Rangeland Ecology & Management
Get reliable science
Toggle Search
Result Type
Collection
Keywords
Document Type
Displaying 1 - 50 of 231 results
- 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 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 RecordNo abstract availablePublication Date 2007
- seed banks
- savanna
- vegetation dynamics
- 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 RecordAbstract Anthropogenic perturbations have profoundly modified the Earth's biogeochemical cycles, the most prominent of these changes being manifested by global carbon (C) cycling. We…Publication Date 2007
- carbon sequestration
- 13C NMR
- deforestation
- land-use change
- NEXAFS
- organic matter composition
- Sr-FTIR-ATR
- synchrotron radiation
- land use
- grasslands
- vegetation dynamics
- carbon dynamics
- soil organic carbon
- agriculture
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordSummary * 1Demographic processes, particularly the recruitment of seedlings, are critical to the long-term survival and re-establishment of plant populations. In many perennial grasslands successful…Publication Date 2008
- demography
- emergence
- full factorial experiment
- intraspecific competition
- irrigation
- recruitment limitation
- seed addition
- seedling survival
- semi-arid savanna
- Stipagrostis uniplumis
- grasslands
- fire ecology
- seeds
- ecosystem ecology
- vegetation dynamics
- germination
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe aim of the study was to identify and classify the woodlands, bushland and grasslands of the Umkhanyakude Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Node (also known as Maputaland) into homogenous…Publication Date 2006
- plant ecology
- Maputaland
- multivariate analysis
- Phytosociology
- grasslands
- monitoring
- data analysis
- landscape ecology
- vegetation dynamics
- 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 RecordCoexistence of trees and grasses in savannas should be possible if competition between the woody and the grassy components is less intense than the competition within each component. Although several…Publication Date 2008
- Acacia mellifera
- Competitor removal experiment
- Nearest-neighbour distance
- quantile regression
- spatial autocorrelation
- Spatial point pattern analysis
- savanna
- ecosystem ecology
- vegetation dynamics
- ecology
- 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 In this paper, we present a method to estimate the additional costs made by nature reserve managers to mitigate the effects of atmospheric deposition. Theoretically, these extra costs may be…Publication Date 2007
- Nature target types
- Management costs
- Deposition scenarios
- grasslands
- Reed and rough land
- Heathland
- forests
- Moorland pools
- conservation
- vegetation dynamics
- Economic Aspects
- greenhouse gases
- 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 RecordA number of studies have begun to show the large impact that pastoralism has on African savanna ecosystems. Here we look at the impact of abandoned settlements on the distribution of the large…Publication Date 2008
- pastoralism
- Sedentarization
- primary succession
- Nutrient hotspots
- community
- land use
- Abandoned lands
- vegetation dynamics
- 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 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 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 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 RecordThe objective of this paper is to examine the spatial variability of islands of enhanced hydrologic activity and its application to remediation of degraded arid and semi-arid ecosystems. Factors…Publication Date 2006
- Biotic productivity
- heterogeneity
- rangeland
- remediation
- runoff
- Water ponding dikes
- restoration ecology
- degradation
- vegetation dynamics
- ecosystem ecology
- 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 RecordIn the Miombo Woodlands Region of south-central Africa, the interaction between fires and elephants is one of the main drivers of vegetation, along with climate, soils and topography. Fire-elephant…Publication Date 2008
- fire
- Elephants
- multivariate statistics
- Miombo woodlands
- conservation
- savanna
- mammals
- Nature reserves
- vegetation dynamics
- ecology
- ecosystem ecology
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe self-thinning line is a very robust pattern, which can be obtained in modeling studies by a variety of different mechanistic assumptions. Our opinion is that we can only advance in our…Publication Date 2008
- Size inequality
- Competitive asymmetry
- Zone of influence model
- Arid savanna
- Acacia reficiens
- Namibia
- Parsimony
- Pattern-oriented modeling
- savanna
- vegetation dynamics
- modelling
- 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 RecordA payments for ecosystem services (PES) system came about in South Africa with the establishment of the government-funded Working for Water (WfW) programme that clears mountain catchments and…Publication Date 2008
- Working for Water
- Payment mechanisms
- ecosystem services
- water supply
- Poverty relief
- Poverty
- Alien invasive species
- fire
- plant production
- biodiversity
- hydrology
- vegetation dynamics
- Economic Aspects
- 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 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
- Library Collection RecordRapid population growth, unsustainable land use, and a pervasively degrading landscape are components of a dominant paradigm regarding African development. While recent work articulating the '…Publication Date 2006
- conservation
- land tenure
- land use
- remote sensing
- deforestation
- Uganda
- vegetation dynamics
- degradation
- Sustainable development
- grasslands
- biomass
- soil
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordSeed production, viability, dispersal, predation and seed banks of Themeda triandra were determined to assess the potential of the seeds of this indigenous species in the re-establishment of degraded…Publication Date 2009
- burning
- disturbance
- regeneration
- seeds
- vegetation dynamics
- grasslands
- seed banks
- degradation
- restoration ecology
- fire ecology
- South Africa
- Library Collection RecordThe atmospheric carbon dioxide content was monitored continuously near Pretoria for 15 months. Variations on the timescale of hours, days and seasons were observed and related to source and…Publication Date 1979
- carbon dioxide
- pollution
- vegetation dynamics
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordPrimary energy extraction patterns by livestock under agropastoralism and ranching were investigated by the bite count method in semiarid south-eastern Kenya. Sward biomass for optimal energy intake…Publication Date 2009
- agropastoralism
- energy intake
- ranching
- livestock
- cattle
- sheep
- goats
- pastoralism
- diet selection
- grazing
- management
- animal production
- Kenya
- Africa
- Library Collection RecordUsing an analysis of aerial photographs from 1942, 1985 and 2004 we assessed the impact of changing land tenure and land-use regimes on the cover of thicket vegetation on the Grahamstown commonage.…Publication Date 2014
- bush encroahcment
- land use
- management
- Aerial Photographs
- goats
- browsing
- livestock
- grazing
- grasses
- shrubs
- degradation
- Grahamstown
- South Africa
- Library Collection RecordClimate change is expected to adversely affect agriculture in South Africa. A rise in variable and unfavourable conditions is likely to surpass the limits of current coping mechanisms of farmers,…Publication Date 2014
- climate change
- agriculture
- livestock
- Karoo
- rangelands
- Subsistence farming
- communal farming
- socio-economic aspects
- management
- South Africa
- Library Collection RecordPastoralists in Namaqualand, South Africa, use herd mobility to manage livestock and rangeland resources. However, their socioeconomic conditions and ecological landscapes are changing and we explore…Publication Date 2013
- management
- livestock
- socio-economic aspects
- rangelands
- communal farming
- policy
- pastoralism
- grazing
- Namaqualand
- South Africa
- Library Collection RecordThere is a common perception in South Africa that the youth are not interested in agriculture, leading to two concerns: first, that this is exacerbating the youth unemployment crisis, and second,…Publication Date 2013
- agriculture
- socio-economic aspects
- communal farming
- rural areas
- animal production
- Plant Productivity
- policy
- livestock
- communal rangelands
- cattle
- goats
- South Africa
- Library Collection RecordThis paper was prepared in response to a paper prepared by Vetter (in this issue) that addressed the issue of policy development related to sustainable management of rangelands. In line with the…Publication Date 2013
- policy
- Sustainable development
- management
- subsistence agriculture
- rangelands
- livestock
- agriculture
- animal productivity
- Plant Productivity
- Msinga
- KwaZulu-Natal
- South Africa
- Library Collection RecordThis paper complements Vetter's position paper, "Development and sustainable management of rangeland commons - aligning policy with the realities of South Africa's rural landscape…Publication Date 2013
- Sustainable development
- socio-economic aspects
- communal farming
- rural areas
- subsistence agriculture
- livestock
- management
- policy
- South Africa
- Library Collection RecordLand and agrarian reform has the potential to expand South Africa's rangeland commons and enhance their contribution to the livelihoods of the rural poor, yet to a large extent this has been an…Publication Date 2013
- rangeland
- Communal areas
- land reform
- subsistence agriculture
- socio-economic aspects
- policies
- Commercial farming
- agriculture
- Poverty
- livestock
- animal production
- management
- South Africa
- Library Collection RecordPolicy affecting the rangeland commons in South Africa has been based largely on management models developed for large-scale commercial farming. This paper examines the current policy situation and…Publication Date 2013
- policy
- socio-economic aspects
- rangelands
- Communal areas
- management
- Sustainable development
- agriculture
- livestock
- Tenure
- legislation
- South Africa