Anthropogenic impacts on North American grasslands, a highly endangered ecosystem, have led to declines of prairie dogs, a keystone species, over 98% of their historical range. While impacts of this loss on maintenance of grassland biodiversity have been widely documented, much less is known about the consequences on the supply of ecosystem services. Here we assessed the effect of prairie dogs ...

pollen from mesquite (prosopis juliflora) is one of the important causes of immediate hypersensitivity reactions in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. the aim of present study is to produce and purify the recombinant form of allergenic ole e 1-like protein from the pollen of this allergenic tree. immunological and cross-inhibition assays were performed for the evaluation of ige-bindin...

A decorticating machine for Prosopis Africana was developed, tested and evaluated. Prosopis Africana is popular in the Sub-Saharan Africa, with all the parts of the tree useful for medicinal purposes. This study focuses on the threshing of the pod to obtain the seed, which is the most widely used of the parts of the Prosopis Africana tree. Results from preliminary investigations carried out of ...

Initiatives to restore natural ecosystems have had little success in arid and hyperarid ecosystems. In this context, the natural seedling establishment is particularly affected by drought patterns and climatic variability. Likewise, the effect of plant provenance on forest restoration success remains unclear, although previous studies have concluded that some seed locations might be better able...

Mesquites (Prosopis spp.) are thorny leguminous shrubs or trees native to Southwest Asia, Africa, and predominantly North and South America. Introduced as beneficial plants to India, Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt, Kuwait, Australia, U.S.A. (Hawaii), and Brazil, some Prosopis species have become invasive in some of these countries. Mechanical and chemical control methods implemented in the U.S.A...

Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) in woody plants is often investigated using foliar measurements of δ(15) N and is of particular interest in ecosystems experiencing increases in BNF due to woody plant encroachment. We sampled δ(15) N along the entire N uptake pathway including soil solution, xylem sap and foliage to (1) test assumptions inherent to the use of foliar δ(15) N as a proxy for BNF...

The antidiabetic properties of prosopis gum alone and as a bioadhesive base for the delivery of metformin are presented. The bioadhesive value of the gum was commensurate with those of Carbopol 974-P and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (NaCMC). The release of the drug was higher from prosopis gum based bioadhesive formulations than from NaCMC and Carbopol 974-P products. This was shown by the sh...