The importance of wild insects as pollinators of tropical tree crops has rarely been tested. Across 18 small-scale lychee orchards in northern Thailand, we evaluated the roles of different wild insects as pollinators and predators of pests in fruit production. Quantitative assessments showed that bees (Family Apidae) were strongly dominant (83%) among insect flower visitors, comprising four species in tribes Apini and four in Meliponini. Experimental manipulations of inflorescences showed that fruit production in these orchards was: (1) dependent on flower visits by wild insects because enclosure of inflorescences in mesh bags decreased fruit set (to one-fifth) and (2) not greatly limited by pollinator deficiencies, because hand pollination of unbagged flowers did not enhance fruit set. Pollination success, as indicated by the proportion of unmanipulated flowers setting fruit, correlated positively across orchards with the abundance of large-bodied Apidae (>7 mm; most were Apis species) and of Apini, and negatively with abundance of small-bodied Apidae and of all Meliponini, despite the latter being the commonest flower visitors. We conclude that larger-bodied bees are most likely to travel sufficiently far to import genetically diverse pollen, in this landscape-scale mosaic where non-orchard habitats (both agriculture and treed patches) were sufficient to sustain wild pollinators.

For decades, tropical ecologists distinguished primary (PH) and secondary hemiepiphytes (SH) as two structurally dependent life forms with an epiphytic phase at, respectively, the beginning or the end of their ontogeny. However, the use of these terms has been criticized repeatedly because the term “hemiepiphyte” suggests an unsubstantiated biological similarity in ontogeny, and worse, because it is often used without a qualifier, which makes unambiguous interpretation of the life history of such species impossible. In this paper, we go one step further and ask the question whether an ontogenetic trajectory as described by the term “secondary hemiepiphyte” does exist at all. We show that until now all evidence available for the three families that were traditionally listed as taxa with SHs (Araceae, Cyclanthaceae, Marcgraviaceae) falsifies such claims, but critically discuss reports of possible SHs in other families. In all these cases unambiguous conclusions about the existence of any SH are difficult, but our detailed discussion of potential candidates is meant to provide the basis for focused field studies. Irrespective of the outcome of these studies, we urge researchers to abandon the use of the term SH for the time being: Terminological issues can be discussed once there are data.

Disturbances are critical for maintaining environmental heterogeneity and biodiversity across landscapes. Hurricanes represent a common disturbance in the Caribbean Sea. These storms are predicted to become more frequent and severe as climate shifts. Understanding how island communities respond to disturbances is critical to their conservation. We surveyed Virgin Islands National Park located on the island of St. John in the Caribbean Sea in 2016 and 2018 to evaluate prolonged herpetofauna community response and resistance to hurricanes. These surveys occurred in March 2016, and June 2018, before and after the 2017 hurricane season, when hurricanes Irma and Maria struck St. John. Using visual encounter surveys, vocalisation surveys, and opportunistic encounters, we surveyed trails within the park through five landscape cover types pre- and post-hurricane. We used linear regression to determine differences in diversity and species richness among landscape cover types and between pre- and post-hurricane surveys and non-metric multidimensional scaling to observe associations among species and landscape cover types pre- and post-hurricane surveys. We determined that there were no significant changes in landscape cover and herpetofauna community associations before and after the 2017 hurricane season, indicating that the herpetofauna communities of Virgin Islands National Park are well adapted to hurricane-related disturbance.

Sacred groves (SGs) of India are islets of forests providing ecosystem and spiritual services to man. Studies suggest that SGs are deteriorating on their quality due to urbanization, invasive species, land-use change, and religious modernization. We explored diversity, community, and abundance of overall and different functional groups of litter ants, including Anoplolepis gracilipes – an invasive ant – on paired SG-neighbouring home garden (HG) sites in rural and urban landscape to (a) assess the quality of SGs and (b) examine whether the variation in ant community of the two habitats was predicted by urbanization and abundance of A. gracilipes. We considered species and local contribution to β-diversity to identify species and sites crucial for conservation of sites. Abundance and richness of overall ants, proportional trap incidence of species, and abundance of A. gracilipes were similar on SG and HG, but species diversity and abundance of certain ant functional groups were higher on SG. Ant community of SG was different from HG, but was not affected by urbanization. A. gracilipes and rural SGs contributed the most to β diversity. A. gracilipes gave little pressure on native ant community. The study concludes that SGs, despite invaded by A. gracilipes, have potential for conserving biodiversity.

Woody plant resprouting has received considerable attention in the last two decades as human disturbances continue to encroach on terrestrial ecosystems globally. We examined the regeneration mechanisms of a Caatinga dry forest in the context of slash-and-burn agriculture and resprouting ability of the local flora. We excavated two old fields (from 32) experiencing early forest regeneration dominated by the tree Pityrocarpa moniliformis (Fabaceae) to map clonal propagation and, in parallel, submitted 260 seedlings from 13 woody plant species to experimental clipping. What seemed to be ‘seedlings’ popping up around P. moniliformis stumps and remaining adults actually were condensed sets of root suckers connected via complex networks of long, ramified shallow horizontal roots without taproots. We mapped respectively 39 and 783 connected root suckers, which summed 96 m and 910 m in root length. Regarding the seedlings, 33% resprouted across nine species with resprouting rates varying between 5–100%. Seedling height before clipping positively influenced resprouting vigour. Our preliminary results suggest that the Caatinga dry forest supports a relatively high proportion of resprouting species, some of them able to clonally propagate and playing an ecosystem-level role by responding to early forest regeneration and high abundance/biomass across both regenerating and old-growth forests.

The co-occurrence of similar species in a particular environment may be facilitated if they specialise on different microhabitats, reducing competition between them. In some cases, two species prefer the same microhabitat, but one is competitively excluded to its harsh margins. In this study, we assessed microhabitat preferences and competition between two species of millipedes in Costa Rica. (1) We observed them in the wild and found Nyssodesmus python most often on wood, less often on leaves, and rarely on rocks. Spirobolida was found most often on leaves, less often on wood, and never on rocks. (2) We tested their preferences in the lab and found that N. python preferred wood to rocks, wood to leaves, and rocks to leaves. Spirobolida preferred leaves to rocks, leaves to wood, and wood to rocks. (3) We tested interference competition by placing both species together in an arena in which they both had the same preference (wood vs. rocks). Both species chose to cohabitate in the same wood, indicating that one species did not directly exclude the other. In N. python and Spirobolida, co-occurrence is facilitated by differences in microhabitat preferences and not because competition forces one species out of its preferred microhabitat.

The frequency and intensity of harmful algal bloom (HAB) events have been increasing in many places around the world. Heterosigma akashiwo is a marine raphidophyte species known to cause HABs in many places across tropical and temperate climates. Studies of temperate strains have identified that H. akashiwo blooms are driven by mass activation of cysts which, for this species, can only form at <15°C temperatures. Although these temperatures do not occur in the tropics, there have been no comparative studies for tropical H. akashiwo. This study aimed to investigate whether tropical H. akashiwo can form cysts under warm temperatures, therefore having different responses from temperate strains. Results showed that tropical H. akashiwo were similar with temperate strains and could only form round cyst-like structures at 5°C but not 25°C. We also observed novel response of a decline and recovery in cell densities at 25°C. The decline was interrupted when the cultures were diluted, implying a tendency for H. akashiwo to rapidly spread and accumulate within surrounding waters, thereby facilitating blooms. This behaviour presents unique bloom concerns. Close monitoring of H. akashiwo distribution patterns is needed for better assessment of the bloom threat posed within tropical waters.

Threats of forest degradation of the Tano Offin Globally Significant Biodiversity Area present the need to generate eco-information pertinent for its conservational purposes. Ten 50 m × 50 m plots (tree layer) were assessed for plant life forms with diameter ≥ 10 cm. A 10 m × 10 m plot (shrub layer) was located within each of the 50 m × 50 m plots where plant life forms with diameter < 10 cm were assessed. 1 m × 1 m quadrats (herb layer) were laid at the corners of the 50 m × 50 m plots and its centre for canopy closure and natural regeneration assessments. Plant species (240) belonging to 59 families were identified: 171 trees, 41 lianas, 11 shrubs, 7 herbs, 7 herbaceous climbers, 1 epiphyte, 1 grass and 1 fern. Species diversity (H´) of the tree, shrub and herb layers was 2.55, 2.54 and 2.48 respectively. The average maximum tree height was 46.19 m and the basal area was 28.36 m2/ha, which is below the 35 m²/ha conventional basal area value of tropical forests. Celtis mildbraedii and Rinorea welwitschii were the most structurally significant species at the tree and shrub layers, respectively, and a total of 75 tree species were regenerating.

The structure of ecological communities is thought to be mainly driven by competition processes between species. One special case of resource shaping community dynamics is the acoustic space. However, the acoustic communities have been rarely described for tropical birds. Here, we aimed at estimating acoustic competition between the iconic species Pharomachrus mocinno and the other bird species occupying the same habitat. An acoustic survey was conducted in a cloud forest in Guatemala for 17 days in six simultaneous recording sites. All species occurring in the same frequency bandwidth were identified, and the acoustic overlapping between P. mocinno and these species was estimated. Eighteen species were identified as acoustic competitors. Ecological traits and phylogenetic distance were defined for all species. The rate of acoustic competition between P. mocinno and other species was related to different ecological traits and competition for resources. The acoustic overlap was high with species competing for similar food resources and phylogenetically close species and low with predator species and phylogenetically distant species. These unique observations provide new behavioural and ecological information that might be useful for the knowledge of this species and the cloud forest.

Among nectarivorous birds, the highest niche partitioning occurs between hummingbirds and plants. Although hummingbirds tend to visit morphologically well-matched resources, as ornithophilous species, they can also visit flowers with other traits. Here, we investigated whether the niche partitioning in hummingbird-plant interactions is also observed with ornithophilous species only. We also explored if hummingbird traits predicted resources use. We recorded a plant-ornithophilous species network in a semi-deciduous forest in Brazil. We quantified interaction partitioning through network connectance, complementary specialisation, and modularity. The influence of hummingbirds’ traits into their visits was investigated through methods of functional ecology and ecological networks. We recorded 948 interactions between nine hummingbirds and seven ornithophilous plants. We detected similar patterns of niche partitioning between hummingbirds and ornithophilous plants in comparison to networks considering the entire plant community. However, hummingbird species with the most specialised interactions are different from those when the whole system is evaluated. Therefore, we cannot downscale the patterns from one scale to the other. The pattern of interaction with ornithophilous plants was not related to hummingbirds’ traits. Therefore, the coexistence of species with shared traits might be occurring through facilitative and competitive processes, leading to trait mismatching and maintaining niche partitioning among ornithophilous plants.

Bergmann’s rule predicts a larger body size for endothermic organisms in colder environments. The contrasting results from previous studies may be due to the differences in taxonomic (intraspecific, interspecific and community) and spatial (latitudinal vs elevational) scales. We compared Bergmann’s patterns for endotherms (Aves) and ectotherms (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) along the same 2.6 km elevational transect in the eastern Himalayas. Using a large data spanning 3,302 hawkmoths (76 morpho-species) and 15,746 birds (245 species), we compared the patterns at the intraspecific (hawkmoths only), interspecific and community scales. Hawkmoths exhibited a positive Bergmann’s pattern at the intraspecific and abundance-weighted community scale. Contrary to this, birds exhibited a strong converse Bergmann’s pattern at interspecific and community scales, both with and without abundance. Overall, our results indicate that incorporation of information on intraspecific variation and/or species relative abundances influences the results to a large extent. The multiplicity of patterns at a single location provides the opportunity to disentangle the relative contribution of individual- and species-level processes by integrating data across multiple nested taxonomic scales for the same taxa. We suggest that future studies of Bergmann’s patterns should explicitly address taxonomic and spatial scale dependency, with species relative abundance and intraspecific trait variation as essential ingredients especially at short elevational scales.

African monodominant forests are frequently formed by Gilbertiodendron dewevrei (De Wild.) J. Leonard and commonly found close to mixed forests. However, previous studies have ignored differences between these two forest types in height–diameter allometry, which is extremely important for aboveground biomass (AGB) estimates. This study aims to evaluate the performance of height–diameter models and their effects on height attributes and AGB estimations in African monodominant and mixed forests. Four 1-ha plots divided in 16 subplots (0.25 ha) were installed in each forest type in northern Republic of Congo. We measured diameter of all trees ≥ 10 cm diameter for each subplot and we measured the height of 264 trees over a large range of 7–64 m in two forest types. There was a significant difference in height–diameter allometry between two forest types and trees were taller and had greater AGB in monodominant forests than in mixed forests. Two height–diameter models from the literature generated the lowest error values when predicting tree height and AGB in mixed forests, whereas no model derived from the literature was appropriate for monodominant forests. The variation in height–diameter allometry between monodominant and mixed forests influences AGB estimates that have practical implications for carbon monitoring.

Fruits are a major food resource for wildlifes and have evolved different traits which attract specific frugivores and facilitate seed dispersal. This study examines the quantity of the frequency of fruit tree species, distribution amongst fruit traits and estimates the potential availability of the fruit resource for frugivores in a 16-ha permanent forest plot at Doi Suthep–Pui, Thailand. The similarity amongst traits for fleshy fruited species was explored using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Fleshy fruited species comprised 122 of 208 tree species >2 cm diameter at breast height (DBH) recorded in the permanent plot. Amongst fleshy fruited species, small fruits (length <20 mm) were most common (63.16% of species) while large fruits were rare (4.1%). Black was the most common fruit colour (43.4%). Principal Component Analysis of fruit traits explained 57% of total variance on the first three axes, and allowed identification of three species groups. Litsea martabanica and Persea gamblei are the greatest density and represented the major PCA group; black, small-sized and thin husk indehiscent fruits. These fruiting trees scattered throughout the permanent plot and were of good regeneration status. Indicating fleshy fruit can be a food resource for frugivores especially small-sized fruit. Furthermore, large-fruited species such as Madhuca floribunda is low density but important to preserve for food resource of large frugivores. This finding is very important not only for forest protection policy but also for wildlife conservation as food resources.

Selective logging has been widely employed as a management practice in tropical forests due to its reduced impact on biodiversity. However, by altering microclimatic conditions, logging could affect soil fauna responsible for nutrient cycling and the long-term dynamic of the forest. We investigated how selective logging affected termite species richness, composition, and the distribution of species in trophic groups, as well as the natural response of termites to gradients of soil conditions. Termites and edaphic variables were sampled in 32 permanent plots in southern Amazonia. Plots were subject to selective logging for 10–31 years before termite sampling. Time post-management was associated with changes in termite species composition, and wood-feeding termites were more abundant in recently logged areas. Nevertheless, most of the variation in termite species richness and composition can be attributed to the natural variation in soil clay content. Moreover, soil-dweller species, a vulnerable group strongly linked to soil decomposition, were present in all plots. These results suggest that the impact of selective logging on termite communities might be milder compared with other types of disturbance. It is likely that the decomposition process performed by termites, and consequently long-term ecosystem functioning, is preserved under selective logging.

It is well known that female adults of frog-biting midges (Corethrellidae) are attracted by anuran mating calls. However, the role of host-emitted cues other than mating calls in determining the level of attraction remains poorly understood. Here, we performed field playback experiments to test how the host-seeking behaviour of Corethrella Coquillett is influenced by different sound stimuli: mating call of a tree frog, cricket call, and no sound. Then, after long-distance host detection, we evaluated if Corethrella can distinguish landing sites by using at short distance the colour and/or shape of anurans. For that, we placed artificial models of frogs with different colours (light green and dark brown) and an artificial caterpillar model (light green colour) on the top of speakers. We found that only frog mating calls presented with the visual cue of an artificial frog were attacked by Corethrella, suggesting that frog shape, regardless of colour, is an important cue for the identification of its hosts. This is the first study providing evidence that after flying long distances guided by frog calls, Corethrella can identify their hosts using visual cues at short distances.

Understanding the pollination biology of medicinal plants and their important insect pollinators is necessary for their conservation. The present study explored the complex interactions between pollinator visitation and effect of floral traits on pollinator behaviour on seven medicinal plant species grown in an urban garden in West Bengal, an eastern Indian state. The observations revealed 30 morphospecies of insect flower visitors (Diptera, Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera) that touched floral reproductive parts on the selected plants during visitation. Additionally, it was observed that floral traits (e.g., corolla length and corolla opening diameter) were important predictors of the behaviour of insects when visiting the flowers. Plant–pollinator interactions were analysed using a bipartite network approach which explored the important links between insect and plants in the network revealing the key interactions, and species which are crucial to system maintenance. This piece of work contributes to our ability to understand and maintain a stable medicinal plant–pollinator network which will support efforts to conserve native flora and insects.