Accounting for minimum data required to train a machine learning model to accurately monitor Australian dairy pastures using remote sensing.

Precision in grazing management is highly dependent on accurate pasture monitoring. Typically, this is often overlooked because existing approaches are labour-intensive, need calibration, and are commonly perceived as inaccurate. Machine-learning processes harnessing big data, including remote sensing, can offer a new era of decision-support tools (DST) for pasture monitoring. Its application on-farm remains poor because of a lack of evidence about its accuracy. This study aimed at evaluating and quantifying the minimum data required to train a machine-learning satellite-based DST focusing on accurate pasture biomass prediction using this approach. Management data from 14 farms in New South Wales, Australia and measured pasture biomass throughout 12 consecutive months using a calibrated rising plate meter (RPM) as well as pasture biomass estimated using a DST based on high temporal/spatial resolution satellite images were available. Data were balanced according to farm and week of each month and randomly allocated for model evaluation (20%) and for progressive training (80%) as follows: 25% training subset (1W: week 1 in each month); 50% (2W: week 1 and 3); 75% (3W: week 1, 3, and 4); and 100% (4W: week 1 to 4). Pasture biomass estimates using the DST across all training datasets were evaluated against a calibrated rising plate meter (RPM) using mean-absolute error (MAE, kg DM/ha) among other statistics. Tukey's HSD test was used to determine the differences between MAE across all training datasets. Relative to the control (no training, MAE: 498 kg DM ha-1) 1W did not improve the prediction accuracy of the DST (P > 0.05). With the 2W training dataset, the MAE decreased to 342 kg DM ha-1 (P < 0.001), while for the other training datasets, MAE decreased marginally (P > 0.05). This study accounts for minimal training data for a machine-learning DST to monitor pastures from satellites with comparable accuracy to a calibrated RPM which is considered the 'gold standard' for pasture biomass monitoring.

Nutritional Quality and Socio-Ecological Benefits of Mare Milk Produced under Grazing Management.

This review discusses the scientific evidence that supports the nutritional value of mare milk and how its properties are essentially achieved when mares are managed under grazing conditions. Mare milk's similarity with the chemical composition of human milk makes this food and its derived products not only suitable for human consumption but also an interesting food regarding human health. The contribution of horse breeding under grazing management to other socio-ecological benefits generated by equine farms is also highlighted. Both the high added value of mare milk and the socio-ecological benefits derived from pasture-based systems could be explored to improve the performance of equine farms located in arid and semi-arid areas or in regions with moderately harsh environmental conditions as equids have a strong adaptation capacity.

Using Activity Measures and GNSS Data from a Virtual Fencing System to Assess Habitat Preference and Habitat Utilisation Patterns in Cattle.

There has been an increased focus on new technologies to monitor habitat use and behaviour of cattle to develop a more sustainable livestock grazing system without compromising animal welfare. One of the currently used methods for monitoring cattle behaviour is tri-axial accelerometer data from systems such as virtual fencing technology or bespoke monitoring technology. Collection and transmission of high-frequency accelerometer and GNSS data is a major energy cost, and quickly drains the battery in contemporary virtual fencing systems, making it unsuitable for long-term monitoring. In this paper, we explore the possibility of determining habitat preference and habitat utilisation patterns in cattle using low-frequency activity and location data. We achieve this by (1) calculating habitat selection ratios, (2) determining daily activity patterns, and (3) based on those, inferring grazing and resting sites in a group of cattle wearing virtual fencing collars in a coastal setting with grey, wooded, and decalcified dunes, humid dune slacks, and salt meadows. We found that GNSS data, and a measure of activity, combined with accurate mapping of habitats can be an effective tool in assessing habitat preference. The animals preferred salt meadows over the other habitats, with wooded dunes and humid dune slacks being the least preferred. We were able to identify daily patterns in activity. By comparing general trends in activity levels to the existing literature, and using a Gaussian mixture model, it was possible to infer resting and grazing behaviour in the different habitats. According to our inference of behaviour the herd predominantly used the salt meadows for resting and ruminating. The approach used in this study allowed us to use GNSS location data and activity data and combine it with accurate habitat mapping to assess habitat preference and habitat utilisation patterns, which can be an important tool for guiding management decisions.

Ruminating on soil carbon: Applying current understanding to inform grazing management.

Among options for atmospheric CO2 removal, sequestering soil organic carbon (SOC) via improved grazing management is a rare opportunity because it is scalable across millions of globally grazed acres, low cost, and has high technical potential. Decades of scientific research on grazing and SOC has failed to form a cohesive understanding of how grazing management affects SOC stocks and their distribution between particulate (POM) and mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM)-characterized by different formation and stabilization pathways-across different climatic contexts. As we increasingly look to grazing management for SOC sequestration on grazinglands to bolster our climate change mitigation efforts, we need a clear and collective understanding of grazing management's impact on pathways of SOC change to inform on-the-ground management decisions. We set out to review the effects of grazing management on SOC through a unified plant ecophysiology and soil biogeochemistry conceptual framework, where elements such as productivity, input quality, soil mineral capacity, and climate variables such as aridity co-govern SOC accumulation and distribution into POM and MAOM. To maximize applicability to grazingland managers, we discuss how common management levers that drive overall grazing pattern, including timing, intensity, duration, and frequency can be used to optimize mechanistic pathways of SOC sequestration. We discuss important research needs and measurement challenges, and highlight how our conceptual framework can inform more robust research with greater applicability for maximizing the use of grazing management to sequester SOC.

Correlations between root phosphorus acquisition and foliar phosphorus allocation reveal how grazing promotes plant phosphorus utilization.

Overgrazing and phosphorus (P) deficiency are two major factors limiting the sustainable development of grassland ecosystems. Exploring plant P utilization and acquisition strategies under grazing can provide a solid basis for determining a reasonable grazing intensity. Both foliar P allocation and root P acquisition are crucial mechanisms for plants to adapt to environmental P availability; however, their changing characteristics and correlation under grazing remain unknown. Here, we investigated foliar P fractions, root P-acquisition traits and gene expression, as well as rhizosphere and bulk soil properties of two dominant plant species, Leymus chinensis (a rhizomatous grass) and Stipa grandis (a bunchgrass), in a field grazing intensity gradient site in Inner Mongolia. Grazing induced different degrees of compensatory growth in the two dominant plant species, increased rhizosphere P availability, and alleviated plant P limitation. Under grazing, the foliar metabolite P of L. chinensis increased, whereas the nucleic acid P of S. grandis increased. Increased P fractions in L. chinensis were positively correlated with increased root exudates and rapid inorganic P absorption. For S. grandis, increased foliar P fractions were positively correlated with more fine roots, more root exudates, and up-regulated expression of genes involved in defense and P metabolism. Overall, efficient root P mobilization and uptake traits, as well as increases in leaf metabolic activity-related P fractions, supported plant compensatory growth under grazing, a process that differed between tiller types. The highest plant productivity and leaf metabolic activity-related P concentrations under medium grazing intensity clarify the underlying basis for sustainable livestock production.

Leveraging Google Earth Engine for a More Effective Grassland Management: A Decision Support Application Perspective.

Grasslands cover a substantial portion of the earth's surface and agricultural land and is crucial for human well-being and livestock farming. Ranchers and grassland management authorities face challenges in effectively controlling herders' grazing behavior and grassland utilization due to underdeveloped infrastructure and poor communication in pastoral areas. Cloud-based grazing management and decision support systems (DSS) are needed to address this issue, promote sustainable grassland use, and preserve their ecosystem services. These systems should enable rapid and large-scale grassland growth and utilization monitoring, providing a basis for decision-making in managing grazing and grassland areas. In this context, this study contributes to the objectives of the EU LIFE IMAGINE project, aiming to develop a Web-GIS app for conserving and monitoring Umbria's grasslands and promoting more informed decisions for more sustainable livestock management. The app, called "Praterie" and developed in Google Earth Engine, utilizes historical Sentinel-2 satellite data and harmonic modeling of the EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index) to estimate vegetation growth curves and maturity periods for the forthcoming vegetation cycle. The app is updated in quasi-real time and enables users to visualize estimates for the upcoming vegetation cycle, including the maximum greenness, the days remaining to the subsequent maturity period, the accuracy of the harmonic models, and the grassland greenness status in the previous 10 days. Even though future additional developments can improve the informative value of the Praterie app, this platform can contribute to optimizing livestock management and biodiversity conservation by providing timely and accurate data about grassland status and growth curves.

Forage taste agents manage plant communities through modifying grazing behavior of yak in alpine meadow.

The use of taste agents to regulate the grazing behavior of livestock is a new attempt in pasture management, but the effects on grassland plant communities are not clear at present. Therefore, the following scientific questions need to be addressed: (1) how do different taste agents affected plant community structure by changing feed intake? (2) What was the mechanism of this effect? We proposed the following hypotheses: (1) Salt and sweetener increased feed intake of livestock and decreased the biomass of plant community, while bitters did the opposite. (2) Taste agents can regulate the relationship between plant species, and different taste agents can enhance or weaken the competitiveness of the different plants. In order to test the hypothesis, a grazing experiment with yaks was conducted in the alpine meadows of the Tibetan Plateau. Denatonium benzoate (Bitterant), NaCl (Salt), and sodium cyclamate (Sweetener) were sprayed onto the meadows twice a year, along with a control treatment of tap water. The results showed that (1) Salt increased the feed intake of yak significantly; bitterant decreased the feed intake of livestock and increased the biomass of plant community. (2) Salt increased the Pielou index of the plant community significantly. (3) The stability of plant community ranking from high to low is as follows: Control > Bitterant > Sweetener > Salt. (4) Bitterant and salt improved grazing tolerance of grassland and salt reduced the edibility of grassland. (5) The use of taste agents reduced the correlation between dominant species and led to the fragmentation of the relationship chain. The results of this study will provide a theoretical basis for using taste agents to regulate the community, species biodiversity management, restoration of degraded grassland, promoting utilization of grassland though controlling livestock selectivity.

Impact of time-lagging and time-preceding environmental variables on top layer soil moisture in semiarid grasslands.

Top soil moisture (SM) is an important medium connecting the exchange of matter and energy between the ground and the atmosphere. Previous studies of the relationship between SM and environmental factors, especially aerodynamics, have lacked analysis of the variability in the timing of effects. In this study, we analyzed how environmental factors affect SM, as well as soil moisture memory, by observing precipitation, radiation, and wind speed during the 2019 to 2021 growing seasons in grazing prohibited and grazed areas of a semiarid grassland. The results show that there is a clear threshold (7 mm) for the effect of precipitation on SM, that changes in SM across time scales were influenced by preceding precipitation and net radiation in addition to lagging vegetation greening characteristics (NDVI) and wind speed, and that the role of albedo was related to grazing management. The inhibitory effect of albedo on SM and the depletion of SM by NDVI were more pronounced in comparison to other meteorological factors. Wind speed, precipitation, and radiation directly or indirectly influenced SM duration, and these relationships varied with grazing management and annual variation. These results help to clarify the influence of environmental factors on SM, and provide insight for minimizing the degradation of grassland ecosystems in the process of climate change.

Shifts in sage-grouse arthropod food sources across grazing and environmental gradients in upland meadow communities.

Groundwater dependent systems are extremely important habitats for a wide variety of taxa in the Great Basin of North America. The impacts of grazing on these habitats cause shifts in resources and subsequent change in species composition. The Greater sage-grouse, a keystone species of Great Basin ecosystems, rear offspring in these areas during spring and summer months using forbs and arthropods. To examine the impact of grazing on arthropod abundance in these ecosystems, seven meadows, each made up of three unique vegetative communities, were grazed at three intensities across two years (2019-2020) and monitored for environmental variables and abundance of arthropods during peak sage-grouse utilization periods. Additionally, the relationship of field measurements and near-surface digital cameras (phenocams) was examined to better understand how remote sensing technologies can be used to monitor these insect abundance shifts on larger scales. Arthropod taxa abundance responded differently to grazing management and environmental variables. Coleoptera abundance during peak sage-grouse usage periods increased roughly 50% in some meadows with increased grazing intensity. For year-to-year environmental variability in precipitation, Lepidoptera abundance was 114% higher in the drier year, while Coleoptera was 39% lower. Near-surface cameras had varied success with predicting peak insect abundance levels. Lepidoptera and Coleoptera capture rates had strong correlations with phenological indices derived from phenocams, while Formicidae had much weaker relationships.

Field Evaluation of a Rising Plate Meter to Estimate Herbage Mass in Austrian Pastures.

Pasture management is an important topic for dairy farms with grazing systems. Herbage mass (HM) is a key measure, and estimations of HM content in pastures allow for informed decisions in pasture management. A common method of estimating the HM content in pastures requires manually collected grass samples, which are subjected to laboratory analysis to determine the dry matter (DM) content. However, in recent years, new methods have emerged that generate digital data and aim to expedite, facilitate and improve the measurement of HM. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of a rising plate meter (RPM) tool in a practical setting to estimate HM in Austrian pastures. With this study, we also attempted to answer whether the tool is ready for use by farmers with its default settings. This study was conducted on the teaching and research farm of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria. Data were collected from May to October 2021 in five different pastures. To evaluate the accuracy of the RPM tool, grass samples were collected and dried in an oven to extract their DM and calculate the HM. The HM obtained from the grass samples was used as the gold standard for this study. In total, 3796 RPM measurements and 203 grass samples yielding 49 measurement points were used for the evaluation of the RPM tool. Despite the differences in pasture composition, the averaged HM from the RPM tool showed a strong correlation with the gold standard (R2 = 0.73, rp = 0.86, RMSE = 517.86, CV = 33.67%). However, the results may not be good enough to justify the use of the tool, because simulations in economic studies suggest that the error of prediction should be lower than 15%. Furthermore, in some pastures, the RPM obtained poor results, indicating an additional need for pasture-specific calibrations, which complicates the use of the RPM tool.

A conceptual model of cow-calf systems functioning on native grasslands in a subtropical region.

Cow-calf systems utilise grazing of native grasslands for beef cattle propagation and constitute the principal livestock activity in the Pampas and Campos areas. Cow-calf system sustainability is questioned because of their low production levels and negative environmental impact. Ecological intensification has been proposed as a way out that constitutes an alternative to dominant discourses based on increasing external-input use. There is, however, a considerable gap between the availability of scientific knowledge to promote the ecological intensification of cow-calf systems and farmers' practices. This gap between scientific knowledge availability and farmers' practices can be made explicit, and its consequences for systems performance can be explored through a conceptual model. Conceptual models are tools to build a systems view of the interactions among the production system's state variables, farm management, and resulting system performance. In this paper, we develop a conceptual model of cow-calf systems on native grasslands of the Pampas and Campos regions to support the diagnosis and redesign of farm systems towards ecological intensification. We apply the conceptual model to analyse cow-calf systems in Uruguay, drawing on a survey among 250 Uruguayan livestock farmers. Using the model, we show that in Uruguay, the level of implementation of strategic, tactical, and decision-supporting techniques is low. Consequently, most farms have poor control of the grazing intensity and timing of main events in the production cycle. This results in ample room to improve the productive and environmental performance of most cow-calf farms in Uruguay. We distinguished three broad types of cow-calf systems based on the degree of implementation of techniques, the evolution of state variables throughout the year, and productive indicators. These types imply different departure points and strategies for a sustainability transition process. The conceptual model designed in this paper may support the cow-calf systems sustainability transition in the context of co-innovation processes by aiding the interactive diagnosis and redesign of farm systems.

Effects of grazing platform stocking rate on productivity and profitability of pasture-based dairying in a fragmented farm scenario.

The area adjacent to the milking parlor, accessible for grazing by lactating dairy cows (i.e., the grazing platform [GP]), can be limited on fragmented pasture-based dairy farms. Such farms, with a moderate overall farm stocking rate, typically have a much higher stocking rate of dairy cows on the GP. This study quantified the effects of farm fragmentation on milk and herbage production and profitability in a whole-farm systems-scale study over 3 yr (2017-2019). Four systems, each with an overall farm stocking rate of 2.5 cows/ha but with different grazing platform stocking rates (GPSR), were examined. The proportions of the overall farm area within the GP were 100%, 83%, 71%, and 63% in each of the 4 systems, respectively. Hence, the 4 systems had a GPSR of 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0 cows/ha. The GP was used for grazing and silage (ensiled herbage) production, and the non-GP portion of each GPSR system was used solely for silage production. Concentrate supplementation per cow was the same across all GPSR systems; approximately 10% of the annual feed budget. All systems were compact spring-calving with 24 cows per system. We discovered a lower proportion of grazed herbage in the diet with higher GPSR. All silage produced on the non-GP areas was required to support higher GPSR on each of the systems. Annual herbage production and milk production per cow were not different between GPSR systems, resulting in similar milk production per hectare of the overall system area. The economic implications of different GPSR on fragmented farms were modeled in 2 scenarios: (1) quantifying the cost associated with different levels of farm area fragmentation; (2) investigating the optimum GPSR on fragmented pasture-based dairy farms, depending on variable criteria. A greater level of farm fragmentation lowered the profitability of pasture-based dairy production. Costs of production increased with higher GPSR and longer distances between GP and non-GP areas. At a fixed GP area, it was most profitable to increase GPSR up to 4 cows/ha on the GP when milk price was high, land rental price was low, and shorter distance existed between GP and non-GP areas.

Grazing management and stocking strategy decisions for pasture-based beef systems: experimental confirmation vs. testimonials and perceptions.

Grazing management and stocking strategy decisions involve the manipulation of grazing intensity, grazing frequency, and timing of grazing to meet specific objectives for pasture sustainability and economic livestock production. Although there are numerous stocking systems used by stakeholders, these methods may be broadly categorized as either continuous or some form of rotational stocking. In approximately 30 published experiments comparing continuous vs. rotational stocking, there was no difference in liveweight gain per animal between stocking methods in 66% of studies. There was no difference in gain per hectare between methods in 69% of studies, although for gain per hectare the choice of fixed or variable stocking rate methodology affected the proportion (92% for fixed; 50% for variable). Despite these experimental results showing limited instances of difference between rotational and continuous stocking, rotational strategies (e.g., "mob stocking" or "regenerative grazing") have received what appears to be unmerited acclaim for use for livestock production. Many proposed "mob stocking" or "regenerative grazing" systems are based on philosophies similar to high intensity-low frequency stocking, including provision for >60 d of rest period from grazing. In addition, grazing management practitioners and stakeholders have voiced and proposed major positive benefits from rotational stocking, "mob stocking", or "regenerative grazing" for soil health attributes, carbon sequestration, and ecosystem services, without experimental evidence. The perceptions and testimonials supporting undefined stocking systems and methods have potential to mislead practitioners and result in economic disservices. Thus, we suggest that scientists, extension-industry professionals, and producers seek replicated experimental data as the basis for predicting outcomes of grazing decisions.

The Effectiveness of Virtual Fencing of Bull Calves in a Holistic Grazing System.

Large grazers are essential for nature conservation. In order to prevent grazers from moving to unintended areas, it may be necessary to keep them inside enclosures. Physical fences present a number of problems, such as fragmenting the landscape. Virtual fencing, however, is a possible replacement for physical fencing, making it possible to enclose grazers without physical boundaries. Virtual fencing systems utilise collars with GPS technology to track animals and deliver auditory warnings and electric impulses to keep animals within predefined boundaries. This study examines how effective the virtual fencing system Nofence© is at enclosing calves in a holistically managed setting. Holistic management is a rotational grazing technique where an enclosure is grazed in small strips at a time. It is investigated whether the calves become habituated to the virtual fence and whether there is a correlation between the number of warnings received by every two calves in order to explore potential herd behaviour. Finally, this study examines which calves interact the most with the virtual fence by investigating the relationship between physical activity and number of interactions. Seventeen calves were fitted with a GPS collar from the company Nofence© and placed in a holistically managed enclosure. Data were gathered from 4 July to 30 September 2022. The study found that virtual fence was able to contain calves inside the designated enclosure, and over time the calves received notably fewer electrical impulses compared to auditory warnings. The results of Pearson's correlation between auditory warnings received by two random calves were inconclusive, but the use of a sliding window analysis should be further explored. Lastly, the most physically active animals were the ones who received the most auditory warnings, but they did not receive more impulses. No significant correlation was found between the number of electric impulses received and the physical activity of the animals.

Sustainable Husbandry?-A Comparative LCA of Three Lamb Breeding Systems in Turkey.

The agricultural sector has historically been the forefront economic sector in Turkey and is crucial for the rural sustainability and the pastures that are critical for biodiversity. However, inadequate policies and factors such as climate change and malpractices result in brittle pastures, rural-urban migration, and a declining agricultural sector. Also, pastures have been left without function and appropriated to other land uses such as quarries, energy power plants, and mines. Although the husbandry sector produces significant greenhouse gas emissions, pastures have a significant capacity of CO2 sequestration. In this study, Life cycle assessment (LCA) is applied to quantify the advantages and disadvantages of the transition between extensive and intensive production. The methodology presents a holistic analysis of the several impact categories and amounts of relevant products, services, and resource emissions along their life cycles. In order to assess the environmental effects of the lamb meat production, three sheep breeding systems in Turkey are evaluated. The study aims to promote a sustainable use of natural resources/assets without compromising the quality, competitiveness, or animal welfare and obtain recommendations for the future husbandry systems and rural development in Turkey. As an overall result, it can be stated that the intensification of sheep farming can lead to a decrease of greenhouse gas emissions per kg of meat. However, extensive sheep farming shows less impacts on soil acidification or eutrophication and can even be beneficial for erosion resistance or biodiversity if properly managed.

Free-ranging livestock altered the spatiotemporal behavior of the endangered North Chinese leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis) and its prey and intensified human-leopard conflicts.

Widespread distribution of livestock in the natural habitats of large carnivores may negatively impact carnivore populations by reducing wild prey availability and increasing human-carnivore conflicts. In this study, we used camera-trapping data collected in the temperate forests of the Taihang Mountains in North China during 2016-2019 to examine whether and how free-ranging cattle affected habitat use and Diel activity patterns of the endangered North Chinese leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis) and its 2 wild prey species, Siberian roe deer (Capreolus pygargus), and wild boar (Sus scrofa). Residents were also interviewed to record livestock depredation events by leopards during 2015-2019. We found that roe deer spatially avoided sites frequented by cattle, but wild boar did not. In the growing seasons, leopards shared habitats with cattle and tended to increase their diurnal activities where cattle were present. All 3 study species exhibited fine-scale spatial-temporal segregation to cattle. Leopards selectively preyed on calves over adult cattle and livestock depredation frequency was positively correlated with the detection rates of cattle and wild prey, but not that of leopard. These findings not only show that through behavioral adaption large carnivores and their ungulate prey may persist under livestock disturbance, but also highlight how important proper livestock management is for conserving North Chinese leopards in this region. To enhance livestock management and mitigate human-leopard conflicts, we recommend specific actions, such as better guarding of free-ranging cattle or adoption of a captive farming system.

Grazing exclusion alters soil methane flux and methanotrophic and methanogenic communities in alpine meadows on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Grazing exclusion (GE) is an effective measure for restoring degraded grassland ecosystems. However, the effect of GE on methane (CH4) uptake and production remains unclear in dominant bacterial taxa, main metabolic pathways, and drivers of these pathways. This study aimed to determine CH4 flux in alpine meadow soil using the chamber method. The in situ composition of soil aerobic CH4-oxidizing bacteria (MOB) and CH4-producing archaea (MPA) as well as the relative abundance of their functional genes were analyzed in grazed and nongrazed (6 years) alpine meadows using metagenomic methods. The results revealed that CH4 fluxes in grazed and nongrazed plots were -34.10 and -22.82 µg‧m-2‧h-1, respectively. Overall, 23 and 10 species of Types I and II MOB were identified, respectively. Type II MOB comprised the dominant bacteria involved in CH4 uptake, with Methylocystis constituting the dominant taxa. With regard to MPA, 12 species were identified in grazed meadows and 3 in nongrazed meadows, with Methanobrevibacter constituting the dominant taxa. GE decreased the diversity of MPA but increased the relative abundance of dominated species Methanobrevibacter millerae from 1.47 to 4.69%. The proportions of type I MOB, type II MOB, and MPA that were considerably affected by vegetation and soil factors were 68.42, 21.05, and 10.53%, respectively. Furthermore, the structural equation models revealed that soil factors (available phosphorus, bulk density, and moisture) significantly affected CH4 flux more than vegetation factors (grass species number, grass aboveground biomass, grass root biomass, and litter biomass). CH4 flux was mainly regulated by serine and acetate pathways. The serine pathway was driven by soil factors (0.84, p < 0.001), whereas the acetate pathway was mainly driven by vegetation (-0.39, p < 0.05) and soil factors (0.25, p < 0.05). In conclusion, our findings revealed that alpine meadow soil is a CH4 sink. However, GE reduces the CH4 sink potential by altering vegetation structure and soil properties, especially soil physical properties.

Creating a Design Framework to Diagnose and Enhance Grassland Health under Pastoral Livestock Production Systems.

Grasslands and ecosystem services are under threat due to common practices adopted by modern livestock farming systems. Design theory has been an alternative to promote changes and develop more sustainable strategies that allow pastoral livestock production systems to evolve continually within grasslands by enhancing their health and enabling the continuous delivery of multiple ecosystem services. To create a design framework to design alternative and more sustainable pastoral livestock production systems, a better comprehension of grassland complexity and dynamism for a diagnostic assessment of its health is needed, from which the systems thinking theory could be an important approach. By using systems thinking theory, the key components of grasslands-soil, plant, ruminant-can be reviewed and better understood from a holistic perspective. The description of soil, plant and ruminant individually is already complex itself, so understanding these components, their interactions, their response to grazing management and herbivory and how they contribute to grassland health under different climatic and topographic conditions is paramount to designing more sustainable pastoral livestock production systems. Therefore, by taking a systems thinking approach, we aim to review the literature to better understand the role of soil, plant, and ruminant on grassland health to build a design framework to diagnose and enhance grassland health under pastoral livestock production systems.

Response of soil microbial compositional and functional heterogeneity to grazing exclusion in alpine shrub and meadows in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Soil microorganisms found in shrub-meadow ecosystems are highly heterogeneous and extremely sensitive to grazing, but changes in microbial compositional and functional heterogeneity during grazing exclusion (GE) have been largely overlooked compared to community diversity. We collected soil samples from heavily grazed plots (6.0 sheep/ha) and GE plots (matrix and patch areas in both), and used a combination of next-generation sequencing, vegetation features, and the associated soil property data to investigate the effect of GE on the composition and function of microbial communities (bacteria fungi, and archaea) in 0-10 cm soils. Regarding community composition, the proportions of species in bacteria, fungi, and archaea were 97.3, 2.3, and 0.4%, respectively. GE significantly affected the species diversity of fungi and archaea but not that of bacteria. GE decreased the heterogeneity of bacteria (2.9% in matrix and 6.2% in patch) and archaea (31.1% in matrix and 19.7% in patch) but increased that of fungi by 1.4% in patch. Regarding community function, enzyme diversity and heterogeneity were increased by 10.4 and 9.4%, respectively, in patch after 6 years of fencing, exemplifying a high level of microbial functional redundancy. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome pathways-cell growth and death, translation, digestive system, and nucleotide metabolism-were functional biomarkers (linear discriminant analysis effect size method) in matrix-non-grazed plots, whereas lipid metabolism, xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism, and metabolism of terpenoids and polyketides, cell motility, cancer: overview, endocrine system, and membrane transport were biomarkers in patch-non-grazed plots. Additionally, GE improved the capacity for fatty acid metabolism but decreased the abundance of methane-producing archaea by 42.9%. Redundancy analysis revealed that the factors that affected microbial composition the most were soil aggregates, soil moisture, and the number of plant species, whereas those that affected microbial function the most were soil available phosphorus, soil temperature, and shrub canopy diameter. Our results quantified soil microbial heterogeneity, emphasizing the different responses of the composition and function of bacteria, fungi, and archaea to GE in alpine shrubs and meadows.

Can Sound Alone Act as a Virtual Barrier for Horses? A Preliminary Study.

Virtual fencing is an innovative alternative to conventional fences. Different systems have been studied, including electric-impulse-free systems. We tested the potential of self-applied acoustic stimulus in deterring the horses from further movement. Thirty warmblood horses were individually introduced to a designated corridor leading toward a food reward (variant F) or a familiar horse (variant S). As the subject reached a distance of 30, 15 or 5 m from a finish line, an acute alarming sound was played. Generally, a sudden and unknown sound was perceived by horses as a threat causing an increase in vigilance and sympathetic activation. Horses' behaviour and barrier effectiveness (80% for F vs. 20% for S) depended on motivator (F/S), while the cardiac response indicating some level of stress was similar. The motivation for social interactions was too strong to stop the horses from crossing a designated boundary. Conversely, the sound exposure distance did not vary the barrier effectiveness, but it differentiated HRV responses, with the strongest sympathetic activation noted at a distance of 5 m. Thus, the moment of a sound playback has important welfare implications. Due to the limited potential of sound as a virtual barrier, auditory cues cannot be used as an alternative for conventional fencing.