A landscape perspective is generally recognized as essential for conservation biology. The main underlying reason is that species respond to features of the landscape at various spatial scales, for example habitat area, connectivity, and matrix habitats. However, there is also an “historical” component of a landscape perspective, which has not received similar attention. The underlying reasons ...

Perennial biomass from grasslands managed for conservation of soil and biodiversity can be harvested for bioenergy. Until now, the quantity and quality of harvestable biomass from conservation grasslands in Minnesota, USA, was not known, and the factors that affect bioenergy potential from these systems have not been identified. We measured biomass yield, theoretical ethanol conversion efficien...

The Rı́o de la Plata grasslands (RPG) in South America are one of the largest temperate grasslands regions of the world. This region plays a key role in international crop production and land use change rates in some areas are among the highest detected nowadays. Our objective was to characterize the spatial heterogeneity of land use change dynamics in the RPG and to relate it with biophysical a...

Grassland agriculture is experiencing a number of threats including declining profitability and loss of area to other land uses including expansion of the built environment as well as from cropland and forestry. The use of grassland as a natural resource either in terms of existing vegetation and land cover or planting of new species for bioenergy and other nonfood applications presents an oppo...

Rangeland ecosystems cover approximately one-third of the land area in the United States and half of the land area of California. This large land area, coupled with the propensity of grasses to allocate a considerable proportion of their photosynthate belowground, leads to high soil carbon (C) sequestration potential. Annual grasslands typical of the Mediterranean climates of the western United...

BACKGROUND To assess population persistence of species living in heterogeneous landscapes, the effects of habitat on reproduction and survival have to be investigated. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We used a matrix population model to estimate habitat-specific population growth rates for a population of northern wheatears Oenanthe oenanthe breeding in farmland consisting of a mosaic of disti...

BACKGROUND By the end of this century, the potential climate-biome of the southern Kenai Peninsula is forecasted to change from transitional boreal forest to prairie and grasslands, a scenario that may already be playing out in the Caribou Hills region. Here, spruce (Picea × lutzii Little [glauca × sitchensis]) forests were heavily thinned by an outbreak of the spruce bark beetle (Dendroctonus ...

In Switzerland, the traditional three-stage grassland farming system consists of grazed or cut grasslands along a gradient from lowland to alpine elevations. We measured carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes at three grassland sites (400, 1000, 2000 m elevation) and estimated carbon sequestration for two years (2006 and 2007). Grasslands at higher elevations (>1000 m), managed at lower intensities, exhib...

*The impact of various agricultural practices on soil biodiversity and, in particular, on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), is still poorly understood, although AMF can provide benefit to plants and ecosystems. Here, we tested whether organic farming enhances AMF diversity and whether AMF communities from organically managed fields are more similar to those of species-rich grasslands or conve...