Many studies have reported the phytotoxicity of allelopathic compounds under controlled conditions. However, more field studies are required to provide realistic evidences for the significance of allelopathic interference in natural communities. We conducted a 2-years field experiment in a semiarid plant community (NE Spain). Specifically, we planted juvenile individuals and sowed seeds of Sals...

Temperate grasslands are a species-rich ecosystem that may be important in mitigating the increase in atmospheric CO2. The effect of shrub invasion on CO2 fluxes in Northern Great Plains grasslands is not known. The objectives of this research were to determine CO2 and water vapor fluxes over a grazed mixed-grass prairie (prairie site) and a mixed-grass prairie that has extensive invasion of sh...

The paper presents a detailed ecological and caenotic characteristic of dwarf shrub communities growing in the highmountain belt Sangilen Plateau. investigated were referred to class Loiseleurio-Vaccinietea Eggler 1952. birch thickets with prevalence Betula rotundifolia high incidence Caragana jubata , Juniperus pseudosabina J . sibirica Pentaphylloides fruticosa Salix glauca Spiraea alpina uni...

shrublands (Elkins et al., 1986; Lyford and Qashu, 1969; Wainwright et al., 2000), mesquite rangelands (Wood In semiarid environments, vegetation affects surface runoff either and Blackburn, 1981), and piñon-juniper rangelands in by altering surface characteristics (e.g., surface roughness, litter absorption) or subsurface characteristics (e.g., hydraulic conductivity). the USA (Roundy et al., ...

I. Abstract Mechanical fuels treatments are being widely used in fire prone ecosystems where fuel loading poses a hazard, yet little research examining fuel dynamics, fire behavior, and ecological effects exists, especially in the southeastern US. In order to broaden our understanding of these treatments, effects of mechanical mastication ("mowing") were examined in a common pine ecosystem of t...

Effects of large-scale weed invasion on the nature and magnitude of moisture-pulse-driven soil processes in semiarid ecosystems are not clearly understood. The objective of this study was to monitor carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions and changes in soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) following the application of a water pulse in Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. ...

Assessing potential future changes in arctic and boreal plant species productivity, ecosystem composition, and canopy complexity is essential for understanding environmental responses under expected altered climate forcing. We examined potential changes in the dominant plant functional types (PFTs) of the sedge tundra, shrub tundra, and boreal forest ecosystems in ecotonal northern Alaska, USA,...