Proper grazing management reduces ET from grasslands by reducing transpiration losses and grazingManagement of forage production for livestock grazing on semiarid induced surface energy relationships that reduce evapograsslands depends on water availability. Evapotranspiration (ET) ration (Svejcar and Christiansen, 1987; Wraith et al., was measured using the Bowen ratio energy balance method on...

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)...

In this chapter we first provide a historic overview of – and outline some of the peculiarities associated with – grassland eddy covariance flux measurements, elaborate on the additional terms that need to be quantified when estimating the grassland net ecosystem carbon balance and finally discuss some of the challenges associated with upcoming nitrous oxide and methane flux measurements in man...

Globally, grasslands and the wildlife that inhabit them are widely imperiled. Encroachment by shrubs and trees has widely impacted grasslands in the past 150 years. In North America, most grassland birds avoid nesting near woody vegetation. Because woody vegetation fragments grasslands and potential nest predator diversity and abundance is often greater along wooded edge and grassland transitio...

Plant species richness of permanent grasslands has often been found to be significantly associated with productivity. Concentrations of nutrients in biomass can give further insight into these productivity-plant species richness relationships, e.g. by reflecting land use or soil characteristics. However, the consistency of such relationships across different regions has rarely been taken into a...

Plant species richness of permanent grasslands has often been found to be significantly associated with productivity. Concentrations of nutrients in biomass can give further insight into these productivity-plant species richness relationships, e.g. by reflecting land use or soil characteristics. However, the consistency of such relationships across different regions has rarely been taken into a...

Response to habitat fragmentation may not be generalized among species, in particular for plant communities with a variety of dispersal traits. Calcareous grasslands are one of the most species-rich habitats in Central Europe, but abandonment of traditional management has caused a dramatic decline of calcareous grassland species. In the Southern Franconian Alb in Germany, reintroduction of rota...

Plant species richness of permanent grasslands has often been found to be significantly associated with productivity. Concentrations of nutrients in biomass can give further insight into these productivity-plant species richness relationships, e.g. by reflecting land use or soil characteristics. However, the consistency of such relationships across different regions has rarely been taken into a...

U nderstanding environm ental controls on vegetation spring onset (SO) in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is crucial to diagnosing regional ecosystem responses to climate change. We investigated environm ental controls on the SO of the TP grasslands using satellite vegetation index (VI) from the 3rd Global Inventory M odeling and M apping Studies (GlMMSSg) product, w ith in situ air tem perature (Ta) ...