Semi-arid mountainous areas are of special importance in terms of ecological function i.e. vegetation dynamics and its evaluation under environmental- managerial factors is a necessity for their sustainable use. Due to the highly variable environmental characteristics in these areas, proper land management and utilization can severely affect the Range Condition (RC). Here, the relationship between topography and soil characteristics and management [(RC) under grazing] was investigated through multivariate analysis in mountain areas of Golestan’s Chahar Bagh, northeast Iran in 2019. The RCs was assessed by scoring vegetation and soil characteristics in areas under livestock grazing areas. The preliminary findings of this research showed that environmental factors i.e. clay, P, EC, slope, aspect, soil moisture (SM) and K had the most effect on the formation of five different vegetation types (Cum.% of Var.=80.4%). The results showed that RC changes had more significant relation with managerial factor/grazing than environmental factors. In general, the effect of environmental and management factors and their common effect in changing RC were equal to 1.84%, 74.1 and 21.04%, respectively. The change of soil physical properties was more than soil chemical properties under RC changes. Factors of organic matter (OM), bulk density (BD), porosity and SM showed significant changes under excellent, good, fair, poor and very poor condition (P<0.05). In general, excellent and good rangelands were related to more OM and porosity and less slope and K. Moreover, poor/very poor rangelands were related to more SM, BD, P and slope. Overall, managing grazing can significantly decline/improve RC in mountainous area.
Annual climate fluctuations cause changes in production, condition, trends and grazing capacity of rangelands. The present study investigated effect of climatic factors on the vegetation dynamics in Jashloobar, summer rangeland of Semnan province, Iran, in two vegetation types: Festuca rubra in Margesar and Stipa lessingiana in Sefiddasht during 2011–2015. Climatic parameters included temperature (mean daily, absolute maximum, absolute minimum, monthly maximum and monthly minimum), monthly humidity (absolute maximum, absolute minimum and average) and monthly precipitation. These factors were determined by Inverse Distance Weighted method using 19 meteorological stations in Semnan province due to an absence of climatological and synoptic stations on this site. Vegetation cover percent and production were measured within two 400m transects and 20 plots (1×1m2) along transects. Means comparisons were made between the years in terms of vegetation production and canopy cover using Duncan test, and the relationship between climatic factors with vegetation parameters which were determined using linear regression. Results show that production varies significantly over years (P<0.05). The lowest production rates in Margesar and Sefiddasht were observed in 2013-2014 with 254 and 213.3 kg/ha respectively. Although the precipitation significantly decreased from 293 mm in 2011-2012 to 173 mm in 2013-2014(P<0.05), but stepwise regression indicated that finally in Margesar, absolute maximum temperature and absolute minimum humidity in December and in Sefiddasht, absolute maximum temperature in June and absolute minimum temperature in August were entered in production forecasting model. This indicates that forage production is highly sensitive to absolute mentioned climatic parameters in addition to rainfall. Also, due to short period of growing season in these years, grazing period should also be limited; therefore, ranchers and the government should optimize rangeland management and reduce the length of the grazing period, decreasing grazing capacity or alternative livelihoods such as ecotourism, beekeeping and exploitation of medicinal plants.
The rangeland potentials in Kupang regency, Indonesia, were evaluated by determining forages distribution, forages nutritional value, and growth performance of the cattle grazed or fed with forages grown in the area. Several rangelands namely Amarasi, Mamar Kering, and Selobua were evaluated for its forages’ distribution from November to December 2015, while the reared cattle growth performance was observed for 12 months, starting from May 2016 to April 2017. A purposive sampling method was done to determine the forage distribution and a total of 22 cattle that fed in the areas were evaluated for its growth performances. The observed variables include forages distribution, nutritional value of the forages and cattle ration, feed intake (FI) and average daily gain (ADG) of the cattle. The forages distribution data were analyzed descriptively, while forages nutritional value and cattle growth were analyzed with nested ANOVA followed with LSD test to determine significant differences. The results showed that Mamar Kering had more plant species (77 species) compared to Amarasi (62 species) and Selobua (53 species) rangelands. The combination of Amarasi and Mamar Kering provides better forage availability (91.64%) compared to individual rangeland utilization (58.67 to 79.8%). The results also showed that different rangelands had a highly significant difference (P0.05) difference was found for crude protein, feed intake and ADG of the cattle. Moreover, the highest ADG cattle were found for Amarasi and Mamar Kering which reached 0.30 kg/cattle/day. The research concludes that the combination of Amarasi and Mamar Kering rangelands provide higher forage availability and better cattle growth compared to individual or another rangelands combination, with adjustment of forages and cattle ratio should be done to achieve efficient cattle production.
Astragalus squarrosus Bunge is one of the native and compatible range species in the dry lands of Iran. It is of great importance in terms of tolerance to specific ecological conditions as well as high nutritional value and soil conservation. In order to study the effects of seed priming on some morph-physiological traits, an experiment was conducted in form of split plots based on a completely randomized block design with five replications in Torud Research Farm in Semnan Province, Iran in 2017. Seed samples were collected from their natural habitats in Yazd, Kashan and Semnan in Iran. Seeds of three A. squarrosus ecotypes were treated by hydropriming (distilled water), hormonal priming (gibberellic acid: with concentrations of 125 and 250 ppm), (Salicylic acid: 100 and 200 mg/l), (Ascorbic acid: 100 and 200 mM) osmopriming (potassium nitrate: 0.3 and 0.2%) and control (without priming). The primed seeds and controls were sown in the field. No seeds were germinated for control and gibberellic acid (250 ppm). The results showed that the effect of priming was significant on leaf carbohydrate content, vegetation cover, dry matter (DM), yield and plant height (p<0.01). According to the results, the highest DM yield and plant height with average values of 82 (g/m2) and 34 cm, respectively, were related to the ecotype of Yazd treated with salicylic acid 100 mg/l. The highest vegetation cover with an average value of 34.6% was observed in Kashan ecotype by applying salicylic acid 100 mg/l. For carbohydrate content, the highest value of 36 (g/100gFW) was obtained in Semnan ecotype using 100 mg/l salicylic acid. The highest rate of proline with a value of 3.39 (Mm/gFW) was obtained in Semnan ecotype using 125 ppm gibberellic acid. It was concluded that application of hormonal seed priming of A. squarrosus could be useful for direct seeding of this species for rehabilitation of degraded arid rangelands of Iran.
It is very easy to view land degradation and desertification as purely biophysical phenomena for which there are neat technological solutions. Yet millions of real people live in the affected lands, and they both cause land degradation and are impacted by it, so scientists and land managers need to find a good balance between reductionist rigor and societal applicability. The concept of Land Degradation Neutral World (LDN) offered great promise. The operationalization of it is more challenging. We must recognize the consequences of past inaction on land degradation, climate change and biodiversity loss. Land degradation plays a key role in this ‘vicious triangle’ of threats to our sustainability. The LDN agenda provides a framework and commitment to it by all nations affected by land degradation is the key to successful outcomes by 2030. Adoption of the idea and implementation of measures could lead to reaching Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals that was agreed in 2015 but it won’t be easy and there is an obligation for the richer nations to provide financial and technical support to Affected Party countries. This paper is about rangelands and their management now and into the future. Specifically, it will focus on the philosophy underpinning the notion of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN). More particularly it will consider the barriers to implementing the measures that will be necessary if LDN is to achieve its global goal by 2030 and analyze the outcomes of several UNCCD-led pilot studies.
