Rangeland Ecology & Management
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- 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 RecordChanging climate adds a very significant dimension to the complex problem of ensuring that agriculture worldwide can feed the burgeoning human population. Ensuring food security must reduce…Publication Date 2009
- climate change
- plant production
- southern Africa
- Library Collection RecordAn overview of ecological models of grasslands and their research questions is presented. For the purpose of this article, models are regarded as a simplified and formalized representation of…Publication Date 2008
- competition
- disturbance
- Ecosystem modeling
- Grassland dynamics
- grazing
- Optimal life-history strategies
- primary production
- Remote sensing data
- Spatially explicit models
- succession
- modelling
- ecosystem ecology
- community
- vegetation dynamics
- plant 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 RecordSummary The growth of agricultural production worldwide has led to an increasing role of agro-ecosystems within the global carbon cycle. Arable land in the world covers about one-tenth of the 134…Publication Date 2001
- plant production
- carbon dioxide
- animal nutrition
- animal production
- 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 RecordSummary The savanna biome is diverse, including formations ranging from almost treeless grasslands to more or less closed-canopy woodlands with considerable variation in plant composition, biomass,…Publication Date 2001
- savanna
- animal production
- plant production
- plant community ecology
- land use
- degradation
- agriculture
- ecology
- 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 RecordThe world population has increased from 2–10 million at the dawn of settled agriculture about 10–12 millennium ago to 6.5 billion in 2006, and may stabilize at 10–12 billion by 2100. Most of…Publication Date 2007
- socio-economic aspects
- agriculture
- pastoralism
- soils
- management
- plant production
- animal production
- southern Africa
- Library Collection RecordPublished studies relating erosion and productivity have been generally based on information derived from expert opinion on the extent and severity of soil erosion and on limited data on its impact…Publication Date 2003
- soil erosion
- plant production
- management
- southern Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe use of fire in the management of grassland is a common rangeland practice in South Africa. This portends ecological implication for the sustainability of the savannah rangelands as a system. A…Publication Date 2008
- fire ecology
- management
- savanna
- grasslands
- rangelands
- Soil Condition
- plant production
- 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 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 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 RecordThe relationship between above and belowground species composition has been researched in forests, grasslands, and wetlands to understand what mechanisms control community composition. I thoroughly…Publication Date 2007
- grasslands
- plant community ecology
- plant production
- plant autecology
- species richness
- seed banks
- management
- 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 RecordFlood depth has been frequently used to explain the distribution of plant species in seasonally flooded grasslands, but its relation with vegetation production has remained ambiguous. The…Publication Date 2007
- grasslands
- plant production
- hydrology
- plant autecology
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordResidues of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) may be important for agroecosystem functioning due to their ability to promote soil aggregation, especially in coarse textured soils with little biomass…Publication Date 2007
- soil organic matter
- Glomalin
- arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
- Biomarker
- Arable land use
- savanna
- soils
- ecosystem ecology
- plant production
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe morphometrics of mandible and teeth of mixed-breed goats on rangeland were analyzed to investigate the association between the oral apparatus and diet type. Canonical relationship between sets of…Publication Date 2007
- diet
- grazing
- Mandible
- Jaw
- Incisor
- Molar teeth
- goats
- rangelands
- diet selection
- forage quality
- foraging ecology
- 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 RecordThis paper evaluated the capacity of SPOT VEGETATION time-series to monitor the vegetation biomass and water content in order to improve fire risk assessment in the savanna ecosystem of Kruger…Publication Date 2006
- biomass
- Fire risk assessment
- SPOT VEGETATION
- time-series
- Vegetation water content
- fire ecology
- savanna
- vegetation dynamics
- monitoring
- plant production
- national parks
- 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 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 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 RecordWe tested the scaling effects of proximate desertification drivers (i.e. soil erosion, bush encroachment and grazing pressure) on soil nutrients in northeastern Tanzania. We analyzed nutrient…Publication Date 2008
- Desertified landscapes
- Dysfunctional landscapes
- Proximate desertification drivers
- soil nutrients
- Tanzaniadesertification
- erosion
- grazing
- indigenous encroaching species
- desertification
- landscape ecology
- 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 RecordNo abstract availablePublication Date 2007
- agriculture
- soils
- Soil Condition
- grazing
- rangeland condition
- ecosystem dynamics
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe ability to produce vegetative shoots is a form of persistence in arid and semiarid savannas allowing trees to survive herbivory, fire and cutting. In terms of growth rates and survival, this form…Publication Date 2008
- browsing
- coppice
- Exclosure
- grazing
- Resprouting
- restoration
- Savanna woodland
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordChanges in species richness and vegetation composition in the diverse semi-arid Succulent Karoo vegetation of South Africa were investigated after 67 (1937-2004) years of rest from livestock grazing…Publication Date 2008
- diversity
- Growth Form
- ordination
- species richness
- succession
- Termitaria
- grazing
- vegetation dynamics
- ecology
- insects
- degradation
- restoration ecology
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThis paper provides values for nitrogen isotopic abundances of southern African soils and plants along land use gradients of varying aridity. The ?15N values of soils and plants were generally higher…Publication Date 2008
- grasses
- grazing
- mineralization
- nitrification
- savanna
- trees
- soils
- grazing
- 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 RecordModels predict that desertification, the loss of perennial grasses in arid and semiarid environments, will be difficult to reverse due to the positive feedback between plant cover and water…Publication Date 2007
- arid grassland
- grazing
- hoof action
- perennial grass
- resilience
- restoration
- woody encroachment
- soils
- desertirfication
- models
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe impact of long-term high grazing pressure on geomorphological features, plant community composition and cover and soil characteristics of an ephemeral river system in Namaqualand, South Africa,…Publication Date 2007
- Animal-plant interactions
- Landscape patches
- livestock impacts
- Namaqualand
- Resource control
- riparian vegetation
- grazing
- soils
- degradation
- Plant Productivity
- 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 RecordIn Namaqualand, heavy grazing of low-lying areas has resulted in the reduction of palatable perennial shrubs and the dominance of the unpalatable shrub, Galenia africana. This study investigates the…Publication Date 2007
- Succulent karoo
- Namaqualand
- Vegetation Change
- rehabilitation
- microhabitats
- grazing
- seeds
- restoration ecology
- vegetation 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 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 RecordWe use the concept of ecological revolutions to explain the environmental history of Namaqualand, from the advent of pastoralism 2000 years BP, to colonial settlement in the 18th century and finally…Publication Date 2007
- degradation
- Environmental history
- human impact
- population
- repeat photography
- socio-economic aspects
- agriculture
- grazing
- management
- land use
- Africa