Phosphorus (P) and sulfur (S) in soil and parent material are important in the accumulation of nitrogen (N) and organic carbon (C org ) in soils. In an observational study, the role of P and S in soil development was explored on a small knoll in the Wasatch subalpine summer range of central Utah that had been severely eroded during uncontrolled grazing in the late 1800s. Vegetation, litter, soi...

Phytosterols (PS, comprising plant sterols and plant stanols) have been proven to lower LDL-cholesterol concentrations. The dose-response relationship for this effect has been evaluated in several meta-analyses by calculating averages for different dose ranges or by applying continuous dose-response functions. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. So far, the calculation of average...

We assume there is a slight difference in the average value of the gene expression for a group of genes between two strata/time periods. There is no prior knowledge on which genes where the gene expression differs between the two strata. We test out the power of a large number of test statistics in order to identify whether the observed difference between the averages is significant. Secondly, ...

During detachment folding, the relationship between differential uplift and shortening depends on the mechanism of fold growth, such as limb rotation or hinge migration, and may vary over the lifetime of a fold. Thus, neither long-term shortening rates nor the present fold geometry unambiguously constrain the kinematics of fold growth. Where rivers cut through growing anticlines, fl ights of ab...

Ongoing biodiversity decline impairs ecosystem processes, including pollination. Flower visitation, an important indicator of pollination services, is influenced by plant species richness. However, the spatio-temporal responses of different pollinator groups to plant species richness have not yet been analyzed experimentally. Here, we used an experimental plant species richness gradient to anal...

The paper deals with the study of the spatial distribution and the design of sampling plans for estimating nymph densities of the grape leafhopper Scaphoideus titanus Ball in vine plant canopies. In a reference vineyard sampled for model parameterization, leaf samples were repeatedly taken according to a multistage, stratified, random sampling procedure, and data were subjected to an ANOVA. The...

Evidence for a major extinction of insect herbivores is provided by presence-absence data for 51 plant-insect associations on 13,441 fossil plant specimens, spanning the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary in southwestern North Dakota. The most specialized associations, which were diverse and abundant during the latest Cretaceous, almost disappeared at the boundary and failed to recover in younger st...

The within-plant distribution of soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura has been attributed to various causes, yet it is unclear which factor or combination of factors most influence aphid within-plant distribution. Understanding soybean aphid distribution within the soybean canopy is important both in developing sampling programs and in evaluating injury. Because natural enemies have the pote...