Search results for "class"
showing 10 items of 38174 documents
The effect of buffer strip width and selective logging on streamside polypore communities
2020
Preserving streamside forest habitats or buffer strips is considered to reduce forestry-related biodiversity loss in commercial forest landscapes. However, it is still unclear what type of management in and near streamside forests can be undertaken without compromising their biodiversity and natural change through succession. Using a before–after, control–impact study design, we tested the impacts of forested buffer strips (15 or 30 m wide, with or without selective logging), preserved after clear-cutting, on the changes of polypore communities in streamside boreal forests in Finland. Manipulations in 28 sites produced four treatment classes, the community compositions of which were compar…
Changes in evapotranspiration and phenology as consequences of shrub removal in dry forests of central Argentina
2014
More than half of the dry woodlands (forests and shrublands) of the world are in South America, mainly in Brazil and Argentina, where in the last years intense land use changes have occurred. This study evaluated how the transition from woody-dominated to grass-dominated system affected key ecohydrological variables and biophysical processes over 20 000 ha of dry forest in central Argentina. We used a simplified surface energy balance model together with moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer–normalized difference vegetation index data to analyse changes in above primary productivity, phenology, actual evapotranspiration, albedo and land surface temperature for four complete growing …
Growth patterns and life-history strategies in Placodontia (Diapsida: Sauropterygia)
2015
Placodontia is a clade of durophagous, near shore marine reptiles from Triassic sediments of modern-day Europe, Middle East and China. Although much is known about their primary anatomy and palaeoecology, relatively little has been published regarding their life history, i.e. ageing, maturation and growth. Here, growth records derived from long bone histological data of placodont individuals are described and modelled to assess placodont growth and life-history strategies. Growth modelling methods are used to confirm traits documented in the growth record (age at onset of sexual maturity, age when asymptotic length was achieved, age at death, maximum longevity) and also to estimate undocum…
Controlled feeding experiments with diets of different abrasiveness reveal slow development of mesowear signal in goats ( Capra aegagrus hircus )
2018
ABSTRACT Dental mesowear is applied as a proxy to determine the general diet of mammalian herbivores based on tooth-cusp shape and occlusal relief. Low, blunt cusps are considered typical of grazers and high, sharp cusps typical of browsers. However, how internal or external abrasives impact mesowear, and the time frame the wear signature takes to develop, still need to be explored. Four different pelleted diets of increasing abrasiveness (lucerne, grass, grass and rice husks, and grass, rice husks and sand) were fed to four groups of a total of 28 adult goats in a controlled feeding experiment over a 6-month period. Tooth morphology was captured by medical CT scans at the beginning and end…
Food availability and temperature optima shaped functional composition of chironomid assemblages during the Late Glacial–Holocene transition in North…
2021
Abstract Non-biting midges (Chironomidae) are the most diverse and abundant invertebrate group in boreal lakes and are strongly responsive to climate change, thus they are a valuable palaeoecological proxy for studying aquatic biodiversity response in the face of climate change. Here, we aim to decipher the influence of climate-induced changes on temporal patterns in chironomid assemblages. We apply a novel approach combining traditional taxon-based analysis and species-trait framework to subfossil chironomid assemblages in a sediment core covering the Late Glacial–Holocene transition in Northern Europe. We produce pollen-based July and January temperature reconstructions to characterize pa…
Comparing pollen spectra from modified Tauber traps and moss samples: examples from a selection of woodlands across Europe
2010
This paper compares pollen spectra derived from modified Tauber traps and moss samples from a selection of woodland types from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Greece, Poland, Switzerland and Wales. The study examines the representation of individual taxa in the two sampling media and aims to ascertain the duration of pollen deposition captured by a moss. The latter aim was pursued through the calculation of dissimilarity indexes to assess how many years of pollen deposited in a pollen trap yield percentage values that are most similar to those obtained from the moss. The results are broadly scattered; the majority of moss samples being most similar to several years of pollen depositi…
Chilamnestocoris mixtus gen. et spec. nov., the first burrower bug (Hemiptera: Pentatomoidea: Cydnidae) in Upper Cretaceous Burmese amber
2018
Abstract A new genus and species of burrower bug, Chilamnestocoris mixtus gen. et sp. nov. (Hemiptera: Cydnidae), is described from Upper Cretaceous Myanmar amber. The new genus is characterized by a very long claval commissure and, therefore, is classified within the extant subfamily Amnestinae. It presents a mixture of generic characters relevant to the genus Chilocoris Mayr (Cydninae) and the genus Amnestus Dallas (Amnestinae), but also has its own autapomorphies, i.e., each cephalic marginal setigerous puncture arises from its own well-developed tubercle, and the middle and posterior tibiae are strongly compressed and flattened.
The interplay betweenPinus sylvestris, its root hemiparasite,Melampyrum pratense, and ectomycorrhizal fungi: Influences on plant growth and reproduct…
2000
Despite the extensive literature on mutual interactions between plants and mycorrhizal fungi, and host plants and parasitic plants, little is known about the outcomes of interactions when the three...
New Bovid Remains from the Early Pleistocene of Umbria (Italy) and a Reappraisal of Leptobos merlai
2017
The extinct bovid Leptobos is one of the most characteristic elements of Eurasian faunal assemblages during most of the Villafranchian Land Mammal Age (i.e., from the late Pliocene to most of the early Pleistocene). Several species of this genus have been established since the end of XIX Century, but their taxonomic status and phylogenetic relationships remain unclear due to the fact that most of them are described on the basis of scanty material. European species are divided into two groups or lineages. The first includes L. stenometopon, L. merlai, and the poorly known L. furtivus, the second L. etruscus and L. vallisarni. While the last two species are well documented in the Italian earl…
Habitat-related nest predation effect on the breeding success of the Eurasian treecreeper
2003
We studied the impact of habitat structure on the long-term breeding success of an old-growth forest passerine the Eurasian treecreeper (Certhia familiaris) assessed over a period of 7 years in the...