Habitat loss and fragmentation represent the most serious extinction threats for many species and have been demonstrated to be especially detrimental for mammals. Particularly, highly specialized species with low dispersal abilities will encounter a high risk of extinction in fragmented landscapes. Here we studied the edible dormouse (Glis glis), a small arboreal mammal that is distributed thro...

The effect of nine different pesticides on the growth of yeasts isolated from the leaves of fruit and forest trees was investigated. Four insecticides (with the active ingredients: thiacloprid, deltamethrin, lambdacyhalothrin, and thiamethoxam) and five fungicides (with the effective substances: bitertanol, kresoxim-methyl, mancozeb, trifloxystrobin, and cupric oxychloride) were tested. The con...

Forest fragmentation, the process of changing original large and intact forest patches into smaller and isolated areas, significantly influences the balance of surface physical environment, biodiversity, and species richness. Sufficient knowledge of forest fragmentation is necessary to maintain ecological balance and promote sustainable resource utilization. This study combines remote sensing, ...

Corridors that connect otherwise isolated habitats have often been proposed as a management strategy to mitigate negative effects of habitat fragmentation. Non-crop corridors may have the potential to enhance the connectivity for arthropod predators in cropland landscapes, especially for species that require multiple habitats, such as cavity-nesting wasps which use wooded habitat for nesting an...

This paper examines the factors that influence rural household decisions to clear forestland. We use a large dataset com prising 7172 households from 24 developing countries. Twenty seven percent of sampled households had converted forest to agriculture during the previous 12 months, clearing on average 1.21 ha. Male headed households with abundance of male labor, living in recently settled pla...

Where tropical forests have been cleared and abandoned, forest regrowth is often slow. Because of the increasing extent of such degraded lands and desire for these areas to fulfill conservation and ecosystem functions, it has become important to assess mechanisms that accelerate reforestation. In situations where site conditions limit tree establishment, one option to facilitate reforestation i...

The cutaneous microbiota of amphibians can be defined as a biological component of protection, since it can be composed of bacteria that produce antimicrobial compounds. Several factors influence skin microbial structure and it is possible that environmental variations are among one of these factors, perhaps through physical-chemical variations in the skin. This community, therefore, is likely ...