Federal mandates to increase biofuel production in North America will require large new tracts of land with potential to negatively impact biodiversity, yet empirical information to guide implementation is limited. Because the temperate grassland biome will be a production hotspot for many candidate feedstocks, production is likely to impact grassland birds, a group of major conservation concer...

Landscape heterogeneity is regarded as a key factor for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function in production landscapes. We investigated whether grassland sites at close vicinity to forested areas are more frequently used by bats. Considering that bats are important consumers of herbivorous insects, including agricultural pest, this is important for sustainable land management. Bat act...

European farmland biodiversity is declining due to land use changes towards agricultural intensification or abandonment. Some Eastern European farming systems have sustained traditional forms of use, resulting in high levels of biodiversity. However, global markets and international policies now imply rapid and major changes to these systems. To effectively protect farmland biodiversity, unders...

0006-3207/$ see front matter 2009 Published by doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2009.03.032 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 1786 467831; fax E-mail addresses: [email protected] (G. Lye), k.j.par [email protected] (J. Osborne), [email protected] stir.ac.uk (D. Goulson). Bumblebees (Bombus spp.) play a key role within agricultural systems as pollinators of crops and wild flowers. However, this taxon has s...

Grassland fire is one of the most important disturbance factors of the natural ecosystem. Climate factors influence the occurrence and development of grassland fire. An analysis of the climate conditions of fire occurrence can form the basis for a study of the temporal and spatial variability of grassland fire. The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of monthly time scale climate fact...

introduction the challenges related to the preservation of mongolia’s pastureland, its quality and condition are key concerns for the livestock sector. however, scientists, researchers and government agencies tend to focus solely on rangeland ecology and livestock. all too often, herders are overlooked and omitted from the discourse. this is the main reason i want to talk about people of the mo...

The conclusions of a recent study by Wright and Wimberly (1) suggesting that corn/ soy cultivation in the Western Corn Belt (WCB) “threatens grasslands” are questionable because of the methods and data used. The study (1) compared National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Cropland Data Layer (CDL) for 2006 with CDL for 2011 (2) and found 530,000 ha of net “grassland conversion” to corn/so...

Demand for bioenergy is increasing, but the ecological consequences of bioenergy crop production on working lands remain unresolved. Corn is currently a dominant bioenergy crop, but perennial grasslands could produce renewable bioenergy resources and enhance biodiversity. Grassland bird populations have declined in recent decades and may particularly benefit from perennial grasslands grown for ...