The concept of site quality for rangeland
Internationally, already from the ’30s at the USA, range site was the succession of the forest site quality implementation. After a while, the concept of range site was re-assigned and renamed to ecological site. In U.S.A., Canada and Australia, the evaluation of ecological site is based on rangelands’ climate, topographic and soil characteristics. In Europe, the only methodic researches on range site have been in Great Britain. But these researches considered all the rangelands as a degrading topographic, pedologic and plant sociological site quality. In Greece, the first reference to site quality was at ’60. The concept was based on the theories of that time in U.S.A. Later, because of the Greece’s mountain peculiarities; site quality was identified with the productivity. This identification is similar to the forest science where site quality is being determined by biotic and abiotic characteristics of the site.
Productivity of three perennial leys in NW Greece (Ioannina)
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of three treatments on agronomic characteristics of three leys: a. Ley type (Trifolium repens + Lolium perenne, T. pratense + L. perenne, L. perenne), b. Utilisation (cutting and grazing) and c. Nitrogen fertilization (0, 40 and 80 kg N ha-1. Also for the L. perenne/cutting treatment 160 and 360 kg N ha-1). The experimental trials were established at Ioannina plateau during spring 1994. Neither herbicide nor Rhizobium inoculation nor irrigation were applied. The duration of measurements was three years. The dry matter production at the establishment year (two harvests) ranged from 380-700 g m-2. In the first productive year, the total dry matter production ranged from 2700-3600 and 1270-1700 g m-2 for the grazing (7 harvests) and cutting (4 harvests) treatments respectively. In the second productive year, the total dry matter production harvested, ranged from 800-1050 and 500-850 g m-2 for the grazing (5 harvests) and cutting (5 harvests) treatments respectively.
A model for the evolution of vegetation and its application to rangelands of Greece
Range management is traditionally based on the plant succession theory that was developed in the U.S.A. in the beginning of the 20th century. This theory states that vegetation progressively evolves to a final stage called “climax”, which is determined by the climate of each region. Overgrazing is connected with the various degradation stages away from the climax. Climax vegetation corresponds to the “excellent” range condition class, which ensures the maximum desirable vegetation to grazing animals. As a result, grazing management is regulated in relation to the various successional stages of vegetation. This model was questioned by several investigators even in the U.S.A. and it has never been applied in the Mediterranean basin countries. In this region, the climax vegetation is a forest, which is not of interest to range management. Over the last 15 years, an alternative theory was proposed, the state-and-transition model. According to this model, rangelands can be described with a set of distinct states and a set of transitions between states. Factors that cause the transitions may be both natural (e.g. climate, fire, etc.) and management oriented (e.g. grazing, wildfires, fertilization, etc.). In this paper, it is argued that the state-and-transition model is more appropriate to the rangelands of Greece than the one based on range succession and experimental evidence from the Lagadas region is presented to support this suggestion.
Classification and multitemporal monitoring of the rangelands in the area Mountain Antichasia – Meteora
In the frames of program “Protection of Environment and Viable Growth” (satellite) remote sensing and the G.S.P. were used, as a means of mapping and monitoring the changes in the region of Special Protection Area Mountain Antichasia – Meteora. The modern technologies were used for the creation of an information bank, which will constitute the source of pumping of elements for the continuous monitoring and management of region. The region of study was distinguished in nine categories of ground cover and in the basic categories of uses. In this study are presented the multitemporal change of rangelands in the decade 1989 – 1999. The rangelands extents constitute important category of the ground cover while they occupy the 58.6% total extent of the biotope. The mulitemporal study presented a reduction of extent of the rangelands extents to other categories, with more important the reduction of category of shrublands with Carpinus betulus, Phillyrea media, Quercus coccifera.
Grasslands contribution on conservation of wild avifauna
In Mavrovouni of Thessaly a management project was carried out for the conservation of environment and avifauna. In this project the importance of grasslands for the maintenance of wild avifauna was brought out. Grasslands comprise the habitat of many bird species of avifauna such as woodlark (Lullula arborea), short-toed larc (Calandrella brachydactyla), stonechat (Saxicola torquata), tawny pipit (Anthus campestris) and rock thrush (Monticola saxatilis). Also, the birds of prey such as short-toed eagle (Circaetus gallicus), honey buzzard (Pernis apivorus), kestrel (Falco tinninculus) and kesser kestrel (Falco naumanni) are using these habitats for hunting of their prey. In the study, special actions were proposed for the maintenance of rangelands as they exist or for improvement of their condition, such as: 1.Control treatment of the grazing for the mountainous extensive livestock-farming aiming at the maintenance of vegetation structure. This action will be applied after calculating their grazing capacity, in order to avoid overgrazing. 2. Improvement of vegetation with the proper use of rangelands, weed control, fertilizations and seeding of herbaceous plants. 3. Maintenance of already existing tree fences, shrub fences and scattered clumps or individual trees and introduction of trees in appropriate places.
