background and aim: iran has experienced a great variation in women's status in recent years. there is a little knowledge on how and why advancing gender equality and equity and the empowerment of women play a role in recent fertility reduction in the country. this study was conducted to gain insight into the role of gender beliefs and women's empowerment in the couples 'experien...

Shrub encroachment in arid and semiarid rangelands, a worldwide phenomenon, results in a heterogeneous landscape characterized by a mosaic of nutrient-depleted barren soil bordered by nutrient-enriched shrubby areas known as ‘‘fertile islands.’’ Even though shrub encroachment is considered as a major contributor to rangeland degradation, little is known about mechanisms favoring the reversibili...

Coal-mine sedimentation pools are extrazonal habitats in which the anthropogenic changes of all historic, abiotic, and biotic components, followed by conditions extreme environmental stress, lead to formation novel ecosystems. Our study aims (i) classify vegetation on basis floristic ecological criteria, (ii) detect main gradients responsible for diversity vegetation, (iii) present selection sp...

We assessed the potential for using optical functional types as effective markers to monitor changes in vegetation in floodplain meadows associated with changes in their local environment. Floodplain meadows are challenging ecosystems for monitoring and conservation because of their highly biodiverse nature. Our aim was to understand and explain spectral differences among key members of floodpl...

Soil fertility in smallholder farming areas is known to vary strongly on multiple scales. This study measures the sensitivity of the recorded satellite signal to on-farm soil fertility treatments applied to five crop types, and quantifies this fertilization effect with respect to within-field variation, between-field variation and field position in the catena. Plant growth was assessed in 5–6 p...

Sustainable and rational management of agrophytocenoses depends on various bioindices and methods of application, particularly the development and protection of soil resources (Lai et al., 2002). Among other indices, enzyme activity is proposed as a universal index of soil fertility and contamination (Dilly et al., 2003). To ascertain and to make a comparison of bioactivity variation during the...

• We aimed to identify the limits of savanna across Africa, Australia and South America. We based our investigation on the rich history of hypotheses previously examined: that the limits of savanna are variously determined by rainfall, rainfall seasonality, soil fertility and disturbance. • We categorized vegetation on all continents as 'savanna' (open habitats with a C(4) grass layer) or 'not-...

A conceptual model that provides a means of viewing changes in vegetation as responses to weathering of soil mantles over thousands ofyears has been developed from investigations of vegetation communities on a soil chronosequence on sand dunes extending back in time to at least the last interglacial. Progressive and retrogressive phases in natural plant succession are indicated by this sequence...