spiders are the powerful and efficient predators in almost all ecosystems which have effective role in different pest control. the fauna of these arthropods was surveyed during 2005-2009, and their population fluctuations and activities were studied in mazandaran paddy fields in 2005-2006. a total of 53 spider species of 44 genera were collected and identified from paddy fields of mazandaran pr...

Large-scale fluctuations in abundance are a common feature of small mammal populations and have been the subject of extensive research. These demographic fluctuations are often associated with concurrent changes in the average body mass of individuals, sometimes referred to as the 'Chitty effect'. Despite the long-standing recognition of this phenomenon, an empirical investigation of the underl...

1. Small mammal population fluctuations, cyclic or not, have been an ecological puzzle and a source of heated debate among ecologists. Identifying the demographic parameters that covary closely with density changes can help elucidate the underlying causes of population fluctuations, but few studies have reported rigorous estimates of these parameters. 2. We applied capture–mark–recapture analys...

Population sizes of four small mammals, Peromyscus leucopus, Microtus pennsylvanicus, Blarina brevicauda, and Sorex cinereus, were monitored for over twenty years at the UWM Field Station. F\ leucopus had moderate fluctuations in size, but showed no evidence of cyclic or regular fluctuations. M. pennsylvanicus exhibited dramatic fluctuations with cycles of 3-5 years. Neither shrew species appea...

Phenotypes of individuals in a population of organisms are not fixed. Phenotypic fluctuations, which describe temporal variation of the phenotype of an individual or individual-to-individual variation across a population, are present in populations from microbes to higher animals. Phenotypic fluctuations can provide a basis for adaptation and be the target of selection. Here we present a theore...

Nature GeNetics aDVaNCE ONLINE PUBLICaTION The panda lineage dates back to the late Miocene and ultimately leads to only one extant species, the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). Although global climate change and anthropogenic disturbances are recognized to shape animal population demography2,3 their contribution to panda population dynamics remains largely unknown. We sequenced the whole ...