The taxonomy of oaks (Quercus) is always a challenge because many species exhibit variable phenotypes that overlap with other species. The scrub White Oaks of California are no exception. In California, Quercus section Quercus (i.e., White Oaks) includes six species of scrub oaks plus four tree oak species. Field identification utilizes leaf traits and acorns, when available, as well as geograp...

The use of statistical tools to assess species richness in different biological groups has increased considerably in the recent years. In this context, during the wet and dry seasons of 2007 and 2008 (dry only), we evaluated the amphibian species richness (alpha and beta diversity) in four vegetation types: cloud forest (CF), pine-oak forest (POF), xeric scrub (XS), and tropical evergreen fores...

We use population viability analysis of an endangered Florida scrub mint, Dicerandra frutescens, to specify the optimal fire return intervals for its long-term persistence and for its specific habitat. We derived 83 population projection matrices from 13 years of demographic data from eight populations, 59 matrices from scrub populations and 24 from firelane or yard edges. Seed dormancy and ger...

Scrub cache perishable and non-perishable foods, and their caches may be pilfered by conspecifics. Caching and recovery by scrub-jays is psychologically rational in the sense that these behaviours responded appropriately to conditions that should have changed the birds’ beliefs and desires. For example, scrub-jays were allowed to cache worms and peanuts in a visuo-spatially distinct tray. At re...

Many island communities exhibit a highly nonrandom pattern of species composition in which smaller biotas contain successive subsets of the species in richer ones. Here, we examine the composition of continental communities to see whether this 'nested subset' pattern holds and, if so, to determine its spatial scale and environmental correlates. Granivorous rodent assemblages at 202 sites in Gre...

In the dunes of the Pouto Peninsula, north Kaipara, Northland, re-mobilised sand is invading remnants of native forest and scrub, and filling dune lakes and swamps. Some of the affected native vegetation is botanically important as remnants of regionally and even nationally rare plant communities and as the habitats of threatened plant species. The wetlands are important waterbird habitats. At ...

Teamwork is important in the operating room. Team members rely on each other’s expertise for successful task completion. Because of lunch and change of shift breaks, handoffs occur frequently, but little is known about their effect on team performance, or the team’s awareness of these changes. We performed a 360 degree evaluation of the effect of operating room handoffs on teamwork, stress, and...