Predicting the distribution of livestock grazing pressure in rangelands
Date
2004
Authors
Pringle, H
Landsberg, Jill
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Blackwell Science Asia
Abstract
Because grazing by livestock is one of the primary threats to rangeland biodiversity, but is unevenly distributed in space, rangeland monitoring programmes need to take account of the distribution of grazing pressure in order to distinguish between grazing-induced change, seasonal fluctuations and changes that are a result of other threats. Livestock watering places are one of the major influences that give spatial expression to gradations in grazing activity. Using research results from the goldfields of Western Australia, we show how distance from water can be incorporated in spatial models to predict cumulative grazing pressure at different sites within paddocks. Two surrogates of grazing activity are illustrated: one relying on a commercially available model, and one developed from measures of track density. Factors other than distance from water can also have profound effects on the distribution of grazing pressure and its impacts at landscape and regional scales, and we review some of these briefly. Finally, we outline key spatial implications for the design of rangeland monitoring programmes.
Description
Keywords
Keywords: biodiversity; grazing pressure; livestock farming; rangeland; Australasia; Australia; Western Australia; Lasthenia Benchmarks; Grazing gradients; Monitoring; Track density; Watering points
Citation
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Source
Austral Ecology
Type
Journal article