Grassland Biodiversity Habitat Types, Ecological Processes and Environmental Impacts

About this book

Genetic diversity and species diversity are both crucial for ecosystem stability. Analysis of plant diversity aims to understand the organisation and the variability of biological populations within ecosystems. This book provides a review on chemotaxonomical criteria helping to understand complex structures of plant diversity. It focuses particularly on the chemotaxonomic usefulness of phenolic compounds in analysis of chemical polymorphisms at different taxonomic levels.

The relationship between grazing pressure and grassland vegetation is also examined, using drastically improved information technology such as remote sensing, Geographic Information System (GIS) and Ground Positioning Systems (GPS). Furthermore, an overview of the unique ecosystem of the South Brazilian Campos grasslands are given. The role of disturbance in maintaining Campos biodiversity and dynamics, and the importance of its conservation, is looked at as well.

Other chapters in this book discuss the relationship between management and vegetation, and also suggest ways to conserve the species diversity of both plants and butterflies in semi-natural grassland.

Contents

Preface; Chemotaxonomical Analyses of Herbaceous Plants Based on Phenolic Patterns: A Flexible Tool for Survey of Biodiversity in Grasslands; Framework for Integrating Indigenous Knowledge & Ecological Methods for Implementation of Desertification Convention; Montane Grasslands of the Udzungwa Plateau, Tanzania: A Study Case about its Herpetological Importance within the Eastern Afromontane Hotspot; Evaluation of Grazing Pressure on Steppe Vegetation by Spectral Measurement; South Brazilian Campos Grasslands: Biodiversity, Conservation & the Role of Disturbance; Relationship of Management Practices to the Species Diversity of Plants & Butterflies in a Semi-Natural Grassland, Central Japan; Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi: A Belowground Regulator of Plant Diversity in Grasslands & the Hidden Mechanisms; Carnivorous Mammals in a Mosaic Landscape in Southeastern Brazil: Is it Possible to keep them in an Agro-Silvicultural Landscape?; Genetic Diversity of Festuca pratensis Huds & Lolium multiflorum Lam: Ecotype Populations in Relation to Species Diversity & Grassland Type; Soil Organic Matter in an Altitudinal Gradient; The Biodiversity Potential of Riparian Field Margins in Intensively Managed Grasslands; Index.

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