We examined species composition and diversity of vegetation and soil seed bank associated with different microhabitats in Mediterranean semiarid sand dune community, to identify which functional groups or species benefit from trampling, and to provide a basis for management. In this community microhabitats were found to significantly influence species abundance and biomass of dominant functiona...

mist-nets in three study sites, in primary forest and in 5-year-old and 10-year-old logged forests, in Sungai Lalang Forest Reserve, West Malaysia. A total of 58 species (271 individuals) was recorded in primary forest, 62 species (288 individuals) in 5-yearold logged forest, and 61 species (386 individuals) in 10-year-old logged forest. Assessment of feeding guilds indicated that insectivorous...

Each animal species selects specific microhabitats for protection, foraging, or micro-climate. To understand the distribution patterns of small mammals on the ground and in the understorey, we investigated the use of microhabitats by small mammals in a deciduous forest of southern Brazil. Ten trap stations with seven capture points were used to sample the following microhabitats: liana, fallen ...

Little is known of how linkage patterns between species change along environmental gradients. The small, spatially discrete food webs inhabiting tank-bromeliads provide an excellent opportunity to analyse patterns of community diversity and food-web topology (connectance, linkage density, nestedness) in relation to key environmental variables (habitat size, detrital resource, incident radiation...

The overstorey coniferous trees and understorey ericaceous dwarf shrubs of northern temperate and boreal forests have previously been considered to form mycorrhizas with taxonomically and functionally distinct groups of fungi. Here, we tested the hypothesis that Meliniomyces variabilis and Meliniomyces bicolor, isolated from Piceirhiza bicolorata ectomycorrhizas of pine, can function as ericoid...

Aim We analysed range-wide chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) variation in a clade of North American goldenrods (Solidago subsect. Humiles) to infer its biogeographical history and evolution. Our objectives were to: (1) examine the structuring of cpDNA diversity in this widespread species complex, (2) reconstruct Pleistocene refugia and post-glacial migration of the study species, and (3) test hypotheses ...

The Orongorongo Valley is located 18 km east of Wellington (4121’S, 17458’E). The study area of 4.4 ha is located at about 100 m a.s.l., and comprises forest with scattered emergent Metrosideros robusta and Dacrydium cupressinum over a canopy of Elaeocarpus dentatus, Laurelia novae-zelandiae, Melicytus ramiflorus, Hedycarya arborea, Knightia excelsa, Weinmannia racemosa, Schefflera digitata and...

1. Documenting species abundance distributions in natural environments is critical to ecology and conservation biology. Tropical forest insect faunas vary in space and time, and these partitions can differ in their contribution to overall species diversity. 2. In the Neotropics, the Central American butterfly fauna is best known in terms of general natural history, but butterfly community diver...

1 The patterns of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) host specificity between understorey and canopy trees were investigated in three mixed evergreen forest stands in northern coastal California. ECM root tips from the dominant canopy ( Pseudotsuga menziesii ) and understorey ( Lithocarpus densiflora ) trees were sampled from 18 soil cores (six per stand) and identified using molecular techniques (PCR, RFLP...