Vegetation character and species diversity of the Panshet Catchment

The present note elaborates the vegetation character and plant diversity in the Panshet Dam Catchment,studied during six months of field survey in 2014 (July-December) as part of a project undertaken byEcological Society and supported by Global Forest Watch.As floral species are directly related to climatic type, especially rainfall, therefore the Panshet catchmentwas divided into high, medium and low rainfall zones. The floral species survey was conducted in relationwith these zones.The focus of present study was to relate species composition with physical factors like altitude andclimate. To study the vegetation character of the catchment, species level surveys of various vegetationcategories like tall canopy forests, devrais, shrubbery and others, were undertaken and the speciescomposition of each vegetation category was recorded. Moreover, species occurrence over rainfall zones wasrecorded. Identification of rare, endemic and specialist species was equally important to gauge thevegetation character and ecological value. Other observations included dominant species and invasivespecies.

Diversity, Distribution, and Abundance of Plants in Lewoh-Lebang in the Lebialem Highlands of Southwestern Cameroon

A survey was conducted between October 2010 and June 2011 to determine the diversity, distribution, and abundance of plants in 4 sites of the Lebialem highlands and to relate species diversity and abundance to altitude and soil types. Twelve (12) plots, each of 1 ha (250 × 40 m), were surveyed at the submontane and montane altitudes of the sites. One hundred (100) species belonging to 82 genera were identified with the genera Cola and Psychotria being the most represented. Vulnerable species included Guarea thompsonii, Schefflera hierniana, Allanblackia gabonensis, Cyclomorpha solmsii, Vepris trifoliolata, and Xylopia africana. Species such as Xymalos monospora, Tricalysia atherura, and Piptostigma oyemense present in the study area were endemic to Cameroon. Diversity and distribution of plants were affected by parameters such as the altitude and the soil type. Soil analysis revealed that diversity in the study area was affected by the organic carbon, nitrogen, calcium, and the cation exchange capacity of the soil.

Variation in habitat suitability does not always relate to variation in species' plant functional traits

Habitat suitability models, which relate species occurrences to environmental variables, are assumed to predict suitable conditions for a given species. If these models are reliable, they should relate to change in plant growth and function. In this paper, we ask the question whether habitat suitability models are able to predict variation in plant functional traits, often assumed to be a good surrogate for a species' overall health and vigour. Using a thorough sampling design, we show a tight link between variation in plant functional traits and habitat suitability for some species, but not for others. Our contrasting results pave the way towards a better understanding of how species cope with varying habitat conditions and demonstrate that habitat suitability models can provide meaningful descriptions of the functional niche in some cases, but not in others.

The tadpole of Physalaemus henselii (Peters) (Anura: Leiuperidae)

Although Physalaemus frogs are prominent members of Neotropical herpetofauna, larval stages are not known from more than half of the species in this genus. Herein, we describe the tadpole of Physalaemus henselii based on samples collected in Departamento de Rivera, northern Uruguay. General aspect and major external morphological features are similar to most of other known tadpoles of Physalaemus. Remarkable character states are a medial vent tube and the presence of dorsal and ventral gaps in the row of marginal oral papillae. Physalaemus henselii has been successively assigned to the P. cuvieri and to the P. henselii species groups, but no conclusions can be drawn in support of these associations from external larval morphology. Instead, we found that some character states may contribute to relate species, like the presence of a ventral gap in the marginal row of oral papillae which is shared by P. albonotatus, P. cuqui, P. cuvieri, P. fernandezae and P. henselii. This character state is unique among non-bufonid anurans, although it is also present in some species of the related genus Pseudopaludicola. In addition, P. albonotatus, P. cuqui and P. cuvieri tadpoles can be differentiated from P. fernandezae and P. henselii by the presence of two small ventrolateral gaps, which are absent in the latter.

Comparative ungulate dynamics: the devil is in the detail

Attempts to relate species differences in population dynamics to variation in life histories rely on the assumption that the causes of contrasts in demography are sufficiently simple to be derived from first principles. Here, we investigate the causes of contrasts in dynamics between two ungulate populations on Hebridean islands (red deer and Soay sheep) and show that differences in stability, as well as in the effects of variation in density and climate, are related to differences in timing of reproduction relative to seasonal variation in resource abundance. In both populations, attempts to predict changes in population size sufficiently accurately for the results to be useful for management purposes require a knowledge of the responses of different age and sex categories to changes in density and climate, as well as of population structure.