A common form of land degradation at the desert margins involves the rapid encroachment of woody plants into historic grasslands and the acceleration of soil erosion as a result of the loss of grass cover (Archer, 1989; Schlesinger et al., 1990). The conversion of perennial grasslands into desert scrublands has been documented worldwide (Van Auken, 2000; Ravi, 2008) and has important implicatio...

Species-rich grasslands provide important ecosystem services, and in South Africa, approximately 40% of these are degraded. Vetiver grass (from India) is often used during rehabilitation efforts to restore soil function without a thorough understanding the potential negative ecological impacts. Hence, study was initiated investigate vetiver’s impacts grassland rehabilitation. Firstly, field sur...