Ecological sites are the basic entity used in rangeland health assessment. This study evaluates the synergistic use of multiand hyper-spectral satellite imagery for sub-pixel classification of ecological sites in semiarid rangelands. Hyperion and Landsat enhanced thematic mapper (ETM) data are included in a two-step procedure to mapping ecological sites in Patagonian rangelands of Argentina. Fi...

Rangeland ecosystems are capable of providing an array of ecosystem services important to the wellbeing of society. Some of these services (e.g. meat, fibre) are transported to markets and their quantity, quality and value are established via a set of widely accepted standards. Other services (e.g. climate mitigation, water quality, wildlife habitat) do not leave the land, but are, in fact, mos...

This article explores the concept of resilience as outlined in a recent World Bank publication that applies the concept to rangeland areas in Africa. The paper does not attempt to speak to all of the dimensions of resilience and debates about the concept’s applications to pastoral ecology and rangelands. Instead, we utilize a panel data set from northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia that has bee...

Climate finance investments and international policy are driving new community-based projects incorporating payments for ecosystem services (PES) to simultaneously store carbon and generate livelihood benefits. Most community-based PES (CB-PES) research focuses on forest areas. Rangelands, which store globally significant quantities of carbon and support many of the world's poor, have seen litt...

According to the nonequilibrium theory, livestock grazing has a limited effect on long-term vegetation productivity of semiarid rangelands, which is largely determined by rainfall. The communal lands in northeastern South Africa contain extensive degraded areas which have been mapped by the National Land Cover (NLC) program. Much evidence suggests that long-term heavy grazing is the cause of th...

The rangelands of the Mongolian Plateau are dynamic social-ecological systems that are influenced by a complex network of drivers, including climate, social institutions, market forces and broad scale policies affecting land tenure. These factors are linked via feedbacks and often exhibit non-linear relationships. The sustainability and resilience of rangelands in this region are dependent on t...

Wild herbivores and livestock share the majority of rangelands worldwide, yet few controlled experiments have addressed their individual, additive, and interactive impacts on ecosystem function. While ungulate herbivores generally reduce standing biomass, their effects on aboveground net primary production (ANPP) can vary by spatial and temporal context, intensity of herbivory, and herbivore id...

This study was carried out to determine the chemical composition and in vitro dry matter digestibility of grazable material, during the growing season of plants, in three different altitudinal zones, in native rangelands, northwestern Greece. Samples were collected during the period from May to October of the years 2004 and 2005. Sample collection was accomplished by cutting aboveground biomass...