It is generally a challenge to interpret incomplete and degraded skeletal assemblages found during archaeological excavations. Several events after the death of animals and humans, before and after burial, will have influenced the situation as seen upon excavation. This post-mortem sequence of events can be called the taphonomic history of bones. Taphonomic signatures detected using histology c...

Many animals move within ground composed of granular media (GM); the resistive properties of such substrates can depend on water content and compaction, but little is known about how such parameters affect locomotion or the physics of drag and penetration. Using apparatus to control compaction of GM, our recent studies of movement in dry GM have revealed locomotion strategies of specialized dry...

A new mass balance model for the coupled marine cycles of phosphorus (P) and carbon (C) is used to examine the relationships between oceanic circulation, primary productivity, and sedimentary burial of reactive P and particulate organic C (POC), on geological time scales. The model explicitly represents the exchanges of water and particulate matter between the continental shelves and the open o...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Hard-seeded (physical) dormancy is common among plants, yet mechanisms for dormancy release are poorly understood, especially in the tropics. The following questions are asked: (a) whether dormancy release in seed banks of the tropical shrub Parkinsonia aculeata (Caesalpiniaceae) is determined by wet heat (incubation under wet, warm to hot, conditions); and (b) whether its e...

The perennial stoloniferous herbaceous vine Mikania micrantha H.B.K. is among the most noxious exotic invaders in China and the world. Disturbance can fragment stolons of M. micrantha and disperse these fragments over long distances or bury them in soils at different depths. To test their regeneration capacity, single-node stolon fragments with stolon internode lengths of 0, 3, 6 and 12 cm were...

1 We used a combination of laboratory and field experiments to test the hypothesis that the burial depth of Potamogeton pectinatus tubers will vary with local sediment type and swan predation pressure. 2 In the field, mortality due to predation by swans decreased linearly with burial depth (from 100% at the surface to 55% at 225 mm depth) and with sediment clay content. Average tuber size showe...

Non-native earthworms have invaded ecosystems around the world but have recently received increased attention as they invaded previously earthworm-free habitats in northern North America. Earthworms can affect plants by ingesting seeds and burying them in the soil. These effects can be negative or positive but are expected to become increasingly negative with decreasing seed size. Orchids have ...