Rainfall distribution variability controls surface but not belowground litter decomposition in a semi-arid shrubland by Yulin Li, Li Cheng, Honglin Yang, Rui Zhang, Zhiying Ning

“…We observed stronger synergistic effect for belowground litter mixture relative to surface litter mixture of the two shrubs, especially in the hotter months over the 5-month incubation.DiscussionThese findings support that rainfall variability in terms of distribution pattern rather than in the amount controls the litter decomposition on the soil surface in the semi-arid shrubland. Meanwhile, soil burial or litter mixing have greater effects on litter decomposition, individually or jointly. …”
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Heterogeneous long-term changes in larch forest and shrubland cover in the Kolyma lowland are not captured by coarser-scale greening trends by Heather Kropp, Michael M Loranty, Howard Epstein, Gerald V Frost, Adam Koplik, Logan T Berner

“…Increases in shrubland cover were highest in proximity to surface water (<100 m) and in close proximity to areas with stable shrubland cover. …”
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Soil Degradation Evidence Following a Wildfire in Arequipa’s Andean Region, Peru by Lunsden Coaguila, Jorge Mataix-Solera, Sonia Nina, Minerva García-Carmona, Elizabeth T. Salazar

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Diversity, Abundance, and Habitat Association of Medium and Large-Sized Mammals in Tiski Waterfall, Awi Zone, Ethiopia by Binega Derebe, Yonas Derebe, Melkamu Kassaye

“…The habitats were populated by large and medium animal species that favor dense forest and shrubland habitats near water sources. During the research, three different habitat categories were evaluated (dense forest, shrubland, and cliff sites). …”
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Historical and projected forest cover changes in the Mount Kenya Ecosystem: Implications for sustainable forest management by Brian Rotich, Abdalrahman Ahmed, Benjamin Kinyili, Harison Kipkulei

“…Between 2000 and 2023, open forest (+201.12 km2), cropland (+218 km2), bareland (+290.09 km2), and built-up areas (+0.27 km2) expanded, while closed forest (−141.55 km2) and shrubland and grassland (−567.93 km2) declined. An overall Kappa coefficient value of 0.78 and an accuracy of 82% indicated good results for LULC statistics and projected map for 2035. …”
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Evaluation of Soil Quality for Different Types of Land Use Based on Minimum Dataset in the Typical Desert Steppe in Ningxia, China by Ying Tian, Zhe Xu, Jun Wang, Zhanjun Wang

“…The utilization of four different lands such as forestland (FL), shrubland (SL), natural restoration grassland (GL), and abandoned farmland (AL) in the study area were researched. …”
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The Response of Sensitive LULC Changes to Runoff and Sediment Yield in a Semihumid Urban Watershed of the Upper Awash Subbasin Using the SWAT+ Model, Oromia, Ethiopia by Bekan Chelkeba Tumsa

“…In contrast, the forest area decreased by 8.8% and shrubland by 3.25% from 2000 to 2020. Bare soil and urban areas covered the majority of the landscape units that were labeled as potential runoff generators. …”
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Analyzing Land Use/Land Cover Changes Using Google Earth Engine and Random Forest Algorithm and Their Implications to the Management of Land Degradation in the Upper Tekeze Basin,... by Alemu Eshetu Fentaw, Assefa Abegaz

“…The LULC change results from 1990 to 2021 showed that forest, bushland, shrubland, and bareland decreased by 12.2, 24.8, 1.2, and 15.4%, respectively. …”
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Vegetation runoff and sediment reduction benefits and influential factor in the Loess Plateau of China: A meta-analysis by Mengrou Jia, Cong Han, Jianzhi Niu, Miao Wang, Linus Zhang, Ronny Berndtsson

“…The results indicate that RRB and SRB are highest in shrubland and lowest in grassland, with SRB generally exceeding RRB across all vegetation types. …”
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Impacts of Land Use and Land Cover Change on Soil Erosion and Hydrological Responses in Ethiopia by Ajanaw Negese

“…From the past researches reviewed in this paper, the expansion of cultivated land at the expense of forest land, shrubland, and grassland in Ethiopia has increased the mean rate of soil erosion, sediment yield, surface runoff, mean wet monthly flow, and mean annual stream flow in the last four decades. …”
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Insights into greener Miocene biomes and globally enhanced terrestrial productivity from fossil leaves by Tammo Reichgelt, Christopher K. West

“…Most notably, forested biomes were replaced by more open woodland/shrubland or grassland biomes. Correspondingly, the average NPP decrease from the Miocene to today of our investigated localities was conservatively ∼250 gC m−2 yr−1 or ∼450 gC m−2 yr−1 by comparison of zonal averages. …”
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Effects of farming specialisation on grassland birds in Mediterranean High Nature Value farmland by Joana Santana, Pedro J. Leitão, Paulo Flores Ribeiro, Pedro Beja, Ângela Lomba, Rui Pedroso, Rui Morgado, Ricardo C. Martins, Inês Catry, Ana Teresa Marques, Luís Reino, Francisco Moreira

“…Fodders were positively related to woodland/shrubland- and cereal-related species, Emberiza calandra and Cisticola juncidis. …”
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High fire frequency in California chaparral reduces postfire shrub regeneration and native plant diversity by Ashley R. Grupenhoff, Hugh D. Safford

“…Abstract Fire is crucial for maintaining species diversity and resilience in fire‐adapted shrublands of the world's Mediterranean climate zones (MCZs), which include the chaparral shrublands of the North American MCZ. …”
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Fire Regime in a Peatland Restoration Area: Lesson from Central Kalimantan by Bekti Larasati, Mamoru Kanzaki, Ris Hadi Purwanto, Ronggo Sadono

“…Several area of peatland forests burned in 2015 and occurred at the forest edge areas located near cultivated or degraded land (e.g. shrubland) and oil palm plantations. Based on the results, the fire regime in the study area is characterized by fires that occurring/recurring in relation to climatic conditions, especially drought periods, and are typically located in cultivated or degraded land cover classes. …”
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Searching for the best post-land abandonment management to enhance long-term carbon storage in Mediterranean mountain areas by Melani Cortijos-López, Teodoro Lasanta, Erik Cammeraat, Estela Nadal-Romero

“…The results showed that: 1) SOC content in aggregates < 2 mm (relative to total SOC) increases with shrub clearing and grazing strategy in acid environments; 2) aggregate stability benefits from the implementation of afforestation in acid environments and from all three study strategies in alkaline ones; 3) in acid environments, the percentage of labile fractions (free and occluded) in afforested sites is significantly higher compared with shrubland, while in alkaline environments, recalcitrant SOC is significantly higher in shrub clearing sites. …”
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Spatiotemporal Variation and Driving Factors of Carbon Sequestration Rate in Terrestrial Ecosystems of Ningxia, China by Yi Zhang, Chunxiao Cheng, Zhihui Wang, Hongxin Hai, Lulu Miao

“…Among land use change types, the carbon sequestration enhancement capacity significantly increased when grassland was converted to forest or shrubland, farmland to forest–grassland, and bare land to forest–grassland, with increases of 42.9%, 9.2%, and 34.6%, respectively. …”
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Homo erectus adapted to steppe-desert climate extremes one million years ago by Julio Mercader, Pamela Akuku, Nicole Boivin, Alfredo Camacho, Tristan Carter, Siobhán Clarke, Arturo Cueva Temprana, Julien Favreau, Jennifer Galloway, Raquel Hernando, Haiping Huang, Stephen Hubbard, Jed O. Kaplan, Steve Larter, Stephen Magohe, Abdallah Mohamed, Aloyce Mwambwiga, Ayoola Oladele, Michael Petraglia, Patrick Roberts, Palmira Saladié, Abel Shikoni, Renzo Silva, María Soto, Dominica Stricklin, Degsew Z. Mekonnen, Wenran Zhao, Paul Durkin

“…Using biogeochemical analyses, precise chronometric dating, palaeoclimate simulations, biome modeling, fire history reconstructions, palaeobotanical studies, faunal assemblages, and archeological evidence, we reconstruct an environment dominated by semidesert shrubland. Despite these challenges, Homo erectus repeatedly occupied fluvial landscapes, leveraging water sources and ecological focal points to mitigate risk. …”
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Assessing the Impact of Climate Change on the Landscape Stability in the Mediterranean World Heritage Site Based on Multi-Sourced Remote Sensing Data: A Case Study of the Causses a... by Mingzhuo Zhu, Daoye Zhu, Min Huang, Daohong Gong, Shun Li, Yu Xia, Hui Lin, Orhan Altan

“…The results demonstrated that (1) the climate showed a warming and drying pattern during the study period, with distinct climate characteristics in different zones. (2) The dominance of woodland decreased (area proportion dropped from 76% to 66.5%); transitions primarily occurred among woodland, cropland, shrubland, and grasslands; landscape fragmentation intensified; and development towards diversification and uniformity was observed. (3) Significant spatiotemporal differences in landscape stability within the heritage site were noted, with an overall downward trend. (4) Precipitation had a high contribution rate in factor detection, with the interactive enhancement effects between temperature and precipitation being the most prominent. …”
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Modeling Climate‐Driven Vegetation Changes Under Contrasting Temperate and Arid Conditions in the Mediterranean Basin by Marco Bianchini, Mohamed Tarhouni, Matteo Francioni, Marco Fiorentini, Chiara Rivosecchi, Jamila Msadek, Abderrazak Tlili, Farah Chouikhi, Marina Allegrezza, Giulio Tesei, Paola Antonia Deligios, Roberto Orsini, Luigi Ledda, Maria Karatassiou, Athanasios Ragkos, Paride D'Ottavio

“…Vegetation changes varied by area: in the temperate area, woodlands and shrublands were stable, but discontinuous grasslands expanded. …”
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Plant response to the fire regime (1970–2023) in a fynbos World Heritage Site: Ecological indicators for fire management by Tineke Kraaij, Johan Baard, AnneLise Schutte-Vlok

“…Fire drives ecological processes in most Mediterranean-climate ecosystems of the world, including the fynbos shrublands of the Cape Floristic Region. In these ecosystems, particular plant species may be used as indicators to develop or test thresholds for sound management of fires. …”
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