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Given their ability to provide food, raw material and alleviate poverty, oil palm (OP) plantations are driving significant losses of biodiversity-rich tropical forests, fuelling a heated debate on ecosystem degradation and conservation. However, while OP-i ...
Spatial patterns are deeply linked to ecological processes and this relationship lies at the core of landscape ecology. In turn, landscape patterns are influenced by physical, biological and anthropogenic factors. The aim of this study was to explore how s ...
Near natural floodplain ecosystems are not only stressed by frequent inundations over a year but also by periodical droughts in summer due to their reduced water retention capacity. To maintain floodplain habitats as biodiversity hotspots, a stable soil st ...
Understanding how land-use changes affect different facets of plant biodiversity in seminatural European grasslands is of particular importance for biodiversity conservation. As conclusions of previous experimental or synchronic observational studies did n ...
The pasture-woodlands of Central Europe are low-intensity grazing systems in which the structural richness of dynamic forest-grassland mosaics is causal for their high biodiversity. Distinct mosaic patterns in Picea abies- and Fagus sylvatica-dominated pas ...
Diatoms are diverse and widespread freshwater Eukaryotes that make excellent microbial subjects for addressing questions in metacommunity ecology. In the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, the simple trophic structure of glacier-fed streams provides an ide ...
Recently several initiatives on the political and practical level have aimed at promoting forest biodiversity and at halting the loss of species in forest ecosystems. Nevertheless numerous species are still threatened. The main reason for this phenomenon i ...
Taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversities can respond differently to biotic and abiotic filters. However, biodiversity management tends to focus on a single index, generally taxonomic diversity, assuming a strong positive correlation among biodive ...
Slash-and-burn agriculture is considered as an important driver of deforestation in the tropics. In Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot, this type of agriculture particularly threatens the tropical forest cover. On the south-western coast of the island, in ...
Tropical forests are major repositories of biodiversity, but are fast disappearing as land is converted to agriculture. Decision-makers need to know which of the remaining forests to prioritize for conservation, but the only spatial information on forest b ...