Birds are one of the most diverse groups of ecosystem service providers, whose ecological
functions range from creating soil to sha** primate behavior, Nevertheless, the impression …

Agroecosystems cover more than one quarter of the global land area (ca. 50 million km2) as
highly simplified (eg pasturelands) or more complex systems (eg polycultures and …

Amphibians and reptiles (herps) are the most abundant and diverse vertebrate taxa in
tropical ecosystems. Nevertheless, little is known about their role in maintaining and …

This chapter summarizes research on seed dispersal vectors (water, wind and animals), and
the factors (including seed size and chemical composition, and plant habit) that determine …

▪ Abstract Vertebrate dispersal of fruits and seeds is a common feature of many modern
angiosperms and gymnosperms, yet the evolution and frequency of this feature in the fossil …

Although spatial patterns of seed distribution are thought to vary greatly among plant
species dispersed by different vectors, few studies have directly examined this assumption …

Scale-free foraging patterns are widespread among animals. These may be the outcome of
an optimal searching strategy to find scarce, randomly distributed resources, but a less …

Aim Functional relationships between species groups on macroecological scales have often
been inferred from comparisons of species numbers across space. On large spatial scales …

Generalized hypotheses for the vicariant, Gondwanan origin of pantropically distributed
eudicotyledon families must be refined to accommodate recently revised dates that indicate …

Detailed knowledge of a species' functional niche is crucial for the study of ecological
communities and processes. The extent of niche overlap, functional redundancy and …