The availability of sample data, together with detailed environmental factors, has fueled a rapid increase in predictive modeling of species geographic distributions and environmental requirements. We founded that MaxEnt model has provided different descriptions of potential distributions based on different sample size, sample accuracy and environmental background. We used six combinations based on three sample data set and two kinds of environmental variables to estimate the potentially suitable areas of Brown Eared Pheasant (Crossoptilon mantchuricum) in MaxEnt model. The results show that the complex variables provided the higher AUC value and accurate potential distribution than simple variables based on the same size of samples. Complicated environmental factors combined with moderate size and accurate sample, can predict better results. The model results were scabrous based on simple environmental factors. Furthermore, big sample size and simple prediction environmental factors will reduce the prediction accuracy, whereas small samples provided a conservative description of ecological niche. Here, we highlighted that considering the big size and high accuracy of sample and many environmental factors of a species to minimize error when attempting to infer potential distributions from current data in MaxEnt model.

We compared seed longevity of herbaceous species in three habitat types differing in stability. We hypothesized that seed longevity is the lowest for forest species (living in stable habitat), the highest for weeds, while species of xerothermic grasslands take an intermediate value. Ten species were selected from each of the three habitats with balanced representation of plant families among habitats. Seeds of the 30 species were deep buried at 65 cm depth, then replicates recovered after 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 years, and germinated in an unheated greenhouse. Weeds expressed the highest germination rate (36.1% in average) exceeding forest (14.4%) and grassland species (10.2%) which did not differ significantly. The number of species with transient, short-term persistent and long-term persistent seed bank, respectively, was 1, 7 and 2 for grasslands; 1, 3 and 6 for forests; and 0, 1 and 9 for weeds. As expected, weeds possessed the highest seed longevity. Contrary to our assumption, low seed longevity was not the norm among forest understorey species, and seed longevity of xerothermic grassland species was not intermediate but the shortest one. Ecological background of differences between hypotheses and experimental results are discussed. First record on seed bank type is reported here for 12 species: Dianthus pontederae, Digitalis grandiflora, Ferula sadleriana, Hieracium sylvaticum, Inula ensifolia, Jurinea mollis, Lychnis coronaria, Saponaria officinalis, Scorzonera austriaca, Secale sylvestre, Stipa borysthenica, Verbascum lychnitis.

The study pays attention to disturbances in early successional communities of wetland vegetation. We conducted artificial disturbances in a community of Suaeda salsa and Phragmites australis in the Yellow River Delta (China). Eight types of disturbances combining mowing treatments with species treatments were applied. Removal of the standing litters of P. australis or not was defined as mowing treatments, and removal of two species solo or both was defined as species treatments. We sampled 80 quadrats from the treatments plots at different intervals after the disturbance to investigate plant height, abundance, aboveground biomass, the distance between plants to reflect the effect of disturbance on composition, structure, productivity, and function of the plant communities. The strategies of seedling emergence and height growth differed as the canopy changed. Biomass contribution of different species, combined with disturbance intensity, was the main factors that affected the productivity. Homogeneity of disturbance was better for maintaining the functions of plant community in compared with the competitiveness (C), stress-tolerance (S) and ruderality (C-S-R) signatures with the control. Facilitations were reflected by the stagger arrangements in relative growth rates of the two species and in plant-plant interactions calculated by a modified function of competition. Adapting to symmetric disturbance and developing facilitative interactions are important requirements for early succession terrestrial vegetation to establish and stabilize in the seriously saline environments of wetlands.

Although diversity-ecosystem theory predicts that ecosystem functioning is strongly determined by species number, species traits play an important role in regulating ecosystem-level dynamics. We analyze responses of species attributes to diversity level and resource availability, and explore their consequences for ecosystem functioning and ultimately assess the contributions of five traits (vegetative plant height, clonal growth, root depth, cespitose habit and seed mass) to ecosystem functioning defined by spatial stability of community biomass. We found that functional traits disproportionately affected spatial stability. Relationships between species functional traits and spatial stability of community biomass indicated that diversity of vegetative plant height facilitated stability of a nitrogen fertilized undisturbed natural community (NAT), and that of a phosphorus fertilized forb, legume and bunchgrass community (FLB). The clonal growth form was also identified as a stabilizing trigger for a unfertilized undisturbed natural community (NAT), whereas diversity in root depth, cespitose habit and seed mass were related to destabilization of a nitrogen fertilized rhizomatous grass community (RRR). Studies quantifying interactions among plant traits, community structure and ecological functioning will contribute much more to understanding of the effects of the ecological behavior of specific traits on the ecosystem functioning.

Shifting cultivation, or swiddening, involves alternating cycles of cropping and fallow periods. Rather than being abandoned, the fallow swidden fields provide a source of important plant products for remote, forest-dwelling human communities. In northern Laos, the traditional length of fallow periods used to range between five and 11 years, depending on the availability of land and quality of the soil. Fallow periods are currently being shortened because of population pressures and government policies. To determine the potential impacts of shorter fallow periods, 128 swidden fallows of various ages (up to 20 years), located at altitudes between 400 and 800 m a.s.l. in northern Laos were sampled for usable plants. The impact of fallow length on plant abundance and species diversity was analysed. The number of usable plant species was found to increase with the fallow age until it was 11–12 years old, and then decline, while the abundance of usable plants increased beyond that period. We conclude that shorter fallows will result in a significantly smaller usable plant abundance and species diversity for the villagers. We propose that 11–12-year-long fallows should be considered in order to fully exploit the greater plant volume of older fallows as well as the compositional shift of species in fallows over time.

Moss cushion plays an important role in recruitment of vascular plants. In this study, we examined the effects of water soluble extracts (WSE) of Abietinella abietina on germination of Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia) and the effects of moss substrates (A. abietina) on seedling emergence of P. crassifolia in two greenhouse experiments. We found that the WSE of moss affected germination of P. crassifolia in two ways: (1) the WSE reducing the risk of fungal infection to the seeds, improve the germination rate; and (2) the WSE affects germination by its concentration, that is, low concentrations of WSE (i.e., 0.5 mg ml^-1 and 5 mg ml^-1) stimulate, while high concentrations (i.e., 50 mg ml^-1) inhibit it. In seedling emergence experiments, we detected that the moss substrates (both thick and thin mosses) facilitate the emergence of P. crassifolia in dry and intermediate moisture conditions, but inhibit it in moist conditions. In bare soil, the P. crassifolia emergence was also controlled by moisture conditions; the highest (60%) and the lowest (35%) emergence occurred in the moist conditions and dry conditions, respectively.

We also found that P. crassifolia seedlings were thinner and taller, but their number higher in moss cushion than in bare soil. Thus we conclude that there is nurse effect of A. abietina cushion on recruitment of P. crassifolia in both dry and intermediate moisture conditions.

The management of invasive plant species (IPS) requires knowledge of areas susceptible to invasion and the origin of the invasive biotypes. Ecological niche models (ENMs) are useful for these purposes, but modeling results depend on the data sources. We propose a synthetic approach to determine the selection of data source areas considering the invasion status of an IPS and management objectives to deal with the IPS. We assessed the importance of data source for ENMs and their projections to invasive areas using Chromolaena odorata, a Neotropical weed, in South Africa where this IPS is invading. We used MaxEnt to perform ENMs using different datasets from C. odorata's native range and from South Africa. We employed reciprocal ENM projections to find the probable native region of the plants invading South Africa. ENMs varied depending on the native area selected as the hypothetical invasion source. The modeling approach using worldwide data was most appropriate for prevention purposes, whereas the modelling approach using data from the Americas was most suitable for estimating invasion-susceptible areas in South Africa. The South African ENM was useful for reciprocal modelling but not for prediction of areas susceptible to invasion. ENM projections from the Americas to South Africa and vice-versa identified two native areas as possible invasion sources (northern Mexico and southern tropical South America). Their concordance with the South African ENM can be useful to search for natural enemies of C. odorata's and to reinforce the identification of invasion-susceptible areas in South Africa. We suggest that the various ENM obtained with the synthetic approach in modeling with different data sources for C. odorata cover the scenarios that depend on management purpose and invasion status for this weed.

Life history traits of birds like survival or reproduction are strongly related to habitat features which affect food and nest-site availability. However, impact of habitat variables on life-history traits, which may be scale-dependent is barely studied. We investigated the relationships between landscape features and productivity (expressed as the number of 21–38 day old chicks per nest) of a colonial waterbird, the Grey Heron Ardea cinerea in northern Poland. In 2014 we analysed the landscape features (hydrographic features, habitat area, habitat patchiness and distances to the nearest water bodies, coastline, rivers/canals, buildings and roads) around the six colonies. We analysed all those features in four spatial scales around the colony: close proximity of the colony (0–1 km), closer foraging grounds (0–10 km), far foraging grounds (0–20 km) and far foraging grounds excluding close foraging areas and proximity of the colony (10–20 km). The differences in productivity among the colonies was not significant in the studied year (mean number of chicks ± SD: 3.57 ± 0.52). At each spatial scale excluding 10–20 km radius, Grey Heron productivity increased with increasing habitat heterogeneity and decreased with increasing length of rivers/canals and area of pastures. The results of this study indicate that the spatial scale of 0–10 km was the best to indicate relationships between landscape features and productivity in herons. Distance to the nearest river/canal banks, buildings and roads were related positively to productivity. Our study revealed the importance of landscape complexity of aquatic and terrestrial habitats for the Grey Heron productivity.

Urbanization affects the ecological and behavioral traits of various species of animals, including birds.We present results concerning long-term fluctuations in breeding densities of nest-box populations of the Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus and the Great Tit Parus major in two, structurally and floristically contrasting types of habitat (an urban parkland and a rich deciduous forest) located 10 km apart, in central Poland. This study was conducted in 1999–2012 in the parkland site and in 2002–2012 in the forest site. We found a strong correlation of year-to-year changes in breeding densities of Great Tits between the parkland site and the forest site and a lack of such a correlation in Blue Tits. Breeding densities of Great Tits were much higher in the parkland than in the forest area every year during the study period. Annual changes in breeding densities were not correlated between the species studied. The North Atlantic Oscillation Index (NAO-winter index) tended to influence the density dynamics of the two bird species in the forest area but not in the parkland area.

Direct studies of wild mammals are challenging due to the difficulty for capturing and handling and the associated high costs. Thus, noninvasive hair trapping for surveying mammal populations has been widely used in wildlife ecology and management. However, the efficiency of this method may differ depending on the animal species and other different factors. Here we aimed at evaluating the potential of hair tube traps for reliable detecting mammal species as well as to assess whether type of habitat, baits, hair trap´s size variables (length, diameter and time staying active) and position variables (height, altitude, orientation and location) influenced trapping success (i.e. obtaining hair samples or not) and effectiveness (i.e. percentage of successful sampling traps and the number of species detected) of hair traps. Hair traps were done with PVC tubes with adhesive tape inside, and they were placed at different locations where mammal cues were previously detected. Collected hairs were identified to species by macro and microscopic characteristics. We collected hairs in the 82% of the hair traps placed and we detected 9 species which represented 64% of the wild mammals potentially detectable with this method in the study areas. No one of the studied variables explained trapping success. However, trap´s diameter significantly influenced effectiveness, but contrary to expected, the larger traps presented lower sampling success and less species were registered. Position variables did not influence effectiveness of hair traps. Sampling success due to baits used was related to diet preferences of the species. Further, trap´s diameter and length, height, inclination and altitude influenced collecting hair samples from the different animal taxonomic orders. These results suggest that hair trapping can be used as a good tool for the study of wild mammals, but assumptions related to trap size and position variables should be taken into account to increase the effectiveness of this method.

In recent years, brown bear Ursus arctos populations in Iran have experienced a clear trend of reduction and the species is now officially listed as threatened under provincial legislation. Anthropogenic habitat alteration and increasing human access to previously remote landscapes are potential source of stress for this species in Iran. Therefore, land cover changes in the Chelcheli protected area were mapped for 1991–2013 using time sequential Landsat TM and ETM at 30 meters resolution. Moreover, Maximum entropy (MaxEnt) modeling was used to investigate habitat selection of brown bear. The results showed that suitable patches overlapped with forest areas (Hyrcanian forest) and rivers. Our results also indicate that the brown bear habitat suitability is negatively influenced by human disturbance (e.g., roads, settlements). Increased human disturbance in brown bear habitat in recent decades may cause bears to avoid the disturbed areas. Therefore, the management plans should focus on reducing the human infrastructures around brown bear habitat. A suggestion is to place the core secure areas for brown bear inside the suitable habitat close to rivers where the human access is restricted. Promoting awareness of biodiversity conservation among tourism should also be one of the major focuses of management plans.

Preening is a type of feather maintenance behaviour in birds, that fulfils an important role in grooming. Preening may also be important for signalling quality of mates. Therefore we hypothesized that the frequency of preening may be related to sex and population density of White Stork Ciconia ciconia. We observed preening activity of 25 pairs in Western Poland at the beginning of incubation, when preening frequency is the highest. Birds were observed on the nest, because most preening behaviour occurs there. We found that being on the nest males spent proportionally more time on preening than females (on average 30% vs. 16%). Females spent more time preening when their mate was present at the nest. There was no significant relationship between preening frequency and indirect quality indicators (arrival date, laying date, hatching date, clutch size, brood size) nor between the distance to nearest neighbours and the time males and females spent on preening.

In a few recent decades, population increase of the wild boar has been evidenced in various European countries. As the result of this increase, the wild boar has expanded into farmlands, especially in some regions, where the cultivated maize constitutes the main source of its diet through the larger part of the year. The effect of winter weather and land use changes on the expansion of wild boar was analysed in a farmland in southern Poland. Over 21 years (1985–2005) in the study area of about 681 km² a rapid increase in the number of harvested wild boars was recorded. While in the middle 1980′s, there were only about 40 animals harvested per hunting season, in 2005 the number increased to 180. The rapid increase was, in general, correlated positively to the increasing surface area of the maize crops — from 205 ha (0.9%) in 1985 to 3212 ha (14.9% of arable lands) in 2004. However the correlation between the increase of the average late winter (February/March) temperature and the number of wild boars seems to be negative and contrary to our expectations, the numbers of wild boars were found to be higher under the lower temperatures in that period of the year.