The largest abundances of colonizers, particularly Echinodermata, were found on sandy patches relative to other habitats, suggesting that the 'availability', rather than any particular attribute related to the 'acceptability' of artificial collectors, e.g. its structural complexity, was the main driver of patterns of faunal short-term colonization.
Here, we aimed to describe land-cover change in Chobe District, Botswana, and address questions about the complex drivers of patterns of land cover change, with a particular focus on climate, fire, herbivory, and anthropogenic disturbance.
Variation in mutation rates and the strength of purifying selection seem to be major drivers of patterns of polymorphism and divergence in Arabidopsis.
Long-term experimental studies in tropical montane systems are needed to understand the drivers of patterns of epiphyte abundance, in particular why there is a change in biomass and abundance at putative 'cloud base' (which is correlated with changes throughout the ecosystem), and how these diverse communities will respond to climate change.
In four of our five populations, we found a high excess of homozygosity; we cannot rule out null alleles as a possible driver of this pattern.
Second, because the overall animation is based upon molecular evidence from extant orders, it may minimize the importance of extinction as a driver of macroevolutionary pattern.
While some might see recent declining levels of palm leaf harvest as an indicator of over-exploitation, this is not the only possible driver of the pattern we observed.
Because the lack of available information required consumers to rely on past experiences and/or recommendations, the traditional service concept also reinforced reputation as a driver of the pattern.
Main conclusions: We suggest that the driver of this pattern is geographic variation in the intensity of competition between herbaceous and woody species, which we relate to the effects of (1) temperature regime, (2) edaphic factors related to soil fertility, and (3) plant traits, which may vary latitudinally in response to climate and edaphic factors.
However, given the study's coarse grain, geographic variability in the current environment could not be excluded as a driver of this pattern.
