Ecosystem engineering

Beavers do modify the phisical conditions of the habitats they inhabit. For that reason they qualify as ecosystem engineers.

Wright et al. (2002) showed how beaver dams increase habitat heterogeneity at landscape level, which permits a higher number of herbaceous plants to be present. Ecosystem engineering by beavers results thus into higher species richness.

This week's paper has been suggested by Yu Yoshihara:

Wright JP, CG Jones & AS Flecker. 2002. An ecosystem engineer, the beaver, increases species richness at landscape level. Oecologia 132, 96-101.


Image: Bever pond, oil by Frank Larson.

Jordano in Niigata

I'm just back from Niigata, where I attended the joint meeting of the Japanese Ecological Society (JES) and the East Asian Federation of Ecological Societies (EAFES).

One of the most interesting presentations was the one by Pedro Jordano, a Spanish researcher working on plant-animal interactions. For this week I suggest his paper:

Godoy, JA & Jordano, P. 2001. Seed dispersal by animals: exact identification of source trees with endocarp DNA microsatellites. Molecular Ecology 10, 2275-2283.

Godoy and Jordano noticed that they could use DNA fingerprinting of a seed's endocarp to identify its mother plant (the endocapr is a tissue entirely of maternal origin!) in seeds dispersed by vertebrates.

Enjoy!


Image: Sierra Cazorla, oil by Kiko Plaza.