Tropical Grazing Lands
Tropical Grazing Lands

Author: R.O. Whyte

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 9401023255

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1.1 Objective and scope These chapters are not intended as a treatise on range management of tropical grazing lands, nor on the agronomy of sown pastures and cultivated fodder crops, aspects of applied science that are only one stage above scientific farming and use of land. An attempt is made to present the vegetation sciences, or botany and ecology in their widest aspects, as the essential background for their application in economic land use and plant and animal husbandry. The basic thesis is that science is global, but that its practical application is restricted to specific biological and socio economic habitats. The region covered is termed the intertropical zone. This comprises the equatorial latitudes, the tropics and subtropics. It is not only that part of the globe lying between latitudes 30° north and south of the Equator, as proposed by some writers (DAVIES, W., 1960; repeated by DAVIES & SKIDMORE, 1966). Rather is it those regions of the world in which, at the lower elevations, certain families and members of the Gramineae and Leguminosae grow wild or can be cultivated. It may be a matter for discussion whether these plants in their wild communities or sown or planted crop mixtures are better indicators of a biological environment than the instruments and criteria of the meteorologists.

The Grazing Land Ecosystems of the African Sahel
The Grazing Land Ecosystems of the African Sahel

Author: Henry N. Le Houerou

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 3642744575

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7. 2 The Pilot Zone of the FerIo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 7. 2. 1 Geographical Zoning and Administrative Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 7. 2. 2 Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 7. 2. 3 The Substratum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 7. 2. 4 Surface Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 7. 2. 5 Vegetation and Rangelands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 7. 2. 6 Wildlife. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 7. 2. 7 Livestock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 7. 2. 8 Evolution of Land Use and History of Development . . . . . . . . 170 7. 3 Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 7. 3. 1 Principles, Problems and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 7. 3. 2 Evaluation of Green Herbaceous Biomass by Orbital Remote Sensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 7. 3. 3 Evaluation of Range Production from Ground Sampling . . . . 207 7. 3. 4 Low Altitude Systematic Reconnaissance Flights (SRF) . . . . . . 211 7. 3. 5 Practical Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 7. 4 Conclusions on Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 8 General Conclusions: Towards an Ecological Management of the Sahelian Ecosystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 of Scientific Names. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 . . . . . . . . . . . . Index Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 VII Abbreviations and Acronyms AVHRR Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer CILSS Comite Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Secheresse au Sahel CIPEA Centre International pour l'Elevage en Afrique CNRS Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique CP Crude Protein (N x 6.

Rangeland Systems
Rangeland Systems

Author: David D. Briske

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-04-12

Total Pages: 664

ISBN-13: 3319467093

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This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license. This book provides an unprecedented synthesis of the current status of scientific and management knowledge regarding global rangelands and the major challenges that confront them. It has been organized around three major themes. The first summarizes the conceptual advances that have occurred in the rangeland profession. The second addresses the implications of these conceptual advances to management and policy. The third assesses several major challenges confronting global rangelands in the 21st century. This book will compliment applied range management textbooks by describing the conceptual foundation on which the rangeland profession is based. It has been written to be accessible to a broad audience, including ecosystem managers, educators, students and policy makers. The content is founded on the collective experience, knowledge and commitment of 80 authors who have worked in rangelands throughout the world. Their collective contributions indicate that a more comprehensive framework is necessary to address the complex challenges confronting global rangelands. Rangelands represent adaptive social-ecological systems, in which societal values, organizations and capacities are of equal importance to, and interact with, those of ecological processes. A more comprehensive framework for rangeland systems may enable management agencies, and educational, research and policy making organizations to more effectively assess complex problems and develop appropriate solutions.

Grassland Productivity and Ecosystem Services
Grassland Productivity and Ecosystem Services

Author: Gilles Lemaire

Publisher: CABI

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1845938097

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This book contains 28 chapters with emphasis on the interactive nature of the relationships between the soil, plant, animal and environmental components of grassland systems, both natural and managed. It analyses the present knowledge and the future trends of research for combining the classical view of grasslands, as a resource for secure feeding of an increasing human population, with the more recent perspective of the contribution of grasslands to the mitigation of environmental impacts and biodiversity erosion as consequences of human society activities. The chapters are organized within five sections dealing with the different functions and the main ecosystem services expected from grasslands: (i) domestic herbivore feeding and animal production; (ii) the regulation of biogeochemical cycles and its consequences for the environment; (iii) dynamics of biodiversity hosted by grasslands; (iv) integration of grasslands within sustainable animal production systems; and (v) interactions of grassland areas with other land use systems at the landscape level.

Sustainable Agriculture Reviews 14
Sustainable Agriculture Reviews 14

Author: Harry Ozier-Lafontaine

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-09-03

Total Pages: 520

ISBN-13: 3319060163

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Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing field aiming at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their children. Sustainable agriculture is a discipline that addresses current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control, and biodiversity depletion. Novel, environmentally-friendly solutions are proposed based on integrated knowledge from sciences as diverse as agronomy, soil science, molecular biology, chemistry, toxicology, ecology, economy, and social sciences. Indeed, sustainable agriculture decipher mechanisms of processes that occur from the molecular level to the farming system to the global level at time scales ranging from seconds to centuries. For that, scientists use the system approach that involves studying components and interactions of a whole system to address scientific, economic and social issues. In that respect, sustainable agriculture is not a classical, narrow science. Instead of solving problems using the classical painkiller approach that treats only negative impacts, sustainable agriculture treats problem sources. Because most actual society issues are now intertwined, global, and fast-developing, sustainable agriculture will bring solutions to build a safer world.

Tropical Forage Plants
Tropical Forage Plants

Author: W.D. Pitman

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2000-11-28

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 1420038788

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Tropical Forage Plants: Development and Use covers the research and resulting pasture development in the tropics and subtropics, which has undergone dramatic changes in the past few decades. Providing a broad, global perspective, it serves as a comprehensive resource covering a wide range of subjects pertaining to forage and animal production in th

Lamto
Lamto

Author: Luc Abbadie

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2006-11-22

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 0387338578

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Synthesizing 40 years of ongoing ecological research, this book examines the structure, function, and dynamics of the Lamto humid savanna. From the history of the Lamto ecology station, to an overview of enivronmental conditions of the site, and examining the integrative view of energy and nutrient fluxes relative to the dynamics of the region's vegetation, this exacting work is as unique and treasured as Lamto itself.

Terminology for Grazing Lands and Grazing Animals
Terminology for Grazing Lands and Grazing Animals

Author: Forage and Grassland Terminology Committee

Publisher:

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13:

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Two years in the making, this book represents the combined effort of scientists in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States and of some 16 organizations and agencies including the American Forage and Grassland Council. It has been adopted by these 16 and numerous other organizations world-wide as the definitive standard for word usage in the science.

The Ecozones of the World
The Ecozones of the World

Author: Jürgen Schultz

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-06-29

Total Pages: 423

ISBN-13: 3662031612

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This abundantly illustrated book provides a fundamental introduction to the ecological zones of the geosphere. The revised edition includes more than 70 new figures and tables, plus detailed maps of agricultural regions and soil classification. A large number of new Anglo-American ecological studies are included, along with a discussion of the correlation between northern ecosystems and the carbon dioxide balance in the global atmosphere.