By all accounts, the proness of the Merhabete people to recurrent, and sometimes colossal, food shortages has had several interlocking sources, including maladministration, untimely execution of government policies, unsuccessful handling of issues of land reform, environmental bankruptcy and the unprecedented intensity of the "grain drain", resulting from rapid soil erosion, over-cultivation, d...

Recent research shows that continuous overgrazing not only causes grassland biodiversity to decline, but also causes light fungal disease. Achnatherum inebrians is susceptible to fungal diseases and increases in prevalence during over grazing due its toxicity to livestock. This study aimed to examine the effects of A. inebrians on biological control organisms and levels of plant diseases in ove...

The proper balance of protein, energy, vitamins and all nutritionally important minerals is needed to make a successful nutrition program, one that’s productive yet economical. Nutrient balance is the key to any effective nutrition program, especially where trace minerals are concerned. Today, there is concern that the trace elements may be limiting production in better managed herds to a much ...

Nostoc flagelliforme, a filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium, is widely distributed in arid steppes of the west and northwestern parts of China. However, as a food delicacy this species has been overexploited from 1970 to 2000. Moreover, overgrazing, land reclamation and the removal of medicinal herbs have caused severely reduced vegetation coverage there. In this communication, a badly d...

This paper reviews historical, philosophical and socio-cultural information as a means of explaining why saltbush in Australia has declined. That decline coincided with introduced hard hoofed animals overgrazing native pastures and was compounded by land clearing. Over time, losing ecosystem diversity degraded vegetation, soil and water resources; subsequently, watertables rose. A benefit of sa...

Between the early 1900s and the 1990s, the greater snow goose Anser caerulescens atlanticus population grew from 3000 individuals to more than 700 000. Because of concerns about Arctic degradation of natural habitats through overgrazing, a working group recommended the stabilization of the population. Declared overabundant in 1998, special management actions were then implemented in Canada and ...

Coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) are systems of feedback linking people and ecosystems. A feature of CHANS is that this ecological feedback connects people across time and space. Failing to account for these dynamic links results in intertemporal and spatial externalities, reaping benefits in the present but imposing costs on future and distant people, such as occurs with overgrazing. ...