1. Community level oak–tannin–insect patterns have been largely unexplored since Paul Feeny’s ground-breaking research. Two hypotheses were tested for Quercus velutina and Q. alba in the Missouri Ozarks: abundance and richness of leaf-chewing herbivores are negatively correlated with foliar condensed tannin concentrations and variation in condensed tannin concentrations explains variation in he...

1 Tests of the relationship between resident plant species richness and habitat invasibility have yielded variable results. I investigated the roles of experimental manipulation of understorey species richness and overstorey characteristics in resistance to invader establishment in a floodplain forest in south-western Virginia, USA. 2 I manipulated resident species richness in experimental plot...

To studyvertical gradients of arthropod species richness in tropical forests, adult chrysomelidswere surveyed with similar sampling effort by beating in four plots of 0.8 ha, representative of the canopy and understorey of one wet and one dry forest in Panama. Samples included in total 4615 individuals representing 253 species, and were of similar species richness at the two study sites. At bot...

We studied the effects of post-harvest treatments on regeneration and forest composition 13–27 years following harvest in high-elevation forests of the North Cascade Range, Washington. Eighteen sites encompassing three common post-harvest treatments were examined at elevations ranging from 830 m to 1460 m. Treatments included: (1) sites broadcast burned and planted with Abies amabilis or Abies ...

The suitability of several methods for estimating light conditions in the understorey of tropical forests, and of different sampling schedules was evaluated. Light conditions at 16 understorey sites in a Panamanian lowland forest were continuously measured for 9 mo with quantum sensors and photodiodes. Light conditions at the sites were also assessed indirectly with hemispherical fisheye photog...

We reanalyzed a dataset consisting of approximately 10,700 crepuscular and night-biting female mosquitoes (Culicidae) collected over 12 mo in the canopy and understorey of primary Amazonian rain forest. We investigate whether vertical habitat stratification and rainfall modified major ecological parameters of this mosquito ensemble, combining descriptive and hypothesis-testing statistics with s...

Climate change is threatening global ecosystems through its impact on the survival of individual species and their ecological functions1,2. Despite the important role of understorey plants in forest ecosystems3–5, climate impact assessments on understorey plants and their role in supporting wildlife habitat are scarce in the literature. Here we assess climate-change impacts on understorey bambo...

Hagerman, S.M., S.M. Sakakibara, D.M. Durall. 2000. Potential for woody understorey plants to provide refuge for ectomycorrhizal inoculum at an Interior Douglas-fir forest after clearcut logging. In Proceedings, From science to management and back: a science forum for southern interior ecosystems of British Columbia. C. Hollstedt, K. Sutherland, and T. Innes (editors). Southern Interior Forest ...

1 Tree diversity in forests may be maintained by variability in seedling recruitment. Although forest ecologists have emphasized the importance of canopy gaps in generating spatial variability that might promote tree regeneration, the effects of canopy gaps on seedling recruitment may be offset by dense forest understories. 2 Large annual fluctuations in recruitment processes, coupled with the ...

The establishment of invasive alien species in varied habitats across the world is now recognized as a genuine threat to the preservation of biodiversity. Specifically, plant invasions in understory tropical forests are detrimental to the persistence of healthy ecosystems. Monitoring such invasions using Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite remote sensing has been shown to be valuable in design...