Journal of Rangeland Science
Volume:12 Issue: 1, Winter 2022

Characterization of watersheds was conducted in semiarid rangelands of Dalloma woreda, southeast Ethiopia during 2018-19 fiscal years. Data were collected using household surveys, field observations, focus group discussion and key informant interviews . Both crop and livestock production (71%) and only livestock production (17%) ware the main activities to earn a living. Respondents ranked sale of livestock and livestock products (61%), sale of honey (20%) and sale of crops (10%) as the main source of income. The pastoral and agro-pastoral in the watershed mainly depends on the production of livestock as their main livelihood because of the suitability of the area for the production of livestock. Drought, the existence of pests, diseases and weeds, land degradation, high price of input, shortage of improved seeds and shortage of land were a major constraint for crop production. Livestock feed shortage, disease, marketing, lack of improved genotype and low animal by product are the major constraint for livestock productions. Drought, bush encroachment, crop encroachment, overgrazing, over utilization, population increase, disease and inappropriate government policies were the main factors for degradation of rangelands. The result of this study showed that land degradation together with poverty is the most serious problem. Since the well-being of the local community is highly interrelated to the natural resources it has to be managed properly in a sustainable way. Majority of respondents showed the community in the watershed and natural resources management faces interlinked complex problems, implying the importance of integrating different approaches to address the problems in the watershed and improving the livelihood of the community. Thus, integrated watershed management program should be implemented to address different problems in the watershed so that both natural resources and livelihood of the local community can be optimized.

Rangelands rehabilitation have a high priority for improving the environment and mitigating climate changes in comparison to natural rangelands. This study was conducted to compare carbon sequestration in soil and phytomass between land uses of rangeland and irrigated agricultural farms in Mahallat, Markazi province, Iran. The soil was sampled by setting profiles (17 Land uses) in two depths of 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm. In the both land uses, three 50 m transects were established with four 2×2m plots sampled in each transect with random distances. Soil samples were taken from center of each transect. The contents of aboveground and underground biomass carbon, litter carbon and soil organic carbon were determined (in summer 2017). Percentage of organic carbon of plants and soil samples was measured in the laboratory. Soil bulk density, texture, acidity and electrical conductivity were determined. The carbon sequestration in phytomass and soil between rangeland and cropland was compared using independent t-test. Result showed significant effect of carbon sequestration in phytomass, Litter (P<0.01) and soil (not Significant) between rangeland and cropland land uses. Total carbon sequestration in rangeland ecosystem (59471 kg/ha) was higher than carbon sequestration in cropland (53314 kg/ha). Therefore, despite the lack of irrigation and fertilizer inputs, the amount of carbon sequestration in rangeland was higher than the cropland in the region.

The use of modern methods in the analysis of rangeland ecosystems has received much consideration. The study of the diversity of medicinal and sometimes toxic species in rangelands can be regarded as an indicator of ecological status changes in rangeland ecosystems. In the present study, Javaherdeh mountain rangelands in north of Iran were selected under three sites including long-term exclusion, medium-term exclusion, and grazing during 2018-2019. Sampling was performed in each plant type with 4 transects of 200 meters and a random point every 10 m. Identification of species was carried out using published methods. Shannon’s diversity, Margalef’s richness, dominance, and evenness indices were determined for each plot. The means comparisons were made for the three study sites using one-way ANOVA in SPSS v.22 software. According to the results, the highest values of diversity and richness indices for medicinal plants (1.817, 2.370) and total plants (2.062, 3.132) were calculated for the long-term exclosure. The evenness index for total species in the medium-term exclosure (0.588) and grazing area (0.620) was almost similar and higher than the amount of the long-term exclosure (0.058). However, the mentioned index for medicinal species in long term exclosure (0.739) was higher than two other sites. The dominance index for total plants in the grazing area (0.260) was higher than two other sites; however, this index of medicinal plants was higher in the grazing (0.355) and medium-term exclosure (0.393) sites as compared with the long-term exclosure (0.224). Overall, species diversity indices of medicinal plants could be a proper tool to interpret the ecological changes in range conditions. Therefore, ecological management of rangelands could be achieved through understanding and knowledge of these changes.

Rangelands are one of the most important plant ecosystems in Iran that have multiple and vital roles. In recent decades, with increasing population, increasing forage consumption, climate change and rainfall fluctuations, most of the country's pastures have been destroyed or faced with a regression trend. Therefore, in order to strengthen this vital ecosystem in the country, rangeland management components have a special priority and importance. One of the main components of rangeland management is the study of the water they need. The water required by the plant is equivalent to its evapotranspiration. Estimation of evapotranspiration using meteorological station data can be done at different time intervals; But determining its spatial distribution on a large scale is not possible. Remote sensing techniques and evapotranspiration estimation algorithms based on the surface energy balance of the earth are among the methods that are able to produce maps with appropriate spatial distribution that will be able to produce maps with appropriate time and place coverage. Then, using Sentinel 2 images and Maximum Likelihood classification method, the existing rangelands in the area were identified. The evapotranspiration plan of the rangelands was obtained. Based on the results, it can be seen that the error of estimating the actual evapotranspiration with the Sabal and Lysimeter algorithm is a maximum of 9.7%, which is very appropriate. The estimated evapotranspiration rates of rangeland cover at the four Landsat imaging dates were 2.1, 3.46, 3.4, and 3.44 mm / day. The results also showed less rangeland evapotranspiration than other coatings.

Rangeland production is especially important in meeting food requirement of rangeland societies. Sometimes, historical data are required for long-term grazing capacity estimation. Regression equations that are reasonably reliable for predicting forage production from precipitation characteristics have been developed for rangeland yield estimation. In this research, the relationship between forage production and meteorological factors was evaluated with six-year data for Pashaylogh and Incheboron rangelands (2003 to 2007 and 2017- Golestan province, Iran) and eleven-year data for Nemati rangeland (1998 to 2007 and 2017- Markazi province, Iran). For sampling, four parallel transects with a length of 300 m and at a distance of 100 m from each other were established in the steppe area (Nemati) and six 200-m transects were created in the semi-steppe area (Pashaylogh and Incheboron) and they were located parallel and at a distance of 100 m from each other. Due to the need for uniformity in the data of the rangelands of different provinces and their comparison, plot size of 1×2 m was selected in steppe site, and 1×1 m for semi-steppe sites. Data analysis was done through regression models. The results showed that forage production was related to temperature and precipitation rather than other meteorological factors (temperature, precipitation, sunlight hours, relative humidity, evapotranspiration and average wind speed). The best equation that can predict the relationship between meteorological data and forage production was August precipitation and temperature (R2=0.88) in Pashaylogh, the precipitation of June (R2=0.88) in Incheboron rangelands. There was a relationship between forage production (R2=0.79) with precipitation and temperature in July and in Nemati rangeland. The forage production index was determined based on effective meteorological factors and The Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration (SPEI) drought index. According to meteorological data, a coefficient could be obtained to estimate long-term rangeland production and prevent from forage loss.

The main objective of the study is evaluating the nutritional value of some browse plants collected from Algerian arid zones by determining the in vitro gas production at different incubation times and volatile fatty acids (VFA) production. This work was conducted in comparison to a control substrate (oat vetch) considered as a reference plant in literature. The selected plants were collected in the arid areas of Algerian desert. Nine forages have been selected for this research work: six dicotyledon plants (Atriplex halimus, Artemisia campestris, Artemisia herba-alba, Astragalus gombiformis, Spartidium saharae and Retama raetam) and three monocotyledon plants (Stipagrostis pungens, Lygeum spartum and Stipa tenacissima). It has been found that A. campestris, A. gombiformis and A. herba-alba are the plants most fermented by the ruminal microbiota, until the time 36 hours of incubation time. A. gombiformis has the highest total VFA (34.7 mmol/L) while the lowest production of VFA is observed in S. tenacissima (17.3 mmol/L). The results obtained in this study clustered the studied species in two groups according to their nutritive value (considering jointly all the measures of gas production and volatiles fatty acids): one including the poor-quality grasses and another one including the most digestible dicot species (A. gombiformis and Artemisia spp.).

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is one of the most important forage crops, the so-called queen of forage plants, duo to its good quality, high digestibility, and its adaptability to different climates. In this study, 51 alfalfa populations were provided from the Research Institute of the Forests and Rangelands Gene Bank, Tehran, Iran. Seeds were sown based on an augmented design using six control genotypes in the agriculture and natural resources research center, Kermanshah, Iran in 2017. In the flowering stage, plants were cut and forage yield and chemical, quantitative and morphological traits were measured in all of 51 entries. Data were analyzed for descriptive statistics, correlation, factor analysis and cluster analysis. The Result of analysis of variance revealed no significant differences among replications (for replicated genotypes) for all traits except shoot height, leaves/stems, calcium, potassium, and total ash. The results of means comparison showed a significant variation between genotypes for the most studied traits. The highest and lowest forage yield with average values of 10089 and 1824 kg/h was obtained in Sharab-Urmia (Es-053) and Torbati1 (Es-032), respectively. The high protein content with average values of 19.46% was obtained in Sirjan1 (Es-026). Forage yield was positively correlated with stem number (r=0.50**), leaf weight (r=0.95**) and shoot weight (r=0.92**). Cluster analysis Ward method classified all alfalfa based on the all traits into four clusters. Populations in cluster 4 had higher overall mean values for both yield and quality traits. According to the Principle component analysis (PCA), the four components, namely the quality, yield, plant height and Mg+Zn components account for 40, 20, 10 and 7% (In total 77%) of data variance, respectively. The 5 top genotypes as FAO 1 (KR-3003), Cody 2 (Es-058), Italy 2 (Es-75), Kazagi2 (KR-615) and Mashhad 2 (Es-067) were recommended for improved breeding synthetic variety.

This study was conducted to examine impacts of bush encroachment control on rangeland vegetation in the south east Ethiopia. The study targeted two main and dominant encroaching woody plant species, Acacia bussie and Acacia aerfota, and their effects on rangeland vegetation attributes dynamics in Raitu district of Bale zone, southeastern Ethiopia for two consecutive years. Rangeland site encroached by these two acacia species was replicated/divided into three plots, and each plot was subdivided into five sub-plots receive five treatments: cutting at 0.5 m above ground alone (T1), cutting at 0.5 m above ground and dissecting the stumps (T2), cutting at 0.5 m above ground and pouring chemicals on stumps (T3), cutting at 0.5 m above ground and debarking the stumps down into the soil surface (T4) and control (T5). Data on biomass, species richness, basal and litter covers, soil erosion and compaction, dead and re-sprouted encroaching tree/shrub species were collected. The applied treatments significantly influenced (P<0.05) basal cover, dry matter and the two encroaching tree species. The results of this study showed that T1 and T4 were good in controlling A. aerfota in that order. T4 and T3 had a significant effect in controlling A. bussie in their order. The most dominant grass and non-grass species observed after the control actions were Cenchrus ciliaris, Bothriochloa radicans, Hebiscus aponerus, Pennisetum mezianum, Lintonia nutans, Chrysopogon plumulosus and Eragrostis papposa. Therefore, controlling encroaching tree/shrub species had created a conducive grazing area with palatable herbaceous species for the livestock. The management of bush encroachment, if sustained, will contribute to stabilizing rangelands and help to minimize the negative effects of feed and food crises in the future.