We studied 20th century lower forest–grassland ecotone shift in the Centennial Valley in southwestern Montana and investigated the effects of livestock herbivory on ecotone shift at a local spatial scale and a decadal time scale. A total of 525 aspen (Populus tremuloides) and 1703 Douglasfir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) trees were cored and 10,168 saplings were mapped along the ecotone at five sites...

Infiltration rate of water into the soil depends on the factors such as rock and litter cover, canopy cover, rainfall intensity, coarse material, land slope, soil texture and amount of initial soil moisture. The most important factors that are effective in the water infiltration rate of rangelands are livestock trampling and vegetation reduction due to the overgrazing. In present study, through...

assessment of diversity and species richness in the understanding of ecosystem functions, protect and preserve genetic resources, evaluation and control of environmental change and the success or failure will help natural resource management programs. arbitrary banning livestock grazing program and one of the most common and perhaps the most degraded pastures and reduced the diversity and speci...

We examined long-term (10 years) meadow plant community responses to (1) livestock grazing under riparian grazing utilization limits; (2) suspension of livestock grazing; and (3) meadow site wetness and precipitation on the Inyo National Forest, California. Observed trends in meadow plant species richness, diversity, and frequency of soil stabilizing species were not significantly different bet...

Application of existing and novel management techniques can alter traditional livestock grazing patterns and significantly improve the sustainability of arid rangelands. Livestock often congregate and heavily graze riparian areas and other sensitive rangeland, while abundant forage remains in other areas. Increasing the uniformity of grazing can help protect fisheries, wildlife habitat, and oth...

Preference value means livestock preference to eat some plants relative to other plants or species. Accordingly, by studying the preference values, the range managers could determine the rangelands grazing capacity to achieve the optimum performance of livestock and to guarantee the stability of rangeland ecosystem. The objective of this study was to determine the preference value of perennial ...

Increasing food production is essential to meet the future food demand of a growing world population. In light of pressing sustainability challenges such as climate change and the importance of the global livestock system for food security as well as GHG emissions, finding ways to increasing food production sustainably and without increasing competition for food crops is essential. Yet, many un...

Burrowing small mammals in grasslands have long been regarded as pests because they compete for forage with livestock and reduce the forage availability for livestock by destroying pastures through their intensive digging activity. In order to investigate forage competition between the Mongolian Pika (Ochotona pallasi) and livestock an exclosure experiment consisting of four different treatment...