It is well demonstrated that the responses of plants to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration are species-specific and dependent on environmental conditions. We investigated the responses of a subshrub legume species, Caragana microphylla Lam., to elevated CO2 and nitrogen (N) addition using open-top chambers in a semiarid temperate grassland in northern China for three years.

Agartala: India will engage 100,000 educated youths to execute an ambitious Green India Mission (GIM) which seeks to increase the country’s forest cover to 33 percent from 20 percent within 10 year

Pastoralism is an ancient form of self-provisioning that is still in wide use today throughout the world. While many pastoral regions are the focus of current desertification studies, the long history of sustainability evidenced by these cultures is of great interest. Numerous studies suggesting a general trend of desertification intimate degradation is a recent phenomenon principally attributable to changes in land tenure, management and treatment.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has changed the definition of carbon credit, with its new finding of green grass as the potential area.

Until now, carbon credit was allowed to be claimed from industrial units reducing emission of major polluting gases — SO2, CO2, CO and Nox — into the environment. Now, the reduction of obnoxious gases through green grass will also be entitled to claim carbon credit.

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).

Leaked EU draft texts confirm expectations that the 27-member bloc is likely to seek to 'green' farm subsidy payments after 2013 by adding new rules on protecting the environment. Controversially, though, the drafts also reveal new plans to allow some countries to re-allocate more direct payments to the production of particular crops - reversing prior attempts to 'decouple' farm support from production and thus reduce the trade distortions that this support might cause.

The Bangalore Development Authority’s move to plant saplings in a 300-acre grassland at Hesaraghatta in Bangalore North Taluk, the last patch of verdant landscape that’s home to a variety of wildlife, has ruffled the feathers of nature lovers, wildlife experts and photographers.

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.

Among the wild cats, cheetah is unique and is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx notable with its non-retractable claws and pads. The cheetah made headlines last year when the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), New Delhi, announced setting aside three grassland sanctuaries to bring the extinct cat back to India. (Correspondence)

The average density of Indian bustard population in the current distribution range was found to be one bird per 24.6 sq km. These birds were found mostly in groups ranging from two to six. Grassland is their favourite habitat, and they are also found in open scrubland and even agricultural land.

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