cover crops cultivation and application of plant growth rhizobacteria are the key factors to enhance agroecosystem health. a field experiment was conducted at the research farm of faculty of agriculture, ferdowsi university of mashhad, iran, during growing season of 2009-2010. a split plot arrangement based on a complete randomized block design with three replications was used. cultivation and ...

Mechanical mastication is increasingly prescribed for wildfire mitigation, yet little is known about the ecological impacts of this fuels treatment. Mastication shreds trees into woodchips as an alternative to tree thinning and burning the resulting slash, which can create soil disturbances that favor exotic plants. Previous research on mastication has not simultaneously considered both the res...

determination of the relationships between soil and plant cover indispensible in the in planning and managementof the arid regions, the aim being to revitalize plant cover, conserve soil and to combat desertification. among factorsaffecting plant cover, particularly in arid and semiarid areas are soil traits. during the present study, the effect ofhaloxylon aphyllum cultivation on soil physioch...

Plant species composition, species abundances, and species richness were strongly recruitment limited in a 4-yr experiment in which seeds of up to 54 species were added to patches of native grassland. Four field seasons after a one-time addition of seed, many added species were still present and reproducing, with plots seeded at the highest rate having species richness that was 83% greater and ...

While exotic plant species often come to dominate disturbed communities, long-term patterns of invasion are poorly known. Here we present data from 40 yr of continuous vegetation sampling, documenting the temporal distribution of exotic plant species in old field succession. The relative cover of exotic species decreased with time since abandonment, with significant declines occurring 20 yr pos...

Although the distribution and structure of pinyon-juiper woodlands in the southwestern United States are thought to be the result of historic fluctuations in regional climatic conditions, more recent increases in the areal extent, tree density, soil erosion rates and loss of understory plant diversity are attributed to heavy grazing by domestic livestock and interruption of the natural fire reg...

Herbivores are important drivers of plant species coexistence and community assembly. However, detailed mechanistic information on how herbivores affect dominance hierarchies between plant species is scarce. Here, we used data of a multi-site herbivore exclusion experiment in grasslands to assess changes in the cover of 28 plant species in response to aboveground pesticide. application. Moreove...

Determination of the relationships between soil and plant cover indispensible in the in planning and managementof the arid regions, the aim being to revitalize plant cover, conserve soil and to combat desertification. Among factorsaffecting plant cover, particularly in arid and semiarid areas are soil traits. During the present study, the effect ofHaloxylon aphyllum Cultivation on soil physioch...

Understory plant communities play critical ecological roles in forest ecosystems. Both above- and below-ground ecosystem properties and processes influence these communities but relatively little is known about such effects at fine (i.e., one to several meters within-stand) scales, particularly for forests in which the canopy is dominated by a single species. An improved understanding of these ...