1. Grazing and fire are disturbances integral to the evolution and maintenance of savanna grasslands. Humans are altering or completely eliminating these disturbance regimes at a global scale, with important consequences for savanna ecosystem structure and function. It is unknown whether the alteration of these disturbance regimes will have similar effects on grass communities of savanna grassl...

A method is proposed which provides a minimum estimate of the rate of bacterial mortality in growing natural populations of planktonic bacteria. This estimate is given by the rate of decrease of radioactivity from the DNA of a [H]thymidine-labeled natural assemblage of bacteria after all added thymidine has been exhausted from the medium. Results obtained from river water, estuarine water, and ...

In order to estimate the relationship between forage quality and preference value of plant species for Raini goats(Capra aegagrus hircus), a field study was carried out on Raini goats’ grazing behavior in some desert habitats.Crude protein (as the most important factor affecting forage quality) of all plant species was measured at twophenological stages (spring and summer, 2010) in the dry rang...

Tailoring the polymer-metal interface is crucial for advanced material design. Vacuum deposition methods for metal layer coating are widely used in industry and research. They allow for installing a variety of nanostructures, often making use of the selective interaction of the metal atoms with the underlying polymer thin film. The polymer thin film may eventually be nanostructured, too, in ord...