We examined changes in the diversity of herbaceous plant species at colony ( ) sites of the plains vizcacha Lagostomus maximus following local extinctions of this species in semi-arid scrub of central Argentina. These large rodents live in social groups, share a communal burrow system, and forage in a common home range around the burrow system. Through intense herbivory, vizcachas create large ...

The digestibility of crude protein (CP) from tropical legumes in grass-legume mixed diets was studied based on literature data by regressing the digestible CP (digCP) proportion diet. In vivo studies reporting concentration and values ruminants fed with grasses no other feed, were selected for analysis (56 publications, 213 dietary treatments (150 legume forages, 63 grasses)). First, observatio...

Drylands comprise 40% of Earth's land mass and are critical to food security, carbon sequestration, and threatened and endangered wildlife. Exotic weed invasions, overgrazing, energy extraction, and other factors have degraded many drylands, and this has placed an increased emphasis on dryland restoration. The increased restoration focus has generated a wealth of experience, innovations and emp...

The Navajo Nation is located on the Colorado Plateau and encompasses over 25,000 square miles across Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The distinctive physiography of this region has resulted in a major mining area for uranium. The Navajo Nation includes intensely dissected rocky regions and has elevations that range from about 3,000 feet to slightly over 10,000 feet. The region is known for a wid...

Tropical savannas including those of central Brazil (Cerrado) serve as an important regulator of energy and mass exchange with the atmosphere. However, the effects of interactions between grasses and deeply rooted trees and shrubs on energy and water fluxes of savannas are not well understood. In this study, eddy-covariance measurements were used to observe and compare the energy balance and ev...

Global change is predicted to cause shifts in species distributions and biodiversity in arctic tundra. We applied factorial warming and nutrient manipulation to a nutrient and species poor alpine/arctic heath community for seven years. Vascular plant abundance in control plots increased by 31%. There were also notable changes in cover in the nutrient and combined nutrient and warming treatments...

Novel fire regimes are an important cause and consequence of global environmental change that involve interactions among biotic, climatic, and human components of ecosystems. Plant flammability is key to these interactions, yet few studies directly measure flammability or consider how multiple species with different flammabilities interact to produce novel fire regimes. Deserts of the southwest...

Fallow deer did not prefer either of the two main canopy species (silver beech, Nothofagus menziesii, and radiata pine, Pinus radiata), or any of the common indigenous shrubs, ferns, herbs and monocotyledons in three habitat types (beech, shrub-hardwood, and exotic forest). They did prefer all the common sub canopy tree species, and these comprised the bulk of diet in all habitats. Broadleaf (G...