia, Argentina) where a high diet overlap among both species was...

Neotropical migratory birds are major components of the avifauna in most North American terrestrial ecosystems. Over 150 species of Neotropical migratory birds are known to breed in North America (Finch 199Ia). Given the large number of species, developing effective management strategies for Neotropical migratory birds is a monumental task because each species exploits a unique niche, and thus ...