rangeland ploughing and cultivation using dry land farming crops may be amajor reason for the destruction of natural resources in the semiarid and sub-humid regionswhich may significantly change the composition and reduce the stability of the affectedcommunities. in present research, an abandoned ploughed site was compared with a nearbyreference site in the semiarid rangelands of baharkish, quc...

Question: How do different regeneration scenarios shape species composition at two stages of plant community establishment (emergence and net recruitment) in an early succession? Location: Northern Spain. Methods: In a recently ploughed field, we created eight regene­ ration scenarios with light, water and nitrogen availability (five replicates each). Seedlings of all species were monitored fro...

The widespread replacement of wild ungulate herbivores by domestic livestock in African savannas is composed of two interrelated phenomena: (1) loss or reduction in numbers of individual wildlife species or guilds and (2) addition of livestock to the system. Each can have important implications for plant community dynamics. Yet very few studies have experimentally addressed the individual, comb...

The difficulties specialized phytophagous insects face in finding habitats with an appropriate host should constrain their dispersal. Within the concept of metacommunities, this leads to the prediction that host-plant specialists should sort into local assemblages according to the local environmental conditions, i.e. habitat conditions, whereas assemblages of host-plant generalists should depen...

The prediction of pest-control functioning by multi-predator communities is hindered by the non-additive nature of species functioning. Such non-additivity, commonly termed an emergent multi-predator effect, is known to be affected by elements of the ecological context, such as the structure and composition of vegetation, in addition to the traits of the predators themselves. Here we report mes...

Exploring the link between above- and belowground biodiversity has been a major theme of recent ecological research, due in large part to the increasingly well-recognized role that soil microorganisms play in driving plant community processes. In this study, we utilized a field-based tree experiment in Minnesota, USA, to assess the effect of changes in plant species richness and phylogenetic di...

plant litter is an important factor for soil conservation and sustainability that could modify soil chemical properties and increase the plant biomass production. the aim of this research was to compare plant litter chemical composition and its effects on soil properties in three species including hordeum bulbosum, poa bulbosa, bromus tectorum. first, soil samples were taken in the depth of 0-3...

Plant species, plant community diversity and microbial interactions can significantly impact soil microbial communities, yet there are few data on the interactive effects of plant species and plant community diversity on soil bacterial communities. We hypothesized that plant species and plant community diversity affect soil bacterial communities by setting the context in which bacterial interac...