Basal area growth rates for Prosopis glandulosa were quantified for contrasting landscape elements in a subtropical savanna. We hypothesized that growth rates of P. glandulosa plants (1) are a function of seasonal or annual rainfall; and (2) vary with patch type and in the rank order observed for large trees. Prosopis glandulosa growth was responsive to changes in rainfall (!0)974 cm year!1 in ...

bottomland by the now well-entrenched exotic sa1tcedar (Tamarix chinenses). First recorded in Arizona in the late 1800's, sa1tcedar was not an important species until after 1910 (Robinson 1965). Nevertheless, it is now present in pure communities or mixed with virtually all riparian community types, being absent only from a few stands of honey mesquite. Knowledge concerning those avian species ...

Woody Plant Invasion of Grasslands: Establishment of Honey Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa var. glandulosa) on Sites Differing in Herbaceous Biomass and Grazing History Author(s): J. R. Brown and Steve Archer Source: Oecologia, Vol. 80, No. 1 (1989), pp. 19-26 Published by: Springer in cooperation with International Association for Ecology Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4219003 Accessed:...

Prosopis pallida and P. juliflora (commonly referred to as algarroba, mesquite, or kiawe) were introduced from South America to areas in Oceania, Asia, and Africa during the early nineteenth century. In many cases, they naturalized and became widespread. In some places, alien Prosopis species are highly valued for the products and services that they can provide such as shade, cattle fodder, woo...

While some studies aim to generalise the attributes of woody encroachers, examining their functional differences across biogeographic regions may also be instructive. Most of Texas is encroached by Prosopis glandulosa, but on the eastern Edwards Plateau, a limestone plateau with thin soils, P. glandulosa is rare and Juniperus ashei is dominant. We hypothesised that P. glandulosa is excluded fro...

Proliferation of woody plants in grasslands and savannas since the 1800s has been widely documented. In the southwestern United States, increased abundance of honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa var. glandulosa) has been attributed to heavy grazing by livestock. Here, we test the hypothesis that P. glandulosa invasion of grasslands requires, first, reductions in herbaceous biomass and density s...

Herbivory by rodents, lagomorphs and insects may locally constrain woody plant seedling establishment and stand development. Recruitment may therefore depend either upon plant tolerance of herbivory, or low herbivore abundance, during seedling establishment. We tested potential herbivory tolerance by quantifying growth, biomass allocation, and survival of defoliated Prosopis glandulosa seedling...

Hot-water extracts of mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) wood were assayed for their total carbohydrate, reducing sugar, and glucose content. These hydrolysates were then used as complete media for yeast growth. A total of 10 strains of yeasts were evaluated for their biomass production in the mesquite wood hydrolysates. Levels of utilizable carbohydrate proved to be the limiting factor for yeast g...

When woody plant abundance increases in grasslands and savannas, a phenomenon widely observed worldwide, there is considerable uncertainty as to whether aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and ecosystem carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools increase, decrease, or remain the same. We estimated ANPP and C and N pools in aboveground vegetation and surface soils on shallow clay and clay loam so...