1BAbstract This study implemented and applied a binary ensemble classifier for identification of grazed vegetation communities on Macquarie Island from very high resolution Quickbird imagery. Rabbit grazing has severely affected Macquarie’s unique sub-Antarctic vegetation communities. The aim of this study was to identify the grazed areas from Quickbird imagery to map their spatial extent. Seve...

We assessed plant interspaces in July 2007 using continuous line intercepts in twice-replicated pastures of northern mixed-grass prairie with contrasting grazing treatments: 1) long-term (25 yr) heavily grazed, dominated by the bunchgrass blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis), and 2) ungrazed, dominated by the rhizomatous grass western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii). The number of plant interspaces ...

Livestock grazing practices in rangelands are being recognized as management tool for environmental protection and increased livestock productivity. Continuous grazing has been largely reported to reduce pasture productivity and increase environmental degradation. Rotational grazing is an alternative to continuous grazing and is considered to reduce negative environmental effects and provide qu...

“The soil respiration (Sr) increased with time during the day while soil temperature peaked during midday in both ungrazed and grazed plots (Fig. 3). Sr in ungrazed plots was higher than that of grazed plots between 13:00 and 16:00 hours. The mean value of Sr in ungrazed plots (8.01 ± 2.09 μ mol CO2/m/s) was significantly higher than in ungrazed plots (6.77 ± 1.58 μ mol CO2/m/s) (p = 0.017), wh...

We examined changes in the diversity of herbaceous plant species at colony ( ) sites of the plains vizcacha Lagostomus maximus following local extinctions of this species in semi-arid scrub of central Argentina. These large rodents live in social groups, share a communal burrow system, and forage in a common home range around the burrow system. Through intense herbivory, vizcachas create large ...