The relationship between the soil seed bank at the onset of the growing season and the structure of the ensuing vegetation under grazing was investigated in an eastern Mediterranean grassland. Species responses to two contrasting cattle grazing regimes were studied through plant trait analyses. Traits included plant size, phenology, seed size and germination fraction. Changes in species composi...

Grazing is one of the most important factors influencing community structure and productivity in natural grasslands. Understanding why and how grazing pressure changes species diversity is essential for the preservation and restoration of biodiversity in grasslands. We use heavily grazed subalpine meadows in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau to test the hypothesis that grazer exclusion alters plant d...

Since the halophytes species have an important role in such ecosystem balance and they have been grazed by livestock as supplementary forage, the awareness of livestock's desire to grazing and their preference values of these species is of high priority. Regardless of the importance of halophyte species in the livestock feeding in Iran, there is less published research on the livestock grazing ...

An understanding of the factors controlling plant community composition will allow improved prediction of the responses of plant communities to natural and anthropogenic environmental change. Using monitoring data from 1980 to 2009, we quantified the changes in community composition in Leymus chinensis and Stipa grandis dominated grasslands in Inner Mongolia under long-term grazing-exclusion an...

 In recent years, rangelands have been regarded as potential carbon sinks. One of the most widely suggested options to sequester more C in rangelands is the restoration of the degraded rangelands through grazing the exclusion. In present study, the effects of exclusion on the carbon sequestration of Gomishan rangelands were investigated. Three transects were established in a key area inside and...

considering the importance of biodiversity conservation and protection assessment activities, the present filed study was conducted with aim to compare vegetation diversity of two areas with different levels of protection including ghorkhod protected area with seasonal grazing and golestan national park without grazing, during spring and summer of 2011. four replications were selected in each a...

To assess the potential for enhancing an existing stand of native perennial grasses on a California Coast Range Grassland site, we experimentally manipulated the seasonal timing and presence of grazing for 3 years (1994 through 1996) and of autumn burning for 2 years (1994 and 1995) and measured species cover for 6 years (1993 through 1998). We subjected the species matrix to classification (TW...

Floristic studies are fundamental for the applied sciences such as rangelandmanagement and conservation. Unique ecological and climatic conditions in the NorthernKhorasan Province (NKP) make it a remarkable habitat for the floristic studies. Plant specieswere collected from 50 field sites, representing major habitats of winter and rural rangelands.Surveys were conducted during active growth per...

Alkaloids constitute the largest class of plant secondary compounds, occurring in 20 to 30% of perennial herbaceous species in North America. Alkaloid-containing plants are of interest, first because alkaloids often have pronounced physiological reactions when ingested by livestock, and second because alkaloids have distinctive taste characteristics. Thus, alkaloids may kill, injure, or reduce ...