Inselbergs persist as islands of diversity in a heavily grazed rangeland mosaic at the nexus of three arid biomes

Inselbergs are regarded as ‘islands of diversity’ due to the high number of plant species present and level of endemism. They also act as natural sources of fodder for livestock and thus risk becoming homogenised in a heavily grazed rangeland. The aim of this study was to compare plant diversity on inselbergs and matrices in heavily grazed sections of three arid biomes of South Africa’s west. The inselbergs are scattered in a matrix of rangeland vegetation in the Desert, Nama-Karoo and Succulent Karoo biomes where pastoral herding is the main land use. Plant composition, cover and growth forms were quantified in plots and along transects in 21 inselberg and matrix sites. Inselbergs had more diverse plant and growth forms and greater cover than adjacent matrices. Defoliated plants on inselbergs are able to recover due to more mesic conditions and because inselbergs are largely grazed during drier periods, species are able to flower and set seed during winter. Inselbergs are also less accessible to livestock due to their unique geomorphology. Therefore, inselbergs are able to persist as islands of diversity and warrant inclusion into conservation and rangeland farming management plans since climate change will result in biome boundary shifts.     

Which Social-Psychological Models Explain Rangers’ Participation in Rangeland Management Cooperatives? An Application of Path Analysis

The highly centralized management of rangelands in northwest Iran has caused their degradation. Rangeland Management Cooperatives (RMCs) have been taken into account by the Iranian researchers and practitioners as the best mode of managing and tackling these resources. In this regard, stakeholders’ participation (i.e., the rangers) in such institutions is a substantial issue because without their close collaboration, any management scheme is likely to fail or succeed partially. Therefore, this study investigates the rangers’ participation in RMCs using the theory-triangulation method. We developed the main research question: how the explanatory variables, extracted from the social-psychological models, influence rangers’ participation in RMCs. A sample of 200 rangers participated in the survey method, of which we received 179 completed self-reported questionnaires. The reliability of the questionnaire was calculated using the Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Kuder-Richardson 21, the metrics that measure the consistency of items in indicator variables with the interval and binary scales, respectively. The results of path analysis unveil that job satisfaction and progressivism have a direct effect on participation, and the improved economic conditions of industries developed by the RMCs, good intrarelation, fatalism, progressivism, optimism, and cost-benefit indirectly influence participation via job satisfaction. On the basis of these results, it is concluded that to increase rangers’ participation in RMCs, which is a key factor in preventing the degradation of rangelands, RMCs’ officials need to improve the local industries benefiting from the rangelands and upgrade intracommunication skills via training. It is also suggested that all rangers, even those with fatalistic beliefs, need to be included in RMCs’ participatory activities. Finally, it is needed to assess progressivist rangers’ needs, promote optimism, and visualize the economic, social, and conservation benefits of the participation in RMCs.     

Degradation of communal rangelands in South Africa: towards an improved understanding to inform policy

In South Africa, the relative extent of range degradation under freehold compared to communal tenure has been strongly debated. We present a perspective on the processes that drive rangeland degradation on land under communal tenure. Our findings are based on literature as well as extensive field work on both old communal lands and ‘released’ areas, where freehold farms have been transferred to communal ownership. We discuss the patterns of degradation that have accompanied communal stewardship and make recommendations on the direction policy should follow to prevent further degradation and mediate rehabilitation of existing degraded land.     

Multiple strategies for resilient livelihoods in communal areas of South Africa

Livestock farming in communal areas is an activity pursued by rural households as one of a range of livelihood strategies aimed at spreading risk. The cash and non-cash benefits derived from livestock, as well as the wide range of secondary resources harvested from communal rangelands, make an important contribution to livelihood diversification and, hence, resilience. Rural development policy should therefore not focus narrowly on commercialisation of livestock production in communal areas. Rather, it should take a multifaceted approach to building livelihood resilience while providing pathways for households to escape poverty through enhancing the multiple benefits of livestock, adding value to secondary rangeland resources, and expanding the rural non-farm economy.     

Complex Rangeland Systems: Integrated Social-Ecological Approaches to Silvopastoralism

Crossing disciplinary boundaries, particularly between social and ecological sciences, challenges those seeking to contribute to solving complex and multidimensional environmental problems on rangelands. In this Special Issue we present a set of 13 papers that to varying degrees attempt to integrate, or bring together, diverse approaches across disciplines to understand silvopastoral systems. The papers are about rangelands in numerous countries and regions, including Spain, Estonia, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania, the United States, Latin America, and Sweden. Silvopastoral systems provide ecosystem goods and services important to communities, cultures, and society. Management deliberately exploits the diversity fostered by rangeland systems that mix woody species with a well-developed herbaceous understory, offering a greater diversity of products, species, vegetation structural characteristics, and habitat components than either grassland or forest. Biodiversity often peaks at the intermediate levels of tree and shrub cover characteristic of silvopastoral systems. We introduce the papers grouped by four overarching topics: 1) typologies and scales, 2) social-ecological interactions, 3) integrated management, and 4) multiple knowledge systems. Unfortunately, silvopastoral systems often run afoul of ongoing intensification and simplification trends in agricultural production that reduce their economic and ecological resilience. Privately owned systems, the most common in this issue, are subject to the need for owner income. Finding ways to support the benefits of these systems for the public is difficult, as management traditions must be conserved as well as the land. We hope this issue illustrates the value of multifunctional systems and offers insights into how they work.     

The influence of Pechuel-Loeschea leubnitziae (wild sage) on grass sward and soil seed bank composition

Soil seed banks provide not only a historical record of vegetation composition but also the potential for post-disturbance revegetation. Pechuel-Loeschea leubnitziae (wild sage) is a multistemmed, aromatic shrub, occurring in Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and the northern regions of South Africa, that colonises disturbed regions on sandy, alkaline soils. The influence of differing levels of P. leubnitziae cover on soil seed-bank characteristics and aboveground herbaceous species composition was determined by examining aboveground species composition, recorded in the field, and soil seed-bank species composition, determined by recording germinations from topsoil samples collected at each of 104 sites in the southern Okavango Delta. No correlation was observed between aboveground and soil seed-bank composition (p = 0.209). Cover of P. leubnitziae did not affect soil seed-bank species composition (p = 0.31) or the grass:non-grass ratio within the seed bank (p = 0.308). It did, however, affect aboveground grass composition (p = 0.018), with increasing P. leubnitziae cover associated with increasing abundance of poor-quality, shade-tolerant grass species. This confirms the observations that encroachment of P. leubnitziae may be associated with a decrease in veld quality and carrying capacity, and highlights the necessity for further study to facilitate a better understanding of the species for management purposes.     

Wildlife or livestock? New directions for developing communal rangelands in South Africa

The paper agrees with three fundamental points raised by Vetter (in this issue), whilst highlighting an emerging trend in wildlife land use, which should be considered in policy making. Firstly, the paper supports the argument that communal rangelands are important as objects of biodiversity conservation and, secondly, the argument that livestock production alone is not sufficient as a mechanism for alleviating poverty, but rather livelihoods diversification and multisectoral strategies are required for this purpose. Lastly, the paper supports the need for mechanisms to ensure tenure security for sustainable use of communal rangelands. I argue that the historical shift to wildlife land use previously observed on private farms in South Africa is now inevitable on communal rangelands and will require explicit consideration in the policy on communal rangelands. Although such development in the communal rangelands has potential to meet the important goals of livelihoods diversification as indicated by Vetter, it also has potential to threaten existing rural livelihoods. The paper suggests several issues to be considered as wildlife becomes part of the rural landscape in some areas, in addition to issues raised by Vetter relevant to policy making.     

Salinity Effects on Germination of Artemisia herba–alba Asso: Important Pastoral Shrub from North African Rangelands

Artemisia herba–alba Asso (known in Arabic as Shih) is an evergreen aromatic shrub endemic in North African rangelands with high pastoral and medicinal relevance. The present work was designed to determine the effect of four soluble salts (NaCl, Na₂SO₄, MgCl₂, and CaCl₂) on germination of A. herba–alba seeds. Four concentrations (0, 50, 10, and 150 mM) of each salt were used to test the influence of salinities on germination percentage (GP), rate of germination (RG), and germination tolerance index (GTI %). The experiment was conducted in a controlled incubator with a 12h–photoperiod under 15°C dark/25°C light. The results showed that both GP and (RG) decreased significantly with salinity, and the highest GP was observed in the distilled water control (~ 80%). The germination tolerance index (GTI %) revealed that A. herba–alba seeds were more tolerant to CaCl₂ than other soluble salts. Comparatively, at high salt concentrations, MgCl₂ and Na₂SO₄ were generally the most toxic salts followed by NaCl and CaCl₂. The germination of A. herba–alba over a wide range of soluble salts suggests that this species can establish in salt-degraded soils. Therefore, this species appears a promising candidate for the rehabilitation of rangeland with saline soils.     

Breeding versus survival: proximate causes of abrupt population decline under environmental change in a desert rodent,the midday gerbil (Meriones meridianus)

Studying abrupt ecological shifts under gradual environmental change caused, in particular, by human activity is important for understanding the fundamental aspects and underlying mechanisms of ecological resilience. One of the rare well‐documented examples of an abrupt ecological shift is the delayed step transition of the population of a desert rodent, the midday gerbil (Meriones meridianus), from high‐abundance (1994–2002) to low‐abundance (2003–2017) regimes. This was in response to landscape transformation from desert to steppe caused by the drastic reduction of livestock in the rangelands of southern Russia after the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s. In this study, we tested whether demographic parameters were correlated with the observed abrupt downward population shift. We found that reproductive activity (the percentage of breeding females, the number of litters, fecundity and the number of young recruited per female) showed no trend over time and did not differ between periods of high and low abundance. In contrast, the adult sex ratio (SR = males: females) decreased significantly with time and was as much as twice more female‐biased for the low‐abundance population regime. However, SR was not related to any reproductive parameter, including the percentage of breeding females. We conclude that proximate reasons for an abrupt population decline in M. meridianus are not associated with the changes in breeding patterns or mate limitation caused by the Allee effect but relate to the increased mortality as a result of the desert landscape being fragmented by steppezation. The mortality is expected to be higher for males as the mobile and dispersing sex.     

Spatial,temporal and attitudinal dimensions of conflict between predators and small-livestock farmers in the Central Karoo§

Conflict between predators and small-livestock farmers is a global phenomenon adversely impacting the preservation of wildlife, the well-being of livestock and human livelihoods. Such conflict is pervasive in the Karoo region of South Africa but its contemporary history and various causes remain poorly understood. In this study, we interviewed 77 small-livestock farmers in the Central Karoo between July 2014 and March 2015 to (1) assess the spatio-temporal distribution and severity of the reported predation problems with the main regional predators of livestock (black-backed jackal, caracal and baboon) and (2) describe the perceived reasons for changes in predator numbers. Farmers reported that serious predation problems have increased since the 1990s for all three predators. Jackal predation appears to have re-emerged, particularly since the 2000s, while baboon predation seems to have escalated rapidly since 2014 for select farmers. Farms with more rugged terrain were more likely to experience serious problems with baboons and caracal but ruggedness did not predict the year of onset of problems. Farmers perceive predator numbers to be increasing and attribute this trend to declining government support for predator management, changes in farming practices and the associated increase in suitable predator habitat, from which they can recolonise commercial farms.     

Reforming communal rangeland policy in southern Africa: challenges,dilemmas and opportunities

In the savanna rangelands of southern Africa, the debate about land reform tends to be about the redistribution of formerly freehold ranches and fencing-off the rangeland commons into ranches for better-off African farmers. The position of those who favour privatisation has been strengthened by the belief that the only environmentally sound way to manage the range is to subdivide it into private ranches because traditional open-range pastoralism is environmentally destructive. This point of view is at variance with an ever-increasing body of research. Insufficient attention has been given to the sustainable nature of communal rangeland in savanna areas and to the needs of the poor who depend upon them. Following decades of policies that further reduced and fragmented the commonage, governments have the challenging task of developing and implementing policies for those whose livelihoods depend on more secure and sustainable access to the remaining communal rangelands.     

Reshaping women's land rights on communal rangeland

This paper aims to contribute to the debates on communal rangelands and analyses the gendered dimension of land rights and land access in the rural areas of Namaqualand. The actual gender relations within rural communities and the emergence of strategies that are being pursued in communal land processes are obscured and often ignored in policies about communal rangelands, which overemphasise ‘the ecological and economic impact’ and the balancing of these dimensions. As active, primary users, women play a central role in livelihoods supported by communal rangelands yet their access to land is mediated through their relationships with men, effectively circumventing women's land autonomy. A wider debate is necessary to advance the largely superficial policy considerations of women's position in relation to communal rangelands land and their social exclusion on the basis of traditional control of land, forms of access and claiming of use rights. The paper discusses the complexity of land rights under communal land tenure and argues that, despite traditional and policy barriers, women in traditional systems of male-dominated land rights have had some success in accessing communal rangelands. Greater policy impetus is necessary to leverage equitable and independent land access for women amidst debates about management of communal rangelands.     

高寒退化草地恢复中种子包衣对出苗的影响

采用植物性吸水材料对垂穗披碱草(Elymus nutant)和山野豌豆(Vicia amoena)种子进行包衣处理,在模拟高寒草地条件下观察包衣种子的出苗,同时测定包衣混合物的持水力.结果表明,最适条件下两种牧草种子的出苗率分别为86%和88%;在模拟条件下,种子的出苗率分别为38%和24%.经过包衣处理后,种子的出苗...     

Long-term impacts of livestock grazing and browsing in the Succulent Karoo: a 20-year study of vegetation change under different grazing regimes in Namaqualand§

This study used a fence-line contrast approach to investigate the long-term impact of high grazing pressure on the vegetation at a site in Namaqualand, South Africa. Forty pairs of permanently marked plots were surveyed in 1996, 2006 and 2016. The main objective was to investigate changes in the vegetation structure and species composition between the near-continuously grazed communal rangelands and the relatively lightly grazed commercial rangelands over the 20-year period. The results showed a decline in total vegetation cover in both commercial and communal rangelands in 2016 relative to the two earlier sampling periods. This can be attributed to the low rainfall in 2016 and was due largely to a reduction in annual plant cover, especially on the communal rangeland. Perennial shrub species provide a fodder bank that can be utilised by livestock in times of drought and can buffer short-term deficits in forage supply. However, the annuals that dominate the vegetation of the communal rangeland do not form such fodder banks and consequently do not have the same multi-year buffering capacity as perennial shrubs. This provides the mechanism whereby long-term continuous grazing decreases resilience to rainfall fluctuations and increases livestock variability, thereby promoting non-equilibrium-type dynamics in the system.     

Feeding ecology of four livestock species under different management in a semi-arid pastoral system in South Africa

The Leliefontein communal area in Namaqualand is grazed by mixed species herds that have multiple benefits for pastoralists. This study assessed how the management (herding and free-ranging) of different livestock herds affects their feeding ecology during the wet and dry seasons in a semi-arid shrubland. By using direct observations of livestock grazing in the field, we established their habitat preferences, diet selection and resources overlap. Results indicate that all free-ranging livestock can be considered grazers with cattle being selective. When sheep are herded, they tend to be more generalist feeders and herded goats are browsers. Livestock diet selection and forage preferences are largely linked to the habitats in which they graze and browse. Dietary overlap is highest between free-ranging livestock irrespective of season, whereas herded livestock are able to consume a food source with little potential competition from other livestock. Although the wet-season annual forage resources are able to sustain the livestock population in Leliefontein, this study concludes that the overdependence on annual vegetation would make livestock vulnerable during drought periods when forage production is low.     

Land use and dingo baiting are correlated with the density of kangaroos in rangeland systems

Rangelands worldwide have been subject to broadscale modification, such as widespread predator control, introduction of permanent livestock water and altered vegetation to improve grazing. In Australia, these landscape changes have resulted in kangaroos (i.e. large macropods) populations increasing over the past 200 years. Kangaroos are a key contributor to total grazing pressure and in conjunction with livestock and feral herbivores have been linked to land degradation. We used 22 years of aerial survey data to investigate whether the density of 3 macropod species in the southern rangelands of Western Australia was associated with: (i) land use, including type of livestock, total livestock, density of feral goats, type of land tenure, and kangaroo commercial harvest effort; (ii) predator management, including permitted dingo control effort, estimated dingo abundance, and presence of the State Barrier Fence (a dingo exclusion fence); and (iii) environmental variables: ruggedness, rainfall, fractional cover, and total standing dry matter. Red kangaroos (Osphranter rufus) were most abundant in flat, open vegetation, on pastoral land, where area permitted for dingo control was high, and numbers were positively associated with antecedent rainfall with a 12-month delay. Western grey kangaroos (Macropus fuliginosus) were most abundant on flat, agricultural land, but less abundant in areas with high permitted dingo control. Euros (Osphranter robustus) were most abundant in rugged pastoral land with open vegetation, where permitted dingo control was high. While environmental variables are key drivers of landscape productivity and kangaroo populations, anthropogenic factors such as land use and permitted dingo control are strongly associated with kangaroo abundance.     

The good shepherd: remedying the fencing syndrome

In this paper the use of fenced grazing camps to manage the rangeland commons is challenged. A historical perspective is presented on fencing and rotational grazing in South Africa. Two case studies in KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape illustrate the factors that influence the management of rangelands under communal land tenure without the use of fences. It is argued that herding is preferred over fencing. The reintroduction of herding could reap multiple benefits such as improving rural livelihoods, reviving customary practice, reducing stock theft, reducing predation and improving biodiversity management. The paper concludes with some issues for consideration when implementing herding as a multipurpose strategy for improved rural livelihoods and sustainable management of natural resources.     

兴义市退化天然草地改良试验初报

研究结果表明,退化天然草地通过补播,鲜草产量每公顷提高６８％,经ｔ检验差异显著（ｐ＜００１）。施肥试验组与对照比较,各处理差异极显著（ｐ＜００１）,其中每公顷施１８７５ｋｇ尿素效果最佳。刈割试验与对照比较差异极显著（ｐ＜００１）,鲜草产量每公顷提高６１１％。     

基于家畜生产优化管理模型的家庭牧场可持续发展研究

以内蒙古四子王旗的典型草原和荒漠草原两种草地类型的家庭牧场为研究对象,通过对牧户的实地问卷调查、模型模拟分析和文献查阅研究,深入剖析牧户家庭的草场参数、家畜参数、饲料参数、气象参数和经济参数等,利用模型模拟计算出草地生长速率、草畜能量平衡状况和经济效益收支现状,以期为指导当地的家庭牧场可持续经营提出可靠依据.结果表明:...