Woody encroachment in grasslands has become increasingly problematic globally. Grazing by domestic animals can facilitate woody encroachment by reducing competition from herbaceous plants and fire frequency. Herbivorous insects and parasitic plants can each exert forces that result in the natural biological control of encroaching woody plants through reducing seeding of their host woody plants....

[1] Woody plant encroachment, a worldwide phenomenon, is a major driver of land degradation in desert grasslands. Woody plant encroachment by shrub functional types ultimately leads to the formation of a patchy landscape with fertile shrub patches interspaced with nutrient-depleted bare soil patches. This is considered to be an irreversible process of land and soil degradation. Recent studies h...

OBJECTIVE We investigated driver acceptance of alerts to left-turn encroachment incidents that do not produce a crash. If an event that produces a crash is the criterion for a "true" alert, all the alerts we studied are technically false alarms. Our aim was to inform the design of intersection-assist active safety systems. BACKGROUND The premise of this study is that it may be possible to ove...

Bush encroachment is an increase in woody plant density typically resulting in impenetrable thickets, suppressing palatable grasses and herbs. Moreover, bush encroachment is a globally observed phenomenon. Besides, increasing the density of unpalatable shrubs and trees has reduced the carrying capacity and threatens the sustainability of grazing animal production, especially in arid and semi-ar...

Across southern China, Moso bamboo has been encroaching on most neighboring secondary broad-leaved forests and/or coniferous plantations, leading to the land cover changes that alter abiotic and biotic conditions. Little is known about how this conversion alters soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). We selected three sites, each with three plots arrayed along the bamboo encroachment pathway: moso b...

The term “problem tree” refers to a conceptual model used as a diagnostic tool to analyse a sequence of events that leads to a problem (such as bush encroachment in rangelands). A problem tree is useful because the consequences of different interventions can be visualised and understood more easily in diagrammatic form, thereby guiding management decisions regarding the problem. A problem tree ...

Encroachment of woody vegetation into grasslands is a widespread phenomenon that alters plant community composition and ecosystem function. Woody encroachment is often the result of fire suppression, but may also be related to changes in resource availability associated with global environmental change. We tested the relative strength of three important global change factors (CO2 enrichment, ni...

This study gives sophisticated result in the use of K-Nearest Neighbor Method classification of forest. The major focus is on the data and technique that can be used to identify the changes in forest features. This study will concentrate on identifying forest encroachment in tropical forests such as the forests of Malaysia. This technique study will establish a strong mechanism that can be used...

The encroachment of agricultural practices into traditional rangeland areas of north-eastern Morocco is considered by some to have negative impacts in both the agro-pastoral communities that utilise these ranges and the surrounding physical environment. Indicating the extent and location of such land use changes provides resource managers with valuable information on which more sustainable deve...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Mucoid structures that coat the epithelium play an essential role in keeping the intestinal microbiota at a safe distance from host cells. Encroachment of bacteria into the normally almost-sterile inner mucus layer has been observed in inflammatory bowel disease and in mouse models of colitis. Moreover, such microbiota encroachment has also been observed in mouse models of m...