Rangelands essentially comprise geographical regions dominated by grass with or without scattered woody plants. Rangelands are often considered to function primarily as feed for livestock. In this view, conservation and biodiversity issues are secondary. The alternate view involves recognising rangelands as a biome without a specific function, but where there is an implied responsibility for in...

Soil characteristics and functions are critical determinants of rangeland systems and the ecosystem services that they provide. Rangeland soils are extremely diverse, but an emerging understanding is that paradigms developed in more mesic forest ecosystems may not be applicable. Vascular plants, biological soil crusts, and the soil microbial community are the three major functional groups of or...

We examine relationships between landscape scale measurements of rangeland complexity and cattle stocking rates in Kansas. Rangeland complexity was characterized using Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite imagery and the USGS National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD). Satellite Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values were summed over the 2002 growing-season and then ...

Oak woodlands of Mediterranean ecosystems, a major component of biodiversity hotspots in Europe and North America, have undergone significant land-use change in recent centuries, including an increase in grazing intensity due to the widespread presence of cattle. Simultaneously, a decrease in oak regeneration has been observed, suggesting a link between cattle grazing intensity and limited oak ...

The aim of this study is to determine the effect rangeland quality Ankara goats fed on some natural in mohair quality. research was carried out 3 different rangelands province. Crude protein, ether extract, Ca, Fe, N, energy contents and digestibility, vitro gas production, relative feed values good plants were highest compared other rangelands, but crude fiber, acid detergent neutral fiber low...

the “Three-River Headwaters” region (TRHR) rangeland ecosystem is extremely sensitive and fragile, and in recent years has undergone continuous degradation. The vast area and severe nature conditions inhibit data acquisition and field experiments, resulting in different understandings about the spatial characteristics and dynamics of rangeland degradation in the region. Therefore, reliable moni...

the study of soil seed bank provides useful information on management and restoration of natural ecosystems. in the arid environments, some perennial plants may cause accumulation of seed bank under their canopy, thereby protecting them against the livestock herbivory and the other environmental factors. this study was conducted with objective to investigate effect of perennial plants on densit...

livestock grazing is one of the most important kinds of land usage that has a high potential to decrease or increase carbon storage in rangeland ecosystem. this research was investigated the effects of enclosure on soil carbon storage in a rangeland with dominant plants of artemisia aucheri. hence, two rangelands of enclosure (shahtappeh-chah mahmood) and no enclosure (chiro) were chosen in sem...