Land degradation of alpine rangeland in Dachigam National Park, Northern India, was evaluated in this study using MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land products. The park has been used by a variety of livestock holders. With increasing numbers of livestock, the managers and users of the park are apprehensive about degradation of the grazing land. However, owing to weak infr...

Kachergis, E. (corresponding author, emily. [email protected]): Rangeland Resources Research Unit, USDA-Agricultural Research Service, 8408 Hildreth Road, Cheyenne, WY, 82009, USA Rocca,M.E. ([email protected]): Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA Fernandez-Gimenez,M.E. ([email protected]): De...

Herbivory and fire are natural interacting forces contributing to the maintenance of rangeland ecosystems. Wildfires in the sagebrush dominated ecosystems of the Great Basin are becoming larger and more frequent, and may dramatically alter plant communities and habitat. This synthesis describes what is currently known about the cumulative impacts of historic livestock grazing patterns and short...

The objective of the current study was to determine seasonal changes in glucose, cholesterol, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), serum inorganic phosphorous (SIP), calcium, magnesium and iron concentrations in Nguni and crossbred cattle on the sweet and sour rangelands of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Body weights, body condition scores (BCS) and serum concentrations of energy-rela...

The objective of this paper is to examine the sustainability of rangeland agriculture (i.e., managed grazing) on a world-wide basis, with a focus on North America. Sustainability is addressed on three fronts: 1) ecological, 2) economic, and 3) social acceptance. Based on previous and on-going research, we suggest that employment of science-based rangeland grazing management strategies and tacti...

This paper discusses the hydrological impacts of land use changes on the Olifants Basin in South Africa using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). A three-phase land use scenario (2000, 2007 and 2013) employing the “fix-changing” method was used to simulate the hydrology of the Olifants Basin. Changes in land uses were related to different hydrological responses through a multi-regression...

Land use for animal production influences the earth system in a variety of ways, including local-scale modification to biodiversity, soils, and nutrient cycling; regional changes in albedo and hydrology; and global-scale changes in greenhouse gas and aerosol concentrations. Pasture is furthermore the single most extensive form of land cover, currently comprising about 22-26% of the earth's ice-...

Natural resources models serve as important tools to support decision making by predicting environmental indicators. All model predictions have uncertainty associated with them. Model predictive uncertainty, often expressed as the confidence interval around a model prediction value, may serve as important supplementary information for assisting decision making processes. In this article, we des...

BioEarth is an ongoing research initiative for the development of a regional-scale Earth System Model (EaSM) for the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Our project seeks to couple and integrate multiple stand-alone EaSMs developed through independent efforts for capturing natural and human processes in various realms of the biosphere: atmosphere (weather and air quality), terrestrial biota (crop, rangelan...

The role of ungulate grazing in shaping rangeland ecosystems is well known relative to other important plant-animal interactions such as pollination, seed dispersal, granivory, and belowground herbivory. Successful rangeland revegetation may be enhanced by strategies that favor certain groups of animals and discourage others. Many perennial forbs and shrubs require animals for successful pollin...