Publisher's Synopsis
The uses of rangelands around the world are changing. Increasingly the land is used for purposes other than livestock production. The people who live in rangelands, and others influencing rangeland management, are striving for sustainable land use practices.;Both need, and want, a better understanding of how rangelands function; this book is a significant contribution to that understanding.;The first section of this book is devoted to the ecology of rangeland landscape processes. In chapter 1 the authors develop a conceptual model, called the trigger-transfer-reserve-pulse framework, to describe how landscapes function - this construct is used throughout the book.;The processes by which landscapes conserve scarce water and nutrients are covered in chapter 2. When stores of water and nutrients exceed critical threshold, pulses of activity occur in the landscape. Plant production pulses are discussed in chapter 3, and the many varied responses to pulses by consumers in chapter 4.;The second section of the book deals with what happens when things go wrong, when a landscape loses its ability to efficiently capture and store water and nutrients - a state the authors call dysfunctional. Chapter 5 describes landscape dysfunction in detail, while chapter 6 looks at its causes and consequences.;In the third section of the book, ways of managing rangelands in response to understanding landscape function are considered. Chapter 7 discusses management responses from perspectives of rangelands being viewed as functioning landscapes. Chapter 8 examines appropriate responses for managing rangelands, while chapter 9 looks at their rehabilitation.;The concluding section looks at ways rangeland landscapes may be used in the future.
