Biomass and net primary productivity (NPP) are important factors for studying terrestrial carbon storage and the carbon cycle. Using data from existing literature, this study synthesized and analyzed a comprehensive database of direct field observations of forest biomass and NPP for Southwestern China. The biomass of mature natural forests and mature planted forests range from 81.2 Mg ̈ha ́1 to 6...

This study was conducted to characterize periphyton biomass, productivity, and algal species composition, and to examine how these parameters changed seasonally over the course of two years in Walker Branch, a temperate forest stream. Seasonal variations in several factors potentially controlling periphyton (irradiance, streamwater nutrient concentrations, temperature, and the incidence of seve...

Remote sensing is often used to assess rangeland condition and biophysical parameters across large areas. In particular, the relationship between the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and above-ground biomass can be used to assess rangeland primary productivity (seasonal carbon gain or above-ground biomass “yield”). We evaluated the NDVI–yield relationship for a southern Alberta pra...

Twelve diverse strains of Drosophila melanogaster have been examined with respect to their individual fitness components and with respect to their relative performance under competitive and noncompetitive conditions. Individual fitness components included estimates of time until successful copulation (t), fecundity (f) and egg-to-adult viability (v), and a composite index of overall fitness of ...

Soil fauna can be an important regulator of community parameters and ecosystem processes, but there have been few quantitative syntheses of the role of soil fauna in terrestrial soil communities and ecosystems. Here, we conducted a metaanalysis to investigate the impacts of invertebrate soil microand mesofauna (grazers and predators) on plant productivity and microbial biomass. Overall our resu...

United States energy policy mandates increased use of renewable fuels. Restoring grasslands could contribute to a portion of this requirement through biomass harvest for bioenergy use. We investigated which plant community characteristics are associated with differences in biomass yield from a range of realistic native prairie plantings (n = 11; i.e., conservation planting, restoration, and wil...

Recent rising public concerns about climate change and increasing energy costs have led to the need to re-evaluate forest biomass as an alternative energy feedstock. Biomass harvesting could potentially impact ecosystems in various ways, including site productivity and forest stand dynamics. Since these issues influence decision-making, the effects of biomass utilization are primary issues not ...

We investigated changes in species richness, community biomass, and productivity during secondary forest succession in Ziwuling area of the Loess Plateau of China. Species richness(number of taxa) increased as the succession proceeds, and peaked at the climax forest community, but the richness growth gradually slowed down as the succession advanced. Community biomass rapidly increased from the ...

Species richness generally promotes ecosystem productivity, although the shape of the relationship varies and remains the subject of debate. One reason for this uncertainty lies in the multitude of methodological approaches to sampling biodiversity and productivity, some of which can be subjective. Remote sensing offers new, objective ways of assessing productivity and biodiversity. In this stu...