Over eight years we measured the effects of plant community composition, vegetation structure, and livestock grazing on occurrence of three grassland bird species-Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta), Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris), and Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum)-at sites in central California during breeding season. In California's Mediterranean-type climatic region, co...

Recent theory suggests that attraction to conspecifics during habitat selection can be one potential, yet untested, mechanism for animal sensitivity to habitat fragmentation. The least flycatcher Empidonax minimus, a highly territorial migratory bird, has previously been shown to be attracted to conspecifics and sensitive to patch size by avoiding small patches of riparian forest in Montana, US...

Short-scale interactions yield large-scale vegetation patterns that, in turn, shape ecosystem function across landscapes. Fairy circles, which are circular patches bare of vegetation within otherwise continuous landscapes, are characteristic features of semiarid grasslands. We report the occurrence of submarine fairy circle seascapes in seagrass meadows and propose a simple model that reproduce...

A multiple regression model was used to analyse if the structure of vegetation and soil patches in grazed units (pastures) can be used as explanatory variables to predict the prevalence of Dicrocoelium dendriticum, a common parasite of cattle and sheep, in grazing cattle stocks on the Baltic island of Öland in southern Sweden. The scale dependency was evaluated by comparing three levels of spat...

Increasing demands on the accuracy and thematic resolution of vegetation community maps from remote sensing imagery has created a need for novel image analysis techniques. We present a case study for vegetation mapping of the Lake Tahoe Basin which fulfills many of the requirements of the Federal Geographic Data Committee base-level mapping (FGDC, 1997) by using hyperspatial Ikonos imagery anal...

There is an increasing interest in the use of high-resolution multispectral data (acquired by small format digital air-borne imaging sensors) for large-scale vegetation mapping. Recent studies have focused on the potential of air-borne multispectral data as a means of identifying plant communities. This study is concerned with establishing a formal relationship between spatial resolution and la...

introduction hoor-al-azim wetland is one of the most important wildlife refuges and marine ecosystems in the south-west of iran where structure and function has been significantly affected by different changes during the 2 recent decades. changes in water regime of hoor-al-azim wetland and human activities are some of the most important factors. changes in water regime and anthropogenic activit...

Desertification in degraded grasslands is manifested through the development of bare sandy patches, which eventually lead to habitat fragmentation. The ability these patches regenerate naturally in-situ soil seed banks not well understood. To fill this knowledge gap, we randomly selected 24 with areas ranging from 19 898 m 2 a desertified grassland Horqin land, Northern China determine whether ...