recruitment of adult plants in entire communities, and all of them focus on changes in total densities of A central issue of plant ecology is the understanding individuals and do not refer to changes in community of the relative role of different life history stages in structure (Moles and Drake 1999; Rebollo et al. successful plant recruitment. The consecutive stages 2001; Goldberg et al. 2001). This ?eld of research of seed, seedling, and adult are related to each other has hardly been explored empirically, and we think it in a complex way that largely depends on species and may reveal interesting mechanisms for the regulation the in?uence of physical and biological factors of individual density and species diversity in plant (Goldberg et al. 2001), for example, irrigation and communities. At the functional group level (which grazing. As a result of relationships between these sorts species according to common features), we stages, the consequences of an ecological factor expect differences depending on growth form depend on the way that its effects propagate onto the (grasses versus forbs) and depending on seed mass following stage of the recruitment process. As far as (differences between small-seeded, medium-seeded, we know, there are no published studies that have and large-seeded species). Some authors (Goldberg addressed this subject. et al. 2001; Rebollo et al. 2001) studying annual In this article, we characterize the relationships plant communities have found greater seedling between the three plant developmental stages.

This volume provides an overview of recent advances in the ecology of various kinds of non-forested ecosystems (grasslands, deserts, and wetlands) on a variety of topics, including species diversity and the factors that control species diversity, impacts of disturbances (grazing, mowing, fire, flooding), establishment and reproduction ecology, and plant-plant interactions. Previously published in Plant Ecology, Volume 201, No.2, 2009.

Plant species richness and diversity of the serpentine areas on the Witwatersrand.- Temporal changes in species diversity and composition in abandoned fields in a trans-Himalayan landscape, Nepal.- Role of desert annuals in nutrient flow in arid area of Northwestern China: a nutrient reservoir and provider.- The effects of fire frequency and grazing on tallgrass prairie productivity and plant composition are mediated through bud bank demography.- Do plant functional types based on leaf dry matter content allow characterizing native grass species and grasslands for herbage growth pattern?.- Clonal growth strategies in simultaneously persistent and expanding Trifolium repens patches.- California native and exotic perennial grasses differ in their response to soil nitrogen, exotic annual grass density, and order of emergence.- Do seed and microsite limitation interact with seed size in determining invasion patterns in flooding Pampa grasslands?.- Feral horses dung piles as potential invasion windows for alien plant species in natural grasslands.- Reproductive allocation of Carex flava reacts differently to competition and resources in a designed plant mixture of five species.- Factors affecting the establishment and growth of annual legumes in semi-arid mediterranean grasslands.- Are irrigation and grazing effects transferred, accumulated, or counteracted during plant recruitment?.- Extent and spatial patterns of grass bald land cover change (1948-2000), Oregon Coast Range, USA.- Grass (Poaceae) richness patterns across China's nature reserves.- Interacting effects of grass height and herbivores on the establishment of an encroaching savanna shrub.- Effects of competition on root-shoot allocation in Plantago lanceolata L.: adaptive plasticity or ontogenetic drift?.-Rock-colonizing plants: abundance of the endemic cactus Mammillaria fraileana related to rock type in the southern Sonoran Desert.- Ecophysiological responses of nine floodplain meadow species to changing hydrological conditions.- Tolerance of a perennial herb, Pimpinella saxifraga, to simulated flower herbivory and grazing: immediate repair of injury or postponed reproduction?.- Differential herbivory tolerance of dominant and subordinate plant species along gradients of nutrient availability and competition.- Responses of clonal architecture to experimental defoliation: a comparative study between ten grassland species.- Diffuse knapweed (Centaurea diffusa Lam.) seedling emergence and establishment in a Colorado grassland.- Biodiversity and tallgrass prairie decomposition: the relative importance of species identity, evenness, richness, and micro-topography.- Herbivory and local genetic differentiation in natural populations of Arabidopsis thaliana (Brassicaceae).- The effect of nutrient supply and light intensity on tannins and mycorrhizal colonisation in Dutch heathland ecosystems.- Spatial and temporal dynamics of floating and drift-line seeds at a tidal freshwater marsh on the Potomac River, USA.- Estimating plant competition coefficients and predicting community dynamics from non-destructive pin-point data: a case study with Calluna vulgaris and Deschampsia flexuosa.- Disturbance by mowing affects clonal diversity: the genetic structure of Ranunculus ficaria (Ranunculuaceae) in meadows and forests.- Soil amendment effects on the exotic annual grass Bromus tectorum L. and facilitation of its growth by the native perennial grass Hilaria jamesii (Torr.) Benth.- Effects of fire on the vegetation of a lowland heathland in North-western Italy.

This volume provides an overview of recent advances in the ecology of various kinds of non-forested ecosystems on a variety of topics. These include species diversity and the factors that control species diversity, and impacts of disturbances.