This study investigated spatial patterns and environmental controls of aboveground biomass (AGB) in alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau by integrating AGB data collected from 135 sites during 2001– 2004 and concurrent enhanced vegetation index derived from MODIS data sets. The AGB was estimated at 68.8 gm 2, with a larger value (90.8 gm 2) in alpine meadow than in alpine steppe (50.1 gm 2)...

The data used in the present study is a 21-year GIMMS-NDVI dataset, surface data on phenology of birch, and temperature data from meteorological stations, all for the period 1982 to 2002. For each pixel a 21-year mean and a mean of peak NDVI value was computed. Threshold values related to this mean, and mean of peak NDVI values, which show the best correlations with the phenological field data ...

While recent studies have elucidated many of the factors driving parasite dynamics during the growing season, the ecological and evolutionary dynamics during the off-season (i.e. the period between growing seasons) remain largely unexplored. We combined large-scale surveys and detailed experiments to investigate the overwintering success of the specialist plant pathogen Podosphaera plantaginis ...

Antioxidant activities in the leaves and fruits of wild Vaccinium arctostaphylos (locally named Qare-Qat) from diff erent regions of Iran were evaluated using the stable 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl free radical and ferric reducing/antioxidant power methods. Variations in antioxidant activity, total phenolic, anthocyanin, and fl avonoid content in fruit samples among genotypes was much greate...

Climatic warming is expected to particularly alter greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from soils in cold ecosystems such as tundra. We used 1 m(2) open-top chambers (OTCs) during three growing seasons to examine how warming (+0.8-1.2 °C) affects the fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) from alpine tundra soils. Results showed that OTC warming increased soil CO2 effl...

Influenza virus type B strains were unexpectedly detected and isolated in Italy during summer-fall 2008 from three patients travelling to Italy from Lebanon, Senegal and Uzbekistan. The three summer-fall strains matched to a high degree the hemagglutinin (HA1) of influenza virus type B strains circulating in Italy in the second part (January through April) of the 2007/2008 season, and HA1 of th...

Abstract Interest in cover crops is increasing but information limited on integrating them into crop rotations especially the relatively short growing season northern Great Plains. A 3-yr research project, initiated 2009 near Mandan, North Dakota, USA, evaluated (1) what impact may have subsequent cash yields and (2) whether mixtures are more productive provide additional benefits compared to m...