Statistical Considerations in Rangeland Monitoring

This Technical Reference deals with the statistical aspects of rangeland monitoring and is intended to help the BLM range conservationist in planning, analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating monitoring studies. It is not a statistics cookbook and assumes a level of knowledge of statistical analysis comparable to what most college graduates are exposed to during their undergraduate training. The material covered in this Technical Reference is divided into five sections. Chapter 1 highlights the statistical topics required to analyze monitoring data and gives appropriate references. Chapter 2 addresses the underlying statistical issues of rangeland monitoring. Chapters 3 and 4 deal with the specific methods used for trend and utilization studies. Chapter 5 shows examples of data analysis

Monitoring Western Australia\u27s rangelands

Rangelands, native pastures used for grazing domestic livestock, occupy about 100 million hectares or 40 per cent of Western Australia, extending from the tropical grasslands of the Kimberley to the arid shrub steppe of the Nullarbor Plain. The rangelands are characterized by highly variable seasonal conditions. Carrying capacity can fluctuate dramatically from year to year. Grazing management requires a tactical approach from one season to the next because of the great variation in the capacity of the land to support stock. Rangeland monitoring provides pastoralists with objective information on these changes to assist their management decision making. The Western Australian Rangeland Monitoring System (WARMS) is being developed for this purpose

Rangeland Monitoring: Analysis, Interpretation, and Evaluation

The collection of monitoring data results in quantitative and qualitative information obtained from measurements or estimates of the natural resources. These data are most valuable when their meaning is defined and presented in understandable terms to the resource manager. This is the analysis, interpretation, and evaluation process. The result is the documentation of conclusions on the progress of management to accomplish specific management objectives. Such conclusions are used for management and planning purposes, and in particular, for determining managment actions and establishing new or revised management objectives

Installing photographic rangeland monitoring sites in grassland environments

Photographic monitoring offers pastoralists an inexpensive management tool that can help to better understand how varying management practices affect the rangeland. Using a monitoring system also helps take the guesswork out of knowing what changes to vegetation and soils have occurred over time

Adopting national vegetation guidelines and the National Vegetation Information System (NVIS) framework in the Northern Territory

Guidelines and core attributes for site-based vegetation surveying and mapping developed for the Northern Territory, are relevant to botanical research, forestry typing, rangeland monitoring and reporting on the extent and condition of native and non-native vegetated landscapes. These initiatives are consistent with national vegetation guidelines and the National Vegetation Information System (NVIS) framework. This paper provides a synopsis of vegetation site data collection, classification and mapping in the Northern Territory, and discusses the benefits of consistency between the guidelines, core attributes and the NVIS framework; both of which has an emphasis on the NVIS hierarchical classification system for describing structural and floristic attributes of vegetation. The long-term aim of the NVIS framework is that national attributes are adopted at regional levels to enable comparability of vegetation information within survey and jurisdictional boundaries in the Northern Territory and across Australia. The guidelines and core attributes are incorporated in current and future vegetation survey and mapping programs in the Northern Territory

Western Australian rangeland monitoring system for grasslands: field manual

Western Australian Rangeland Monitoring System (WARMS) sites are designed to provide defined areas for repeated photography and collection of vegetation composition, shrub/tree cover and landscape function (soil surface assessment) data. This manual defines the procedures for installing and monitoring WARMS sites in the grasslands of northern Western Australia. It provides a documented reference of site stratification at regional scale, and site allocation at station (property) scale. Different procedures apply for sites in the shrublands of the southern pastoral zone. WARMS is designed to be interpreted at the vegetation type or regional scale, rather than lease (station) scale. Information gathered is typically used to inform government and the general community, rather than to provide tactical management advice for individual land managers.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/bulletins/1011/thumbnail.jp

The Kenya rangeland ecological monitoring unit

The author has identified the following significant results. Methodology for aerial surveys and ground truth studies was developed, tested, and revised several times to produce reasonably firm methods of procedure. Computer programs were adapted or developed to analyze, store, and recall data from the ground and air monitoring surveys