Paper has been made from grasses and other non-wood materials for over 1900 years. Wood is a relatively new papermaking fibre, only 100 years old. Today the commercial non-wood pulp production accounts for 6% of the global pulp production. The main source for the raw material is plants of the Gramineae family. Research on nonwood material has concentrated on grasses like Miscanthus, Phalaris, S...

Early plant stages may be the most vulnerable within the life cycle of plants especially in arid ecosystems. Interference from exotic species may exacerbate this condition. We evaluated germination, seedling survival and growth in the endangered Caribbean cactus Harrisia portoricensis, as a function of sunlight exposure (i.e., growing under open and shaded areas), different shade providers (i.e...

In the past two centuries the New Zealand environment has changed dramatically under the impact of European colonisation and the establishment of intensive agricultural systems. This massive environmental shift has led to major changes in the abundance of our native fauna. Many previously abundant species have been reduced to low numbers or even extinction, but a few endemic species have manage...

The South African grass-feeding leafhopper Vilargus Theron is revised. Vilargus pumilicans (Naudé) is redescribed and the specific status of V. campanus (Naudé) is discussed. Seven new species of Vilargus are described: V. bicornicans sp. n., V. budenticans sp. n., V. dentulicans sp. n., V. lobulicans sp. n., V. simulans sp. n., V. triquetricans sp. n. and V. trunculicans sp. n. A key is provid...

Fragmentation analysis of the Whitewater watershed, in southeast Minnessota, revealed 4 structural measures of grass-shrub habitat that were significant predictors of sensitive species population densities. Models were developed using simple linear regression and further refined to incorporate spatial autocorrelation using a Moran’s test. Significant variables were divided into a five class ord...

Plant species richness and productivity often show a positive relationship, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood, especially at the plant species level. We examined how growing plants in species mixture influences intraspecific rates of short-term carbon (C-) translocation, and determined whether such short-term responses are reflected in biomass yields. We grew monocultures a...

Invasive species’ phenologies often contrast with those of native species, representing opportunities for detection of invasive species with multi-temporal remote sensing. Detection is especially critical for ecosystem-transforming species that facilitate changes in disturbance regimes. The African C4 grass, Pennisetum ciliare, is transforming ecosystems on three continents and a number of neot...

In the present study, we reported infection with eighteen species of the genus Dactylogyrus, belong to thefamily Dactylogyridae from five breeder fish species, including common carp (Cyprinus carpio), grass carp(Ctenopharyngodon idella), silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), big head carp (Hypophthalmichthysnobilis) and black carp (Myelopharyngodon piceus) which introduced and imported to ...

Mounting evidence of wildlife population gains from targeted conservation practices has prompted the need to develop and evaluate practices that are integrated into production agriculture systems and targeted toward specific habitat objectives. However, effectiveness of targeted conservation actions across broader landscapes is poorly understood. We evaluated multiregion, multispecies avian den...

Barrier islands are complex and dynamic systems that provide critical ecosystem services to coastal populations. Stability of these systems is threatened by rising sea level and the potential for coastal storms to increase in frequency and intensity. Recovery of dune-building grasses following storms is an important process that promotes topographic heterogeneity and long-term stability of barr...