We examined patterns of shrub species diversity relative to landscape-scale variability in environmental factors within two watersheds on the coastal flank of the Santa Ynez Mountains, California. Shrub species richness and dominance was sampled at a hierarchy of spatial units using a highpowered telescope from remote vantage points. Explanatory variables included field estimates of total canop...

Tinospora cordifolia is a deciduous climbing shrub described as ‘the one who protects the body against diseases’. It is one of the most versatile rejuvenating shrub also known as ’Giloya’ in Indian vernacular having many therapeutic applications. The pharmaceutical significance of this plant is mainly because of the leaves, barks and roots contain various bioactive compounds such as alkaloids, ...

The relative importance of facilitation and competition between pairwise plants across abiotic stress gradients as predicted by the stress-gradient hypothesis has been confirmed in arid and temperate ecosystems, but the hypothesis has rarely been tested in tropical systems, particularly across nutrient gradients. The current research examines the interactions between a pioneer shrub Rhodomyrtus...

We report on the habitat associations of 21 species of grassland birds overwintering in or migrating through southern Texas, during 1991-1992 and 1992-1993. Ninety percent of our grassland bird observations were made during winter and spring, and only 10% occurred during fall. Grassland species made up a high proportion of the total bird densities in grassland and shrub-grassland habitats, but ...

Restoration treatments are based on the largely untested notion that desired recovery of plant communities following disturbance wouldn’t occur in the absence of active intervention. We identified rate of short-term (10 year) floristic changes following removal of plant functional groups in Wyoming big sagebrush plant communities in 1999e2005 and 2008. Treatments imposed on 6 6 m plots were: 1)...

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of shrub encroachment on soil organic carbon (SOC) content at broad scales and its controls. We conducted a meta-analysis using paired control data of shrub-encroached grassland (SEG) vs. non-SEG collected from 142 studies worldwide. SOC contents (0-50 cm) were altered by shrub encroachment, with changes ranging from -50% to + 300%, with an effect size of...

[1] A greater abundance of shrubs in semiarid grasslands affects the spatial patterns of soil temperature, moisture, and litter, resulting in fertile islands with potentially enhanced soil metabolic activity. The goal of this study was to quantify the microsite specificity of soil respiration in a semiarid riparian ecosystem experiencing shrub encroachment. We quantified the response of soil re...

A common form of land degradation at the desert margins involves the rapid encroachment of woody plants into historic grasslands and the acceleration of soil erosion as a result of the loss of grass cover (Archer, 1989; Schlesinger et al., 1990). The conversion of perennial grasslands into desert scrublands has been documented worldwide (Van Auken, 2000; Ravi, 2008) and has important implicatio...

the composition of essential oil of leaves of the male and female shrubs of juniperus chinensis l. (growing in isfahan) was analyzed by gas choromatography(gc) and gc-mass spectrometery (ms). the main constituents of leaf oil of the male shrub were: bornyl acetate (26.1%), sabinene (18.3%), trans-sabinyl acetate (11.1%), myrcene (9.2%), limonene (6.1%), elemol (5.5%), α-cadinol (2.3%), δ-cadine...

We investigated changes in species richness, community biomass, and productivity during secondary forest succession in Ziwuling area of the Loess Plateau of China. Species richness(number of taxa) increased as the succession proceeds, and peaked at the climax forest community, but the richness growth gradually slowed down as the succession advanced. Community biomass rapidly increased from the ...