PREMISE OF THE STUDY Reconstructions of ancestral character states are among the most widely used analyses for evaluating the morphological, cytological, or ecological evolution of an organismic lineage. The software application Mesquite remains the most popular application for such reconstructions among plant scientists, even though its support for automating complex analyses is limited. A sof...

In the mixed C3/C4 grassland of southern Great Plains, United States, invasive woody legume, honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa), affects grass production and composition differently beneath canopy (subcanopy) than in spaces between trees (intercanopy) due part to dominant presence C3 Texas wintergrass (Nassella leucotricha) soil enrichment from N-fixation by mesquite. This arrangement, unlike...

[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...

Interest in the use of summer fires to restore southern Great Plains prairie ecosystems infested with woody plants and cactus is increasing, but information regarding effects on target and nontarget plant species is needed before this practice can be recommended. We review effects of summer and winter fires on mortality and growth of honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa), prickly pear (Opuntia p...

Seedlings of 2 varieties of honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa var. glandulosa and P. glandulosa var. torreyana) were exposed to 2 concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) (368 and 704 lmol mol ) in environmentally controlled glasshouses under near-optimal temperature and soil water conditions to determine if CO2 enrichment alters aboveand belowground growth responses. CO2 enrichment...

There has been increasing interest in the use of summer fires to limit woody plant encroachment on grasslands, but information regarding effects of such fires on perennial grass recovery and annual forb production is also needed. Our objective was to examine effects of fire seasonality and intensity on the woody legume honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa Torr.), the C4 midgrass tobosagrass (Ple...

Rhizobial symbionts were isolated from the surface (0–0.5 M) and phreatic (3.9–5.0 M) root environments of a mature mesquite woodland in the Sonoran Desert of Southern California, and from variable depths (0–12 m) of non-phreatic mesquite ecosystems in the Chihuahuan Desert of New Mexico. They were tested for their ability to tolerate high salinity, and respire NO3 2 as mechanisms of free-livin...

This study was conducted with the objective of evaluating the effect of concentrate supplementation, formulated with different ingredients (Mesquite pod meal, sorghum meal or wheat meal and mineral supplementation) on performance, intake and digestibility of nutrients in Santa Inês lambs grazing on urochloa grass during the dry season. Twentyfour uncastrated weaned Santa Inês sheep, with averag...

Among the facultative bacteria capable of growth on mesquite wood which were isolated from the asceptically dissected hind-gut of the termite Reticulitermes hesperus were two strains of Bacillus cereus, one strain each of Arthrobacter, Alcaligenes and Serratia, and a very small Gram-negative fermentative rod. The B. cereus strains, the Serratia marcescens strain and the Arthrobacter sp. grew we...