Water shortage in the arid-semiarid regions of China seriously hampers ecosystem construction. Therefore, elucidation of the mechanisms by which vegetation in that area responds to drought stress may enable us to improve utilization of limited water resources and thus contend with the problem of drought and water shortage. We studied Bothriochloa ischaemum, a native grass species, conducted pot...

Widely-held, untested assumptions in many prairies are that high-intensity fires conducted during droughts will decrease native herbaceous species richness and lead to rapid invasions by alien species. We compared native and exotic herbaceous species richness and aboveground herbaceous biomass one year following the application of highintensity growing-season fires in Texas coastal prairie. Fir...

Article history: Received 5 October 2015 Received in revised form 17 October 2016 Accepted 21 October 2016 Available online 28 October 2016 Elevated CO2 and drought are key consequences of climate change and affect soil processes and plant growth. This study investigated the effects of elevated CO2 and drought on themicrobial biomass and enzymatic activities in the rhizospheres of Bothriochloa ...

The effects of nitrogen (N) addition on the macro- and micronutrient concentrations, storage, and allocation of Bothriochloa ischaemum (L.) Keng, a native forage plant on the Loess Plateau in China remain unclear. We studied the effects of N addition at 0 (CK), 2.5 (N1), 5.0 (N2), and 10.0 (N3) g N m-2 y-1. N addition significantly decreased the available copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and total Cu co...

The objective of this study was to compare an introduced warm-season perennial grass (plains bluestem, Bothriochloa ischaemum) to native tallgrass prairie for cow-calf production. Three systems were used, two based on tallgrass prairie with two different forms of protein supplementation and one based on plains bluestem as the primary forage. The systems were as follows: 1) native tallgrass prai...

Atmospheric CO2 (Ca) concentration has increased significantly during the last 20 000 years, and is projected to double this century. Despite the importance of belowground processes in the global carbon cycle, community-level and single species root responses to rising Ca are not well understood. We measured net community root biomass over 3 years using ingrowth cores in a natural C3–C4 grassla...

Pregnant gilts (n = 126) were assigned randomly to 12 0.4-ha old world-spar bluestem (Bothriochloa ischaemum) pastures in an outdoor swine (Sus scrofa) production system to examine effects of stocking rates (17.5 or 35 gilts/ha; 7 or 14 gilts per pasture) and dietary N on percentage of ground cover, soil nitrate (NO3-) concentration, and reproductive performance. Treatments were arranged factor...

Prescribed burning is a popular method for the control of invasive species; however, research is lacking on the application of fire in a species-specific manner. We assess whether heat sensitivity differences among seeds of Texas grassland species can be used to target invasive species in prescribed burns. We conducted heat treatments on the invasive yellow bluestem (Bothriochloa ischaemum), an...