Forgotten forbs: Standard vegetation surveys underrepresent ecologically and culturally important forbs in a threatened grassland ecosystem

Classification of Root Systems of Forbs of Grassland and a Consideration of Their Significance

Small-mammal seed predation limits the recruitment and abundance of two perennial grassland forbs.

Although post-dispersal seed predators are common and often reduce seed density, their influence on plant population abundance remains unclear. On the one hand, increasing evidence suggests that many plant populations are seed limited, implying that seed predators could reduce plant abundance. On the other hand,.it is generally uncertain whether the magnitude of seed limitation imposed by grani...

Resting Impact on Vegetation Cover of Fescue-Forbs Rangeland in Mongolia

The rangeland in the Khangai mountain region in Mongolia has degraded for the last decades mainly because of overgrazing and climate change. Livestock production is important part of the economy and is based on natural rangeland. In this research we seek to elucidate the influence of five years (2004-2009) of protection from grazing on vegetation cover of different degradation levels of Fes...

Vertical transmission of fungal endophytes is widespread in forbs

To date, it has been thought that endophytic fungi in forbs infect the leaves of their hosts most commonly by air-borne spores (termed "horizontal transmission"). Here, we show that vertical transmission from mother plant to offspring, via seeds, occurs in six forb species (Centaurea cyanus, C. nigra,Papaver rhoeas,Plantago lanceolata,Rumex acetosa, and Senecio vulgaris), suggesting that this m...

Variation in resource acquisition and utilization traits between native and invasive perennial forbs.

Understanding the functional traits that allow invasives to outperform natives is a necessary first step in improving our ability to predict and manage the spread of invaders. In nutrient-limited systems, plant competitive ability is expected to be closely tied to the ability of a plant to exploit nutrient-rich microsites and use these captured nutrients efficiently. The broad objective of this...