San Antonio is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the USA. Urban sprawl may significantly impact ecosystem services and functions but such effects are difficult to quantify and watershed-level estimates are seldom attempted. The objective of the study reported here was to determine whether LANDSAT MSS could be used to quantify changes in land-use and ecosystem services due to urba...

Forage is one of the main products of rangeland ecosystems, which is threatened by different anthropogenic disturbances. This study was conducted to assess the impact of urbanization, rural development, agriculture extension, road construction and industry on forage production in an arid and semiarid rangeland using InVEST habitat quality model in spring 2018. In 14 rangeland types, thirty 2×1m...

Interrupting the processes which control ecosystem resources has dramatic impacts on the rangeland conditions. To protect ecosystems and landscape, it needs to understand the ecosystem processes which regulate the ecosystem resources. As main components of ecosystems, patches and inter-patches play important roles in energy and materials cascade. Ecologically, functional parameters such as stab...

interrupting the processes which control ecosystem resources has dramatic impacts on the rangeland conditions. to protect ecosystems and landscape, it needs to understand the ecosystem processes which regulate the ecosystem resources. as main components of ecosystems, patches and inter-patches play important roles in energy and materials cascade. ecologically, functional parameters such as stab...

Integrating use of seeded perennial cool-season grass pastures with native rangeland can increase available forage and provide a high plane of nutrition for grazing livestock. Our objective was to compare performance of yearling beef heifers grazing native rangeland with those grazing an integrated system that included seeded forages. Twice-replicated, 3-ha pastures seeded to either ‘Rosana’ we...

This article reports a rapid method for rangeland assessments in Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda by harnessing pastoralists’ indigenous knowledge among the Orma, Afar and Karamojong pastoralists. The study developed and evaluated a methodological framework for conducting joint assessments with pastoralist range scouts. The framework has four components: selection of ecological and anthropogenic indi...

S. K. Morgan Ernest*, Brian J. Enquist, James H. Brown, Eric L. Charnov, James F. Gillooly, Van M. Savage, Ethan P. White, Felisa A. Smith, Elizabeth A. Hadly, John P. Haskell, S. Kathleen Lyons, Brian A. Maurer, Karl J. Niklas and Bruce Tiffney Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ...

www.frontiersinecology.org © The Ecological Society of America T concept of ecosystem services – the benefits that society receives from ecosystems (Daily 1997) – has been the subject of considerable attention in recent years, but most studies to date have focused on the supply (Sala and Paruelo 1997; Havstad et al. 2007; Carpenter et al. 2009; Raudsepp-Hearne et al. 2010) and valuation (Costan...

We tested the accuracy of an atmospheric correction method that depends on clear water bodies to infer solar and atmospheric parameters for radiative transfer equations by measuring the reflectance signature of four prominent south Texas rangeland plants with the Earth Resource Technology (LANDSAT) satellite multispectral scanner (MSS) and a ground-based Exotech Model 20 spectroradiometer. The ...