Question: Are contemporary herb and tree patterns explained by historic land use practices? If so, are observed vegetation patterns associated with lifehistory characteristics, soil properties, or other environmental variables? Location: Southeastern Ohio, USA. Methods: Using archival records, currently forested sites were identified with distinct land use histories: cultivated, pasture (but no...

Abandoned management has caused many sites with free-standing, large oaks (Quercus robur) to become more shaded. This study shows how forest regrowth affects beetle species associated with old oaks in south-eastern Sweden. Beetles were trapped by pitfall traps placed in hollows and window traps placed near hollows in oak trunks in pasture woodlands. We assessed the influence of forest regrowth,...

Grazing lands in warm-temperate and subtropical North America have become less diverse. Pastures are typically grass monocultures, while rangelands are generally managed for the grass components. Overstocking, selective herbicides, fire exclusion and heavy rates of nitrogen fertilizer have contributed to near exclusion of native, warm-season legumes. The simplicity of managing grass monoculture...

Understanding the response of species to anthropogenic landscape modification is essential to design effective conservation programs. Recently, insects have been used in empirical studies to evaluate the impact of habitat modification and landscape fragmentation on biological diversity because they are often affected rapidly by changes in land use. In this study, the use of the landscape matrix...

The proliferation of disease-vector mosquitoes has been attributed to the effects of land-use change. We investigated the relationship between land use, macroinvertebrate communities, and water chemistry in water-filled containers in native forest, pasture land, and urban land at two locations (Waikanae and Paraparaumu) in the Kapiti region, New Zealand. Larvae of the endemic Culex pervigilans ...

Successful pasture-based milk production systems pivot on balancing dairy cows’ feed requirements with seasonal and annual fluctuations in pasture production. In order to maximise cow production from grazing dairy systems, it is necessary to reach an efficient utilization of grazed grass for feeding cows and the development of appropriate grazing management systems designed to maximize daily pa...

Surveys of butterfly and moth diversity in tropical forest fragments suggest that nocturnality confers a dispersal, and possibly a survival, advantage. The butterfly faunas of smaller fragments were depauperate; in contrast, the species richness of nocturnal moths was similar in all fragments and even in pasture. The lack of correlation between butterfly and moth species richness among fragment...

Combating the legacy of deforestation on tropical biodiversity requires the conversion to forest of large areas of established pasture, where barriers to native plant regeneration include competition with pasture grasses and poor propagule supply (seed availability). In addition, initial woody plants that colonise pasture are often invasive, non-native species whose ecological roles and managem...

Lucerne has been found to be a valuable pasture plant for young sheep (Morley and Axelsen 1965; Reed, Snaydon and Axelsen 1972), but its value for fattening cattle has not been compared with that of grass legume pastures such as phalaris-subterranean clover. The effect of pasture species may depend on stocking rate, and perhaps influence the weights at which different breeds of cattle are ready...