Anna Landim and collaborators found that animal communities recover more slowly than plant communities, mainly because remnant trees help maintain plant functional diversity and attract animals early in the regeneration process. Their study estimated that animal functional diversity takes about 40 years to reach levels comparable to those of old-growth …
In an unexpected turn, SP2, which usually focuses on frog communities or soil arthropods, has documented the fish diversity of two water bodies in Canandé. Fish act both as predators and as food resources for several animals, including amphibians. This connection allowed F. Griesbaum and coauthors to describe fish diversity …
Acoustic monitoring is becoming increasingly important for evaluating the biodiversity and conservation value of sites across land use or regeneration scenarios. A team led by Jörg Müller and his lab at the University of Würzburg monitored bird sounds using recorders installed in 85 study plots in the Canandé region of …
For many animal species, we have a fairly good understanding of their ecological niche, including their main diets. For others we don’t – or we can only make assumptions based on related species. Therefore, observations of diets, feeding behavior and other natural history information are important. Niklas Fuchs, Eva Tamargo …
Niklas Fuchs and M.-O. Rödel, in their 2025 paper, provide the first description of juvenile Pristimantis latidiscus. They document an egg-burying behaviour, interpreted as a simple form of parental care. The frogs bury their eggs—presumably as a protective strategy. In experimental manipulations, eggs that were handled every two days (to …
For Little-Devil Poison Frogs (Dendrobatidae: Oophaga sylvatica), researchers in Reassembly have now a case of parasitism for the first time: Myasis, a parasitic disease caused by fly larvae in living animal tissues. Myasis affects a variety of vertebrates worldwide, including humans, domestic animals and wildlife, but has been rarely reported …
Death-feigning (thanatosis) helps amphibians to avoid being eaten by predators. It has been documented for white-lipped frogs of the genus Leptodactylus among other frogs. Niklas Fuchs, Markus Schönleitner and Mark Oliver Rödel now documented this behavior for the first time for the red-thighed thin-toed frog Leptodactylus rhodomerus, published as a …
Biodiversity metrics are affected by variation in sampling completeness, and notoriously underestimate the species’ diversity in a site. Recently, statistical tools have been developed to estimate and account for biases in sample coverage. These tools allow researchers to compare observed and expected diversity metrics and their change along gradients. This …
All our scientific research in Reassembly on the recovery of species communities, interactions and ecosystem processes is based on a common design: our ‘chronosequence‘ is a set of 62 plots of different regeneration ages. It includes agricultural plots still in use, secondary forests 0 to over 38 years old, and …
The Northern Eyelash Boa (Tropidophis boulengeri) is endemic to the Chocó and is one of the most spectacular snakes. Especially during rainy nights in the lowland forests, they can be seen inside or near small and large rivers. These snakes often wait motionless with their heads submerged in the water …
