Grazing intensity elicits changes in the composition of plant functional groups in both shortgrass steppe (SGS) and northern mixed-grass prairie (NMP) in North America. How these grazing intensity-induced changes control aboveground net primary production (ANPP) responses to precipitation remains a central open question, especially in light of predicted climate changes. Here, we evaluated effec...

The annual carbon (C) budget of grasslands is highly dynamic, dependent on grazing history and on effects of interannual variability (IAV) in climate on carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes. Variability in climatic drivers may directly affect fluxes, but also may indirectly affect fluxes by altering the response of the biota to the environment, an effect termed ‘functional change’. We measured net ecosy...

A 6-year study was conducted in tallgrass prairie to assess the effects of grazing management (cattle stocking densities and grazing systems) on plant community composition and diversity. Treatments included sites grazed season-long (May to October) at 3 stocking densities (3.8, 2.8, and 1.8 hectares per animal unit), ungrazed control sites, and sites under a late-season rest rotation grazing s...

Coastal salt marshes and their provided ecosystem services are threatened by rising sea levels all over the world. In Northern Wadden Sea region, a sea-level rise of 4 mm y −1 was recorded for recent years. Identifying understanding factors that affect sediment deposition determine vertical accretion is crucial management these ecosystems. Even though major processes contributing to sedimentati...

Rangeland ecosystems cover approximately one-third of the land area in the United States and half of the land area of California. This large land area, coupled with the propensity of grasses to allocate a considerable proportion of their photosynthate belowground, leads to high soil carbon (C) sequestration potential. Annual grasslands typical of the Mediterranean climates of the western United...

epizoochory and endozoochory are well-known mechanisms by which seeds are dispersed by animals. since, livestock gather around the watering-points to rest and drink, we expected to find that seeds would be frequently moved to the areas surrounding watering-points, resulting a higher soil seed density (and diversity) closest to the water. we investigated this issue by assessing soil seed bank de...

Dena Biosphere Reserve located in Iran and is a 550 Biosphere Reserve in the worlds. This research was investigated in the two protected and non-protected areas, in a Dena Biosphere Reserve, Kohkeloye va Boyrahmad province, and central zagros forest, southwest of Iran. Inventory methods designed by systemetic-randomaiz method by use the rectangular plots that were 15×30 meters in the 100×100 m ...