When threatened with predation, foraging prey can cease feeding and seek refuge or shift to feeding sites (microhabitats) offering increased safety. Predator-induced microhabitat shifts by large herbivores are of interest to ecologists because spatial patterns of foraging by these animals shape plant communities. The influence of predation risk on microhabitat use by large herbivores in marine ...

Like most coral reef organisms, crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster spp.) are expected to be highly vulnerable to predation as they transition from a planktonic larval phase to settling among reef habitats. Accordingly, crown-of-thorns starfish might be expected to exhibit behavioural adaptations which moderate exposure to predation at this critical stage in their life history. Using pairwise...

A major goal of ecology and evolutionary biology is to explain patterns of species richness among clades. Differences in rates of net diversification (speciation minus extinction over time) may often explain these patterns, but the factors that drive variation in diversification rates remain uncertain. Three important candidates are climatic niche position (e.g., whether clades are primarily te...

Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and rosyside dace (Clinostomusfitnduloides) exhibit substantial overlap in microhabitat use in Coweeta Creek, North Carolina, USA. We conducted a replicated experiment in an artificial stream to assess the effects of both the presence of rainbow trout and dace density on: 1) microhabitat use, 2 ) agonistic behavior, 3) social behavior and 4) feeding rates of ...

Sarcophagid species inhabiting different locations in a rural-urban gradient were surveyed in the east central Argentine district of the Almirante Brown, Buenos Aires province. The main objectives of this research were to identify the most prevalent sarcophagid species and to describe community richness and diversity according to the degree of urbanization and the environmental variables measur...

The Santa Monica Mountains, adjacent to the Pacific Ocean just west of Los Angeles, California, have low elevation, high relief and a Mediterranean climate. To date 122 species of bryophytes have been found, especially in the moist drainages. Species that were common (about half of the 122) were compared in terms of microhabitat variables (substrate softness, moisture, slope and shadiness) and ...

Citation: Adam E, Groenenboom AE, Kurm V, Rajewska M, Schmidt R, Tyc O, Weidner S, Berg G, de Boer W and Falcão Salles J (2016) Controlling the Microbiome: Microhabitat Adjustments for Successful Biocontrol Strategies in Soil and Human Gut. Front. Microbiol. 7:1079. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.01079 Controlling the Microbiome: Microhabitat Adjustments for Successful Biocontrol Strategies in Soil an...

Maternal preferences for oviposition sites are assumed to be adaptive, but offspring fitness is not always higher at preferred sites and, thus, further study of the selection pressures that influence oviposition behavior is warranted. Among birds, predation is regarded as the primary agent of selection on nest-site microhabitat preferences, but alternatives are rarely considered. We tested the ...

We describe a new species of terrestrial limestone forest frog of the genus Platymantis from Biak Na Bato National Park in central Luzon Island, Philippines. Platymantis biak is assigned to the primarily arboreal Platymantis guentheri Species Group, and is distinguished from these and other congeners by features of its external morphology and preferred terrestrial limestone microhabitat. Severa...

Saprophagous macroarthropods are important actors in litter decomposition as they process large amounts of and transform it into fecal pellets that differ chemical physical properties compared to ingested litter. When having a choice among several types, saprophagous exhibit feeding preferences depending on their nutritional requirements body size. However, how these affect feces is not well kn...