Increasingly widespread provision of stock water is seen as a threat to Australian rangeland vegetation, but attempts to demonstrate that vegetation composition is better at sites more distant from water have been largely unsuccessful. One likely reason is that most studies have been conducted within the geographic range of rabbits but without accounting for rabbits’ impact. Successful strategies to define the problem and to conserve vegetation in southern Australian rangelands will need to address the impact of rabbits and large water-dependent herbivores simultaneously.

Chemical immobilisation (darting) is increasingly being used for the management of rangeland animals but it has not been widely applied to free-ranging cattle. In this study we assessed the animal welfare impacts of a newly developed helicopter-based immobilisation technique for free-ranging Australian rangeland cattle (Bos taurus and Bos indicus). Eighteen cattle were captured but quantified animal welfare parameters were sub-optimal, emphasising the challenges associated with the use of helicopters and immobilising food-producing species. We encourage rangeland managers to carefully consider animal welfare impacts before undertaking chemical immobilisation programs.

Recurrent socio-productive and environmental problems in rural regions are at the focus of demands from policy makers to develop more integrated and problem-oriented solutions. We suggest the application of the state-and-transition approach at a household level, by considering five types of capital that typically comprise social-ecological systems: natural, human, manufactured, social and financial. This framework can give rise to an operative tool for social-ecological vulnerability analysis and monitoring in arid and semi-arid agro-ecosystems.

Managing the pressure and timing of grazing and the nutrition of beef cattle can improve productivity and profitability of grazing businesses. A 4-year study of 21 examples of three stocking methods on nine properties across Queensland examined stocking methods aimed at optimising both pasture management and diet selection. The results showed that cattle can select a diet with higher crude protein in the pasture growing season from continuous stocking, which includes some short rest periods, than from more intensive rotational methods.

The once popular garden plant yellow oleander has become naturalised at several locations in northern Australia, where it is reducing plant biodiversity and pasture production. Seeds of yellow oleander have become a food source for several native birds, such as cockatoos. This study explored the interaction between yellow oleander and native birds and concluded that although substantial seed predation occurs, yellow oleander produces enough seed all year round in riparian habitats to replenish soil seed reserves.

As the climate has changed, seasonality shifts have become prevalent across regions and ecosystems and have significantly influenced on soil respiration and, hence, the soil carbon pool. Therefore, model simulations of soil respiration must consider the influence of seasonality; an improved soil respiration simulation model based on season-specific soil temperature and soil water conditions is proposed in this paper. The relevance of this finding pertains to its more accurate predictions and models of soil respiration in temperate artificial grasslands.

Climate change might have caused recent noticed greening of the mountains around the Lhasa valley of Tibet. Obviously increased grassland biomass growth between 1982 and 2012 revealed by satellite images was significantly related to elevated temperature and changed precipitation in the region. Investigation on recent changes in grassland biomass growth in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau helps to understand the impacts of climate change on and to improve management of highland grasslands.

Using GIS and RS, we analysed the land use and vegetation cover changes following the drought affecting three tribes settled in the Naghamish Basin near Marsa Matrouh (North-western Egypt) at the margin of the Sahara desert. The statistical analysis of 67 years of annual rainfall does not substantiate a local climate change. However, the farmers’ deep perception of the 1996–2011 droughts is confirmed as it undoubtedly affected their land use, agricultural systems, their barley cropping and livestock industry, coercing them to reduce their rain-fed crops and stocking rates.