Picture a pasture open to all (...) As a rational being, each herdsman seeks to maximize his gain. Explicitly or implicitly, more or less consciously, he asks, "What is the utility to me of adding one more animal to the herd?" This utility has one negative and one positive component. 1) The positive component is a function of the increment of one animal. Since the herdsman receives all the proc...

Shifts from productive kelp beds to impoverished sea urchin barrens occur globally and represent a wholesale change to the ecology of sub-tidal temperate reefs. Although the theory of shifts between alternative stable states is well advanced, there are few field studies detailing the dynamics of these kinds of transitions. In this study, sea urchin herbivory (a 'top-down' driver of ecosystems) ...

Software quality is a complex concept containing a large number of quality criteria. These quality criteria are usually interactive where preference outcome of one criterion over another criterion is always influenced by the remaining criteria. However, to avoid complexity researchers always tend to construct independent criteria which causing some bias effect in evaluation. This paper presents...

Understanding functional traits that capture species response to overgrazing can help optimize ecosystem functioning. However, most studies have ignored the effects of life-form on above- and below-ground overgrazing. Here, we determined whether respond similarly overgrazing; does vary between annual vs. perennial life-forms. We compared common grassland fenced overgrazed meadows at four elevat...