TOPIC #1
Feeding guilds of birds in different habitats in Costa Rica (from the lowland
forests of the Caribbean and Pacific to the highlands of Monteverde)
QUESTION
READINGS
Levey and Stiles - Bird: ecology, behavior and taxonomic affinities.
(reader)
TOPIC #2
Behavior and social structure of leaf cutter ants (in the Caribbean and
Pacific lowland forests)
QUESTION
READINGS
Mueller et al. 1998 - The evolution of agriculture in ants. (reader)
Kricher – Fungus gardens and leafcutting ants – in A Neotropical
Companion
Linksvayer et al. (2002) - The function of hitchhiking behavior in the leafcutting ant Atta cephalotes. (in web site database)
TOPIC #3
Invertebrate biodiversity on the forest floor in different habitats in Costa
Rica (from the lowland forests of the Caribbean and Pacific to the
highlands of Monteverde)
QUESTION
READING
Sheil and Burslem (2003) - Disturbing hypotheses in tropical forests.
(reader)
Evans et al. (2003) -The influence of logs on the spatial distribution of
litter-dwelling invertebrates and forest floor processes in New Zealand
forests
Wyman et al. (1999) – A new device for extracting living invertebrates
from large samples of leaf litter
Jansen (1997) – Terrestrial invertebrates community structure as indicator
of a tropical rainforest restoration project
Kelly and Samways (2003) – Diversity and conservation of forest-floor
arthropods on a small Seychelles island
TOPIC #4
Abundance and size of buttresses in different forests of Costa Rica (from
the lowland forests of the Caribbean and Pacific to the highlands of
Monteverde)
QUESTION
READING
Crook et al. (1997) - The function of buttress roots: a comparative study of
the anchorage systems of buttressed (Aglaia and Nephelium
ramboutan species) and non-buttressed (Mallotus wrayi) tropical trees
Warren SD, Black HL, Eastmond DA, Whaley WH. 1988. Structural
function of buttresses of Tachigalia versicolor. Ecology 62, 532–6.
Lewis AR. 1988. Buttress arrangement in Pterocarpus o cinalis (
Fabaceae): e ects of crown asymmetry and wind. Biotropica 20, 280–
5.
TOPIC #5
Disappearance of human feces in different forest habitats in Costa Rica
(from the lowland forests of the Caribbean and Pacific to the highlands of
Monteverde)
QUESTION
READING
In Tropical Nature
Andresen (2002) – Dung beetles in a Central Amazonian rainforest and
their ecological role as secondary seed dispersers
Andresen (2002) – Effect of forest fragmentation on dung beetle
communities and functional consequences for plant regeneration
Holter et al. (2002) – Dung feeding in adult scarabaeines
(tunnelers and endocoprids): even large beetles eat small
particles
TOPIC #6
Relationship of herbivory and the presence of symbiotic ants in Cecropia
spp. in different habitats of Costa Rica (from the lowland forests of the
Caribbean and Pacific to the highlands of Monteverde)
QUESTION
READING
TOPIC #7
Nocturnal invertebrate diversity in different habitats of Costa Rica (from
the lowland forests of the Caribbean and Pacific to the highlands of
Monteverde)
QUESTION
READING
TOPIC #8
Species abundance in different sized tide pools in different habitats of
Costa Rica (from the lowland forests of the Caribbean and Pacific to the
highlands of Monteverde)
QUESTION
READINGS
Connell (1978) - Diversity in tropical rainforests and coral reefs.
Krüger and McGavin (2000) - Macroecology of local insect communities.
(in website database)
Thompson and Withers (2003) - Effect of species richness and relative
abundance on the shape of the species accumulation curve
DeVres et al. (1999) - S p e c i e s
d i v e r s i t y
i n
s p a t i a l
a n d
t e m p o r a l
d i m e n s i o n s
o f
f r u i t f e e d i n g
b u t t e r f l i e s
f r o m
t w o
E c u a d o r i a n
r a i n f o r e s t s
Ugland (2003) - The species–accumulation curve and estimation of
species richness
Thompson et al. (2003) - Assessing biodiversity with species accumulation
curves; inventories of small reptiles by pit-trapping in Western
Australia
TOPIC #9
Diversity and abundance of epiphytes in different habitats of Costa Rica
(from the lowland forests of the Caribbean and Pacific to the highlands of
Monteverde)
QUESTION
READING