As wildland fire frequency increases around the globe, a better understanding of the patterns of plant community recovery in burned landscapes is needed to improve rehabilitation efforts. We measured establishment of seeded species, colonization of Bromus tectorum and other nonnative annual plants, and recovery of nonseeded native species in topographically distinct areas within five fires that...

To resist establishment by an invasive plant, a community may require one or more species functionally similar to the invader in their resource acquisition pattern. In this study, communities consisting of native winter annual forbs, non-native annual grasses, native perennials, or a combination of the two native communities were established with and without Centaurea solstitialis to determine ...

To resist establishment by an invasive plant, a community may require one or more species functionally similar to the invader in their resource acquisition pattern. In this study, communities consisting of native winter annual forbs, non-native annual grasses, native perennials, or a combination of the two native communities were established with and without Centaurea solstitialis to determine ...

Predicting the capacity of ecosystems to absorb impacts from disturbance events (resilience), including land-use intensification and landscape fragmentation, is challenging in the face of global change. Little is known about the impacts of fragmentation on ecosystem functioning from a multi-dimensional perspective (multiple traits). This study used 58 500-m linear transects to quantify changes ...

Extreme droughts such as the one that affected California in 2012-2015 have been linked to severe ecological consequences in perennial-dominated communities such as forests. In annual communities, drought impacts are difficult to assess because many species persist through facultative multiyear seed dormancy, which leads to the development of seed banks. Impacts of extreme drought on the abunda...

endozoochory is one of the seed dispersal modes through animal’s digestive systems transmission and the increases rate germination and plant establishment. the aim of this study, investigated the relationship between seed characteristics and the passage through the digestive tract of livestock and domestic animals (cattle, sheep and goats) in the 7 species perennial grass 8 species perennial fo...

1 Determining the mechanisms by which invasive species exclude natives is critical for conserving and restoring native populations in impacted habitats. In recent decades the grass Phragmites australis has been aggressively invading coastal marshes of North America, with monocultures often replacing diverse assemblages of plants. 2 Our objective was to quantify how P. australis modifies the abi...

BACKGROUND The Mongolian steppe is one of the most important grasslands in the world but suffers from aridization and damage from anthropogenic activities. Understanding structure and function of this community is important for the ecological conservation, but has seldom been investigated. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In this study, a total of 324 quadrats located on the three main types of...

In perennial grasslands R. obtusifolius (broad-leaved dock) is often surrounded by certain plant species. Thus, it is hypothesized for the current study that Rumex can affect their neighbouring plant species by allelopathic interactions. To test this hypothesis, in a series of laboratory and field experiments aqueous extracts of green R. obtusifolius leaves were sprayed on seeds of 14 herbaceou...