G ecosystems cover 30% to 40% of the earth’s terrestrial surface, provide critical habitat for large numbers of species, and support extensive grazing economies on every continent except Antarctica (Coupland 1979, Samson and Knopf 1996). In the United States alone, there are approximately 312 million hectares of rangeland (NRC 1994). Fire, grazing, and climate combine to act as the primary ecos...

This paper describes the capability of remote sensing in the monitoring of rangeland vegetation productivities and dynamics in the foothill areas of Uzbekistan, in order to enhance the sustainable utilization of natural resources. Seasonal productivity, including above-ground biomass, density, coverage, foliar chlorophyll, and carotene content, was measured for the Artemisia diffusa, the domina...

This study describes the components of available forage in Vahregan watershed, Central Iran and highlight issues relating to forage endowment and environmental dynamics. In this study, proper use factor and palatability models and their components use to develop the model of available forage and measure it. The components climatic, topography, land systems, vegetation, land use and grass and sh...

is when per capita production and consumption grow. This may occur when more hours are spent working; but more important, for the long-term, is new technology, which leads to higher rates of extraction and/or more effi cient use of resources. For most nations, economic growth refl ects a concurrent increase in population and per capita production and consumption, all facilitated by the developm...

We summarize available information about the relationships between oak overstory and understory plants for major California rangeland types. Understory biomass, productivity, and plant species composition vary considerably because of geographic location, overstory species composition, and overstory density and distribution. Deciduous oak canopies in areas with less than 50 cm annual precipitati...

Calibrated predictive relationships obtained from simple and multiple regression of thematic mapper or broad-band (BB) and 1.4 nm interval or narrow-band (NB) spectral data were evaluated for quantifying 11 rangeland components (including total vegetation, forb, grass, shrub, litter, and bare soil) and distinguishing among 6 long-term grazing treatments of sagebrush steppe. In general, all 4 da...

One hundred twenty crossbred steers (450 lb, +/37 lb) were stratified by weight and randomly assigned to one of two feeding blocks. The cattle grazed dormant rangeland for 56 days from October 12 through December 7. Each block was supplemented three times a week with the equivalent of 7 days of dried corn distiller’s grains (DDG) at 0, 0.25, 0.50, or 0.75% body weight (BW)/d on a dry matter bas...

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...

There are many remediating methods for the polluted soils but only phytoremediation is a cost effective, environmental friendly, aesthetically pleasing approach that is most suitable for many countries. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of native plants for phytoremediation of contaminated soils with lead, zinc, cadmium and nickel in the rangelands around National Lead ...