Rangeland Ecology & Management
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- Library Collection RecordThis chapter describes relationships between environmental stress and the reaction of plants thereupon. Plants might react to environmental stress on various levels: on the biochemical, cellular, or…Publication Date 2003
- Autecology
- biodiversity
- character state
- climate change
- ecotoxicology
- effects
- Ellenberg
- flora
- heavy metal
- IEPS
- insecticide
- PAF
- palynology
- photosynthesis
- Synecology
- vascular plants
- vegetation
- southern Africa
- Library Collection RecordSummary 10.1002/9780470292136.ch7.abs This chapter contains sections titled: * Objectives for This Chapter * Introduction * Defining Biodiversity * The Economic Value of Biodiversity * Threats to…Publication Date 2008
- biodiversity
- wildlife conservation
- ecosystem
- habitat destruction
- invasive species
- conservation
- ecosystem ecology
- Alien invasive species
- indigenous encroaching species
- southern Africa
- Library Collection Record
3 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 RecordPeople have inhabited terrestrial ecosystems of the world for thousands of years. Both resource management systems and cosmological belief systems have evolved and continue to develop. In fact, most…Publication Date 2001
- conservation
- biodiversity
- southern Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe geology, climates past and present, and soils of Africa are summarized, as are the effects of fire on the vegetation. The vegetation and animals of each major zone – forest, tropical seasonal…Publication Date 2001
- ecosystem ecology
- biodiversity
- 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 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 RecordAbstract Question: Do anthropogenic activities facilitate the distribution of exotic plants along steep altitudinal gradients? Location: Sani Pass road, Grassland biome, South Africa. Methods: On…Publication Date 2008
- Alien
- dispersal
- disturbance
- Gradient analysis
- grasslands
- Multivariate
- spatial analysis
- transect
- Germishuizen & Meyer (2003)
- Alien invasive species
- rehabilitation
- restoration ecology
- management
- biodiversity
- seed banks
- vegetation dynamics
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordTransformation of indigenous vegetation for production purposes impacts negatively on biodiversity but does this necessarily equate with a decrease in phytomass accumulation, which may influence…Publication Date 2008
- grasslands
- plant production
- carbon sequestration
- land use
- management
- conservation
- agriculture
- pasture management
- biodiversity
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordBackground: Biodiversity offsets are conservation projects used mainly by business to counterbalance the environmental impacts of their operations, with the aim of achieving a net neutral or even…Publication Date 2007
- conservation
- biodiversity
- Economic Aspects
- environmental impact
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordABSTRACT South Africa's first national assessment of spatial priorities for biodiversity conservation, released in 2005, aimed to identify conservation priority areas for mainstreaming into all…Publication Date 2007
- National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment
- conservation planning
- mainstreaming
- Implementation
- biodiversity
- conservation
- mapping
- ecosystem ecology
- ecosystems
- monitoring
- 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 RecordA treatment of the Rubiaceae of Angola is presented based on herbarium collections kept at BM, BR, COI, K, LISC, LISU, LUA, LUAI, P, and PRE. The basionyms, relevant synonyms, and types from Angola…Publication Date 2008
- biodiversity
- flora
- tropical Africa
- taxonomy
- 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 RecordSystematic conservation planning is widely considered the most effective approach for designing protected area and other ecological networks. However, many conservation practitioners still ignore…Publication Date 2006
- conservation
- management
- biodiversity
- Economic Aspects
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordIn 1998, a restoration field trial was initiated in a catchment near Wellington (Western Cape, South Africa) to determine whether fynbos riparian scrub vegetation cleared of woody invasive alien…Publication Date 2008
- biological invasions
- fire
- Follow-up treatment
- management
- restoration ecology
- Alien invasive species
- seeds
- biodiversity
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordNo abstract availablePublication Date 2008
- biodiversity
- grasslands
- Alien invasive species
- 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 RecordComplementary resource use is regarded as a mechanism that contributes to positive relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Here, we used a biodiversity experiment composed of…Publication Date 2008
- Arrhenatherum elatius
- Biodiversity effects
- Complementarity
- Light competition
- The Jena Experiment
- Vertical structure
- species richness
- biodiversity
- ecosystem ecology
- grasses
- grasslands
- 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 Ecological restoration is still perceived by many conservationists, and the majority of economists, as a diversion, a delusion, and - far worse - a waste of money. In this paper we point out…Publication Date 2006
- biodiversity
- ecological restoration
- ecosystem services
- Natural capital
- Social capital
- Sustainable development
- economics
- socio-economic aspects
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordSummary Restoration of ecological processes is key to restoring the capacity of ecosystems to support social, economic, cultural and aesthetic values. The sustainability of the restored system also…Publication Date 2006
- ecosystem services
- erosion
- indicators
- landscape
- runoff
- spatial pattern
- spatial variability
- restoration ecology
- sustainability
- soils
- hydrology
- biodiversity
- 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 RecordThis paper reports an assessment of the current and potential impacts of invasive alien plants on selected ecosystem services in South Africa. We used data on the current and potential future…Publication Date 2008
- biodiversity
- Fynbos
- grassland
- grazing
- groundwater
- hydrology
- Karoo
- savanna
- water yield
- Alien invasive species
- ecosystem services
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordPlant invasions are a serious threat to natural and semi-natural ecosystems worldwide. Most management-orientated research on invasions focuses on invaders that are already widespread and often have…Publication Date 2007
- biological invasions
- invasive alien plants
- Emerging plant invaders
- Bioclimatic modelling
- Potential distribution
- Alien invasive species
- biodiversity
- landscape ecology
- management
- modelling
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe importance of wild edible herbaceous species to resource poor households in most rural economies within savannas has been little studied. This is because most of the herbs grow in impoverished…Publication Date 2007
- biodiversity
- cultivation
- food security
- Impoverished lands
- NTFPs
- savanna
- Poverty
- household income studies
- rural areas
- socio-economic aspects
- management
- 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 RecordA transdisciplinary synthesis, grouped into four main themes, of the key papers in this Special Issue on Namaqualand is provided. Perspectives on current environmental, economic and social issues in…Publication Date 2007
- climate
- conservation
- land reform
- Livelihoods
- Transdisciplinarity
- socio-economic aspects
- ecology
- biodiversity
- legislation
- Communal areas
- subsistence agriculture
- 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 RecordBiodiversity is a critical component of the natural environment and the protection of it often meant the displacement of local communities in developing countries. The Richtersveld National Park (…Publication Date 2007
- rangelands
- conservation
- Population crashes
- Herd recovery
- goats
- biodiversity
- socio-economic aspects
- national parks
- sheep
- pastoralism
- land use
- 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 RecordThis paper provides a brief introduction to the physical environment of Namaqualand as well as an overview of patterns of plant diversity. The diverse array of parent material and geological…Publication Date 2007
- Namaqualand
- Succulent karoo
- Winter rainfall mediterranean desert
- abiotic environment
- flora
- Patterns of diversity
- Heuweltjies
- biodiversity
- ecology
- ecosystem dynamics
- 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 RecordThis study explored the impacts of sustained heavy grazing in six vegetation types across an altitudinal and rainfall gradient in the Kamiesberg mountain range in Namaqualand. The study was carried…Publication Date 2007
- grazing impacts
- plant composition
- Communal areas
- Succulent karoo
- Upland habitats
- biodiversity
- subsistence agriculture
- socio-economic aspects
- 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 RecordHerder knowledge of landscape classification and environmental assessments in East Africa has been poorly documented. This study investigated how the Maasai traditionally classified and assessed…Publication Date 2006
- land degradation
- Livestock grazing preference
- Maasai
- Traditional landscape classification
- traditional knowledge
- subsistence agriculture
- degradation
- grasslands
- grazing
- management
- pastoralism
- soils
- animal impact
- biodiversity
- forage quality
- animal nutrition
- animal production
- monitoring
- 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 RecordThe rich biodiversity of southern Africa has to date been relatively unimpacted by the activities of modern society, but to what degree will this situation persist into the 21st century? We use a…Publication Date 2008
- biodiversity
- southern Africa
- climate change
- land use change
- Land cover change
- Habitat loss
- conservation
- Millennium ecosystem assessment
- image
- CBD target
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordLand management in tropical woodlands is being used to sequester carbon (C), alleviate poverty and protect biodiversity, among other benefits. Our objective was to determine how slash-and-burn…Publication Date 2008
- savanna
- Tropical deciduous forest
- basal area
- Allometric equations
- Wood density
- soil bulk density
- Soil C stock
- biodiversity
- Shannon index
- Chronosequence
- land use
- carbon dioxide
- carbon sequestration
- socio-economic aspects
- management
- soil organic carbon
- 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