Reports of positive or neutral effects of grazing on plant species richness have prompted calls for livestock grazing to be used as a tool for managing land for conservation. Grazing effects, however, are likely to vary among different response variables, types, and intensity of grazing, and across abiotic conditions. We aimed to examine how grazing affects ecosystem structure, function, and composition. We compiled a database of 7615 records reporting an effect of grazing by sheep and cattle on 278 biotic and abiotic response variables for published studies across Australia.

In course of the research there was studied the system of measures of liberalization of conditions for business activity actualization in the conditions of the Republic of Belarus. The liberalization management of conditions of realization of economic activities (which include the use, estimation of conditions and protection of land resources of Belarus) is expedient to consider in two directions which are inseparably interlinked.

Water is essential not only to maintain the livelihoods of human beings but also to sustain ecosystems. Over the last few decades several global assessments have reviewed current and future uses of water, and have offered potential solutions to a possible water crisis. However, these have tended to focus on water supply rather than on the range of demands for all water services (including those of ecosystems). In this paper, a holistic global view of water resources and the services they provide is presented, using Sankey diagrams as a visualisation tool.

Emergy accounting (EmA) was applied to a range of dairy systems, from low-input smallholder systems in South Mali (SM), to intermediate-input systems in two regions of France, Poitou-Charentes (PC) and Bretagne (BR), to high-input systems on Reunion Island (RI). These systems were studied at three different levels: whole-farm (dairy system and cropping system), dairy-system (dairy herd and forage land), and herd (animals only). Dairy farms in SM used the lowest total emergy at all levels and was the highest user of renewable resources.

The restoration of meadowland using the pond and plug technique of gully elimination was performed in a 9‐mile segment along Last Chance Creek, Feather River Basin, California, in order to rehabilitate floodplain functions such as mitigating floods, retaining groundwater, and reducing sediment yield associated with bank erosion and to significantly alter the hydrologic regime.

Conservation of native fishes and changing patterns in wildfire and fuels are defining challenges for managers of forested landscapes in the western United States. Many species and populations of native fishes have declined in recorded history and some now occur as isolated remnants of what once were larger more complex systems. Land management activities have been viewed as one cause of this problem. Fires also can have substantial effects on streams and riparian systems and may threaten the persistence of some populations of fish, particularly those that are small and isolated.

Rangeland managers are often faced with the complex challenge of managing sites for multiple uses and for the diverse interests of stakeholders. Standardized monitoring methods that can be used and understood by different agencies and stakeholders would aid management for long‐term sustainability of rangelands. In the United States, federal land management agencies have recently based their assessments of rangeland health and integrity on state‐and‐transition models to consider management trajectories.

Perennial cereal rye (PC rye) is being developed at Lethbridge Research Centre as a new forage crop. The first Canadian cultivar of this crop (ACE-1), tested as LRC 96-1, will have the distinction of being the first North American cultivar of PC rye and the only perennial cereal crop specifically developed for forage production. PC rye was originally developed in Germany by crossing rye (Secale cereale L.) with a perennial wild rye (Secale montanum L.) and then backcrossing the F1 with Secale cereale L. while selecting for a perennial nature.

Eucalyptus melanophloia and E. populnea dominate large areas of savanna in eastern Australia. Under aboriginal management, fires probably occurred under a broad range of conditions, but under pastoral management, burning is avoided when soil moisture is low. This experiment subjected E. melanophloia and E. populnea seedlings to burning and moisture stress, to examine whether this change in burning regime could affect seedling survivorship.