In the Serengeti ecosystem of East Africa, grazing ungulates prefer areas with elevated grass Na, suggesting that some grasses tolerate both high soil Na and defoliation. We performed a factorial Na-by-defoliation greenhouse study with five abundant Sporobolus congeners to explore whether Serengeti grasses possess traits which: (i) confer tolerance to both Na and defoliation (cross-tolerance); ...

Responses of plants to grazing are better understood, and more predictable, than those of consumers in North American grasslands. In 2003, we began a large-scale, replicated experiment that examined the effects of grazing on three important arthropod groups-beetles, spiders, and grasshoppers-in shortgrass steppe of north-central Colorado. We investigated whether modifications of the intensity a...

in arid and semi-arid rangelands, grazing as one of the natural or human induced processes has direct and indirect effects on structure and dynamics of plant community and ecosystems. a study was done to analyze the effects of grazing on plant species diversity and plant functional types‘ (pfts) diversity of arid and semi-arid rangelands. we analyzed plant richness and diversity data from 75 sa...

Controversy has surrounded the possible differences in pasture production which result from grazing by cattle or sheep. Experiments conducted over the 1972-76 period show that pasture production under grazing by sheep is greater than under grazing by cattle under similar intensive managements. A change from sheep grazing to cattle grazing can cause a rapid deterioration in pasture production, w...

One of the key factors in managing a rangeland is to determine the relative preference of its major plant species by thegrazing livestock. Preference value of each plant species is affected by plant type, companion plants, availability byanimals, phenological stage, climate condition, and the livestock species. We investigated the grazing behaviour of anative goat (Garizi) in the steppe rangela...