Plants can influence the soil they grow in, and via these changes in the soil they can positively or negatively influence other plants that grow later in this soil, a phenomenon called plant-soil feedback. A fascinating possibility is then to apply positive plant-soil feedback effects in sustainable agriculture to promote plant growth and resistance to pathogens. We grew the cut flower chrysant...

Orange hawkweed is a perennial European plant that has colonized roadsides and grasslands in south-central and southeast Alaska. This plant is forming near-monotypic stands, reducing plant diversity, and decreasing pasture productivity. A replicated greenhouse study was conducted in 2006 and repeated in 2007 to determine the efficacy of six herbicides (aminopyralid, clopyralid, picloram, piclor...

Climate change models for many ecosystems predict more extreme climatic events in the future, including exacerbated drought conditions. Here we assess the effects of drought by quantifying temporal variation in community composition of a complex montane meadow landscape characterized by a hydrological gradient. The meadows occur in two regions of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (Gallatin and ...

BACKGROUND The Mongolian steppe is one of the most important grasslands in the world but suffers from aridization and damage from anthropogenic activities. Understanding structure and function of this community is important for the ecological conservation, but has seldom been investigated. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In this study, a total of 324 quadrats located on the three main types of...

High plant functional group diversity has been hypothesized to reduce resource concentrations based on the assumption that species from one functional group acquire resources similarly to one another, while species from other functional groups acquire resources dissimilarly. To determine if functional groups use soil nutrients different from one another, we investigated the impact of removing i...

Bulk density, porosity, and water retention capacity play a key role in limiting root growth nutrient uptake developed technogenic soils. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate impact reclamation technologies different vegetation types on vital physical soil properties formed from carboniferous materials. The case conducted Sośnica hard coal post-mine spoil heaps (Upper Silesian Coal B...