Jon E. Keeley and Philip W. Rundel US Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, Sequoia-Kings Canyon Field Station, Three Rivers, CA 93271, USA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA *Correspondence: E-mail: jon_keeley@u...

Grasslands provide grass and fodder to sustain the growing need for ruminant meat and milk. Soil nutrients in grasslands are removed through withdrawal in these livestock products and through animal manure that originates from grasslands and is spread in croplands. This leads to loss of soil fertility, because globally most grasslands receive no mineral fertilizer. Here we show that phosphorus ...

Net primary productivity (NPP) is an important indicator for grassland resource management and sustainable development. In this paper, the NPP of Sichuan grasslands was estimated by the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach (CASA) model. The results were validated with in situ data. The overall precision reached 70%; alpine meadow had the highest precision at greater than 75%, among the three types o...

Biodiversity can be partitioned into alpha, beta, and gamma components, and beta diversity is not as clearly understood. Biotic homogenization predicts that exotic species should lower beta diversity at global and continental scales, but it is still unclear how exotic species impact beta diversity at smaller scales. Exotic species could theoretically increase or decrease beta diversity relative...

Geographic Information System (GIS) was used as a decision-making tool to target potential geothermal power plant sites in Sabalan geothermal field, northwestern part of Iran. The aim of the study was to identify suitable areas to establish 55 MW geothermal power plants (GPP). After comprehensive study about required data for GPP site selection project, available data in the area on a regional ...

In this study, the chemical composition of the essential oils (EOs) extracted from aerial parts of native populations of Origanum vulgare ssp. vulgare from Iran was compared by GC and GC/MS. Plants were collected at bloom stage from their natural habitats located in Kaleybar, Sabalan, Meshkin Shahr and Chalus regions, respectively from East Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Ardabil and Mazandaran provinces....

Effective solutions for integrating agricultural development and conservation of biodiversity at the landscape scale remain to be identified. We present a case study in an intensively farmed French cereal plain, where the reintroduction of grasslands has been proposed first for conservation purposes in order to protect the Little Bustard, a highly threatened bird species. Monitoring the effects...

Semi-natural grasslands with traditional management are known to be very species-rich, with many plant species strongly associated with the habitat. The last century’s decline of semi-natural grasslands, as a result of land use change and abandonment, has made the remaining semi-natural grassland a high concern for conservation. Since management can be costly and the available resources often a...