Woodland ecosystems of the world have been changed by land use demands, altered fire regimes, invasive species and climate change. Reduced fire frequency is recognised as a main causative agent for Pinus–Juniperus L. (piñon–juniper) expansion in North American woodlands. Piñon–juniper control measures, including prescribed fire, are increasingly employed to restore sagebrush steppe communities....

Widespread invasion by Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) in the Intermountain West has drastically altered native plant communities. We investigated whether Elymus multisetus (big squirreltail) is evolving in response to invasion and what traits contribute to increased performance. Seedlings from invaded areas exhibited significantly greater tolerance to B. tectorum competition and a greater ability...

Timber is frequently salvage-logged following high-severity stand-replacing wildfire, but the practice is controversial. One concern is that compound disturbances could result in more deleterious impacts than either disturbance individually, with mechanical operations having the potential to set back recovering native species and increase invasion by non-native species. Following the 2002 Cone ...

Worldwide, the landscape homogeneity of extensive monocultures that characterizes conventional agriculture has resulted in the development of specialized and interacting multitrophic pest complexes. While integrated pest management emphasizes the need to consider the ecological context where multiple species coexist, management recommendations are often based on single-species tactics. This app...

Current paradigm suggests that spatial and temporal competition for resources limit an exotic invader, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.), which once established, alters fire regimes and can result in annual grass dominance in sagebrush steppe. Prescribed fire and fire surrogate treatments (mowing, tebuthiuron, and imazapic) are used to reduce woody fuels and increase resistance to exotic annuals,...

Background:Compsobuthus persicus scorpion is endemic to Iran and exists in Hormozgan, Bushehr and Fars provinces. The aim of this study was to assess the clinical manifestations of envenomation by C. persicus and the effect of its venom on the biochemical, hematological, and urinalysis parameters of the stung patients. Methods: In this analytical and retrospective study, all medical charts of ...

Background The present study was conducted approximately 40 years ago, but its results have not been released. At the time of this study, the importance of the gut microbiota was not fully understood. Methods Meriones persicus rodents, as one of the major reservoirs of Yersinia pestis bacterium in Iran, were compared in a disease endemic area (Akanlu, Hamadan, western Iran) and a non-endemic ...

The present study was performed to assess the infection of rodent reservoirs and their fleas to plaque agent (Yersinia pestis) in Kurdistan and North Khorasan respectively as active endemic and inactive nonendemic foci in the country. Live traps were used to collect rodents in spring and summer 2015. Totally, 109 rodents were trapped. Rodents of genus Apodemus witherbyi (40.5%) were the most ab...

Borrelia anserina is a pathogen of high importance in poultry industry which causes fowl spirocheatosis. This study was designed to determine the prevalence of Borrelia anserina in poultry soft ticks, Argas persicus collected from birds and poultry farms. A total of 1500 ticks were collected from poultry farms located in Faisalabad and Kamalia, Pakistan. B. anserina was isolated using BSK-H med...

An annotated list of the non-native plant species found in eight eastern Wisconsin natural areas and their relative abundances in 1988 is presented. Except for European buckthorn, aliens were scattered and at low densities, several found mainly along trails. The most seriously invaded sites were Sanders Park and Muskego Park, areas with numerous hiking trails and relatively open, oak-dominated ...