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Diversity, Volume 11, Issue 5

May 2019 - 18 articles

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Cover Story: Land use and landcover change alter the ability of habitat networks to maintain viable populations of threatened species. This also applies to predators that prey on such species. We found that avian predator assemblages are affected by land use intensity linked to socio-economic contexts in Europe’s West and East. Corvid birds were associated with the number of anthropogenic food resources and fine-grained open landcovers. Corvid bird abundance and their resources increased with increasing land use intensity. Raptors were less abundant than corvid birds, and were most common in coarse-grained landcovers with fewer anthropogenic resources. The number of raptor species increased with decreasing land use intensity. We conclude that avian predator assemblages must be considered in order to maintain functional habitat networks. View this paper.

Articles (18)

  • Review
  • Open Access
53 Citations
8,229 Views
20 Pages

26 May 2019

Stable isotope-based methods have proved to be immensely valuable for ecological studies ranging in focus from animal movements to species interactions and community structure. Nevertheless, the use of these methods is dependent on assumptions about...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
5,479 Views
18 Pages

25 May 2019

Fragmentation threatens biodiversity and forest-dwelling animals can be especially vulnerable. Neotropical primates inhabit forests and play ecological roles in maintaining forest biodiversity. Currently, many primate communities are restricted to fo...

  • Article
  • Open Access
61 Citations
7,522 Views
16 Pages

Species-Specific Functional Morphology of Four US Atlantic Coast Dune Grasses: Biogeographic Implications for Dune Shape and Coastal Protection

  • Sally D. Hacker,
  • Katya R. Jay,
  • Nicholas Cohn,
  • Evan B. Goldstein,
  • Paige A. Hovenga,
  • Michael Itzkin,
  • Laura J. Moore,
  • Rebecca S. Mostow,
  • Elsemarie V. Mullins and
  • Peter Ruggiero

24 May 2019

Coastal dunes arise from feedbacks between vegetation and sediment supply. Species-specific differences in plant functional morphology affect sand capture and dune shape. In this study, we build on research showing a relationship between dune grass s...

  • Review
  • Open Access
69 Citations
11,114 Views
19 Pages

A Review of the Impacts of Roads on Wildlife in Semi-Arid Regions

  • W. Richard J. Dean,
  • Colleen L. Seymour,
  • Grant S. Joseph and
  • Stefan H. Foord

19 May 2019

Roads now penetrate even the most remote parts of much of the world, but the majority of research on the effects of roads on biota has been in less remote temperate environments. The impacts of roads in semi-arid and arid areas may differ from these...

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
5,978 Views
26 Pages

The Influence of Canopy Cover on the Ecological Function of A Key Autogenic Ecosystem Engineer

  • Jacqueline B. Pocklington,
  • Michael J. Keough,
  • Tim D. O’Hara and
  • Alecia Bellgrove

17 May 2019

Intertidal fucoid algae can function as ecosystem engineers across temperate marine regions. In this investigation, we assessed the function of the alga dominating rocky reefs in temperate Australia and New Zealand, Hormosira banksii. Invertebrate an...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
4,746 Views
21 Pages

17 May 2019

Facilitation by foundation species commonly structures terrestrial and marine communities. Intraspecific variation in individual properties of these strong facilitators can affect the whole suite of the dependent taxa. Marine macroalgae often act as...

  • Article
  • Open Access
15 Citations
6,241 Views
14 Pages

15 May 2019

Timing of nesting affects fitness of oviparous animals living in seasonal environments, and females may cue on environmental factors for their nesting behavior, but these relationships are understudied in tropical turtles. Here, the timing and synchr...

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
4,416 Views
19 Pages

Impacts of Elevated CO2 Levels on the Soil Bacterial Community in a Natural CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery Area

  • Jing Ma,
  • Zhanbin Luo,
  • Fu Chen,
  • Run Chen,
  • Qianlin Zhu and
  • Shaoliang Zhang

11 May 2019

Knowledge of the interactions among different microorganisms is important to understand how ecological function transformation is affected by elevated CO2 levels in CO2-enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) sites. Molecular ecological networks were establi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
4,160 Views
11 Pages

Evaluation of Gonadal Tissue to Validate Size at Reproductive Maturity in Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles Found Stranded in Texas, USA

  • Kathryn Stephenson Craven,
  • Jay York Seabright Hodgson,
  • Donna Jill Shaver,
  • Jennifer Shelby Walker,
  • Martha Ramona Villalba-Guerra and
  • David William Owens

9 May 2019

The Kemp’s ridley, Lepidochelys kempii, is the most endangered sea turtle in the world. Anthropogenic mortality of Kemp’s ridleys has been well documented in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), USA. We evaluated the reproductive maturity of 75 Kemp...

  • Article
  • Open Access
16 Citations
6,616 Views
13 Pages

Biogeographical Patterns of Endolithic Infestation in an Invasive and an Indigenous Intertidal Marine Ecosystem Engineer

  • Aldwin Ndhlovu,
  • Christopher D. McQuaid,
  • Katy Nicastro,
  • Nathalie Marquet,
  • Marcos Gektidis,
  • Cristián J. Monaco and
  • Gerardo Zardi

7 May 2019

By altering the phenotypic properties of their hosts, endolithic parasites can modulate the engineering processes of marine ecosystem engineers. Here, we assessed the biogeographical patterns of species assemblages, prevalence and impact of endolithi...

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