Grasslands of the Edwards Plateau of central Texas have been extensively altered through woody species encroachment, particularly as a result of increasing abundance of the invasive native shrub, Ashe juniper (Juniperus ashei). Over the last several decades there has been widespread mechanical removal of the species. The wood is often left in place to decompose, either mulched or not. Where the wood is left to decompose might have some bearing on its rate of decomposition. This study was conducted to determine the rates of Ashe juniper wood decomposition as a function of open vs.

Successful prairie restoration will depend in part on convincing private landowners with agricultural and recreational use goals to implement appropriate rangeland management practices, such as prescribed burning and cattle grazing, to control invasive species and encroachment of woody plants. However, landowners have been slow to adopt appropriate practices in the US Midwest. The purpose of this study was to explore attitudes and behaviors of private landowners toward prescribed burning and moderate stocking as rangeland management tools.

For some fifteen years, dairy cattle farming has been considerably developing in various parts of the Andes. Milk is transformed into cheese or sold fresh, giving rural families a regular income which secures their food supply. The stock-rearing practices in these Andean dairying systems are unrecognized and are often considered, wrongly, as underperforming and inadequate.

This study employs scale-dependence as an analytical approach to understanding effects of livestock grazing on rangeland degradation in northern Kenya. It used extensive datasets previously collected from 13 200 km2 rangelands where grazing pressure gradients of livestock (varied from none, light, moderate, heavy and very heavy grazing) in conjunction with seasonality across different ecological scales influenced plant responses and probably contributed to land degradation.

Atriplex nummularia has been extensively planted in Northern Africa to combat desertification. However, few studies evaluated the effectiveness of these interventions. This study aimed at assessing the dynamic performance of a number of Atriplex plantations located in the Marrakech province in terms of multitemporal dry biomass production. Three SPOT 5 images (2004, 2008 and 2012) and field biomass measurements were integrated to quantify the dry biomass production dynamics of plantations established from 1996 to 2007. Different plant ages covered the whole plant life cycle curve.

We use a simple ecological sustainability simulator (SESS) Diaz-Solis, H., Kothmann, M.M., Hamilton, W.T., Grant, W.E., 2003. A simple ecological sustainability simulator (SESS) for stocking rate management on semi-arid grazinglands, 76, 655 for rangelands with mean annual precipitation of 500 mm to evaluate tendencies in range productivity and cattle production under four management options: (1) supplemental feeding, (2) short-term reduction of stocking rate, (3) early weaning, and (4) adjustment of breeding seasons. We have made five modifications to SESS for the present paper.

In this article, we provide a synthesis of the peer-reviewed literature and state and federal policies focused on absentee landowners of forestland, rangeland, or farmland in the U.S. The synthesis indicates absentee owners, as compared to those living on the land, appear to be much more likely to live in urban areas, are less dependent financially upon the land and much more likely to own land for amenity reasons than production purposes.

The U.S. Army is responsible for preparing a well-trained combat force while maintaining the ecological diversity and integrity of the lands it manages. The ability to efficiently collect data that accurately capture plant community diversity and percent composition is imperative to proper monitoring and land management of military lands. To ensure that the dual goals of military training and land stewardship are met on an army-wide basis, the U.S. Army Land Condition-Trend Analysis (LCTA) Program was developed.

BACKGROUND: Pastoralism in the USA began coincidently with the initiation of profound ecological change resulting from colonization in the sixteenth century. Relationships between pastoralism and wildlife conservation in three different contexts of land tenure, environmental legacy, and geography are examined. RESULTS: On the federal rangelands of the Intermountain West, based on limited scientific information, wildlife policy has been interpreted to require separation of native bighorn sheep from livestock to prevent disease transmission.

Rangelands make an important contribution to carbon dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems. We used a readily accessible interface (COMET VR) to a simulation model (CENTURY) to predict changes in soil carbon in response to management changes commonly associated with conservation programs.

The emergence of markets for mitigation of climate change presents new opportunities for increasing economic and ecological returns to rangelands in developing countries. Improving rangeland management is a potentially significant source of mitigation from sequestration. It is appealing due to the likely links to sustainable agricultural development and poverty reduction. Many of the changes needed to sequester carbon are also associated with improved rangeland productivity and incomes.

The interaction between ecological and hydrological processes is particularly important in arid and semi-arid regions. Often the interaction between these processes is not completely understood and they are studied separately. We developed a grid-based computer model simulating the dynamics of the four most common vegetation types (perennial grass, annuals, dwarf shrubs and shrubs) and related hydrological processes in the region studied.