For large herbivores, predation-risk, habitat structure and population density are often reported as major determinants of group size variation within and between species. However, whether the underlying causes of these relationships imply an ecological adaptation or are the result of a purely mechanistic process in which fusion and fragmentation events only depend on the rate of group meeting,...

To prevent potentially unsuitable activities during vegetation restoration, it is important to examine the impact of historical restoration activities on the target ecological system to inform future restoration policies. Taking the Loess Plateau of China as an example, a regionalization method and corresponding scheme were proposed to select suitable vegetation types (forested lands, woody gra...

In farmland landscapes worldwide, there are pervasive trends for either intensification or abandonment. Intensification is a widely recognised driver of wild bee declines, but little known about the consequences land abandonment, though it involves major habitat shifts from fallows, pastures and meadows, to shrublands forests. Focusing on Mediterranean landscape, we investigated long-term chang...

In response to global climate change, future precipitation changes are expected profoundly influence soil respiration in arid and semiarid areas. However, few studies focus on CO2 emissions from soils undergoing mountain shrublands winter. A precipitation-manipulation experiment with three levels of (30% decreased (DP), ambient (AP), 30% increased (IP)) was performed examine the effects variabl...

Cistus ladanifer L. (Cistaceae) occupies extensive areas as a dominant species (shrublands) or is associated to other major forest typologies in the Iberian Peninsula. shrublands are mostly present oligotrophic lands with little valorisation and management they develop over years (up 20-years-old) promote ignition perpetuation of fire. To contribute proper such systems, 5-year-old dense shrubla...

Fire management practices affect alien plant invasions in diverse ways. I considered the impact of six fire management practices on alien invasions: fire suppression, forest fuel reduction, prescription burning in crown-fire ecosystems, fuel breaks, targeting of noxious aliens, and postfire rehabilitation. Most western United States forests have had fire successfully excluded for unnaturally lo...

Aim This study evaluates the long-term history of grassland, heathland and shrubland communities that are high priorities for conservation in the north-eastern US and support numerous globally rare species. Such an historical perspective is necessary in order to develop appropriate conservation and management approaches for these communities. Location The study area encompasses the coastal regi...

Rainfall simulations allow for controlled comparisons of runoff and erosion among ecosystems and land cover conditions. Runoff and erosion can increase greatly following fire, yet there are few rainfall simulation studies for post-fire plots, particularly after severe fire in semiarid forest. We conducted rainfall simulations shortly after a severe fire (Cerro Grande) in ponderosa pine forest n...

Although shrublands, savannas and grasslands account for 37% of the world’s terrestrial area, not many studies have analysed the role of these ecosystems in the global carbon cycle at a regional scale. The MODIS Gross Primary Production (GPP) product is used here to help bridge this gap. In this study, the agreement between the MODIS GPP product (GPPm) and the GPP Eddy Covariance tower data (GP...