Ecosystem Water Use Efficiency in a Semiarid Shrubland and Grassland Community

Ecosystem water use efficiency (EWUE) is defined as the net carbon uptake per amount of water lost from the ecosystem and is a useful measure of the functionality in semiarid shrub and grassland communities. C₄ grasses have higher water use efficiency (WUE) than do C₃ shrubs, although it has been postulated that C₄ plants have lost much of their advantage due to the rising atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. The hypothesis was that C₄-grass-dominated ecosystems have a higher EWUE than C₃-shrub-dominated ecosystems under the present CO₂ concentration and climatic variability. Evapotranspiration (ET) and CO₂ fluxes were measured with Bowen ratio systems at a shrub and grass site for 6 years in southeastern Arizona. Two different methods were used to evaluate growing season EWUE using the ET and CO₂ fluxes. The first method estimated a net daytime growing season EWUE for the grass site at 1.74 g CO₂ · mm^-1 ET and 1.28 g CO₂ · mm^-1 ET at the shrub site. The second method estimated maximum EWUE during part of the growing season at 7.35 g CO₂ · mm^-1 ET for the grass site and 4.68 g CO₂ · mm^-1 ET for the shrub site, which was considered a significant difference at P = 0.056. Data variability of the first method precluded a statistical difference determination between sites, but the results indicated that the grass-dominated ecosystem was between 1.4 and 1.6 times more water use efficient than the shrub-dominated ecosystem. Mean annual growing season precipitation and ET were similar in the two ecosystems, but the higher EWUE of the grassland system enabled it to take up more carbon during the growing season than the shrub ecosystem. Ecosystem differences in CO₂ and H₂O flux have important management implications including primary productivity, C sequestration, and rangeland health.     

Habitat Targets for Imperiled Grassland Birds in Northern Mixed-Grass Prairie

Grassland bird populations are declining faster than any other avian guild in North America, and promotion of favorable habitat conditions in rangeland breeding cores is important for their maintenance. There is much information on associations between breeding grassland songbirds and vegetation attributes. However, previous results have been difficult to translate into management practices due to mismatch between the scale and metrics used in biological sampling and those used in management. Here, we evaluate the response of imperiled grassland bird species to vegetation conditions using metrics and scales accessible to managers. We focus on four species that are experiencing particularly severe population declines: Baird's sparrow (Centronyx bairdii), chestnut-collared longspur (Calcarius ornatus), McCown's longspur (Rynchophanes mccownii), and Sprague's pipit (Anthus spragueii). In 2017 and 2018, we evaluated the abundances of these species within their core distributions in northern Montana. We used temporally replicated point-counts and hierarchical models to estimate abundance and associations with plot-level (9-ha) vegetation conditions while accounting for spatially and temporally variable detectability. Exotic grass encroachment and shrub cover had negative or neutral effects on all species. Birds responded strongly to biomass at this scale, with chestnut-collared longspurs and Sprague's pipit preferring a range of 1 100 kg ha⁻¹ to 1 400 kg ha⁻¹, and McCown's longspurs selecting for the lowest available. Residual grass and litter cover were important for Baird's sparrows. Variable results among species emphasize the need for heterogeneity in vegetation structure and composition at scales larger than the plot. Our results provide guidance for managers interested in improving habitat for these species.     

Absence of a Grass/Fire Cycle in a Semiarid Grassland: Response to Prescribed Fire and Grazing

Many nonnative invasive grasses alter fire regimes to their own benefit and the detriment of native organisms. In southern Arizona the nonnative Lehmann lovegrass (Eragrostis lehmanniana Nees) dominates many semiarid grasslands where native grasses were abundant. Managers are wary of using prescribed fire in this fire-prone community partly due to the perceived effects of a grass/fire cycle. However, examples of the grass/fire cycle originate in ecosystems where native plants are less fire-tolerant than grasses and the invasive plant does not mimic the physiognomy of the native community. We investigate the effects of prescribed fire and livestock grazing on a semiarid grassland community dominated by a nonnative invasive grass. Lehmann lovegrass does not appear to alter the fire regime of semiarid grasslands to the detriment of native plants. Prescribed fire reduced the abundance of Lehmann lovegrass for 1 to 2 yr while increasing abundance of native grasses, herbaceous dicotyledons and fall richness, and diversity. Effects of livestock grazing were less transformative than the effects of fire in this long-grazed area, but grazing negatively affected native plants as did the combination of prescribed fire and livestock grazing. Although Lehmann lovegrass produces more fuel than native plants, fire frequency in semiarid grasslands appears to be limited by the paucity of above-average precipitation, which constrains high fuel loads. In addition, many native grasses tolerate high temperatures produced by Lehmann lovegrass fires. Consistent with previous research, fire does not promote the spread of Lehmann lovegrass, and more importantly human alteration of the fire regime is greater than the nominal effects of Lehmann lovegrass introduction on the fire regime.     

Litter Decomposition in Semiarid Grassland of Inner Mongolia,China

Long-term overgrazing has significantly changed plant species composition in rangeland ecosystems, and this change may alter ecosystem functioning remarkably. In this study, decomposition rates and nutrient dynamics of pure litter (leaf, stem, or root litter) and 11 litter mixtures (from two to five litter components), including nine aboveground litter mixtures and two root litter mixtures, of five common plant species in degraded semiarid rangelands of northern China were studied for 1 yr. We found that fine root litters generally decomposed faster and had faster nutrient turnover rates than leaf and stem litters. The decomposition rates of leaves and stems were significantly and positively correlated with initial litter nitrogen (P < 0.01) and phosphorus contents (P < 0.05), and the decomposition rates of fine roots were significantly and negatively correlated with initial litter carbon:nitrogen ratios (P < 0.05). Nonadditive effects were found in six out of the nine aboveground litter mixtures (three positive and three negative). There were only additive effects on decay rates and nutrient fluxes in the two root litter mixtures. The occurrence and direction of nonadditive effects were dependent on the properties of component litters and had no obvious correlations with litter diversity. Negative mixing effects on nutrient immobilization can facilitate the release of some important nutrients during litter decomposition processes, and further help to accelerate nutrient cycling in such semiarid rangeland ecosystems. Our results indicate that change of plant species composition by overgrazing may slow down the mass loss rates, but may not necessarily impact the release of some nutrients.     

坝上草场沙化、旱化、盐渍化原因及改良治理措施

目前草场荒漠化十分严重,已影响到人类生存的环境,也成为导致贫困和阻碍发展中国家经济与社会持续发展的重要原因.笔者对目前西北地区具有代表性的坝上草场及沙化、旱化、盐渍化现状及原因,提出合理的改良治理措施.     

Effects of Livestock Grazing Management on Grassland Birds in a Northern Mixed-Grass Prairie Ecosystem

Grassland birds have undergone substantial population declines throughout much of their historic ranges in North America. Most of the remaining grassland bird habitat is restricted to rangelands managed for livestock production, so grazing management has strong implications for grassland bird conservation efforts. We conducted 1 830 point-count surveys at 305 sites during 2016–2017 to evaluate the relative effects of three livestock grazing systems on the abundance and community composition of grassland birds in a northern mixed-grass prairie ecosystem of eastern Montana, United States. Our objectives were to 1) evaluate effects of grazing management on abundance and community composition of grassland obligate birds, focusing specifically on grazing systems, stocking rates, and interactions with rangeland productivity; 2) evaluate the importance of local vegetation characteristics for grassland birds within grazing systems; and 3) assess the effectiveness of rest-rotation grazing to create patch-heterogeneity in rangeland vegetation through the alteration of structural components and the response of grassland birds to these treatments. Overall, we found inconsistent responses in abundances of grassland birds relative to livestock grazing systems and no discernable differences among grazing systems relative to community composition. However, local abundances were often driven by interactions between grazing system and rangeland production potential, suggesting the effects of livestock grazing management were generally mediated by rangeland productivity. In addition, associations between avian abundance and grazing management parameters (e.g., stocking rate) were species specific. Ubiquitous guidelines for livestock grazing systems may be inappropriate for grassland bird conservation efforts in the northern mixed-grass prairie, and high stocking rates may negatively impact populations of dense-grass obligate grassland birds in this region.     

Additionality and Avoiding Grassland Conversion in the Prairie Pothole Region of the United States

Grassland conversion into croplands in the Prairie Pothole Region of the United States is a persistent hurdle toward mitigating climate change. Several carbon offset markets have been designed to reward landowners for keeping lands in their native state when incentives to convert are high. We explore the role of a critical determinant in such programs: the additionality threshold. This factor, if appropriately selected and applied, reduces the participation of landowners that would choose to enroll in the program but would not have converted their land under business-as-usual conditions. Using a simple model relating land quality and land use to economic rents, we simulate potential avoided grassland conversion offset market participation across a range of cropland over pasture rent difference threshold (RDT) values. We find mitigation potential and simulated program costs are widely variable depending on this parameter and assume carbon prices: across the five states studied, the full range is 0.41 tCO₂e • yr⁻¹ (0.2 RDT, $10 •·t⁻¹ carbon price) to 4.6 million tCO₂e • yr⁻¹ (1.2 RDT, $40 tCO₂e • t⁻¹ carbon price), assuming average land use change emissions values for pastureland in the region. Total program costs for these offsets also exhibit a wide range, spanning $2−$120 million • yr⁻¹ depending on parameterization. Results across the full range of RDTs (0.2−2) demonstrate a tendency toward higher RDTs for achieving high levels of avoided emissions, with cost efficiency being maximized in the 1.4−1.8 range for RDTs. A state-level breakdown of results demonstrate the importance of modeling economic trends in land use and setting region-specific additionality thresholds for avoided grassland conversion offsets. Although our study is specific to grassland conversion in one region of the United States, similar offset markets exist elsewhere, where additionality concerns are paramount. We believe our framework can be useful in improving protocol design.     

Restoring Tallgrass Prairie and Grassland Bird Populations in Tall Fescue Pastures With Winter Grazing

Restoration of grasslands dominated by tall fescue (Schedonorus phoenix [Scop.] Holub) to native tallgrass prairie usually requires burning, herbicides, or reseeding. We tested seasonal grazing by livestock in winter, combined with cessation of fertilization, as a restoration tool for modifying the competitive dynamics among herbaceous plants to restore tallgrass prairie communities in southeastern Kansas. In 2004–2005, we compared responses of grassland plants and birds across a chronosequence of pastures that were winter-grazed from 1 yr to 5 yr. We compared winter-grazed pastures to pastures grazed year-round and to local native prairie remnants as starting and endpoints for restoration, respectively. Abundance of native warm-season grasses increased from 2% to 3% mean relative frequency in pastures grazed year-round to 18% to 30% in winter-grazed pastures, and increased with duration of winter-grazing. Native warm-season grasses accounted for 1–6% of total live aboveground biomass in pastures grazed year-round, 1–34% in winter-grazed pastures, and 31–34% in native prairie remnants. Tall fescue abundance and biomass were similar among grazing treatments, with a trend for tall fescue to be less dominant in winter-grazed pastures. Tall fescue made up 9–40% of total aboveground biomass in year-round grazed pastures and 10–25% in winter-grazed pastures. Grassland birds showed variable responses to winter-grazing. Dickcissels (Spiza americana) and Henslow’s sparrows (Ammodramus henslowii) were more abundant in winter-grazed pastures, whereas eastern meadowlarks (Sturnella magna) and grasshopper sparrows (A. savannarum) had similar abundance in pastures grazed year-round and during winter. Winter-grazing of pastures dominated by tall fescue combined with suspension of nitrogen fertilization could be an effective restoration technique that allows use of prairie rangeland while improving habitat for sensitive grassland birds.     

Feed Intake and Performance of Sheep Grazing Semiarid Grassland in Response to Different Grazing Systems

Effects of grazing management systems (GS) on biomass production and nutritional quality of rangeland vegetation in semiarid regions are extensively studied; however, limited information is available regarding their effects on diet digestibility and feed intake of grazing livestock. We therefore analyzed digestibility of ingested organic matter (dOM), organic matter intake (OMI), and live weight gain (LWG) of sheep in a grazing experiment established in the Inner Mongolian steppe of China, where two GS were tested for six different grazing intensities (GI) from very light to heavy grazing. For the continuous grazing system, sheep grazed the same plots each year, and for the alternating system, grazing and hay making were alternated annually between two adjacent plots. In July, August, and September 2009 and 2010, feed intake and live weight of sheep were determined. The GS did not affect dOM (P = 0.101), OMI (P = 0.381), and LWG of sheep (P = 0.701). Across both GS LWG decreased from 98 g · d^-1 for GI1 to 62 g · d^-1 for GI6 (P &spilt; 0.001; R² = 0.42). There were no interactions between GS and GI for all measured parameters (P ≥ 0.061), indicating that alternating grazing did not compensate for negative effects of heavy grazing even after 4 yr of grassland use. In summary, our study showed that irrespective of GI, alternating grassland use does not improve dOM, OMI, and hence, LWG of sheep. However, it might enhance revenues and ecological sustainability in the long term when compared to the common practice of continuous grazing at very high stocking rates.     

Development of Gastroscopic Food Sensitivity Testing in Dogs

The aims of this study were to develop a gastroscopic food sensitivity testing (GFST) technique for clinical use in dogs and to determine if the results of GFST were influenced by the feeding of a hypoallergenic diet immediately before the testing period ("unmasking"). The technical requirements for GFST were devised during a total of eight endoscopies performed in four healthy dogs. GFST was performed in anesthetized dogs in sternal recumbency. Food extracts were dripped onto the dependent aspect of the body of the stomach via plastic tubing passed through the endoscope. Changes were observed within 2 to 3 minutes of application, and included localized mucosal swelling and erythema, generalized mucosal erythema, and hyperperistalsis. The influence of "unmasking" was then examined in 6 atopic and 2 healthy dogs, which underwent GFST on three occasions, 4 weeks apart. Before the first and third testing periods, the dogs consumed a commercial dry dog food. For 5 days before the second testing period the dogs were fed a hypoallergenic elemental diet. Oral challenges were performed to identify which of the dogs had clinically overt immediate food sensitivity. Localized swelling was most frequently correlated with positive challenge PO. No positive reactions occurred in response to the negative control extract (lamb). The number of positive GFST results increased after feeding the hypoallergenic diet. In conclusion, these preliminary results indicate that GFST holds substantial promise for the diagnosis of immediate food sensitivities affecting the gastrointestinal tract. The sensitivity of the procedure appears to be enhanced by preceding testing with a hypoallergenic diet.     

Plant Community Response Following Removal of Juniperus virginiana from Tallgrass Prairie: Testing for Restoration Limitations

Woody plant encroachment in natural grasslands is a widely documented global phenomenon that alters ecosystem dynamics by altering historic vegetation composition and suppressing herbaceous productivity. Abundant woody plants often suppress native plants sufficiently to establish successional thresholds difficult to reverse without species augmentation. Juniper (Juniperus virginiana L.) is expanding in North American tallgrass prairie, but it is currently unknown if encroachment creates successional restrictions that limit restoration potential. We selected 16 50×50-m sites with juniper canopy cover ranging from zero to approximately 75% in tallgrass prairie near Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA. Juniper trees were removed from 7 of the sites along the gradient of juniper canopy cover. Canopy cover of plant species and herbaceous plant productivity were estimated at each site 1 year before and 1, 2, and 5 years after tree removal. Before trees were removed, plant species richness and productivity declined as juniper canopy cover increased, and plant community composition dissimilarity of reference sites increased as juniper canopy cover increased. These relationships remained consistent on all non-removal sites throughout the study. The first year after juniper removal, species richness increased on all removal sites compared to intact sites and productivity on removal sites increased two years after removal. Plant community dissimilarity between reference sites and juniper removal sites remained relatively high (30–60%) the first two years after tree removal on all removal sites, but dissimilarity was about 22% 5 years after juniper removal. Within 5 years, removal sites were comparable to reference plant communities. Grassland restoration frequently requires species manipulation and additional seeding, particularly when overcoming successional limitations. Juniper encroachment into tallgrass prairie alters plant community species composition and productivity. However, in our study, juniper associated succession limitations were not apparent, and complete autogenic restoration was achieved within 5 years without seeding or species manipulation.     

Comparative Evaluation of 2 In-Clinic Assays for Vector-Borne Disease Testing in Dogs

Vector-borne agents comprise medically important infections affecting dogs throughout much of the world. Sensitive detection of antibodies directed at tick-borne disease-causing organisms in dogs is diagnostically important for veterinarians, pets and their owners, and epidemiologically important for public health surveillance. The SNAP 4Dx Plus Test (IDEXX Laboratories, Inc., Westbrook, ME) identifies antibodies to or infection with multiple tick-borne pathogens and canine heartworm antigen in a single assay. Recently, VetScan FLEX4 Rapid Test (Abaxis, Inc., Union City, CA) was launched as a new assay to detect tick-borne pathogen antibodies and heartworm antigen. In the present study, we evaluated the comparative performance of SNAP 4Dx Plus (SNAP) and FLEX4 Rapid Test (FLEX4) using samples selected based on geographic distributions for canine vector borne diseases, including Borrelia burgdorferi (n = 105), Anaplasma phagocytophilum (160), Anaplasma platys (115), Ehrlichia canis (154), Ehrlichia ewingii (163), Ehrlichia chaffeensis (151) and Dirofilaria immitis (105). Canine vector borne diseases infection status was established for each sample by a combination of reference methods that included necropsy (D. immitis, heartworm disease), Western immunoblotting (B. burgdorferi), immunofluorescence assays (A. phagocytophilum and E. canis) and species-specific ELISAs (A. platys, E. canis, E. ewingii and E. chaffeensis). For comparisons among the 2 assays, samples were evaluated per the manufacturers’ instructions for each test kit.By testing each same sample set compared to the defined reference results, sensitivities differed substantially between SNAP and FLEX4, at 95.5 vs. 40.9%, respectively for B. burgdorferi, 97.1% vs. 61.4% for E. canis, 98.2% vs. 59.3% for E. ewingii, 64.3% vs. 35.7% for E. chaffeensis, 84.5% vs. 12.7% for A. phagocytophilum, 83.3% vs. 33.3% for A. platys, and 94.1% vs. 88.2% for D. immitis. Specificities for both rapid assay tests ranged from 98% to 100%.Based upon the comparative results derived from this study, the SNAP test was more sensitive than the FLEX4 test for detection of antibodies to all tick-borne pathogens and heartworm disease (Dirofilaria immitis) antigen in dogs.     

小鹅瘟快速诊断技术的建立及其应用

小鹅瘟 (goslingplague,GP)又叫雏鹅坏死性心肌炎、出血性肝肾炎 ,是由小鹅瘟病毒所引起的 3～ 3 0日龄雏鹅的一种严重的广泛性卡他性肠炎疾病。早在 1956年 ,我国学者方定一教授首先发现了此病 ,认为其病原是鹅细小病毒(gooseparvovirus,GPV) ,并将该病命名为小鹅瘟 (goslingplague ,GP) [1～ 2 ] 。小鹅瘟的病理变化与 1998年程安春等报道的雏鹅新型病毒性肠炎 (goslingnewtypeviralenteritis,GNTVE)极为相似 ,病理变化都表现为严重的广泛性卡他性肠炎[1～ 4] 。但是 ,小鹅瘟一旦与鹅副粘病毒病、鸭瘟、禽流感等疾病混合感染 ,病鹅几乎就不会表现出特征性的病理变化了 ,彼此很难区分。为了能对临床病例进行早期诊断和流行病学调查 ,本研究所成功地建立了多种疫病的PCR诊断技术[5～ 8] 。在分析了GenBank以及国内所发表的GPV基因组相关基因序列特征的基础上设计了GPV的特异性PCR引物 ,并建立了一套能对临床病例的组织样品、泄殖腔样品直接进行快速、特异地检测的PCR技术。现将该诊断技术及其初步的临床应用结果报告...