Livestock grazing plays an integral role in the grass-dominated ecosystems of the Sierra Nevada. Grazing has been asserted to influence such key ecological characteristics as water quality, net primary productivity, nutrient cycling, plant and animal diversity, wildlife habitat availability, and oak regeneration (Belsky and others 1999, Kauffmann and Krueger 1984). Although there are many repor...

Defining historic grazing pressures and rangeland management is vital if early landscape threshold crossing and long–term trajectories of landscape change are to be properly understood. In this paper we use a new environmental simulation model, Búmodel, to assess two contrasting historical grazing landscapes in Mývatnssveit Iceland for two key periods—the colonization period (ca. Landnám, A.D. ...

root morphological and distribution responses of signal grass (brachiaria decumbens) to long-term cattle grazing were examined in a tropical pasture in malaysia. the treatments were no grazing by cattle and grazing at a moderate stocking density (2.7 animal unit/ha) under rotational grazing for 33 years. the method consists of taking soil core using a soil corer to a depth of 30 cm and extracti...

Understanding the plant-pest interaction under warming with grazing conditions is critical to predict the response of alpine meadow to future climate change. We investigated the effects of experimental warming and grazing on the interaction between plants and the grassland caterpillar Gynaephora menyuanensis in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau in 2010 and 2011. Our results showed that gr...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential benefits of grazing lactating ewes and their lambs on chicory (Cichorium intybus). Fifty-six certified organic twin-rearing ewes were either drenched with an anthelmintic or not, within 2 days after parturition and were grazed upon either grass/clover or chicory pastures. Around 12 weeks after parturition a subset of 12 lambs per tre...

Multiparous beef cows were managed to achieve marginal (BCS = 4.7 ± 0.07; n = 106) or good (BCS = 6.6 ± 0.06; n = 121) body condition (BC) to determine the influence of forage environment on BW and BC changes, intramuscular fat percentage (IMF), rump fat (RF), and serum hormones during 2 yr. Cows within each BC were randomly assigned to graze either common bermudagrass (CB; n = 3 pastures/yr) o...

Effects of mowing and grazing on a Leymus chinensis grassland in the Songnen plain of northeastern China were studied using eight replicates of four grazing and mowing treatments. Canopy cover and biomass of the dominant species (L. chinensis) were lower, and cover of the halophyte Suaeda corniculata higher, on grazed than ungrazed; ungrazed plots showed a response to mowing, but not grazing; s...

Large mammalian grazers can alter the biotic and abiotic features of their environment through their impacts on vegetation. Grazing at moderate intensity has been recommended for biodiversity conservation. Few studies, however, have empirically tested the benefits of moderate grazing intensity in systems dominated by native grazers. Here we investigated the relationship between (1) density of n...

Rotational grazing management strategies have been promoted as a way to improve the sustainability of native grass-based pasture systems. From disturbance ecology theory, rotational grazing relative to continuous grazing can increase pasture productivity by allowing vegetation to recover after short intense grazing periods. This project sought to assess whether soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks ...

Advances in global positioning system (GPS) technology have dramatically enhanced the ability to track and study distributions of free-ranging livestock. Understanding factors controlling the distribution of free-ranging livestock requires the ability to assess when and where they are foraging. For four years (2008-2011), we periodically collected GPS and activity sensor data together with dire...