Savannas worldwide are vital for both socioeconomic and biodiversity values. In these ecosystems, management decisions are based on the perception that wildlife and livestock compete for food, yet there are virtually no experimental data to support this assumption. We examined the effects of wild African ungulates on cattle performance, food intake, and diet quality. Wild ungulates depressed cattle food intake and performance during the dry season (competition) but enhanced cattle diet quality and performance during the wet season (facilitation).
Widespread adaptation of biomass production for bioenergy may influence important biogeochemical functions in the landscape, which are mainly carried out by soil microbes. Here we explore the impact of four potential bioenergy feedstock crops (maize, switchgrass, Miscanthus X giganteus, and mixed tallgrass prairie) on nitrogen cycling microorganisms in the soil by monitoring the changes in the quantity (real-time PCR) and diversity (barcoded pyrosequencing) of key functional genes (nifH, bacterial/archaeal amoA and nosZ) and 16S rRNA genes over two years after bioenergy crop establishment.
Global warming is predicted to induce desiccation in many world regions through increases in evaporative demand. Rising CO2 may counter that trend by improving plant water-use efficiency. However, it is not clear how important this CO2-enhanced water use efficiency might be in offsetting warming-induced desiccation because higher CO2 also leads to higher plant biomass, and therefore greater transpirational surface. Furthermore, although warming is predicted to favour warm-season, C4 grasses, rising CO2 should favour C3, or cool-season plants.
The PWD in Majuli is planning to construct concrete roads on the island and plant vetiver grass along them to check the perennial problem of flood and erosion.
Vetiver grass, which is native to India and whose roots grow much deeper than the normal grass, is famous for its soil-binding nature.
The PWD (rural) executive engineer, Jorhat division, Jayanta Medhi, said this during a discussion a
When the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced this month that it did not have the authority to oversee a new variety of genetically modified (GM) Kentucky bluegrass, it exposed a serious weakness in the regulations governing GM crops. These are based not on a plant's GM nature but on the techniques used for its genetic modification. With changing technologies, the department says that it lacks the authority to regulate newly created transgenic crops.
The Agriculture Department has exempted a genetically engineered grass from federal regulation, a decision that some critics say could portend a loosening in oversight of biotech crops.
The department said that an herbicide-tolerant Kentucky bluegrass being developed by Scotts Miracle-Gro was not subject to federal regulation because its creation did not entail use of any plant pests.
Grassland communities of Kaziranga National Park (KNP) classified as Eastern Wet Alluvial Grasslands. It comprised of tall grasses (61%) as well as short grasses (only 3%). Rapid periodic changes occurred due to recurrence of flood, erosion and alluvial depsition and have direct implications for the establishment of early successional species.
The earliest report for grasses from British India was made by Hooker (1896). He described 146 genera and 845 species of grasses in the flora of British India.
