Rangeland Ecology & Management
Get reliable science
Toggle Search
Result Type
Collection
Keywords
Document Type
Displaying 1 - 50 of 263 results
- Library Collection Record
1 Savanna
Savannas are characterized by the coexistence of trees and grasses and occur largely in the seasonal tropics between the equatorial rainforests and mid-latitude desert ecosystems. This article…Publication Date 2008- climate change
- Deciduous
- Evergreen
- fire
- grazing
- herbivory
- phenology
- Seasonal tropics
- soils
- Tree and grass competition
- savanna
- ecology
- animal impact
- grasslands
- rainfall
- southern Africa
- Library Collection RecordSummary 10.1002/9780470292136.ch4.abs This chapter contains sections titled: * Objectives for This Chapter * Introduction * Factors Influencing the Agricultural Use of Animals * Animal Distribution…Publication Date 2008
- food production
- physiological adaptation
- buffalo
- livestock
- veterinary service
- agriculture
- management
- sustainability
- animal production
- southern Africa
- Library Collection RecordSummary Grasslands are located in areas with precipitation ranging between 150 and 1200 mm yr-1 and temperature between 0 and 25 C (Lieth and Whittaker, 1975). Along a precipitation gradient, in…Publication Date 2001
- grasslands
- rainfall
- ecosystem ecology
- southern Africa
- Library Collection RecordAbstract Livestock grazing is often viewed as having detrimental effects on plants and plant communities. Livestock grazing can, however, be managed to be an effective tool for vegetation management…Publication Date 2010
- livestock
- grazing
- nutrition
- ecology
- management
- vegetation dynamics
- ecosystem ecology
- fire ecology
- southern Africa
- Library Collection RecordIn the Sahel and the Kalahari, the growth in groundwater extraction via simple wells and boreholes is contributing to an increased use of dryland natural resources, to competition for resources, and…Publication Date 2003
- rangeland condition
- rainfall
- groundwater
- animal production
- vegetation dynamics
- biodiversity
- bush thickening
- indigenous encroaching species
- southern Africa
- Library Collection RecordLivestock have played a pivotal and positive role in human development. Yet this has come at a heavy cost to the biological diversity of the world's rangelands and forests. Livestock grazing is…Publication Date 2001
- rangelands
- ecology
- livestock
- southern Africa
- Library Collection RecordVegetation dominated by grasses, which is among the largest ecosystems in the world, has great environmental significance as well as providing feed for livestock and wildlife. Grassland types vary…Publication Date 2001
- savannah
- steppe
- grasses
- herbivory
- grazing
- fire
- savanna
- grasslands
- disturbance
- livestock
- southern Africa
- Library Collection RecordWe introduce the five rangeland types found in the arid and semiarid regions of South Africa, namely Arid Savanna, Arid Grassland, Nama-karoo, Succulent Karoo, and Thicket, and describe the important…Publication Date 2006
- rangelands
- savanna
- livestock
- grazing
- management
- commercial agriculture
- subsistence agriculture
- Sustainable development
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordSummary * 1Grasses using the C4 photosynthetic pathway dominate today's savanna ecosystems and account for ~20% of terrestrial carbon fixation. However, this dominant status was reached only…Publication Date 2008
- atmospheric CO2
- C4 plants
- climate change
- fire
- grasslands
- grazing
- Poaceae
- rainfall
- savanna
- seasonality
- carbon dioxide
- palaeoclimate
- palaeobotany
- Africa
- Library Collection Record1. Gradients of animal impact known as piospheres tend to develop around artificial watering points, particularly in arid zones. Such grazing gradients represent a potential opportunity for…Publication Date 2006
- animal impact
- piosphere
- watering points
- livestock
- species richness
- ecosystem ecology
- rangelands
- grazing
- management
- disturbance
- stocking rates
- Africa
- Library Collection Record[1] Land use/cover change has been recognized as a key component in global change. Various land cover data sets, including historically reconstructed, recently observed, and future projected, have…Publication Date 2007
- land use
- climate change
- management
- classification
- data analysis
- remote sensing
- modelling
- rainfall
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordIt has been well established that drought frequently emerges in several tropical regions following the onset of El Niño. An important characteristic of such droughts is their spatial extent, which…Publication Date 2006
- drought
- climate change
- El Nino
- rainfall
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordIn Kenya, lands surrounding wildlife protected areas (PAs), referred to as dispersal areas, have undergone widespread land use changes, but these have been little studied. This study investigated…Publication Date 2008
- conservation
- agriculture
- national parks
- land use
- grazing
- biodiversity
- disturbance
- rainfall
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordDegradation in arid and semi-arid regions can be ascribed primarily to environmental conditions such as extreme changes in temperature and erratic rainfall patterns. Seed germination and seedling…Publication Date 2006
- Drought Stress
- polyethylene glycol (PEG)
- restoration
- rangelands
- seeds
- germination
- grasslands
- rainfall
- climate
- drought
- plant autecology
- restoration ecology
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe response of photosynthetic activity to interannual rainfall variations in Africa South of the Sahara is examined using 20 years (1981-2000) of Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) AVHRR…Publication Date 2007
- NDVI
- vegetation
- rainfall
- Land cover
- soil properties
- Interannual variability
- Africa
- remote sensing
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordEarly warning systems (EWS) tend to focus on the identification of slow onset disasters such famine and epidemic disease. Since hazardous environmental conditions often precede disastrous outcomes by…Publication Date 2006
- Early warning
- Africa
- food security
- NDVI
- precipitation
- rainfall
- Malaria
- Rift valley fever
- Pastoral livelihoods
- modelling
- drought
- management
- system ecology
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordSavanna ecosystems of southern Africa are strongly influenced by water availability and fire intensity, and this study aimed to show whether these two specific environmental variables are reflected…Publication Date 2008
- calibration
- Kruger National Park
- fire history
- quantitative analysis
- Relevant Source Area of Charcoal
- fire ecology
- palaeobotany
- rainfall
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe tree-grass interactions of African savannas are mainly determined by varying rainfall patterns and soil fertility. Large savanna trees are known to modify soil nutrient conditions, but whether…Publication Date 2007
- canopy
- Fibre content
- Grass structure
- grazing
- nitrogen
- phosphorus
- savanna
- rainfall
- soil fertility
- plant production
- nutrition
- soil organic carbon
- biomass
- forage quality
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe coexistence of woody and grassy plants in savannas has often been attributed to a rooting-niche separation (two-layer hypothesis). Water was assumed to be the limiting resource for both growth…Publication Date 2006
- fire
- grazing
- Honeycomb rippling model
- Inter-tree competition
- Spatio-temporal rainfall variation
- Tree-grass coexistence
- savanna
- indigenous encroaching species
- grasslands
- soil moisture
- rainfall
- vegetation dynamics
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordSummary Robust calibration of hydrological models, driven by gridded precipitation data derived from either Regional Climate Models or statistical downscaling of General Circulation Models, is…Publication Date 2008
- groundwater
- recharge
- precipitation
- distribution
- Africa
- rainfall
- hydrology
- climate change
- soil moisture
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordWe are attempting to set up a new protocol for palaeoecological reconstruction in relation to the fossil hominin site Laetoli, Tanzania. This is based on the premise that habitat variability in the…Publication Date 2008
- Habitat variability
- rainfall
- climate
- topography
- soil
- Hominins
- ecology
- paleoecology
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordSemi-arid areas are often considered to be environmentally and economically marginal, a situation which has been exacerbated by economic change, shifts in agricultural production and land use, and…Publication Date 2008
- Dry land degradation
- Economic decline
- Livestock trends
- population change
- Small towns
- rangelands
- Economic Aspects
- livestock
- agriculture
- socio-economic aspects
- politics
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordNamibian rangelands are encroached with Acacia mellifera, partially resulting from a poor understanding of vegetation dynamics. A conceptual state-and-transition model of vegetation dynamics in the…Publication Date 2008
- fire
- hazards
- management
- opportunities
- state-and-transition
- savanna
- indigenous encroaching species
- bush thickening
- rainfall
- seed banks
- vegetation dynamics
- plant autecology
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThis paper provides a reappraisal of contemporary perspectives on climate change in southern Africa's Okavango Delta sub-region by drawing on time-line evidence from historical/archival records…Publication Date 2008
- Bush-encroachment
- desiccation
- deterioration
- Human interventions
- wetland
- climate change
- remote sensing
- hydrology
- rainfall
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordDespite the ubiquity of sub-tropical savannas throughout the earth, limitations of savanna productivity are understudied relative to other terrestrial systems. The limitations of savanna productivity…Publication Date 2008
- grass
- nitrogen
- phosphorus
- savanna
- rainfall
- soil nutrients
- plant production
- plant autecology
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe Kalahari sand sheet, with a 2.5-million ha area, is probably the largest continuous surface of sand in the world. The Kalahari Transect (KT) is one of a set of IGBP 'megatransects '…Publication Date 2007
- biogeochemistry
- Hydraulic properties
- Kalahari transect
- Sand deposits
- stable isotopes
- ecosystem dynamics
- vegetation dynamics
- soil organic carbon
- Soil Condition
- soil nutrients
- rainfall
- grasslands
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordLivestock grazing may or may not be an exogenous disturbance facilitating the spread of exotic grasses, perhaps depending on the historical importance of native ungulates in a particular grassland.…Publication Date 2007
- Boer Lovegrass
- disturbance
- invasion
- Lehmann lovegrass
- livestock
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe phenology of three dominant and economically important tree species; Acacia erioloba, Acacia luederitzii and Acacia mellifera, all widespread in the Kalahari in Botswana, was studied at Tsabong (…Publication Date 2007
- Kalahari
- phenology
- Acacia luederitzii
- Acacia erioloba
- Acacia mellifera
- litter
- plant autecology
- climate change
- rainfall
- fodder production
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordPastoral production around artificial watering points in semi-arid environments affects the density and composition of plant communities. In the Kalahari desert of southwestern Africa, bush…Publication Date 2007
- Rural livelihoods
- watering points
- land degradation
- Fodder trees
- Indigenous ecological knowledge
- Herero
- pastoralism
- traditional knowledge
- piosphere
- degradation
- cattle
- household income studies
- participatory rural appraisal
- livestock
- subsistence agriculture
- socio-economic aspects
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe aim of this study was to determine the effect of drought on grazing patterns of livestock in a communal rangeland in Namaqualand. Water points were the foci of almost all grazing routes even…Publication Date 2007
- pastoralism
- drought
- Livestock farming
- Livestock activity patterns
- communal rangeland
- livestock
- communal farming
- rangeland condition
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordA national-level land degradation risk monitoring system identified an important grazing area in central northern Namibia as an area at risk of environmental change. A time series analysis of primary…Publication Date 2007
- semi-arid
- local knowledge
- rainfall variability
- water supply
- grazing
- land management
- degradation
- data analysis
- grasslands
- livestock
- rainfall
- participatory rural appraisal
- decision support systems
- management
- traditional knowledge
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordWe investigated the effects of rainfall and the number of animals on changes in vegetation and on the output of milk and meat from the communal areas of Namaqualand. Previously published short- and…Publication Date 2007
- climate change
- degradation
- desert
- Karoo
- livestock production
- Disequilibrium
- sustainability
- animal nutrition
- rainfall
- pastoralism
- subsistence agriculture
- animal production
- management
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordAdvanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index data (NDVI, 1 km2, 1985-2003) and modeled net primary production (NPP, 8 km2, 1981-2000) data were used to…Publication Date 2007
- monitoring
- AVHRR
- NDVI
- rain-use efficiency
- NPP
- Communal lands
- South Africa
- degradation
- land use
- remote sensing
- NDVI values
- mapping
- rainfall
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThis paper provides an analysis of the physical and chemical characteristics of cyanobacterial soil crusts in the Molopo Basin, South Africa. It details the influence that soil type, livestock…Publication Date 2006
- cyanobacterial soil crusts
- Kalahari
- soil nutrients
- shrub encroachment
- Acacia mellifera
- soil classification
- livestock
- disturbance
- grasslands
- grazing
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordDegradation in semi-arid Karoo rangelands has been ascribed to over-utilization by livestock and variations in rainfall regime. The understanding of vegetation dynamics in confined plant-herbivore…Publication Date 2006
- African wild herbivore
- Herbivore exclosure
- plant functional type
- Protected area
- vegetation monitoring
- rangelands
- rangeland condition
- vegetation dynamics
- livestock
- grazing
- land use
- national parks
- rainfall
- monitoring
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordAs part of an investigation of land degradation in the South African Karoo, three types of fine sediment signatures (radionuclides, mineral magnetism and sediment geochemistry) were used to trace the…Publication Date 2007
- Sediment fingerprinting
- South African Karoo
- Erosion history
- Extreme events
- 137Cs and 210Pb
- land use
- soils
- management
- grazing
- fire
- livestock
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordMany mechanisms have been suggested to explain the coexistence of woody species and grasses in savannas, yet, evidence from field studies and simulation models has been mixed. Shrub encroachment is…Publication Date 2007
- Patch-dynamics
- Cyclical succession
- shrub encroachment
- Spatially explicit root growth
- Computer simulation model
- Validation
- Latin Hypercube sensitivity analysis
- Acacia mellifera
- savanna
- indigenous encroaching species
- vegetation dynamics
- ecosystem ecology
- modelling
- rainfall
- fire
- soil moisture
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordIn semiarid savannas of Southern Africa current land use practices and climate change may lead to substantial changes of vegetation structure in the near future, however uncertainty remains about the…Publication Date 2006
- Acacia erioloba
- Bush encroachment
- global change
- Grewia flava
- overgrazing
- seed dispersal
- shrub encroachment
- Southern Kalahari
- Spatial-explicit simulation model
- savanna
- land use
- grazing
- climate change
- vegetation dynamics
- cattle
- ecosystem ecology
- ecosystem dynamics
- rainfall
- fire ecology
- modelling
- conservation
- management
- carrying capacity
- biodiversity
- indigenous encroaching species
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordUnlike any other biome, savannas consist of both trees and grasses in a persistent and equitable manner. This unique mixture of two different life forms attracted scientific scrutiny for decades.…Publication Date 2006
- Terminalia sericea
- Shallow root system
- savannas
- rainfall
- Etosha National Park
- grazing
- indigenous encroaching species
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThis paper forms part of a long-term study of land degradation in the Klein Seekoei valley in the Sneeuberg uplands about 30 km southwest of the town of Middelburg, South Africa (Fig. 1). Landscape…Publication Date 2006
- erosion
- Karoo
- rainfall intensity
- Stock numbers
- land degradation
- Gullies
- rainfall
- degradation
- rangeland condition
- rangelands
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordConserving African wildlife in human-occupied landscapes requires management intervention that is guided by a mechanistic understanding of how anthropogenic factors influence large-scale ecological…Publication Date 2007
- wildlife
- rainfall
- predation
- competition
- apparent competition
- Non-protected area
- management
- conservation
- grasslands
- eco - tourism
- cattle
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordWe compared prediction of in vivo dry matter (DMD) and neutral detergent fiber (aNDFD) digestibility by the following techniques: (1) Tilley and Terry two-stage in vitro (conventional in vitro or…Publication Date 2008
- Digestion Techniques
- Filter bags
- Grinding size
- in vitro digestibility
- livestock
- animal nutrition
- fodder quality
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordAdequate water supplies are essential to efficient livestock production. In many areas livestock are in conflict with crops for water and for key areas of use. Both surface and underground sources…Publication Date 2007
- Livestock drinking water
- Resource conflict
- Organization and management of water
- participation
- Cost recovery
- hydrology
- agriculture
- livestock
- socio-economic aspects
- policies
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThis series of two papers describes a mechanistic model that simulates within years the productivity of vegetation and livestock on the communal semi-arid rangeland of the Succulent Karoo of South…Publication Date 2007
- semi-arid rangelands
- Mechanistic model
- plant growth
- diet selection
- food intake
- animal productivity
- rangeland condition
- rangelands
- plant production
- animal production
- communal farming
- livestock
- management
- soil moisture
- rainfall
- runoff
- modelling
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe worldwide loss of utilisable rangeland in (semi-) arid areas results in huge economic and social costs. Only adaptive management strategies are able to cope with these systems, which are mainly…Publication Date 2007
- Non-equilibrium system
- grazing
- Opportunistic management
- Resting
- semi-arid
- simulation model
- rangeland condition
- rangelands
- modelling
- Economic Aspects
- management
- rainfall
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordIn arid and semi-arid rangelands of sub-Saharan Africa, livestock are a central component of rural livelihoods and national economies, but their production is constrained by drought and disease, and…Publication Date 2006
- Maasai pastoralism
- Livestock development
- Livestock vaccination
- East Coast fever
- Livelihoods
- Socio-economic differentiation
- livestock
- rural areas
- pastoralism
- rangelands
- animal production
- disease
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordIn the biodiversity rich regions of western South Africa transhumance grazing strategies were practised for thousands of years. Today only vestiges of these systems remain with private ownership…Publication Date 2007
- Ecosystem goods and services
- livestock management
- productivity
- phenology
- landscape heterogeneity
- livestock
- management
- ecosystem dynamics
- Economic Aspects
- ecosystem services
- grazing
- household income studies
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordSuccess in long-term agricultural production in resource-poor farming systems relies on the efficiency with which nutrients are conserved and recycled. Each transfer of nutrients across the farming…Publication Date 2006
- cattle
- Compost
- feed intake
- manure
- nitrogen use efficiency
- N losses
- agriculture
- soil nutrients
- management
- communal farming
- livestock
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordLarge herbivores can both positively and negatively affect primary productivity and rates of nutrient cycling in different ecosystems. Positive effects of grazers in grasslands have been attributed…Publication Date 2006
- livestock
- soil fertility
- rainfall
- ecosystem processes
- savanna
- productivity
- soil fertility
- cattle
- migration
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordFarm practices in the Sneeuberg Mountains, Karoo, South Africa are examined to assess their contribution to the development of the observed gullies and badlands. Data from the literature is augmented…Publication Date 2007
- erosion
- land degradation
- range management
- vegetation
- grazing
- Stock
- management
- degradation
- land use
- participatory rural appraisal
- livestock
- rehabilitation
- Africa