Norbert J. Cordeiro's research while affiliated with Roosevelt University and other places

... Although our focus was primarily on birds and the threats to their habitats in three unexplored and very recently mapped lowland forest and Brachylaenadominated woodland patches, other biota and aspects of human utilization also received attention (N.J.C., M.G., unpubl.). Since a short summary article was written on the most important avifaunal results from this work (Cordeiro and Githiru 1998), here we will focus more on: (1) describing the assemblages of these sites and compare them with adjacent lowland forests; (2) providing annotated accounts on species of conservation concern at the global and regional levels; and (3) discussing the conservation priorities of the areas visited and the Brachylaena woodland habitat in north-east Tanzania. A fourth forest reserve visited during this period, Mgambo Proposed Forest Reserve (PFR), largely comprises different habitat types in comparison with the other three discussed here. ...

... González-Rivas et al., [49] recorded lower numbers of seedlings and saplings for G. americanus in studies done in the dry forest of the Chacocente National Wildlife Refuge in the province of Carazo, Nicaragua. NdangalasiI et al., [50] recorded a total of 2800 seedling recruits, and there were 38 and 47 species represented under exotic and native legacy trees, respectively. Gnoumou et al., [31] examined the variety and the elements of G. copallifera communities in two distinct kinds of land use history, a protected area (forest of Comoé-Leraba) and an unprotected area (the forests of Tourni and Timba). ...

... Both human-induced and natural forest disturbances have increased in recent years and have been significantly harming tropical forests (Sande et al., 2019;Song et al., 2018). The ecological impact of forest disturbances varies considerably based on their type, intensity and the land management practices at place (Bowd et al., 2021;Zambrano et al., 2020). Forest disturbances caused by human-induced land management practices include large-scale commercial logging, mining, smallholder agriculture, and selective logging (Curtis et al., 2018;Tyukavina et al., 2018), with many of these being unsustainable and illegal (Zimmerman and Kormos, 2012). ...

... Roscher et al., 2013;Schittko et al., 2014), while few studies investigated this relation in complex real-world grasslands where plant assemblages are influenced by the landscape structure (but see Hautier et al., 2018;Jochum et al., 2020). Landscape structure might shape the trait-composition of grassland plant assemblages according to their response traits related especially to dispersal, establishment and persistence (Zambrano et al., 2019). Because of their positive effect on species diversity, landscapes with higher habitat amount and higher heterogeneity are expected to favour the functional diversity of grassland plant assemblages. ...

... For example, squirrels in Central African rainforests show differences in forest use, with vertical forest strata in the same area dividing certain species into tree-dwelling (mainly frugivores) and ground-dwelling for the majority of insectivorous species (Emmons 1980). It is clear that the organisation of biotic elements in African rainforests is highly specialised, with forest composition, plant species diversity and habitat structure changes at smaller spatial scales (Adamescu et al. 2018). ...

... invertebrates (Basset et al., 2003;Brühl et al., 1998;Cordeiro, 2017;Fermon et al., 2005;Grimbacher & Stork, 2007;Roisin et al., 2005;Wilkie et al., 2010). Vertical stratification is particularly common in tropical rainforests, where vegetation structure is highly complex and where several vertical layers exist (Shaw, 2004;Smith, 1973;Wilkie et al., 2010). ...

... Drought in particular may be a strong seedling filter. Dry conditions can also alter the spatial patterns and activities of herbivores and fungal pathogens (Inman-Narahari et al., 2016), thus reducing any Janzen-Connell effects. We expected seedling survival to be higher for understory and shade tolerant species because they usually have fewer, more resilient seedlings that are less likely to succumb to negative density dependence (NDD) effects than canopy species. ...

... Climate warming has been associated with increasing bird abundance at the highest elevations, but for tropical mountains, this has only been documented from within the montane forest zone (e.g., Harris et al. 2014;Dulle et al. 2016;Freeman et al. 2018;Neate-Clegg et al. 2021). Unlike in temperate mountains (Chapters 4 and 6), only a few studies have been able to document an upslope expansion of tropical treelines (Forero-Medina et al. 2011;Harsh & Bader 2011;Lutz 2013;Rehm & Feeley 2015a). ...

... In Tanzania, A. stuhlmannii is distributed primarily in the Eastern Arc Mountain blocks and coastal forests (Mathew et al., 2015;Ruffo et al., 2002 andvan Rompaey 2003). The distribution of A. stuhlmannii is limited to some specific montane regions and is more common in the midaltitudes in the forested areas (EAMCEF, 2018). ...

... This is because many of the existing reviews focused on the impact of agroforestry on crop productivity, mainly plot level experimental or observational studies. There exist reviews on agroforestry in Africa that describe the benefits of specific trees, for example Piliostigma thonningii (Hailemariam et al., 2021), African locust bean (Parkia biglobosa) (Houndonougbo et al., 2020), Allanblackia (Jamnadass et al., 2010;Schmidt et al., 2019), baobab (Adansonia digitata) (Gebauer et al., 2016) and Boswellia and Commiphora species (Hassan et al., 2019). Primary studies on carbon sequestration on the other hand report context specific results, depending on the site (climate, soil type) and the system (tree species, densities, age and management). ...