Rangelands can be found in multiple vegetation states, with transitions representing the paths between each state. A rangeland monitoring dataset from Western Australia was examined to identify contemporary transitions. The number of transitions was low and was more frequent in grassland than shrubland systems.

Though access to land and resources has not necessarily led to improved wellbeing for many remote-dwelling Indigenous Australians, some people have used wildlife resources commercially to realise economic opportunity and enhance land management capacity. A case study identifying key factors of longevity for Indigenous wildlife-based enterprises is presented here. This case demonstrates that community-governed natural resource-based enterprise provides opportunities for Indigenous people to engage in market-based economic activity in remote northern Australia.

Endozoochorous seed dispersal by grazing animals is important in providing favourable sites for germination and seedling establishment in grazed ecosystems. The recovery of undamaged seed ranged from 0.4 to 58.4% for yaks and 0.0 to 28.1% for Tibetan sheep and germination of seeds defecated were both higher and lower compared with undigested seed depending on the plant species. Ingestion of seed by grazing yak or Tibetan sheep may have important effects on the plants population dynamics of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

We make assess on the status of land-use sustainability in the process of Chinese land-use policy reform, fast industrialization and urbanization and their effects on aboriginal Kazakh herdsmen in the inland undeveloped region. Grazingland is disposed to more ecological risks than cropland and forestland in western China. This article provides an example of the consequences for undeveloped inland arid areas of not dealing with the challenges of economic efficiency and ecological deficit resulting from changes made in land-use policy.

The question of usage by bat species of the various habitats available in a semi-arid rangeland area of Western Australia has been addressed. Two available methods, bat echolocation call activity and bat fur stable-isotope analysis, have been compared.  Activity levels of the various species are shown to correspond to the overall productivity and the type of ground cover within any habitat. The results suggest implications regarding the impact of heavy grazing on bat activity levels in a rangeland environment.

In this study, 80 years of animal production results of a sheep station in Patagonia are analysed. Two distinct management practices were compared: historic, with high, fixed stocking rates (1930–89), and adaptive, with variable stocking rates adjusted yearly with quantitative forage assessments (1990–2010). Adaptive management resulted in a 41% lower stocking rate, but produced similar amounts of meat and only 25% less wool, with more predictable levels of outputs than the historic management, even in an increasingly variable rainfall environment.

Many livestock graze in the Sahand mountain rangeland in Iran and produce various goods. In these areas the livestock may destruct the rangeland soil and lead to decline rangeland productivity. This study was conducted to evaluate how livestock grazing effect on this rangeland soil. The result of this study showed that high density of grazing decreased the soil quality of these rangelands.

Rapid expansion of mining and the coal seam gas industry has raised concerns over the future of the Australian Great Artesian Basin (GAB). This paper utilises the relatively forgotten verse of celebrated ‘bush poet’ Banjo Paterson to explore the history of the GAB under European management. This paper documents the intersection of scientific knowledge with early debates over water conservation which also occurred at a time of dramatic social, economic and environmental upheaval.

The activities of livestock in arid environments typically centre on watering points, with grazing impacts often predicted to decrease uniformly, as radial piospheres, with distance from water. In this study sightings and dung transects are used to identify preferred cattle habitats in the heterogeneous dune system. The results suggest that habitat use by cattle is influenced jointly by water point location and by the dispersion of woodland patches in a resource-poor matrix. The findings were used to build a modified conceptual model of cattle habitat use.