Rangeland Areas Research Articles

Phenol identification and mapping of rangeland species at laboratory and landscape scales using PRISMA hyperspectral data

ABSTRACT Secondary metabolites have high ecological and economic values. Measuring the amounts of these metabolites in plants through laboratory analysis is time-consuming and expensive. On the other hand, the laboratory results cannot be generalized to a wide area of rangelands with diverse climates, topography, and soil. Therefore, the present study aims to evaluate the potential of PRISMA hyperspectral data to estimate the rangeland phenol concentration at landscape scale in western Isfahan province, Iran. Phenol concentration and spectral signatures were extracted from 42 plant individuals, including Astragalus adscendens, Astragalus verus, Daphne mucronata, Anabasis aphylla, and Phlomis olivieri using laboratory methods and spectroscopy in the range of 350 to 2500 nm. Phenol-sensitive bands were identified by establishing a relationship between phenol concentration and all spectral bands by the Partial Least Square Regression (PLSR) method. The map of phenol spatial changes was then produced with the Bayesian Regularized Artificial Neural Network Model (BRNN), Random Forest (RF), Generalized Linear Model (GAM), Generalized Additive Model (GLM), and Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) in rangelands. The results showed that the phenol concentration in different individuals was between 3.65 and 20.13 (mgGAE/gDW), and species spectral absorptions ranged from 1.650 to 1.660. The very high coefficient of determination of phenol concentration with spectral data (R2 = 0.94) confirmed the use of these data in phenol mapping at the landscape scale. The maximum estimated phenol concentration by GLM, GAM, RF, BRNN, and GPR models was 36.40, 26.76, 18.07, 22.74, and 32.92 GAE/g DW, respectively; which RF model had the highest (R2 = 0.955) and GLM had the lowest accuracy (R2 = 0.816). The findings show that hyperspectral data can estimate secondary metabolites at the landscape scale and can supplement laboratory methods in managing rangeland plants.

Change analyses and prediction of land use and land cover changes in Bernam River Basin, Malaysia

Land use and land cover (LULC) change is a dynamic process which is significantly influenced by anthropogenic activities. Analysing historical LULC trends and predicting future dynamics is critical to provide insights for decision-makers and planners aiming for sustainable land management and development. This study focuses on the Bernam River Basin (BRB). It employs an integrated approach that combines the Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), the Cellular Automata (CA)-Markov algorithm, remote sensing, and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques. Using multi-temporal 10m resolution Sentinel-2 Landsat imagery from 2010, 2020, and 2022, the study classified LULC into seven categories: water, forest, wetlands, agriculture, urban, barren, and rangeland areas. Change analysis from 2010 to 2020 was conducted, with 2022 validating predicted LULC transitions. The MLP model, trained on land change driver variables, facilitated the generation of transition potentials for simulating future LULC changes. A spatially explicit CA-Markov model implemented LULC change projections for 2022, 2025, 2050, and 2075, based on the transition potentials. The analysis reveals an annual increase of 0.24% in water, 0.61% in forest, and 2.11% in urban areas, while wetlands (2.69%), agriculture (2.47%), barren (3.51%), and rangeland (4.58%) experienced declines. The CA-Markov approach accurately predicted LULC transitions for 2022, validated through an error matrix with an overall accuracy of 91.56% based on 450 sampling points. Predictions for 2025–2075 indicate rising trends in water (1.76%), wetlands (29.18%), agriculture (60.08%), urban (96.53%), barren (0.59%), and rangeland areas (3.57%). Forests are expected to decrease by 12% (261.52 km2). The study identified agriculture and urban expansion as the primary drivers of LULC changes in the river basin. These findings provide critical information for regional authorities to formulate evidence-based policies and management strategies, ensuring the environmental sustainability of BRB. Furthermore, these predicted LULC patterns can be integrated into complementary models, such as the Soil and Water Assessment Tool, to assess the impacts of LULC changes on water resources.

Application of Normalized Radar Backscatter and Hyperspectral Data to Augment Rangeland Vegetation Fractional Classification

Rangeland ecosystems in the western United States are vulnerable to climate change, fire, and anthropogenic disturbances, yet classification of rangeland areas remains difficult due to frequently sparse vegetation canopies that increase the influence of soils and senesced vegetation, the overall abundance of senesced vegetation, heterogeneity of life forms, and limited ground-based data. The Rangeland Condition Monitoring Assessment and Projection (RCMAP) project provides fractional vegetation cover maps across western North America using Landsat imagery and artificial intelligence from 1985 to 2023 at yearly time-steps. The objectives of this case study are to apply hyperspectral data from several new data streams, including Sentinel Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), to the RCMAP model. We run a series of five tests (Landsat-base model, base + SAR, base + EMIT, base + SAR + EMIT, and base + Landsat NEXT [LNEXT] synthesized from EMIT) over a difficult-to-classify region centered in southwest Montana, USA. Our testing results indicate a clear accuracy benefit of adding SAR and EMIT data to the RCMAP model, with a 7.5% and 29% relative increase in independent accuracy (R2), respectively. The ability of SAR data to observe vegetation height allows for more accurate classification of vegetation types, whereas EMIT’s continuous characterization of the spectral response boosts discriminatory power relative to multispectral data. Our spectral profile analysis reveals the enhanced classification power with EMIT is related to both the improved spectral resolution and representation of the entire domain as compared to legacy Landsat. One key finding is that legacy Landsat bands largely miss portions of the electromagnetic spectrum where separation among important rangeland targets exists, namely in the 900–1250 nm and 1500–1780 nm range. Synthesized LNEXT data include these gaps, but the reduced spectral resolution compared to EMIT results in an intermediate 18% increase in accuracy relative to the base run. Here, we show the promise of enhanced classification accuracy using EMIT data, and to a smaller extent, SAR.

Forest fire vulnerability in Nepal's Chure region: Investigating the influencing factors using generalized linear model

The Chure region, among the world's youngest mountains, stands out as highly susceptible to natural calamities, particularly forest fires. The region has consistently experienced forest fire incidents, resulting in the degradation of valuable natural and anthropogenic resources. Despite its vulnerability, there have been limited studies to understand the relationship of various causative factors for the recurring fire problem. Hence, to comprehend the influencing factors for the recurring forest fire problem and its extent, we utilized generalized linear modeling under binary logistic regression to combine the dependent variable of satellite detected fire points and various independent variables. We conducted a variance inflation factor (VIF) test and correlation matrix to identify the 14 suitable variables for the study. The analysis revealed that forest fires occurred mostly during the three pre-monsoon periods and had a significant positive relation with the area under forest, rangeland, bare-grounds, and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) (P < 0.05). Consequently, our model showed that the probability of fire incidents decreases with elevation, precipitation, and population density (P < 0.05). Among the significant variables, the forest areas emerges as the most influencing factor, followed by precipitation, elevation, area of rangeland, population density, NDVI, and the area of bare ground. The validation of the model was done through the area under the curve (AUC = 0.92) and accuracy (ACC = 0.89) assessments, which showed the model performed excellently in terms of predictive capabilities. The modeling result and the forest fire susceptible map provide valuable insights into the forest fire vulnerability in the region, offering baseline information about forest fires that will be helpful for line agencies to prepare management strategies to further prevent the deterioration of the region.

A warming climate will make Australian soil a net emitter of atmospheric CO2

Understanding the change in soil organic carbon (C) stock in a warmer climate and the effect of current land management on that stock is critical for soil and environmental conservation and climate policy. By simulation modeling, we predicted changes in Australia’s soil organic C stock from 2010 to 2100. These vary from losses of 0.014–0.077 t C ha−1 year−1 between 2020 and 2045 and 0.013–0.047 t C ha−1 year−1 between 2070 and 2100, under increasing emissions of greenhouse gases and temperature. Thus, Australian soil will be a net emitter of CO2. Depending on the future socio-economic conditions, we predict that croplands will accrue as much as 0.19 t C ha−1 year−1 between 2020 and 2045 due to their management, but accrual will decrease with warming and increased emissions by 2070–2100. The gains will be too small to counteract the losses of C from the larger areas of rangelands and coastal regions that are more sensitive to a warmer climate. In principle, prudent management of the rangelands, for example, improving grazing management and regenerating biodiverse, endemic native plant communities, could sequester more C and mitigate the loss; in practice, it may be more difficult, requiring innovation, interdisciplinary science, cultural awareness and effective policies.

LoRa localisation using single mobile gateway

Effective use of GPS and mobile networks for localisation in rangeland areas is constrained by their high power consumption and high deployment costs. Long-range (LoRa), a low-power wide area network (LPWAN) technology, can be employed to mitigate these challenges. In contrast to prior research where the prevalent approaches entail multiple gateways. This work proposes a valuable methodology focused on a single mobile LoRa gateway for localisation. A particle filtering and machine learning-based pipeline is employed to map the distance between a target node and the gateway from the received signal strength indicator (RSSI). Particle filtering is used to reduce the impact of noise on the RSSI values. Then, several machine learning techniques, such as support vector machines, random forest, and k-nearest neighbour, are used on the RSSI values to estimate the distance. The estimated distance is then used for tracking using a centroid pseudo-trilateration method. The proposed method was tested in a real-world semi-line-of-sight setting, using three datasets generated by LoRaWAN-specified hardware components and a server. Two forms of experiments were performed: active searching and passive monitoring. We propose an iterative estimation process to address the dilution of precision caused by the initial positions of the gateway required for active searching applications. The results show that active searching typically requires 2 to 3 hops to reach a target node. The accuracy of passive monitoring depends on the proximity of the gateway, which varies from 20 m to 170 m. This proposed approach has the potential to open the way for localising, tracking, or monitoring target objects within sparsely populated rangeland areas, even when resources are severely constrained.

Tipología de unidades de producción y tecnologías pecuarias de adaptación a la sequía en Sinaloa, México

Drought as an effect of climate change affects the productivity and sustainability of livestock systems. The objective of this study was to analyze how technological land management for adaptation to climate change adopted by livestock farmers in southern Sinaloa, Mexico, corresponds to the typologies identified in the study area. A non-probabilistic sampling was applied, selecting 50 production units (UP) in six municipalities of Sinaloa, whose information was analyzed by cluster analysis and descriptive statistics. It were identified three livestock typologies. Cluster 1 (46 %), was defined as subsistence since its production units (PU) has few animals and showed the smallest total surface area, the producers are the oldest and use the shade in paddocks and the adjustment of stocking rates as drought mitigation practices. Cluster 2 (46 %), sowed the medium productive behavior, are younger producers whose PU showed the largest area of crops and rangeland, this group adopted stocking rate adjustment, forage conservation and species diversification as mitigation measures. Cluster 3 (8 %) showed the highest total area, livestock inventory and productivity levels; drought mitigation decisions are focused on stocking rate adjustment and forage conservation. The study identified mitigation practices related to land use from the farmers' point of view. These results can be used to conduct studies in similar environments and to scale adaptation measures for climate change from the local level and by type of farmer.

Pyrogeography of the Western Great Plains: A 40-Year History of Fire in Semi-Arid Rangelands

This study describes spatial and temporal patterns in fire across the US Western Great Plains over the last 40 years. Although pyrogeographic studies have explored the nexus of fire patterns in relation to the bio-physical environment and socio-ecological trends, most of this research has focused on forested ecosystems and regions long known for conflict between wildfires and human development, especially at the wildland–urban interface. But evidence suggests large wildfire activity is increasing in the US Great Plains, and the Western Great Plains—a Land Resource Region comprised of four ecoregions, Northwestern Plains, High Plains, Nebraska Sandhills, and Southwestern Tablelands—not only contains some of the largest areas of rangeland in the US but also the highest concentration of public land in the Great Plains. As such, the Western Great Plains provides an opportunity to explore fire activity in primarily rural landscapes with a combination of public and private ownership, all dominated by rangeland vegetation. We combined several publicly-available datasets containing fire records between 1992 and 2020 to create two databases, one with georeferenced point data on 60,575 wildfire events in the region, and another with georeferenced perimeter data for 2665 fires. Ignition by humans was the dominant cause of fires. No ecoregion showed a statistically significant trend towards either increasing or decreasing the annual burned area. The Northwestern Plains had the most burned area and the greatest number of incidents—consistently around or above 1000 incidents per year since 1992—with the majority in July. The High Plains showed the greatest increase in annual fire incidence, never reaching more than 200–300 per year 1992–2009, and averaging above 1000 incidents per year since 2010. Few long-term trends in human population, weather, or fuel metrics appear strongly associated with fire patterns in any ecoregion, although the years 2006, 2012, and 2017 stood out for their levels of fire activity, and these years often frequently logged extreme values in wildland fuel metrics. These relationships merit much closer examination in the Western Great Plains, because like other rangeland-dominated landscapes, the fine fuels that comprise these wildland fuelbeds are much more responsive to fine-scale changes in moisture conditions. Rural Western Great Plains landscapes are a mosaic of public and private land ownership, and an increasing impact of wildfires on public grazing lands—which are often situated within other jurisdictions or ownership—will likely have an impact on rural livelihoods.

Sustaining indigenous Maasai Alalili silvo-pastoral conservation systems for improved community livelihood and biodiversity conservation in East African rangelands.

Alalili system is one among the fewest remnant African indigenous and local knowledge systems that is traditionally practiced by Maasai pastoral communities to conserve certain portions of rangeland resources such as pastures and water for subsequent grazing during dry seasons. Despite its existence, East African rangelands face diverse threats from tenure security, unsustainable practices, climate, and land-use change that are notably endangering the biodiversity, livelihoods, and ecosystems in the landscape. Like other indigenous conservation systems, the sustainability of Alalili systems is being threatened, as Maasai communities are in transition due to continuous socio-cultural transformations coupled with increased livestock and human populations. We aimed to capture and document the existing occurrence and potential of Alalili systems as a pathway to improve resilience and sustain both biodiversity conservation and community livelihoods in rangeland areas of northern Tanzania. A cross-sectional research design was applied with the adoption of both purposive and stratified random sampling techniques to distinctively characterize the Alalili systems by land use and tenure types. Our results identified the existence of both communal and private Alalili systems. Their sizes varied significantly across types (t = 4.4646, p < 0.001) and land uses (F = 3.806, df = 3, p = 0.0123). While many (82%) of these Alalili systems are found in the communal land, our observations show a re-practice of Alalili systems in the private land is considered largely a re-emerging strategy for securing pastures in the face of local and global change. More than half (73%) of Alalili systems were found within game-controlled areas with little representation (about 8%) in non-protected land. Therefore, their sustainability is threatened by anthropogenic and climatic pressures, making their persistence more vulnerable to extinction. We recommend mainstreaming these practices into core pasture production and management areas, facilitating their reinforcement into policy and practices.

The Use of Vegetation Fire in Portugal: Historical Legislative and Normative Analysis

Fire has been a widely used tool in habitat and landscape management, mainly associated with land use dynamics of deforestation, pasture renewal, hunting and reclaiming new agriculture and rangeland areas. Ancient societies followed norms and rules regarding the used of fire. However, as these societies developed and land ownership changed, the conflicts generated by using fire triggered the need to regulate this practice by establishing the first laws. Such laws became of a broader type and narrower application over time until the twenty-first century. This research hypothesises that imposing constraints and regulations on using agro-silvopastoral fire through legislation in Portugal did not discourage its traditional use by communities. Through the historical legislative reconstruction of fire uses from before Portugal’s Foundation until 2021, it was possible to confirm the hypothesis and conclude that a paradigm change is needed by means of setting up an adequate legal framework for the different uses of fire in the land.

Rangeland Brush Estimation Tool (RaBET): An Operational Remote Sensing-Based Application for Quantifying Woody Cover on Western Rangelands

Much of the western United States is covered by rangelands used for grazing and wildlife. Woody plant cover is increasing in areas historically covered by grasslands and can cause numerous problems, including losses in wildlife habitat, forage for grazing, and overall losses in soil health. Land managers and conservationists are working to control these increases in woody plants, but need tools to help determine target areas to focus efforts and resources where they are most needed. In this work, we present RaBET (Rangeland Brush Estimation Tool), which uses transparent, well-understood methodologies with remotely sensed data to map woody canopy cover across large areas of rangelands. We demonstrate that our process produced more accurate results than two currently available tools based on advanced machine learning techniques. We compare two methods of map validation: traditional field methods of plant canopy measurements; and aircraft-based photography, which decreases the amount of time and resources needed. RaBET is a remote sensing-based application for obtaining repeatable, accurate measures of woody cover to aid land managers and conservationists in the control of woody plants on rangelands.

Combining resilience and resistance with threat‐based approaches for prioritizing management actions in sagebrush ecosystems

AbstractThe sagebrush biome is a dryland region in the western United States experiencing rapid transformations to novel ecological states. Threat‐based approaches for managing anthropogenic and ecosystem threats have recently become prominent, but successfully mitigating threats depends on the ecological resilience of ecosystems. We used a spatially explicit approach for prioritizing management actions that combined a threat‐based model with models of resilience to disturbance and resistance to annual grass invasion. The threat‐based model assessed geographic patterns in sagebrush ecological integrity (SEI) to identify core sagebrush, growth opportunity, and other rangeland areas. The resilience and resistance model identified ecologically relevant climate and soil water availability indicators from process‐based ecohydrological models. The SEI areas and resilience and resistance indicators were consistent—the resilience and resistance indicators showed generally positive relationships with the SEI areas. They also were complementary—SEI areas provided information on intact sagebrush areas and threats, while resilience and resistance provided information on responses to disturbances and management actions. The SEI index and resilience and resistance indicators provide the basis for prioritizing conservation and restoration actions and determining appropriate strategies. The difficulty and time required to conserve or restore SEI areas increase as threats increases and resilience and resistance decrease.

Effects of Wind Erosion Control Measures on Vegetation Dynamics and Soil-Surface Materials through Field Observations and Vegetation Indices in Arid Areas, Southeastern Tunisia

Effective land management in the Djeffara plain, southeastern Tunisia, is being constrained by increasing land degradation issues due to arid climate conditions and soil erosion. Thus, this study aims to assess the impact of the integrated control measures, namely windbreaks and controlled grazing, on the restoration of land cover dynamics in six managed rangeland areas. Land cover changes were monitored using satellite data and the derived vegetation indices (the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI)) from Landsat 8 (OLI), both within and outside the protected areas. The findings reveal that the implemented protection measures lead to an increase in vegetation cover, diversity, and plant density. They play an important role in stabilizing the upper soil layer. The oldest protected areas, particularly those that are well-maintained with controlled seasonal grazing, experienced a reduction in sand movement. The reintroduction of grazing should, however, be controlled to prevent degradation risks. The results show strong correlations between vegetation cover and both calculated vegetation indices, (0.73 &lt; R2 &lt; 0.91), with more accurate estimating for the SAVI. The findings of this research can guide decision-makers for restoring degraded rangelands and planning effective control measures for wind erosion.

Herbaceous vegetation changes along a bush encroachment intensity gradient in a montane area

AbstractAlthough bush encroachment in rangelands is a widely reported phenomenon, particularly in the arid and semi‐arid regions of southern Africa, the knowledge of the impact of bush encroachment in montane rangelands is inadequate to support the sustainable management of these important ecosystems. This study assessed how herbaceous vegetation changes along a bush encroachment intensity gradient in the montane rangelands of Sehlabathebe in the Qacha's Nek District of Lesotho. Fifty 16 m2 vegetation plots were randomly selected on a bush‐encroached rangeland area. In each plot, bush species data, including canopy cover, richness, density and height, were recorded. The Braun‐Blanquet method was used to assess herbaceous vegetation. The data were analysed using regression analysis, correlation analysis and ordination. Forb and graminoids attributes (Shannon‐Wiener diversity, species richness, evenness and percentage cover) together with bush attributes (height, density, diversity, evenness, richness and cover %) were subjected to regression and ordination. Results revealed that bush cover was negatively correlated with both forb and graminoids vegetation cover. While forb species richness, evenness and Shannon‐Wiener diversity increased with an increase in bush encroachment intensity, graminoid species abundance and diversity decreased. Overall, bush encroachment negatively impacted the structure and composition of graminoids. This implies that bush encroachment compromises the condition of montane rangelands because graminoids contribute to grazable forage more than forbs in these montane ecosystems.

Participatory establishment of Cenchrus ciliaris forage grass among pastoralists in a semi-arid rangeland area of eastern Tanzania

In the semi-arid areas of Africa many pastorallsts move their livestock to find better grazing when forage is scarce during the dry season. However, the practice of forage cultivation can sustain fodder supply for effective livestock feeding during these times. This study was undertaken to (1) assess grazing land management, and perception among Maasai pastoralists, and 2) evaluate Cenchrus ciliaris L. (Buffel grass) establishment and biomass yield under four levels of fertilisation and three seedbeds in a semi-arid area of eastern Tanzania. The seedbeds were not tilled (NT), tilled flat (TF) and tilled sunken (SN) with manure applied at rates of 0, 5, 10 and 15 t ha–1. The 2m × 3m subplots were replicated three times per seedbed-manure treatment. Communal grazing land was perceived to be in poor condition by pastoralists due to the long time spent by their livestock in search of forage. Private forage reserves for dry-season feeding were present and could be used for forage cultivation. The TF, manure at 10 and 15 t ha–1 treatments had significantly higher (p < 0.001) C. ciliaris establishment rates (97%) and biomass than other treatments. The TF10 and TF15 t ha–1 treatments had biomass values of 9.8 and 10.1t OM ha–1, respectively, by Week 10. Pastoralists preferred the TF method because of its high forage yield and low cost. Cultivation of C. ciliaris is important for livestock production and it can be established on privately owned forage reserves.

Pitting fails to sustain increases in ecosystem structure in arid rangelands

Mechanized approaches to the rehabilitation of degraded rangeland have been extremely popular since the early 1930s but their effectiveness depends on climatic and environmental conditions (e.g. soil texture, pre‐treatment plant cover). We evaluated the effects of pitting, a popular rehabilitation technique based on the creation of elongated soil depressions (pits), on ecosystem structure from 14 trials conducted at 10 sites across an extensive area (~100,000 km2) of rangelands in eastern Australia. Averaged across all sites and rehabilitation times, pitting had a significant positive effect on the cover of perennial forbs and annuals, and suppressed bare ground compared with untreated sites. However, these treatment effects varied with different site conditions such as soil texture, and pre‐treatment rainfall and plant cover among individual sites. Pre‐treatment plant cover, and rainfall in the 3 months prior to measurements increased the effects of pitting on litter cover, and time since treatment increased the relative effect of pitting on annual plant cover. Negative effect of pitting on the cover of bare soil declined with increasing rainfall. Soil moisture was generally greater beneath pits than either control soils or soils between the pits (inter‐pits). Despite some positive effects on annual plant and litter cover, pitting effects were generally short lived, suggesting that a single pitting treatment may fail to achieve long‐term rehabilitation. Given that these field trials were conducted half a century ago under conditions of higher average rainfall, the prognosis for the success of pitting under current conditions of lower rainfall and higher temperature is generally poor.

Multi-temporal Landsat imagery and MSAVI index for monitoring rangeland degradation in arid ecosystem, case study of Biskra (southeast Algeria).

The Algerian Saharan rangelands are an arid ecosystem characterized by limited soil, water, and vegetation resources, which make it very susceptible to degradation. This research focuses on the diachronic assessment and multi-temporal mapping of the degradation of steppe vegetation in the south of Biskra during the period 1987-2019, using remote sensing data (MSAVI index), for extracting spatiotemporal data to monitor the rangeland vegetation dynamics. We examined demographic evolution, number of livestock, and land use from quantitative data. The results show that during this period, the landscape of the region changed considerably. The area of rangelands decreased from 19,939ha (1987) to 3605ha (2019), where 58% of the pre-existing vegetation was transformed into bare soil. This study confirmed that the rangeland vegetation health is closely related to climate, and its degradation is mainly due to the recurrence, duration, severity, and magnitude of drought events. Manmade activities were also a determinant factor of long-term degradation of the rangeland, such as the expansion of new land development areas that increased from 3754ha (1987) to 24,410ha (2019). This trend was found throughout the region, including predominantly pastoral regions such as Oumache and El Haouch, leading to overgrazing with a loss of about 2% of vegetation cover. All these factors have led to a severe and continuous degradation of pastoral resources in a vulnerable environment. The preservation of these limited resources requires appropriate management of the ecosystem and a rational exploitation of its vegetation, soil, and water resources.

Complete seasonal surveillance of Greylag Goose (Anser anser) foraging behavior on dairy grassland and the effect of limited lethal scaring

In northern Norway, an increasing population of Greylag Geese (Anser anser) forages considerably on dairy grassland and can eat up to 60% of the grass (dry matter mass) on a field if allowed to eat undisturbed throughout the growing season. In this study, the seasonal foraging behavior of Greylag Geese on diary grassland was continuously monitored with game cameras from late April to the end of August to be able to pinpoint effective preventive measures to manage, control, and prevent this crop damage. Limited, but regular, lethal scaring was conducted on some fields to reveal the preventive effect of this measure. Foraging from Greylag Geese in a rangeland area was also monitored, and a complete dataset of seasonal foraging behavior of this species is presented here. Greylag Geese foraging on the fields reaches a top between 04:00 and 08:00 h am, all season. Energy and digestibility of the field grass (timothy) did not reveal any correlation with grazing patterns. Greylag Geese do not visit the fields during molting; however, they may visit fields with their chicks to forage. Lethal scaring completely removes visits from Greylag Geese on the fields where this is conducted, while foraging continues if geese are given undisturbed access. In the rangeland area foraging seems to be even and continuous throughout the season, but significantly lower. In the end of June and late July/early August, there is a peak in visits and number of geese per visit on the fields. Preventive and effective measures against crop damage from Greylag Geese must therefore at least be initiated during late June and early August, and between 04:00 and 08:00 am.

Assessment and Identification of water potential area for fodder production through irrigation techniques in Borana and Guji Zones, Oromia, Southern Ethiopia

The project entitled, “Assessment and identification of water potential areas in Borana and Guji zone” to assess and identify the water potential with enough catchment and suitable command area that can improve the sustainable fodder production of the land and livestock supporting the Borana and Guji Pastoral and agro pastoral System. The Borana and Guji rangelands were well-known for fodder production potential, However, this production is declined from year to year due to different factors such as; Physical factors namely; grazing pressure, human activity, bush encroachment and climate variability as well as Policy attention and good government are the others most important factors. The land use change and climate variability are the key factor for affecting pastoralists’ and agro pastoralists’ livelihoods that cause food and feed insecurity both Borana and Guji zone. Therefore, the main objectives of assessment confidential into three classes, firstly, to assess the water potential areas of Borana and Guji rangelands, secondly, to identify and classify water potential sources and their limitations both zones that thematic areas of mercy corps, Thirdly, to improve communities’ livelihoods and increasing adaptive capacity of societies to climate variability and environmental and others social negative events in study areas. The assessment was conducted two zones of Borana and Guji Zones. During the assessment four main offices were selected for interview at zonal, woreda and PA level, those offices were Irrigation office, Land use office, Pastoral Development office and Water office, these cascaded to woredas accordingly. After selected and discussed with those main offices, we had been observed two main important offices that could play a crucial role of arranging and facilitation for the assessments. We assessed twelve woredas and identified thirty nine water potential sites from Borana zone while four woredas of Guji zone were assessed and eleven sites were identified as irrigation potential. The result indicated 50 sites were identified as water potential in Both Borana and Guji Zones for fodder production through irrigation techniques. Our result showed that 78% of water potential sites were found in Borana zone, while 22% of irrigation potential sites were found in Guji zone. We identified four water potential or sources through different reservoir construction techniques such as micro earthen dams 22 sites, rivers 8 sites, ponds 15 sites and depth wells 5 sites. Our Result showed that 44% of water potential sources were MEDs, 16% were river streams, while 30% shows pond and 10 % shows depth well respectively. The total of 13272 household head can serviced from more than 6636 hectares, while 18280 household heads can be benefited from 9140 hectares from studied sites’ in Guji zone. Totally, about 31552 household head could be diversify and improve their livelihood through irrigation from 15776 hectares of land. We identified 50 sites, from the selected site 78% found in Borana zone, while 22% found in Guji zone. In Borana Zone, the micro earthen dam is the major source of water, than pond water and river water sources respectively. Finally, depth well is ranked fourth. We concluded that there are water potential sources for irrigation for forage /fodder and others purpose production in Borana and Guji Zone in studied areas. Therefore, we recommended that the different development agencies, NGOs, Government and private should involve in fodders and others production purpose through irrigation support to improve pastoralists’ and agro pastoralists’ livelihoods in Borana and Guji zone. Due to time limitation and security issues, assessment was not cover each of potential sites of Borana and Guji Zones. Further study will be recommended to cover each potential site of Borana and Guji zones.

Patterns of Change and Successional Transition in a 47-Year Period (1973–2020) in Rangelands of the Tamaulipan Highlands, Northeastern Mexico

Rangelands in arid and semi-arid regions are the main source of livestock feed. The fragmentation of these ecosystems by continuous grazing gives rise to the modification of ecological processes, which alters the structure and functionality of plant communities. Therefore, the use of geographic information systems and the analysis of satellite images are important to monitor spatial changes and to evaluate these areas in the Tamaulipan Highlands of northeastern Mexico. This work aimed to evaluate the current state of the rangelands and to determine the percentage of modified areas as well as propose the time of permanence, succession, or recovery of five different areas destined for rangelands. For the analysis, Landsat satellite scenes from the period 1973–2020 were used: they were classified into four categories using segmentation and maximum likelihood analysis, as well as a cross-tabulation method to determine the degree of succession. An increase in rangelands was found in three of the five areas analyzed in the period from 1973 to 2020. As rangeland areas increase, the coverage of pine–oak forests, submontane–thorny scrub, and anthropogenic areas, decreases. The disturbance processes were not linear, and the increase in rangeland areas was greater in xerophilous scrub and secondary vegetation. This work is the first contribution that evaluates the changes in land use and cover in grazing areas compromised by continuous grazing in the Tamaulipan Highlands and Mexico. In addition, the results indicate the importance of performing studies based on the coexistence of wildlife and livestock as well as the interaction between soil degradation and plant diversity with the increase in rangelands.