Autonomous (i.e., robotic) mowers have recently garnered interest with the public and within turfgrass industry. However, limited research has been conducted on their use for mowing warm-season turfgrasses. An experiment was at University of Florida’s West Florida Research Education Center (Jay, FL, USA) to investigate performance an autonomous mower using a lower than recommended height-of-cut...

Large areas of abandoned cropland in the world can be reforested with native shrubs and trees to gain a number of environmental benefits. In abandoned Mediterranean croplands, establishment and growth of woody plants are limited by high radiation and low water availability during summer, and weeds are strong competitors for resources, particularly water. We conducted a 3-year experiment in cent...

Inorganic fertilization and mowing alter soil factors with subsequent effects-direct and indirect - on above- and below-ground communities. We explored direct and indirect effects of long-term fertilization (N, P, NPK, Liming) and twice yearly mowing on the plant, bacterial and fungal communities and soil factors. We analyzed co-variation using 16S and 18S rRNA genes surveys, and plant frequenc...

Whether you buy a laptop computer or a lawn mower, you expect to learn how best to use it. For some products it is enough to skim the user’s manual. For others you need to attend a class. In the past, product training was considered an attribute of product support. It came bundled with the product and was an expected feature like a power cord or the certificate of warranty. This situation has c...

As a rule, communities consist of few abundant and many rare species, which is reflected in the characteristic shape of species abundance distributions (SADs). The processes that shape these SADs have been a longstanding problem for ecological research. Although many studies found strong negative effects of increasing land-use intensity on diversity, few reports consider land-use effects on SAD...