Gradient pattern analysis was used to investigate the impact of environmental and disturbance variables on species richness, species diversity, abundance and seasonal variation of birds in and around Jamshedpur, which is one of the fastest growing cities of India. It was observed that avian community structure is highly influenced by the vegetation habitat variables, food availability and human...

The continuous reef tract on the semi-exposed side of Lizard Island, northern Great Barrier Reef, can be divided into 6 habitat zones, which are distinctly different in terms of their physical (depth, slope and wave exposure) and biological characteristics (percentage of living cover, percentage cover of each substratum type, substratum diversity and complexity). Sixty-four labrid species were ...

The Iberá Marshlands RAMSAR reserve, in the northeast of Argentina, is one of the largest and most important wetlands of America. In this study we assess orb-weaving spider (Araneae: Orbiculariae) diversity in this reserve, analyzing different facets of local diversity (species richness, diversity, evenness and taxonomic distinctness), and the contribution of species differentiation (beta diver...

Recent years have seen the greatest ecological disturbances of our times, with global human expansion, species and habitat loss, climate change, and the emergence of new and previously-known infectious diseases. Biodiversity loss affects infectious disease risk by disrupting normal relationships between hosts and pathogens. Mosquito-borne pathogens respond to changing dynamics on multiple trans...

Theory predicts that inter-patch dispersal rates and patterns of patch heterogeneity both have the potential to alter patterns of local and regional species diversity. To test this, we manipulated both rates of habitat connectivity and the geometric arrangement of habitat heterogeneity within regions of experimental zooplankton communities. We found no effects of habitat geometry on any metric ...

Many willow species (genus: Salix) co-occur within habitats (α-diversity) and across the landscape (β-diversity) throughout North America. This high diversity is challenging to explain because closely related species often share similar functional traits and thus experience heightened competition and shared pest and pathogen susceptibility. To investigate whether traits related to drought survi...

The fish assemblage structure was analyzed in the streams of Kumaon Himalaya of Uttarkhand State, India. Seven sites were sampled by using different fishing gears during Jan, 2007 to December 2008. The physical features like stream habitat, stream classifications, fish assemblage at different sites, habitat preference and riparian vegetations were registered for each site. In the present invest...

Natural ecosystems often show highly productive habitats that are clustered in space. Environmental disturbances are also often nonrandomly distributed in space and are either intrinsically linked to habitat quality or independent in occurrence. Theoretical studies predict that configuration and aggregation of habitat patch quality and disturbances can affect metacommunity composition and diver...

Negative density dependence (NDD) and habitat specialization have received strong empirical support as mechanisms that explain tree species diversity maintenance and distribution in tropical forests. In contrast, disturbance appears to play only a minor role. Previous studies have rarely examined the relative strengths of these diversity maintenance mechanisms concurrently, and few studies have...

Habitat fragmentation is well known to affect plant and animal diversity as a result of reduced habitat area and connectivity, but its effects on microorganisms are poorly understood. Using high-throughput sequencing of two regions of the rRNA gene, we studied the effects of forest area and connectivity on the diversity and composition of fungi associated with the roots of the dominant tree, Me...