A Bird Community of Lowland Rain Forest in New Guinea. 2 Seasonality

1982 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.L. Bell
Keyword(s):  
Rain Forest ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Lowland Rain Forest

Yams and megapode mounds in the lowland rain forest of Papua New Guinea

Human Ecology ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter D. Dwyer ◽  
Monica Minnegal
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Rain Forest ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Lowland Rain Forest

scholarly journals Spatial patterns of tree species distribution in New Guinea primary and secondary lowland rain forest

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavel Fibich ◽  
Jan Lepš ◽  
Vojtěch Novotný ◽  
Petr Klimeš ◽  
Jakub Těšitel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Patterns ◽  
Species Distribution ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Rain Forest ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Lowland Rain Forest

Ant-tended scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccidae: Myzolecanium) within lowland rain forest trees in Papua New Guinea

1993 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Penny J. Gullan ◽  
Ralf C. Buckley ◽  
Philip S. Ward
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Rain Forest ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Scale Insects ◽  
Forest Trees ◽  
Lowland Rain Forest ◽  
Plant Associations ◽  
Host Trees

ABSTRACTEight species of Myzolecanium Beccari (Hemiptera: Homoptera: Coccoidea: Coccidae) are reported from ant nests in stem cavities of living lowland rain forest trees in Papua New Guinea. The coccids are confined to this microhabitat but are associated with a taxonomically broad range of ants and host trees. Attendant ants belonged to six species in three genera and two subfamilies: Anonychomyrma Donisthorpe (Dolichoderinae), Crematogaster Lund (Myrmicinae) and Podomyrma F. Smith (Myrmicinae). Host plants belonged to at least five families and included both apparently specialized (with domatia) and unspecialized species. Saplings containing the nests of Anonychomyrma scrutator (F. Smith), Anonychomyrma sp. 1 and Podomyrma laevifrons F. Smith were dissected and the structure of nest chambers and their contents recorded. Only some chambers had entrance holes, but many were interconnected by transverse passages. The coccids were in low numbers and fairly evenly distributed between ant-occupied chambers. The characteristics of the Myzolecanium-ant association, the role of the coccids as trophobionts, and the nature of the plant associations are discussed. Taxonomically, new combinations are proposed by P. J. Gullan for three species previously placed in Cryptostigma Ferris: Myzolecanium endoeucalyptus (Qin & Gullan), M. magnetinsulae (Qin & Gullan), and M. robertsi (Williams & Watson).

Frugivorous weevils are too rare to cause Janzen–Connell effects in New Guinea lowland rain forest

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 521-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Ctvrtecka ◽  
Katerina Sam ◽  
Erik Brus ◽  
George D. Weiblen ◽  
Vojtech Novotny
Keyword(s):  
Host Specificity ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Rain Forest ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Single Plant ◽  
Plant Populations ◽  
Lowland Rain Forest ◽  
Weevil Species ◽  
Low Incidence ◽  
Specialist Species

Abstract:A community of frugivorous weevils was studied by quantitative rearing of 57 weevil species represented by 10485 individuals from 326 woody plant species in lowland rain forest in Papua New Guinea. Only fruits from 35% of plant species were attacked by weevils. On average, weevils were reared from only 1 in 33 fruits and 1 kg of fruit was attacked by 2.51 individuals. Weevil host specificity was relatively high: 42% of weevil species fed on a single plant genus, 19% on a single plant family and only 16% were reared from more than one family. However, monophagous specialists represented only 23% of all reared individuals. The average 1 kg of fruits was infested by 1.84 individuals of generalist weevils (feeding on allogeneric or allofamilial host species), 0.52 individual of specialists (feeding on a single or several congeneric species), and 0.15 individual of unknown host specificity. Large-seeded fruits with thin mesocarp tended to host specialist species whereas those with thick, fleshy mesocarp were often infested with both specialists and generalists. Weevils tended to avoid small-seeded, fleshy fruits. The low incidence of seed damage (3% of seeds) suggests that weevils are unlikely to play a major role in regulating plant populations via density-dependent mortality processes outlined by the Janzen–Connell hypothesis.

scholarly journals Impact of logging on aboveground biomass stocks in lowland rain forest, Papua New Guinea

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 2096-2103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Bryan ◽  
Phil Shearman ◽  
Julian Ash ◽  
J. B. Kirkpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Aboveground Biomass ◽  
Rain Forest ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Lowland Rain Forest

The Sepik River (Papua New Guinea) is not a dispersal barrier for lowland rain-forest frogs

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 477-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Dahl ◽  
Stephen J. Richards ◽  
Vojtech Novotny
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Rain Forest ◽  
Species Abundance ◽  
River System ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Rain Forests ◽  
Lowland Rain Forest ◽  
Sepik River ◽  
Dispersal Barriers ◽  
Animal Communities

Abstract:Major tropical rivers have been suggested to be important dispersal barriers that increase the beta diversity of animal communities in lowland rain forests. We tested this hypothesis using assemblages of frogs in the floodplains of the Sepik River, a major river system in Papua New Guinea. We surveyed frogs at five sites within a continuous 150 × 500-km area of lowland rain forest bisected by the Sepik, using standardized visual and auditory survey techniques. We documented 769 frogs from 44 species. The similarity in species composition decreased with logarithm of geographical distance between the sites, which ranged from 82 to 465 km. The similarity decay did not depend on whether or not the compared sites were separated by the Sepik River or whether the species were aquatic or terrestrial breeders. Likewise, a DCA ordination of frog assemblages did not show separation of sites by the river as a significant factor explaining their composition. Our results suggest that even major rivers, such as the Sepik, may not act as dispersal barriers. Rivers may not limit the distribution of frogs and therefore have a limited effect on determining frog species abundance and assemblage structure in rain forests.

Seasonality of vocal activity of a bird community in an Afrotropical lowland rain forest

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Vokurková ◽  
Francis N. Motombi ◽  
Michal Ferenc ◽  
David Hořák ◽  
Ondřej Sedláček
Keyword(s):  
Rain Forest ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Feeding Guilds ◽  
Lowland Rain Forest ◽  
Mount Cameroon ◽  
Vocal Activity ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
Dry And Rainy Seasons

Abstract:Recent observations from the tropics indicate seasonal peaks in breeding and vocal activity of some bird species. However, information about seasonality in vocal activity at the community level is still lacking in the tropics. We examined seasonal variation in the diurnal vocal activity of lowland rain forest birds on Mount Cameroon, using weekly automatic sound recording throughout the whole year and related it to rainfall and temperature. We show that the bird community in lowland rain forest vocalized year-round, but species richness as well as the vocal activity of the community varied greatly during the year. This variation coincided with the seasonality of rainfall. The highest number of species (31.5 on average) sang at the beginning of the driest period, followed by a gradual decrease in singing with increasing rainfall (minimum 14.5 species). This indicates that intensive rainfall indirectly limits the vocal activity of the tropical rain-forest bird community. Temporal turnover of vocalizing species as well as within-day variation in vocal activity was highest during the transition period between dry and rainy seasons. We suggest that this could reflect differing timing in the breeding activity of particular feeding guilds to follow seasonal peaks of their diets.

Ants accelerate litter decomposition in a Costa Rican lowland tropical rain forest

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 437-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terrence P. McGlynn ◽  
Evan K. Poirson
Keyword(s):  
Mass Loss ◽  
Leaf Litter ◽  
Litter Decomposition ◽  
Rain Forest ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Tropical Rain Forests ◽  
Rain Forests ◽  
Food Web Structure ◽  
Litter Bags ◽  
Lowland Rain Forest

Abstract:The decomposition of leaf litter is governed, in part, by litter invertebrates. In tropical rain forests, ants are dominant predators in the leaf litter and may alter litter decomposition through the action of a top-down control of food web structure. The role of ants in litter decomposition was investigated in a Costa Rican lowland rain forest with two experiments. In a mesocosm experiment, we manipulated ant presence in 50 ambient leaf-litter mesocosms. In a litterbag gradient experiment, Cecropia obtusifolia litter was used to measure decomposition rate constants across gradients in nutrients, ant density and richness, with 27 separate litterbag treatments for total arthropod exclusion or partial arthropod exclusion. After 2 mo, mass loss in mesocosms containing ants was 30.9%, significantly greater than the 23.5% mass loss in mesocosms without ants. In the litter bags with all arthropods excluded, decomposition was best accounted by the carbon: phosphorus content of soil (r2 = 0.41). In litter bags permitting smaller arthropods but excluding ants, decomposition was best explained by the local biomass of ants in the vicinity of the litter bags (r2 = 0.50). Once the microarthropod prey of ants are permitted to enter litterbags, the biomass of ants near the litterbags overtakes soil chemistry as the regulator of decomposition. In concert, these results support a working hypothesis that litter-dwelling ants are responsible for accelerating litter decomposition in lowland tropical rain forests.

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