Forage quality and availability for large herbivores in southern African rangelands

Abstract

2018) Forage quality and availability for large herbivores in southern African rangelands. In: Climate change and adaptive land management in southern Africa -assessments, changes, challenges, and solutions (ed. by Revermann, R., Krewenka, K.M., Schmiedel, U., Olwoch, J.M., Helmschrot, J. & Jürgens, N.), pp. [187][188][189][190][191][192][193][194][195][196] Biodiversity & Ecology, 6, Klaus Hess Publishers, Rangelands B E 6 2018 187Abstract: In light of the growing human population, the pressure on herbivores (livestock and wild herbivores) will be accelerated, resulting in a need for eff ective land management. To achieve this, information and knowledge about the availability and quality of food resources of large herbivores and possible changes in those resources are a prerequisite.In this chapter, we wil l summarize diff erent projects conducted regarding food availability and quality within SASSCAL.We will give an example of the use of remote sensing as an eff ective tool for measuring food availability and quality on a large scale. Here, we visualize changes in leaf nitrogen concentration and annual grass biomass. In two other projects, we studied diff erent aspects of plant response. In a fence-line study, we investigated the infl uence of overgrazing on the plant quality of grasses. Though we detected positive impacts on plant quality, but due to high grazing pressure, the reduction in biomass resulted in an overall decline in the quality of the overgrazed site. In the other project, we tested the plant response of bush encroacher species to damage by herbivores. In contrast to the grasses of the fence-line study, in the shrub species we observed a tendency for reduced protein concentration. The reduction varied among the diff erent plant species, but it did not have consequences on subsequent consumers (Boer goats). In our last project we focused on the impact of increased temperature and reduced humidity on the plant quality of fi ve grass species. Here, we found a species-specifi c response. We conclude the article with a synthesis and an outline of possible management implications derived from the diff erent studies.Resumo: Devido ao crescimento da população humana, a pressão nos herbívoros (gado e herbívoros selvagens) irá acelerar, resultando na necessidade da gestão efectiva da paisagem. Para atingir este objectivo, é necessário informação e conhecimento sobre a disponibilidade e qualidade dos recursos alimentares de grandes herbívoros, e possíveis alterações.Neste capítulo, resumimos diferentes projectos realizados dentro do tópico da disponibilidade e qualidade de alimento no contexto do SASSCAL. Daremos um exemplo de detecção remota como uma ferramenta útil para a medição da disponibilidade e qualidade do alimento em grande escala. Aqui, visualizamos alterações das concentrações de azoto foliar e da biomassa anual das gramíneas. Em dois outros projectos, estudámos diferentes aspectos da resposta de plantas. Num estudo de cercas, investigámos a infl uência do pastoreio excessivo na qualidade da...

Rangeland monitoring and assessment: a review

“…Hence, the large number and variety of diff erent plant compounds contributes to a multidimensional feeding environment for herbivores (Villalba et al, 2002), where the animals have to choose for each bite which plant or plant part to ingest. The impact of diff erent factors on food quality and food availability for large herbivores will be further discussed in the subsequent chapter (Stolter et al, 2018a).…”

Earth Observation Systems and Pasture Modeling: A Bibliometric Trend Analysis

“…However, this presents limited information about the spatial pattern of pasture dynamics. Limitations of conventional methods also include the high cost of laboratory analysis and are prone to human errors [36,37]. Remote sensing techniques are superior to conventional methods; they provided robust and time-effective solutions.…”