Resource availability alters breeding strategies in a small mammal community.

Following a resource pulse, animals may finance reproduction by consuming concurrently available resources (income breeding) or by storing resources for future reproduction (capital breeding). Understanding how these reproductive strategies are used is important for determining the ecological mechanisms that structure timing of reproduction and that drive interannual population fluctuations in animals. We gathered a reproductive dataset for five small mammal species over a 12-year period in Northeastern USA during which six masting events of American beech (Fagus grandifolia) and eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) occurred.

The underappreciated role of rodent generalists in fungal spore dispersal networks.

Animals are often the primary dispersers of seeds and fungal spores. Specialist species that consume fruits or fungal fruiting bodies (sporocarps) as their main food source are thought to play a more important role in dispersal networks compared to generalist species. However, dispersal networks are often based on occurrence data, overlooking the influence of animal abundance and dispersal effectiveness on network interactions.

Signaling from below: rodents select for deeper fruiting truffles with stronger volatile emissions.

Many plant and fungal species use volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as chemical signals to convey information about the location or quality of their fruits or fruiting bodies to animal dispersers. Identifying the environmental factors and biotic interactions that shape fruit selection by animals is key to understanding the evolutionary processes that underpin chemical signaling. Using four Elaphomyces truffle species, we explored the role of fruiting depth, VOC emissions, and protein content in selection by five rodent species.

Pulsed resource availability changes dietary niche breadth and partitioning between generalist rodent consumers.

Identifying the mechanisms that structure niche breadth and overlap between species is important for determining how species interact and assessing their functional role in an ecosystem. Without manipulative experiments, assessing the role of foraging ecology and interspecific competition in structuring diet is challenging. Systems with regular pulses of resources act as a natural experiment to investigate the factors that influence the dietary niches of consumers.

species () from Bartlett Experimental Forest, New Hampshire, USA.

We describe five new species of from Bartlett Experimental Forest, New Hampshire, USA (, , , , and ) and revise the description of a sixth previously published species (). Of the five new species, and are only known from New Hampshire whereas and are widely distributed in eastern North America. is the most widespread and abundant species in eastern North America with a distribution extending from eastern Canada south to northeastern Mexico.