For successful conservation of biodiversity, it is vital to know whether protected areas in increasingly fragmented landscapes effectively conserve species. However, how large habitat fragments must be and what level of protection is required to sustain species, remains poorly known. We compiled a global dataset on almost 2000 bird species in 741 forest fragments varying in size and protection status, and show that protection is associated with higher bird occurrence, especially for threatened species. Protection...

Anthozoan cnidarians (corals and sea anemones) include some of the world's most important foundation species, capable of building massive reef complexes that support entire ecosystems. Although previous molecular phylogenetic analyses have revealed widespread homoplasy of the morphological characters traditionally used to define orders and families of anthozoans, analyses using mitochondrial genes or rDNA have failed to resolve many key nodes in the phylogeny. With a fully resolved, time-calibrated phylogeny for 234 species constructed from hundreds...

Species that inhabit high-shore environments on rocky shores survive prolonged periods of emersion and thermal stress. Using two Hong Kong high-shore littorinids (Echinolittorina malaccana and E. radiata) as models, we examined their behavioural repertoire to survive these variable and extreme conditions. Environmental temperatures ranged from 4 ℃ in the cool season to 55.5 ℃ in the hot season, with strong seasonal and daily fluctuations. In the hot season, both species allocated >35 % of their...