Objective: Ecosystems with mixed species compared to the ones with pure compositions provide a broader range of options in the fields of biodiversity, conservation, protection and restoration. Nearly all forest plantations are established as monocultures, but research has shown that there are potential advantages to be gained by using carefully designed species mixtures in place of monocultures...

Semi-natural calcareous grasslands are of great interest in conservation because of their high species richness, but presently they are threatened by both land abandonment and nitrogen eutrophication. The paper reports on a three-year field experiment conducted in a species-rich Mediterranean grassland to study the effects of nitrogen application coupled with removal of plant litter and artific...

The attractant-decoy hypothesis predicts that focal plants can defend against herbivory by neighboring with preferred plant species when herbivores make decisions at the plant species scale. The repellent-plant hypothesis assumes that focal plants will gain protection by associating with nonpreferred neighbors when herbivores are selective at the patch scale. However, herbivores usually make fo...

Overgrazing of China's grasslands is increasingly causing biodiversity to decline. In degenerated grasslands of northwest China endophyte (Epichloё gansuensis) infected Achnatherum inebrians (drunken horse grass) is becoming widely distributed because of its toxicity to livestock. In this study, we investigated the ecological consequences of endophyte toxicity in this native grass, at three sit...

Germination cues reflect the conditions under which a species is likely to succeed in recruitment. Therefore, knowledge of the seed germination characteristics of key plant species in desertified areas is essential for restoration. The aims of this study were to evaluate the seed germination responses of seven native species, and to explore the implications for vegetation restoration. Seeds of ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Thesium chinense is a hemiparasitic plant that is common in grassland habitats of eastern Asia. Although the physiology of Thesium has been well studied in attempts to control its weedy habit, there have been few ecological investigations of its parasitic life history. Thesium chinense is thought to parasitize species of Poaceae, but evidence remains circumstantial. METHOD...