Canopy structure is an important driver of the energy budget of the grassland ecosystem and is, at the same time, altered by plant diversity. Diverse plant communities typically have taller and more densely packed canopies than less diverse communities. With this, they absorb more radiation, have a higher transpiring leaf surface, and are better coupled to the atmosphere which leads to cooler canopy surfaces. However, whether plant diversity generally translates into a cooling potential remains...

The northern Andes, with their steep elevational and climate gradients, are home to an exceptional diversity of flora and fauna, particularly rich in avian species that have adapted to divergent ecological conditions. With this diversity comes the opportunity for parasites to exploit a wide breadth of avian hosts. However, little research has focused on examining the patterns of prevalence and lineage diversity of avian parasites in the Andes. Here, we screened a total of 428...

1. The allocation of non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) to reserves constitutes an important physiological mechanism associated with tree growth and survival. However, procedures for measuring NSC in plant tissue are expensive and time-consuming. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a high-throughput technology that has the potential to infer the concentration of organic constituents for a large number of samples in a rapid and inexpensive way based on empirical calibrations with chemical analysis. 2. The main objectives of this...

We investigated how thermoregulatory behaviors affect hydro-thermoregulation in anurans, using agar models as a sampling unit, simulating four behaviors related to behavioral fever and sickness behavior. We collected data in two forest environments (Wet forest and transitional forest) in the Parque Estadual Intervales (PEI), an Integral Conservation Unit of the Atlantic Forest (24°12' - 24°25' S; 48°03 - 48°30' W). The Wet forest is a mature Atlantic Forest, and the Transitional forest is a young...