Maize stover is beginning to be used as a cellulosic biofuel feedstock in the Midwestern United States; however, there are concerns that stover removal could result in increased soil erosion and loss of soil organic matter. Use of a winter cover crop following maize harvest has the potential to mitigate these impacts and may have additional benefits by providing continuous living cover in annua...

This study examines the relationship between ownership structure and the financial performance of listed firms in the financial sector of the Nigerian economy. To achieve the objective of this study, a total of 31 selected listed firms in the Nigerian stock exchange market were used. Also, the corporate annual reports for the period 2006-2010 were analyzed. This paper basically modeled the corp...

Proper grazing management practices can generate corresponding compensatory effects on plant community production, which may reduce inter-annual variability of productivity in some grassland ecosystems. However, it remains unclear how grazing influences plant community attributes and the variability of standing crop. We examined the effects of sheep grazing at four stocking rate treatments [con...

A prairie site at Pipestone National Monument in southwestern Minnesota was burned each spring from 1983-1987. During the past century of use, much of the site had been invaded by various, non-native, cool-season grasses and broadleaf weeds. Also, various woody species have invaded parts of the site. Annual bums generally induced positive changes in native remnants, primarily with big bluestem ...

Soil respiration is recognized to be influenced by temperature, moisture, and ecosystem production. However, little is known about how plant community structure regulates responses of soil respiration to climate change. Here, we used a 13-year field warming experiment to explore the mechanisms underlying plant community regulation on feedbacks of soil respiration to climate change in a tallgras...

Recent theory suggests that scale-dependent interaction between facilitation and competition can generate spatial structure in ecological communities. The application of this hypothesis, however, has been limited to systems with little underlying heterogeneity. We evaluated this prediction in a plant community along an intertidal stress gradient on cobble beaches in Rhode Island, USA. Prior stu...

Growth of herbaceous plants responds sensitively and rapidly to climate variability. Yet, little is known regarding how climate warming influences the growth of herbaceous plants, particularly in semi-arid sites. This contrasts with widely reported tree growth decline and even mortality in response to severe water deficits due to climate warming around the world. Here, we use the relatively nov...

Plants can influence the level of herbivory experienced by neighboring plants. The importance such belowground associational effects are poorly understood. In this study we examine whether Jacobaea vulgaris provides resistance against nematodes to Thirteen species (6 forbs, 3 grasses and 4 legumes) were each grown in mixtures with J. monocultures. A nematode community was introduced half pots. ...

The leaf carbon isotope ratio (δ(13) C) of C3 plants is inversely related to the drawdown of CO2 concentration during photosynthesis, which increases towards drier environments. We aimed to discriminate between the hypothesis of universal scaling, which predicts between-species responses of δ(13) C to aridity similar to within-species responses, and biotic homoeostasis, which predicts offsets i...