1 Herbivores can play a key role in affecting ecosystem function, but their direct and indirect effects are often confounded with each other and have rarely been dissected. Predictions for open systems, i.e. those with cross-habitat nutrient fluxes and dispersal, may differ from those expected in closed systems, where no such transfers occur, but these differences have only recently begun to be...

Since livestock production in Uzbekistan in arid and semi-arid zones is based on rangeland vegetation, contemporary studies have focused on improvement of low productive grazing lands and rehabilitation of degraded rangelands. Less interest has been given to the driving factors of land degradation and their interaction with other ecosystem components, e.g. response of vegetation to grazing indu...

1. Grasslands in the Temperate Zone: Distribution and History 2. Characteristics of Old Temperate Grassland Ecosystems 2.1 Grazing and Cutting Regimes 2.2 Nutrients 2.3 Area Size and Networks 2.4 Dynamic Land Use 2.5 Species Richness/Biodiversity 3. Present and Future Policy to Manage Old Temperate Grasslands 3.1 Modern Agriculture and Traditional Temperate Grasslands 3.2 Avoidance of Eutrophic...

As savannas are widespread across northern Australia and provide northern rangelands, the sustainable use of this landscape is crucial. Both fire and grazing are known to influence the tree-grass character of tropical savannas. Frequent fires open up the tree layer and change the ground layer from perennials to that dominated by annuals. Annual species in turn produce copious quantities of high...

Livestock have been a key factor in the development of civiliiation, hut what will their role be in the future and how should the science of rangeland management change to meet the challenges of the future? In this paper I look at current grazing management in the contest of paradigm shifts and scientific revolution. The impact of livestock on rangelands occurs primarily because livestock selec...

We report on growth and survivorship of two cohorts of blue oaks Quercus douglasii Hook. & Arn. (Fagaceae) monitored at Hastings Reservation in Monterey County, California, the first growing in an unprotected old field and measured as seedlings in 1965 and the second planted as acorns in 1985 in several sites differing in their degree of protection from grazing. Growth of all individuals was ex...

Conservative land-use over the past few decades has converted the Montseny Biosphere Reserve (Spain) from the original open, patchy landscape to almost continuous woodland. Small ruminant grazing is virtually the only major remaining utilisation activity yet little is known about its role in the changing vegetation of the Reserve. This study was undertaken to determine the effects of current gr...

studying the ecology of halophyte plant species provides useful information for reclamation and managements of arid and semiarid rangelands. this research was implemented as a pot experiment in which seeds of three rangeland species (erotiaceratoides, agropyrndesertorum, and salsolaarbusculiformis) were sown in the soil taken from understory of salsola or from the open spaces. soil samples were...

Livestock grazing is a widespread and important influence on neotropical migratory birds in four major ecosystems in western North America: grasslands of the Great Plains and Southwest, riparian woodlands, Intermountain shrubsteppe, and open coniferous forests. We have reviewed available literature on avian responses to grazing in these habitats. Among 35 plains species for which data are avail...