An understanding of the factors controlling plant community composition will allow improved prediction of the responses of plant communities to natural and anthropogenic environmental change. Using monitoring data from 1980 to 2009, we quantified the changes in community composition in Leymus chinensis and Stipa grandis dominated grasslands in Inner Mongolia under long-term grazing-exclusion an...

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Stipa breviflora (Poaceae) is one of the dominant species of the desert steppe in the eastern Eurasian grasslands. Simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were developed for use in genetic diversity studies of this species. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 1954 potentially polymorphic loci were obtained by comparing transcriptome data of eight different S. breviflora individua...

A new name, Piptochaetium fuscum, is provided for a taxon hitherto known as Piptochaetium setosum (Trin.) Arechav. Morphological, anatomical, and molecular studies that argue against including Piptochaetium in Stipa, and hence use of S. purpurata (Phil.) Columbus & J.P. Sm., are cited.

Studies on grasshopper diets have historically employed a range of methodologies, each with certain advantages and disadvantages. For example, some methodologies are qualitative instead of quantitative. Others require long experimental periods or examine population-level effects, only. In this study, we used real-time PCR to examine diets of individual grasshoppers. The method has the advantage...

Loss of plant diversity with increased anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition in grasslands has occurred globally. In most cases, competitive exclusion driven by preemption of light or space is invoked as a key mechanism. Here, we provide evidence from a 9-yr N-addition experiment for an alternative mechanism: differential sensitivity of forbs and grasses to increased soil manganese (Mn) levels....