Batu Caves hill is typical of karst hills in Peninsular Malaysia due to its small size and high biodiversity. It harbours 366 vascular plant species that represent about 25% the Peninsula’s limestone flora. Five are endemic 23 threatened species. This biodiversity result many microhabitats, each with their own assemblages Threats especially severe as area surrounded by urbanisation encroaches f...

Abstract. Endolithic microhabitats have been described as the last refuge for life in arid and hyper-arid deserts where has to deal with harsh environmental conditions. A number of rock substrates from Atacama Desert, colonized by endolithic microbial communities such halite, gypsum crusts, gypcrete, calcite, granite ignimbrite, characterized compared using different approaches. In this work, t...

Even in nitrogen-replete ecosystems, microhabitats exist where local-scale nutrient limitation occurs. For example, coastal waters of the northeastern Pacific Ocean are characterized by high nitrate concentrations associated with upwelling. However, macroalgae living in high-zone tide pools on adjacent rocky shores are isolated from this upwelled nitrate for extended periods of time, leading to...

Chinese Cordyceps, known in Chinese as "DongChong XiaCao", is a parasitic complex of a fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) and a caterpillar. The current study explored the endogenetic fungal communities inhabiting Chinese Cordyceps. Samples were collected from five different geographical regions of Qinghai and Tibet, and the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer-1 sequences from each samp...

One of the most important defenses for the eggs of ovipositing female organisms is to avoid being laid in the same habitat as their predators. However, for most organisms, completely avoiding an offspring's predators is not possible. One mechanism that has been largely overlooked is for females to partition an oviposition site into microhabitats that differ in quality for offspring survival. We...

Wetland ecosystems, particularly the mangrove forest, are the primary wild habitat of heronry birds. However, urban ecosystems have become a favorite breeding habitat of these birds. To provide inputs into the habitat management for conservation of these birds, we investigated the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of nesting trees of heronry birds in the urban environment of the Nort...