1. Farmland ponds are a highly threatened freshwater habitat which has undergone dramatic losses during the last 200 years due to land drainage schemes and agricultural intensification. Agri-environment schemes (AES) incentivise farmers to adopt farming methods to benefit biodiversity, yet there are a paucity of data evaluating the success of artificially created AES ponds as analogues of natural ponds in an attempt to recreate lost environments. 2. We examined variation in environmental parameters and aquatic...

The colonization of Ireland by mammals, has been the subject of extensive study using genetic methods, and forms a central problem in understanding the phylo-geography of European mammals after the Last Glacial Maximum. Ireland exhibits a de-pauperate mammal fauna relative to Great Britain and continental Europe, and a range of natural and anthropogenic processes have given rise to its modern fauna. Previous Europe-wide surveys of the European badger (Meles meles) have found conflicting microsatellite and...

1. Grazing by ungulate herbivores can greatly alter nitrogen ([N]) and phosphorus ([P]) concentrations in plants and soils. It is not clear, however, how grazing might affect N:P co-limitation in grasslands depending on soil N and P availability. 2. Here we selected 173 peer-reviewed studies, which measured 12 key variables associated with changes in [N], [P] and N:P ratios (i.e. N:P stoichiometry) in soils and plants in the presence or absence of herbivore grazing. Subsequently,...