Faunal inventories of the highest peaks of the Atlantic forests of South America, in the Caparaó and Itatiaia mountain ranges in Southeastern Brazil, have revealed a new community of small mammals. The species making up this community appear to be restricted to the highest altitudinal zones and are found in close association with scattered montane grasslands (campos de altitude). Their phylogen...

The montane (shola) grasslands of Western Ghats, South India are a component of a landscape mosaic including the better-studied shola forests. The conservation of the grasslands depends upon understanding their ecology. This review compiles available information and aims to evaluate the conservation potential of these grasslands. Most studies on these grasslands are descriptive in nature. There...

BACKGROUND Grasslands are a major part of the global ecosystem, covering 37 % of the earth's terrestrial area. For a variety of reasons, mostly related to overgrazing and the resulting problems of soil erosion and weed encroachment, many of the world's natural grasslands are in poor condition and showing signs of degradation. This review examines their contribution to global food supply and to ...

the ardabil geothermal area is located in the northwest of iran, which hosts several hot springs. it is situated mostly around the sabalan mountain. the sabalan geothermal area is now under investigation for the geothermal electric power generation. it is characterized by its high thermal gradient and high heat flow. in this study, our aim is to determine the fractal parameter and top and botto...

Artificial grasslands play a role in carbon storage on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The artificial grasslands exhibit decreased proportions of graminate and increased species richness with age. However, the effect of the graminate proportions and species richness on ecosystem C stocks in artificial grasslands have not been elucidated. We conducted an in situ13C pulse-labeling experiment in Augu...

Over the last decades, global changes have altered the structure and properties of natural and semi-natural mountain grasslands. Those changes have contributed to grassland loss mainly through colonization by woody species at low elevations, and increases in biomass and greenness at high elevations. Nevertheless, the interactions between agropastoral components; i.e., ecological (grassland, env...

Bird species’ community responses to land use in the suburbanizing Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA, were contrasted among reserves, rural lands, and suburbs. For each land use type, bird composition, diversity, and abundance were recorded for 2 years in 99 plots in three sampling units (each 4500 ha). A habitat gradient defined by canopy structure (grasslands to savannas to forests) was influenced ...

To explore the importance of the Eurasian steppe region (EASR) in global carbon cycling, we analyzed the spatiotemporal dynamics of the aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) of the entire EASR from 1982 to 2013. The ANPP in the EASR was estimated from the Integrated ANPPNDVI model, which is an empirical model developed based on field-observed ANPP and long-term normalized difference veget...

Subalpine grasslands are highly seasonal environments and likely subject to strong variability in nitrogen (N) dynamics. Plants and microbes typically compete for N acquisition during the growing season and particularly at plant peak biomass. During snowmelt, plants could potentially benefit from a decrease in competition by microbes, leading to greater plant N uptake associated with active gro...