Much of the world's rangelands are dominated by woody species. Competing land uses and continued encroachment of woody species into non-woody dominated rangelands have reduced grasslands in many parts of the world. Land use conversions to fuel and feed global populations, especially for increasing numbers of middle class people seeking broader, meat-based diets, will certainly continue. Halting and/or reversing further encroachment of woody species into grasslands is slow, expensive, and in some cases, not possible.

Pastoralism and agriculture have affected rangeland ecosystems over the past millennia, including many ecosystems that are currently protected as reserves. However, the legacy of these land-use practices on current ecosystem functioning remains unclear. We studied legacy effects of former human land use on soil physical and chemical properties in a South African savanna.

A confluence of factors has shaped the composition and structure of vegetation on rangelands in the American West. These factors include climate, soils, topography, history of grazing and fire (both wildfire and prescribed fire) as well as legacy effects from prior land management practices. Despite the inherent differences in vegetation of rangelands resulting from these factors, sustainable management practices involving matching forage availability to forage demand have resulted in managing large acreages in a similar fashion for livestock production.

Land-use emissions accompanying biomass loss, change in soil organic carbon (ΔSOC) and decomposing wood-products, were comparable with fossil fuel emissions in the late 20th century. We examine the rates, magnitudes and uncertainties for major carbon (C) fluxes for rangelands due to commercial grazing and climate change in Australia. Total net C emission from biomass over 369Mha of rangeland to-date was 0.73 (±0.40)Pg, with 83% of that from the potentially forested 53% of the rangelands. A higher emission estimate is likely from a higher resolution analysis.

Experimental forests and ranges are living laboratories that provide opportunities for conducting scientific research and transferring research results to partners and stakeholders. They are invaluable for their long-term data and capacity to foster collaborative, interdisciplinary research. The San Joaquin Experimental Range (SJER) was established to develop appropriate land management practices on foothill rangelands in California. SJER has a long and rich history of avian research.

The net effect of heavy grazing and land degradation on plant diversity and richness is insufficiently understood for incorporation in national biodiversity assessments. A study was undertaken to determine the effects of heavy grazing primarily on richness of vascular plant species across the arid and semi-arid rangeland biomes of South Africa. Major grazing contrasts were systematically identified for sampling in rangelands of Succulent Karoo, Nama-Karoo, Thicket, Grassland, Kalahari dune savanna and Mopane savanna.

Although human influence across rural landscapes is often discussed, interactions between the native, natural systems and human activities are challenging to measure explicitly. We assessed the distribution of introduced, invasive species as related to anthropogenic infrastructure and environmental conditions across southwestern Wyoming. to discern direct correlations as well as covariate influences between land use, land cover, and abundance of invasive plants, and assess the supposition that these features affect surrounding rangeland conditions.

Balancing the number of grazing animals with the level of plant resources is a core issue in grazing management. Complete, full-coverage vegetation surveys are often used for this purpose, but these are expensive undertakings. We have presented a method to downscale information from regional sampling surveys by poststratification using a land cover map derived from satellite-based measures of reflectance values. This approach opens new prospects for landscape-level evaluation of productivity.

Ecosystem services have been extensively studied in terms of their production, spatial extent, and valuation. Human reliance on ecosystem services is a function of the capacity of ecosystems to supply these services and the societal demand for these benefits. Considerably more attention has been placed on the supply of services compared with their demand. Sustainable land management depends on reconciling supply of and demand for ecosystem services among different stakeholders. The emphasis is now shifting from the supply to the attaining of a balance between supply and demand.