Accurate estimates of pasture biomass in grazing lands are currently a time-consuming and resource-intensive task. The process generally includes physically cutting, bagging, labelling, drying, weighing grass samples using multiple “quadrats” placed on the ground. Quadrats vary size but typically order 0.25 m2 (i.e., 0.5 m × m) up to 1.0 m2. Measurements from number harvested quadrats then aver...

Innovative financial instruments are being created to reward conservation on private, working lands. Major design challenges remain, however, to make investments in biodiversity and ecosystem services economically attractive and commonplace. From a business perspective, three key financial barriers for advancing conservation land uses must frequently be addressed: high up-front costs, long time...

Methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas, contributes about one third to the global green house gas emissions. CH4-assimilating microbes (mostly methanotrophs) in upland soils play very crucial role in mitigating the CH4 release into the atmosphere. Agricultural, environmental, and climatic shifts can alter CH4 sink profiles of soils, likely through shifts in CH4-assimilating microbial community ...

introduction soil infiltration rate is the major soil hydraulic property which can be affected by the soil physical characteristics and management practices. the use of land can affect various soil properties such as physical and hydraulic properties. differences of the hydraulic soil characteristics such as infiltration rate in various land uses can affect their potential to runoff production ...

INTRODUCTION Lvni-north of the great southward bend o[ the Platte River in central Nebraska but southeast of the sandhills, there are several thousand square miles of rugged uplands known as loess bluffs. They are quite unlike the sandhills with their typical cover, largely of postelimax tall grasses. They also differ widely from the Nebraska plain eastward and south-eastward where mid-grass or...

Over the last three decades, livestock exclosure research has emerged as a preferred method to evaluate the ecology of riparian ecosystems and their susceptibility to livestock impacts. This research has addressed the effects of livestock exclusion on many characteristics of riparian ecosystems, including vegetation, aquatic and terrestrial animals, and geomorphology. This paper reviews, critiq...

The USA’s federally funded Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has largely been successful in restoring many critical ecosystem functions to millions of acres through the conversion of vulnerable croplands to diverse perennial plant communities—primarily to perennial grass and forb plantings. CRP contracts, however, on as much as 6.5 million hectares (ha) are now expiring. Aside from leaving the...

The study was carried out to document the production system of indigenous Woyto-Guji goats and major limitations goat reared in two districts (Nyangatom Maale) South Omo, Ethiopia. Stepwise purposive followed by a random sampling method used select respondents. Based on result, households Nyangatom district preferred rear cattle, sheep less number poultry when compared those residing Maale dist...

In the countries surrounding the Mediterranean basin, most of the semi-natural grazing lands are covered by rangelands. Rangelands can be defined as highly heterogeneous natural vegetation communities with high conservation value, growing in harsh environments (poor soils, unfavourable climatic conditions). In the recent socio-economic context, traditional livestock grazing practices that enabl...

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is a World Heritage Area and contains extensive areas of coral reef, seagrass meadows and fisheries resources. From adjacent catchments, numerous rivers discharge pollutants from agricultural, urban, mining and industrial activity. Pollutant sources have been identified and include suspended sediment from erosion in cattle grazing areas; nitrate from fertiliser appl...