Overgrazing and grassland degradation are significant environmental problems in the mountain ecosystems of Central Caucasus. The aim was to define criteria for stages provide land managers with useful guidelines on evaluating status. We identified four based a statistical analysis 23 vegetation soil parameters at 126 model plots subalpine meadows. Main indicators were grass height, coverage for...

BACKGROUND Coxiella burnetii is a zoonotic bacterium that infects a wide range of animal species and causes the disease Q fever. Both wild and domestic ruminants may be relevant in the epidemiology of C. burnetii infection. In order to investigate the significance of the ruminant host community in the alpine and subalpine ecosystems of the Eastern Pyrenees, Northeastern Spain, in the epidemiolo...

Knowledge of import, export, and transport of nitrogen (N) in headwater catchments is essential for understanding ecosystem function and water quality in mountain ecosystems, especially as these ecosystems experience increased anthropogenic N deposition. In this study, we link spatially explicit soil and stream data at the landscape scale to investigate import, export and transport of N in a 0....

Human communities in the Intermountain West depend heavily on subalpine rangelands because of their importance in providing water for irrigation and forage for wildlife and livestock. In addition, many constituencies are looking to managed ecosystems to sequester carbon in plant biomass and soil C to reduce the impact of anthropogenic CO2 on climate. This work builds on a 90-year-old grazing ex...

Mountain environments are currently among the ecosystems least invaded by non-native species; however, mountains are increasingly under threat of non-native plant invasion. The slow pace of exotic plant invasions in mountain ecosystems is likely due to a combination of low anthropogenic disturbances, low propagule supply, and extreme/steep environmental gradients. The importance of any one of t...

In subalpine forests of the northern Rocky Mountains, fire exclusion has contributed to large-scale shifts from early-successional whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) to late-successional subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt.), a species assumed to be more shade tolerant than whitebark pine and with leaf to sapwood area ratios (A(L):A(S)) over twice as high. Potential consequences...

The recent impacts of climate change have threatened the health and functioning forested ecosystems on a global scale. Widespread tree mortality from altered disturbance regimes creates significant uncertainty about recovery in subalpine ecosystems. Aging seedlings is an important mechanism for understanding regeneration, when paired with long-term climate, can provide critical information clim...

BACKGROUND Forecasting the effects of global changes on high altitude ecosystems requires an understanding of the long-term relationships between biota and forcing factors to identify resilience thresholds. Fire is a crucial forcing factor: both fuel build-up from land-abandonment in European mountains, and more droughts linked to global warming are likely to increase fire risks. METHODS To a...

Disturbance patterns strongly influence plant community structure. What remains less clear, particularly at a mechanistic level, is how changes in disturbance cycles alter successional outcomes in plant communities. There is evidence that fire suppression is resulting in longer fire return intervals in subalpine forests and that these lengthened intervals increase competitive interactions betwe...

The Mediterranean climate prevailing on the coastal belt of the Mediterranean Sea undergoes to change toward the inner part of the Anatolia in accordance with the increase of altitude, mountain range barriers, the tectonic structure of the region, and tectonic-karstic depressions. Continentality also plays a critical role in the micro-climates that prevail across the various eco-regions. This s...