Invasive species cause serious environmental and economic harm and threaten global biodiversity. We set out to investigate how quickly invasive plant species are currently spreading in China and how their resulting distribution patterns are linked to socio-economic and environmental conditions. A comparison of the invasive plant species density (log species/log area) reported in 2008 with curre...

1 Institute of Biotechnology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China 2Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research (YIC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Yantai 264003, China 3Department of Plant Physiology, Slovak Agricultural University, Tr. A. Hlinku 2, 949 01 Nitra, Slovakia 4Cancer and Genetics Research Complex, University of Florida, 2033 Mowry Road, Room 438, Gai...

behaviour of the dilution characteristics of the coastal waters off tuticorin is presented in thebackground of setting up of a desalination plant. simulations of dispersion and spreading of the proposeddischarges has been carried out. scenarios of dilutions were assessed based on the results of a 2d model using the advection-dispersion theory. it is observed that under prevailing currents in th...

An indigenous species coastal planting trial was established at Ohiwa Spit, eastern Bay of Plenty in mid-2005 by the the Ohiwa Beach Coast Care group, Whakatohea Trust, Environment Bay of Plenty and Opotiki District Council. The aim of the trial was to evaluate the performance of a range of local indigenous ground cover and shrub species planted within three demarcated zones on a relatively sta...

Integrated field studies on environmental levels, bioavailability, biological exposure, and effects SUMMARY Iron-ore is the source of primary iron for the world's iron and steel industries. Almost all (98%) iron-ore is used in steelmaking. Australia and Brazil together dominate the world's iron-ore production, while China is the world's largest iron-ore consumer. In Brazil, iron-ore mining is m...

Across the globe, species distributions are changing in response to climate change and land use change. In parts of the southeastern United States, climate change is expected to result in the poleward range expansion of black mangroves (Avicennia germinans) at the expense of some salt marsh vegetation. The morphology of A. germinans at its northern range limit is more shrub-like than in tropica...

Habitat fragmentation is widespread across ecosystems, detrimentally affecting biodiversity. Although most habitat fragmentation studies have been conducted on macroscopic organisms, microbial communities and fungal processes may also be threatened by fragmentation. This study investigated whether fragmentation, and the effects of fragmentation on plants, altered fungal diversity and function w...

Primary production in coastal wetlands is conventionally thought to be limited by nitrogen. Although the plant community in a pristine salt marsh was found to be limited primarily by nitrogen availability, the bacterial community in the soil was limited by phosphorus. Hence, in coastal wetlands, and possibly in many ecosystems, individual trophic groups may respond differently to nitrogen and p...

Coastal dunes, in particular foredunes, support a resilient ecosystem and reduce coastal vulnerability to storms. In contrast to dry desert dunes, coastal dunes arise from interactions between biological and physical processes. Ecologists have traditionally addressed coastal ecosystems by assuming that they adapt to preexisting dune topography, whereas geomorphologists have studied the properti...

Long-term rotation experiments were established at five sites (Tully, Ingham, Ayr, Mackay and Bundaberg) in sugar growing areas of coastal Queensland, Australia in 1993 and 1994. The rotations or breaks consisted of either pasture, crop other than sugarcane, or bare fallow for various periods of time ranging from 6 to 42 months. The type of break established three basic soil management strategi...