I hand-raised chestnut-sided warblers (Dendroica pensylvanica) in a room with eight experimental microhabitats; the microhabitats were removed after 6 weeks. I then measured the response of the warblers to the eight "natal" and eight "novel" microhabitats in two experiments conducted 2 and 4 months after removal. Chestnut-sided warblers responded with decreased feeding latency (neophobia) and a...

Animals often modify their behavior in response to changing environmental conditions. As physical conditions become more severe animals in stressful habitats pay higher costs and should expend additional resources to search for less stressful habitats. We tested whether conditions resulting in more severe thermal and desiccation stress increased selection of more protective microhabitats by the...

We present a theoretical approach to the optimization of crypsis in heterogeneous habitats. Our model habitat consists of two different microhabitats, and the optimal combination of crypsis in the microhabitats is supposed to maximize the probability of escaping detection by a predator. The probability of escaping detection for a prey is a function of: (i) degree of crypsis, (ii) probability of...

Habitat-specialist species may be restricted to a narrower range of microhabitats than habitat-generalist species. We addressed this hypothesis by comparing microhabitats of two pairs of congeners that differ in habitat specificity and co-occur in one distinct habitat type, Florida rosemary scrub. We characterized microhabitats of rosemary scrub specialists, Polygonella basiramia and Lechea cer...

A replicated pattern of habitat-associated morphology among different lineages may represent adaptive convergence. Deviation from the replicated (shared) pattern of diversification reflects unique (e.g. species specific) effects resulting from siteor species-specific selection, intrinsic factors (e.g. G matrix differences) or chance historical events (e.g. genetic drift). For two distantly-rela...

We examined how the marine cottid fish Clinocottus acuticeps used vegetated microhabitats within an estuarine system in the Pacific Northwest, USA. C. acuticeps was more abundant and grew faster in microhabitats in algal beds compared with open microhabitats. Furthermore, the condition index (CI) increased in vegetated microhabitats and decreased in open habitats which, combined with the variab...

Extreme heat events will become more frequent under anthropogenic climate change, especially in Mediterranean ecosystems. Microhabitats can considerably moderate (buffer) the effects of extreme weather events and hence facilitate the persistence of some components of the biodiversity. We investigate the microclimatic moderation provided by two important microhabitats (cavities formed by the lea...

Few microhabitats have been previously identified as natural breeding places for phlebotomine sand flies so far, and little is known about the influence of climate variables in their density. The present study was conducted in a dry region with a semiarid climate, where visceral leishmaniasis occurs in humans and dogs. The occurrence of breeding places in specific microhabitats was investigated...

Strong differences have been observed between the assemblages on artificial reefs and on natural hard-bottom habitats worldwide, but little is known about the mechanisms that cause contrasting biodiversity patterns. We examined the influence of spatial attributes in relation to both biogenic and topographic microhabitats, in the distribution and composition of intertidal species on both artific...

the present study investigated the effects of first record of co-infection of three clinostomum sp.; clinostomum complanatum (rudolphi, 1819), c. tilapiae (ukoli, 1966), and euclinostomum hetereostomum (1809) in tilapia zilii. there was differential parasitic effects resulting in selection for relatively better adaptiveness to host's microhabitats, more population size, and frequent host locati...