Abstract Planted monocultures of even-aged coniferous tree species are abundant worldwide but increasingly damaged by biotic and abiotic stressors disturbances. In Central Europe, a fundamental goal ecologically oriented forest management is thus the conversion pure often stands into structurally more diverse mixed broad-leaved forests. This achieved single-tree selection resulting in small can...

This study investigated the effects of microhabitat characteristics on soil seed bank structure, regeneration strategies, and plant composition in a Mediterranean coastal sand dune in Israel. Three different microhabitats were selected: (a) open patches between shrubs, (b) shrub understorey, and (c) open, disturbed patches in pedestrian trails. In each microhabitat two types of sampling plots w...

The Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world. This impacts Arctic species both directly, through increased temperatures, and indirectly, through structural changes in their habitats. Species are expected to exhibit idiosyncratic responses to structural change, which calls for detailed investigations at the species and community level. Here, we investigate how arthropod assem...

We report on the habitat associations of 21 species of grassland birds overwintering in or migrating through southern Texas, during 1991-1992 and 1992-1993. Ninety percent of our grassland bird observations were made during winter and spring, and only 10% occurred during fall. Grassland species made up a high proportion of the total bird densities in grassland and shrub-grassland habitats, but ...

Light is a key resource for plant growth and is of particular importance in forest ecosystems, because of the strong vertical structure leading to successive light interception from canopy to forest floor. Tree species differ in the quantity and heterogeneity of light they transmit. We expect decreases in both the quantity and spatial heterogeneity of light transmittance in mixed stands relativ...

We modeled changes in area of five habitats, tidal-freshwater forest, salt marsh, maritime shrub-scrub (shrub), maritime broadleaf forest (oak) and maritime narrowleaf (pine) forest, in coastal Georgia, USA, to evaluate how simultaneous habitat loss due to predicted changes in sea level rise (SLR) and urban development will affect priority bird species of the south Atlantic coastal plain by 210...

Species diversity, richness and biomasses (aboveground biomass) and their relationships are the key variables of ecosystems. This study was conducted to determine the relationship of Species Diversity (SD) and Species Richness (SR) with Above-Ground Biomass (AGB) at a local scale at 5 different habitats (shrubland, forbland, grassland, shrub-forbland and forb-shrubland) in Zagros mountains in w...

Within-stand variation in understory species composition and biomass was studied in 16 even-aged stands of mixed Red Alder Sitka Spruce Western Hemlock (Alnus rubra Picea sitchensis Tsuga heterophylla) forest. The sites were upland sites, and the stands were 28-39 years old. We compared understory within three categories of microsite types: Red Alder-dominated, conifer-dominated, and mixed alde...