BACKGROUND The Western Ghats of India are known to be a major biological hotspot that supports plant diversity and endemism. On the Kas Plateau, a lateritic plateau of the northern Western Ghats, we examined mesoscale distributions of endemic, rare, or locally significant plant species in forest habitats or on the plateau and its escarpments, and assessed the edaphic and hydrological parameters...

Ectotherms can attain preferred body temperatures by selecting specific temperature microhabitats within a varied thermal environment. The side-blotched lizard, Uta stansburiana may employ microhabitat selection to thermoregulate behaviorally. It is unknown to what degree habitat structural complexity provides thermal microhabitats for thermoregulation. Thermal microhabitat structure, lizard te...

Terrestrial snails choose their microhabitat according to a number of environmental factors. We evaluated the effect of light intensity and substratum complexity on microhabitat preference of the terrestrial snail Helix aspersa using a multi-factorial design. The snails were offered two levels of light intensity and two types of structural complexity, hence 16 treatments in total were used: 12 ...

The assimilation (uptake or immobilization) of inorganic nitrogen (N) and the production of ammonium (NH(4)(+)) from organic N compounds are universal functions of microorganisms, and the balance between these two processes is tightly regulated by the relative demands of microbes for N and carbon (C). In a heterogeneous environment, such as soils, bulk measurements of N mineralization or immobi...

Global climate change is expected to severely impact Arctic ecosystems, yet predictions of impacts are complicated by region-specific patterns and nonuniform trends. Twentyfour open-water overwintering areas (or "microhabitats") were identified to be of particular importance for eight seabird and marine mammal species in the eastern Canadian High Arctic and Baffin Bay. Localized trends in the a...

Hosts and parasites form interacting populations that influence each other in multiple ways. Their dynamics can also be influenced by environmental and ecological factors. We studied host-parasite dynamics in a previously unexplored study system: side-blotched lizards and their micro-parasites. Compared with uninfected lizards, the infected lizards elected to bask at lower temperatures that wer...

For parasites, finding their hosts in vast and heterogeneous environments is a task that can be complex. Some parasite species rely on elaborate strategies to increase encounter rate with (e.g. behavioural modification of host), but others do not. these key issue reveal the processes enable them successfully find complete life cycles. Here, we tested hypothesis infective larvae freshwater ectop...

Abstract Intertidal rock pools support diverse assemblages. While there is much research on the importance of in supporting mobile diversity rocky shores, limited knowledge regarding role physical features (microhabitats) within these habitats. Understanding that crucial to conserve and potentially mimic important intertidal habitats restoration projects. Here, we classified quantified types fe...

Estuarine ecosystems interconnect freshwater and marine environments, comprise multiple highly dynamic complex microhabitats. The resident microbiota in estuary is influenced by contrasting microenvironmental heterogeneity. However, the bacterial patterns assembly processes different microhabitats of estuarine ecosystem are not well studied. Here, we investigated diversity, functions community ...

The objective of this study is to determine microhabitat preferences benthic species occurring in epilithic (living on stones), epipsammic (growing sand), epipelic mud) and epiphytic seagrass) assemblages the shallows Gulf Gdańsk (southern Baltic Sea). material was collected from 19 sites along Gdynia–Sopot coastal zone, including Port Gdynia. Most identified diatom taxa were observed two or th...