Forested wildlife habitats identified in a broad field survey of Northland, New Zealand, have been ranked to determine their relative importance for indigenous wildlife. A numerical scoring system was devised after consideration of schemes used by other authors and after a preliminary examination of the survey data by step-wise multiple regression analysis. Twenty-five habitats were ranked acco...

community An ecological term referring to a set of species that occur in the same location that have the potential to affect each other either directly or indirectly. community structure The web of potential biological interactions among members of a community that may be characterized in terms of diversity, complexity, hierarchy, and stability. ecotone A zone of transition between two differen...

In recent years, metagenomics has emerged as a powerful tool for mining of hidden microbial treasure in a culture independent manner. In the last two decades, metagenomics has been applied extensively to exploit concealed potential of microbial communities from almost all sorts of habitats. A brief historic progress made over the period is discussed in terms of origin of metagenomics to its cur...

Soil has the potential to be valuable forensic evidence linking a person or item to a crime scene; however, there is no established soil individualization technique. In this study, the utility of soil bacterial profiling via next-generation sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene was examined for associating soils with their place of origin. Soil samples were collected from ten diverse and nine similar...

The oceans encompass a wide range of habitats and environmental conditions, which host a huge microbial biodiversity. The unique characteristics of several marine systems have driven a variety of biological adaptations, leading to the production of a large spectrum of bioactive molecules. Fungi, fungi-like protists (such as thraustochytrids) and bacteria are among the marine organisms with the ...

Patchiness of habitat has important influences on distributions and abundances of organisms. Given the increasing threat of loss and alteration of habitats due to pressures associated with humans, there is a need for ecologists to understand species' requirements for habitat and to predict changes to taxa under various future environmental conditions. This study tested hypotheses about the gene...

Wild goat (Capra aegagrus) is one of the most prominent mountain mammals dispersed in many habitats in Iran. However, few studies on the relationship between this species and its habitat have been conducted. This species is recognized as one of the main food source for highly endangered species such as cheetah and leopard. In this study which lasted from fall 2009 through summer 2011, seasona...

The larval habitats of the mosquito Aedes aegypti L (Diptera-Culicidae) were investigated in urban Dar es Salaam, using larval traps (old tyres, vegetations, outdoor water storage containers and flower pots). The study was carried out in the four sampling sites namely, Vingunguti, Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA), Mbagala and Mkuranga (Vikindu). The aim was to assess the influence of...