Understanding the response of species with differing life-history traits to habitat edges and habitat conversion helps predict their likelihood of persistence across changing landscape. In Brazil's Atlantic Forest, we evaluated frog richness and abundance by breeding guild at four distances from the edge of a reserve: i) 200 m inside the forest, ii) 50 m inside the forest, iii) at the forest ed...

We investigated the influence of Pinus afforestation on the structure of leaf-litter ant communities in the southeastern Brazilian Atlantic Forest, studying an old secondary forest and a nearly 30 year-old never managed Pinus elliottii reforested area. A total of 12,826 individual ants distributed among 95 species and 32 genera were obtained from 50 1 m(2) samples/ habitat. Of these, 60 species...

The effects of radioactive contamination on ecosystem processes such as litter decomposition remain largely unknown. Because radionuclides accumulated in soil and plant biomass can be harmful for organisms, the functioning of ecosystems may be altered by radioactive contamination. Here, we tested the hypothesis that decomposition is impaired by increasing levels of radioactivity in the environm...

Exotic plants and river regulation have changed riparian ecosystems throughout the south-western U.S. We compared litter dynamics at sites dominated by native cottonwoods or exotic saltcedar in the Middle Rio Grande Valley of central New Mexico. Litter production was greater at cottonwood sites and may have increased after experimental flooding in cottonwood but not in saltcedar. Decomposition ...

Honeydew production by New Zealand beech scale insects (Ultracoelostoma spp., Hemiptera: Margarodidae) is widely considered to have a positive influence on native animal abundance and ecosystem functioning. As a first assessment of whether there is a positive relationship between honeydew throughfall and litter decomposition rates, we placed experimental litter bags in each of 10 high and 10 lo...

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant caused serious radiocesium ((137)Cs) contamination of forest ecosystems located in mountainous and hilly regions with steep terrain. To understand topographic effects on the redistribution and accumulation of (137)Cs on forest floor, we investigated the distribution of Fukushima-derived (137)Cs in forest-floor litter layers on a steep hi...

Understanding the response of species with differing life-history traits to habitat edges and habitat conversion helps predict their likelihood of persistence across changing landscape. In Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, we evaluated frog richness and abundance by breeding guild at four distances from the edge of a reserve: i) 200 m inside the forest, ii) 50 m inside the forest, iii) at the forest ed...

Habitat degradation alters the dynamics and composition of anuran assemblages in tropical forests. The effects of forest fragmentation on the composition of anuran assemblages are so far poorly known. We studied the joint influence of forest fragmentation and degradation on leaf-litter frogs. We specifically asked whether the processes structuring leaf-litter anuran assemblages in fragmented fo...

In many areas, chemical and biological characteristics of soils change when trees colonize meadows. To determine if the invasion of high meadows by forests in the central Cascade Mountains of Oregon altered soil properties, we measured soil properties along transects from mountain meadows through transition zones, where trees were becoming established, into mature forest. The differences observ...

1. This study examines limitation of nesting resources for leaf-litter and twig-nesting ants as a mechanism of diversity loss across an intensification gradient of coffee production in Colombia. Twelve farms were selected and classified into four management types: forest, polygeneric shade coffee, monogeneric shade coffee, and sun coffee (unshaded coffee monocultures). 2. At each of the farms, ...