The increasing proportion of the landscape used by humans has led, and is still leading, to the conversion of the original habitat into numerous small patches, often separated by a matrix of inhospitable land-uses. This habitat fragmentation is a major threat to biological diversity and is considered to be the primary cause of the present species extinction crisis (Aurambout et al. 2005). Survival in fragments is related to both intrinsic factors, such as abundance and sex ratio, and extrinsic factors related to patch quality (Ramanamanjato & Ganzhorn 2001, Rovero & Struhsaker 2007). At first, the fragmentation process can randomly distribute animals among forest patches and across fragmented habitat and surrounding matrix (Marsh 2003, Tischendorf et al. 2005). Local populations can survive only if the colonized forest remnants are adequate and/or dispersal is possible (Marsh 2003). Subsequently, a non-random distribution can result from local populations either remaining connected but distinct (metapopulation) or merging into a single large but patchy population (Harrison & Taylor 1997). Such distribution can be dictated by different aspects of fragment quality, including size and vegetation variables (e.g. tree species diversity, large-tree abundance and food plant availability) (Ramanamanjato & Ganzhorn 2001, Rovero & Struhsaker 2007). The mutual relationship among variables and their linkage to animal abundance have proven difficult to disentangle and mammals largely diverge in their response to different fragment quality aspects (Irwin 2008, Ramanamanjato & Ganzhorn 2001, Rovero & Struhsaker 2007).

The family Dipterocarpaceae includes 470 tree species from 13 genera in South and South-East Asian tropical forests (Ashton 1982). Many dipterocarp species in aseasonal lowland rain forests of western Malesia flower synchronously during masting (or general flowering) events, which usually occur at irregular intervals of 2–10 y (Ashton et al. 1988). Very few individuals flower at other times, and successful recruitment of seedlings is limited to those masting events (Ashton et al. 1988, Curran et al. 1999).

Secondary forests occupy a growing portion of the tropical landscape mosaic due to regeneration on abandoned pastures and other disturbed sites (Asner et al. 2009). Tropical secondary forests and degraded old-growth forests now account for more than half of the world's tropical forests (Chazdon 2003), and provide critical ecosystem services (Brown & Lugo 1990, Guariguata & Ostertag 2001).

In South America, the invasive feral pig (Sus scrofa Linnaeus) has become established in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and in a wide range within Brazil, along the southern half of the Atlantic Forest, in the cerrado (savanna) and in the Pantanal wetland. The geographical ranges of the two most common South American native peccary (Tayassu pecari Link and Pecari tajacu Linnaeus) overlap almost entirely, and the feral pig now co-occurs with them in several areas. Because feral pig, white-lipped and collared peccary are considered ecological equivalents, there has been much speculation about possible competitive interactions among them (Desbiez et al. 2009, Sicuro & Oliveira 2002).

Cyclones have been suggested to play a major role in the evolutionary history of the flora and fauna of Madagascar (Wright 1999). In spite of the proposed significance of cyclonic activity, very little is known about the specific effects of cyclones on Malagasy ecosystems (Birkinshaw & Randrianjanahary 2007). Understanding the effects of these severe natural disturbances requires comparing data collected both before and after the event. Because cyclones are stochastic, researching the influence of cyclones on Madagascar's biodiversity is difficult and opportunities to study their impact on forests are rare. Nevertheless, studies of the impact of cyclones on Malagasy biota are imperative because models of global climate patterns predict that large-scale tropical disturbances will increase in frequency and intensity in the future (Metcalfe et al. 2008).

Orang-utans (Pongo spp.) are primarily frugivorous (Morrogh-Bernard et al. 2009) and are often regarded as important seed dispersers (Corlett 1998). In Tanjung Puting, Borneo, Galdikas (1982) found intact seeds in 94% of faecal samples, with a median 111 seeds per defecation; and in Ketambe, Sumatra, Rijksen (1978) found seeds in 44% of faecal samples. Furthermore, orang-utans have large day ranges (e.g. mean = 968 m, range = 280–2834 m across adults in Sabangau; Harrison 2009) and slow passage rates of digesta through the gut (Caton et al. 1999), and, hence, may disperse seeds far from parent trees. Many seeds are also spat out or discarded at distances up to 75 m from parent trees (Galdikas 1982).

The size distribution of a tree species gives important information about its regeneration strategy. For example, a tree species that regenerates primarily by sprouting will, in theory, have fewer seedlings than species that regenerate from seedlings, which generally form an L-shaped population size structure because of trade-offs in resource allocation between vegetative sprouting and sexual reproduction (Bellingham & Sparrow 2000, Loehle 2000). The results of some field studies suggest that the number of seedlings decreases with increasing dominance of multi-stemmed sprouters (Kruger et al. 1997, Zimmerman et al. 1994). In their study of four co-occurring species of Castanopsis (Fagaceae), Nanami et al. (2004) showed that species with a high frequency of sprouting adults had fewer juveniles and vice versa. This suggested that these species were able to co-exist as a result of trade-offs between investment in seedlings and sprouting. In this study, we investigated the sprouting trait of 17 co-occurring Fagaceae species in a Sumatran hill forest. The forest stand at this site shows a varied population structure across species, and hence, should have a varied life history. We tested the correlation between population skewness and proportion of sprouting trees, following the methods of Nanami et al. (2004). We hypothesized that the species that frequently form multi-stemmed sprouts will show a lower turnover of individuals because multi-stemmed architecture favours persistence (Bellingham & Sparrow 2009).

Discontinuity between suitable aquatic and terrestrial habitats forces many amphibian species with aquatic larvae to undertake risky breeding migrations through disturbed environments, potentially contributing to population declines by reducing survival of adults and juveniles (Becker et al. 2007). The north-western region of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, is characterized by fragments of mesophytic semideciduous forest and savanna, surrounded by a matrix of pasture, plantations and urban areas with only 4% of the remaining original vegetation of the state (Ribeiro et al. 2009). Currently, 36 anuran species have been recorded in this region, corresponding to almost 15% of the state's species (Araújo et al. 2009). The anuran species of this region are associated with open environments or are widely distributed in the different Brazilian biomes (Duellman 1999). Silva & Rossa-Feres (2007) showed the importance of forest fragments in this region for 12 anuran species that breed in pools located in a pasture matrix.

The difficulty of observing interactions between predators and their prey in natural systems has promoted the use of artificial replicas (Exnerová et al. 2006, Smith 1977). Plasticine replicas have been successfully used because they retain imprints of predation attempts and enable the identification of the predator (Brodie 1993).

Dung beetles are a well-defined guild within the family Scarabaeidae, with distinctive morphological, ecological and behavioural characteristics (Halffter & Matthews 1966). Although this group has been extensively studied (Hanski & Cambefort 1991) due in part to the important role they fulfil in ecosystems (Nichols et al. 2008), little information exists regarding population size and the scale of their dispersal abilities, especially in the Neotropical region. Moreover, few studies have been devoted to exploring the population dynamics of dung beetles (Roslin 1999, 2000).

The wind dispersal of a plant propagule is likely to be improved by any structure that increases air resistance, e.g. the pappus of the achene of Asteraceae, the wings of Acer or dipterocarp fruits, or the plumose seed appendage which is characteristic of species of the subfamily Tillandsioideae in the Bromeliaceae. Not surprisingly then, promotion of airworthiness is usually assumed to be the primary function of this so-called ‘coma’ found in epiphytic Werauhia, Tillandsia, Guzmania or Catopsis species (Benzing 1980, 2000). However, the diverse structure of coma hairs with bifurcate cross-walls or hooks also assists in sticking to rough surfaces, such as tree bark and rocks, which indicates another important function: keeping seeds in place until germination and the development of roots (Benzing 2000, Palací et al. 2004). Multiple rather than singular functions of seed plumes or pappi have also been shown for soil-rooted plants in other plant families, where these structures are not only highly efficient for wind dispersal, but also for attachment to animal fur (Couvreur et al. 2004).

Soil and adjacent leaf-litter environments support a diverse decomposer fauna. This has led to what is known as ‘the enigma of the soil fauna’, or the question of how it is possible for such large numbers of species to coexist without obvious biotic mechanisms, such as competitive exclusion, limiting coexistence (Anderson 1975). Dietary specialization or effective partitioning of food resources could be a mechanism to avoid niche overlap among sympatric soil/litter species (Chahartaghi et al. 2005, Jennings & Barkham 1975). However, unravelling the complexities of trophic relationships can be difficult, especially in soil/leaf-litter habitats where both consumers and prey are small, diverse and often unidentifiable (Scheu & Falca 2000). As such, the trophic relationships among species in these habitats typically remain unresolved.