Associations with topographic units or soil types that vary in water availability are widespread in plant communities and are one of the main structuring aspects for local species distribution patterns, yet the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We hypothesized that differential seedling performance across habitats, particularly during the dry season, leads to habitat associations in ...

Metrics used to quantify the condition or physiological states of individuals provide proactive mechanisms for understanding population dynamics in the context of environmental factors. Our study examined how anthropogenic disturbance, habitat characteristics and hair cortisol concentrations interpreted as a sex-specific indicator of potential habitat net-energy demand affect the body condition...

Hawaii has no native pines, but many species have been introduced as ornamental or potential timber trees. These species have been planted in environments that differ greatly from their natural habitat. This paper describes how the coordinated seasonal cycle of growth and flowering has been influenced by the climatic conditions these pines have encountered in Hawaii. Hawaii has no native pines,...

Background Space use by animals is determined by the interplay between movement and the environment, and is thus mediated by habitat selection, biotic interactions and intrinsic factors of moving individuals. These processes ultimately determine home range size, but their relative contributions and dynamic nature remain less explored. We investigated the role of habitat selection, movement unre...

Animals can require different habitat types throughout their annual cycles. When considering habitat prioritization, we need to explicitly consider habitat requirements throughout the annual cycle, particularly for species of conservation concern. Understanding annual habitat requirements begins with quantifying how far individuals move across landscapes between key life stages to access requir...

Habitat use has important consequences for avian reproductive success and survival. In coastal areas with recreational activity, human disturbance may limit use of otherwise suitable habitat. Snowy plovers Charadrius nivosus have a patchy breeding distribution along the coastal areas on the Florida Panhandle, USA. Our goal was to determine the relative effects of seasonal human disturbance and ...

Most animals live in seasonal environments and experience very different conditions throughout the year. Behavioral strategies like migration, hibernation, and a life cycle adapted to the local seasonality help to cope with fluctuations in environmental conditions. Thus, how an individual utilizes the environment depends both on the current availability of habitat and the behavioral prerequisit...

Relationships between species and their habitats are not always constant. Different processes may determine changes in species-habitat association: individuals may prefer different habitat typologies in different periods, or they may be forced to occupy a different habitat in order to follow the changing environment. The aim of our study was to assess whether cave salamanders change their habit...

We examined the influence of land use/land cover (LULC) on macroinvertebrate assemblages and environmental conditions in streams draining 18 small watersheds in the Southern Outer Piedmont ecoregion in Georgia, USA, over a 24-mo period of record. Specifically, we analyzed relationships among LULC categories (i.e., % impervious surface [IS], pasture, silviculture, and deciduous/evergreen forest)...