Browsing is an important mortality factor in seedlings and small plants. However, the induced changes in the architecture of plant survivors may influence subsequent browsing, opening the possibility of compensating for the damage done. How jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) browsing affects the growth and architecture of small individuals of honey mesquite, Prosopis glandulosa var. torreyana, a t...

A recently completed (Nov. 2009), Cornell University project that focused on controlling weeds in strawberries during the establishment year by transplanting dormant berry plants into a killed cover crop showed great promise, but revealed a barrier. Most growers had difficulty planting through the cover crop. This resulted in slower establishment during the first month and possibly caused skips...

Plants may induce small-scale heterogeneity in soil nutrients, forming fertile islands. However, this process may depend on plant spices, plant developmental stages and habitat conditions. Vegetation cover in arid and semi-arid regions is mostly in the form of plant patches and bare soil of inter-patch areas, this form of vegetation cover can be useful to study plants impact on soil to get appl...

Forty years after conversion from chaparral to perennial veldt grass in the San Dimas Experimental Forest, we compared land surface and soil properties between areas of the two vegetation types. Our objective was to evaluate the impact of this vegetation conversion on the soil physical properties likely to impact zero-order watershed hydrology. In three watersheds of each vegetation type, surfa...

The aim of this study was to determine the relative effects of landscape-scale management intensity, local management intensity and edge effect on diversity patterns of insect-pollinated vs. non-insect pollinated forbs in meadows and wheat fields. Nine landscapes were selected differing in percent intensively used agricultural area (IAA), each with a pair of organic and conventional winter whea...

Pakistani Himalaya stretches over a wide range of altitudinal gradients and supports high diversity of medicinal plants that are an important source for rural livelihood. Altitudinal effects on ground vegetation have already been indicated but ground vegetation is also under severe threat of grazing and over collection. The present study investigated the effect of altitude on medicinal plants a...