Species phenology is being altered by ongoing climate changes with yet underappreciated consequences for ecological processes and ecosystem stability. Contrary to what happens with some key life events of flowering plants, comparatively little information exists about fern and lycophyte phenology and how it is affected by the current climatic changes. In part, this stems from the lack of long-term datasets. Her...
Keystone species are disproportionately important for ecosystem functioning. While all species engage in multiple interaction types with other species, keystone species importance is often defined based on a single dimension of their Eltonian niche, that is, one type of interaction (e.g. keystone predator). It remains unclear whether the importance of keystone species is unidimensional or if it extends across i...
The consequences of species extinctions in ecological communities may be buffered through the rearrangement (rewiring) of the interactions between the remaining species. The structural and functional consequences of such extinctions can be explored by means of computer simulations that try to predict secondary extinctions and the degradation of ecosystem services. However, to improve the accuracy of these simul...
Goat (Capra hircus) is one of the main sources of milk and meat products for human consumption. Goat milk differs from cow and human milk in both composition and nutritional properties. Goat milk and other goat-derived products contain several bioactive compounds that might be useful in patients suffering from a variety of chronic diseases. Several peptides, fats, and oligosaccharides present in goat’s milk can...
Fruits and seeds are critical food sources for many European passerines during the autumn migration, which in turn contribute to disperse seeds either internally, i.e. after ingestion (endozoochory), or externally, when seeds adhere to the body surface (epizoochory). Despite the recognized importance of birds as seed dispersers, the vast majority of studies focused on endozoochory while the external transport o...