Population growth in wild boars and feral pigs (Sus scrofa) has negative environmental and economic implications worldwide. Accordingly, it is necessary to monitor population trends for appropriate management. Despite the potential for bias, relative abundance indices based on signs of activity have the potential to be practical, low-cost monitoring tools for data collection at a local scale and over large areas. However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of specific signs as measures of relative...

PREMISE: In temperate sand dunes, rising air temperature owing to climate change could not only further elevate surface soil temperatures during summers but also drastically change the range of soil temperatures in other seasons. Winter warming may shift the timing of seed germination of dune species that require cold stratification for dormancy release. METHODS: We assessed the effects of temperature on dormancy and germination of Viola grayi seeds and evaluated whether winter warming could affect...

Soil fungi can help improve ecosystem restoration, yet our understanding of how they reassemble in degraded land is limited. Here, using DNA metabarcoding, we studied the fungal community structure in reforested sites following agricultural abandonment and ungulate overabundance. Two treatments, namely ‘reforestation using different numbers of tree species’ and ‘deer exclusion,’ have been applied for multiple decades in the study sites. We found that local fungal richness (alpha diversity) and total fungal richness (gamma diversity)...