Populations of large herbivores, including members the deer family Cervidae, are expanding across and within many regions northern hemisphere. Because their browsing on trees can result in economic losses to forestry strongly affect ecosystems, it is becoming increasingly important understand how best mitigate resultant damage. Previous research has highlighted importance regulating density ava...

Ungulate herbivores play a prominent role in maintaining the tree-grass balance in African savannas. Their top-down role through selective feeding on either trees or grasses is well studied, but their bottom-up role through deposition of nutrients in dung and urine has been overlooked. Here, we propose a novel concept of savanna ecosystem functioning in which the balance between trees and grass...

Biological soil crusts are diverse assemblages of bacteria, cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, lichens, and mosses that cover much of arid land soils. The objective of this study was to quantify protozoa associated with biological soil crusts and test the response of protozoa to increased temperature and precipitation as is predicted by some global climate models. Protozoa were more abundant when ass...

This study uses data from repeatedly measured forest monitoring plots (20 × 20 m) (n = 32) and nine ungulate exclosures (paired fenced and unfenced plots; 20 × 20 m) to show the effects of introduced ungulates on tree regeneration in Pureora Forest Park, central North Island, between 1974 and 2002. Results show that introduced ungulates, particularly red deer (Cervus elaphus scoticus), have sup...

Wild ungulates are a major consumer of agricultural crops in human dominated landscapes. Across Europe, ungulate populations leading to intensified human-wildlife conflicts. At the same time, play vital role structuring and functioning ecosystems, highly appreciated for recreational hunting. Thus, managers often face challenge maintaining benefits having thriving while simultaneously minimizing...

storage and circadian rhythms. Memory and learning have been studied in squirrels that cache their food, sometimes not returning until the next year. Singing mice provide a new model for studying speech and learning. Studies of wild rodents will undoubtedly give us a window into the genetics underlying phenotypic variation, further promoted by genome sequencing projects that extend beyond the u...

Late Quaternary histories of two North American desert biomesC4 grasslands and C3 shrublandsare poorly known despite their sensitivity and potential value in reconstructing summer rains and winter temperatures. Plant macrofossil assemblages from packrat midden series in the northern Chihuahuan Desert show that C4 grasses and annuals typical of desert grassland persisted near their present north...

To test the hypothesis that desert ungulates adjust their physiology in response to long-term food and water restriction, we established three groups of sand gazelles (Gazella subgutturosa): one that was provided food and water (n = 6; CTRL) ad lib. for 4 mo, one that received ad lib. food and water for the same period but was deprived of food and water for the last 4.5 d (n = 6; EXPT(1)), and ...