Wood-feeding termites rely almost entirely on dead plant material as both habitat and food resource; therefore, their biomass and abundance are expected to reflect the availability of these detrital resources. This study investigated whether dead wood availability influences the abundance and biomass of wood-feeding termites in Caatinga dry forests. Sampling was conducted in seven areas, where standardized 10 × 10 m plots were...

Coastal ecosystems, while vital for their ecosystem services, face growing threats from climate change and human activities. Traditional methods for monitoring these systems, such as morphological species identification and laboratory analysis, are time-consuming and resource-intensive, restricting their scalability. Recent advances in Deep Learning have demonstrated significant potential for automating organism identification...

The change in land use caused by anthropogenic processes is probably the main driver of biodiversity loss across terrestrial ecosystems. In Brazil, the Atlantic Forest is currently distributed in small remnant patches, mostly in small and isolated forest fragments that harbor a disproportionately high share of global biodiversity. Urbanization causes biodiversity loss worldwide, but there is a lack of knowledge regarding its e...

Seismic surveys introduce high levels of noise into the soundscape. Thus, a major concern is the effect of these noise levels on animal communication, especially for species with high hearing acuity, such as cetaceans. We evaluated the effects of airgun pulses of seismic surveys on the acoustic behavior of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and pantropical spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata) in the two most important b...

Climate change and other anthropogenic disturbances are increasing liana abundance and biomass in many tropical and subtropical forests. While the effects of living lianas on species diversity, ecosystem carbon, and nutrient dynamics are receiving increasing attention, the role of dead lianas in forest ecosystems has been little studied and is poorly understood. Trees and lianas coexist as the major woody components of forests...