Locations
The term originates in the British Isles where upland pastures constitute approximately 9 million hectares, 48% of agricultural land use in the UK. [1] Upland pastures are widely managed in the United States in New England and Appalachia, and in semi-arid mountain regions in the inter-mountain west where their management is an important aspect of historic farming, wildlife preservation, and range livestock production. [4] [5] [6] Upland pastures are also of primary importance to livestock production in western Australia, [7] the Mongolian-Manchurian grassland ecoregion, [8] in the Andes of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and western Brazil, in the Eurasian Steppes, in South Africa's Highveld, in Switzerland and the Alps, Sweden, Iceland, India, Juniper grasslands around Jabal Sawda in Saudi Arabia and other Juniper encroached grasslands in the Middle East including in Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Kazakhstan, as well as in eastern European nations, and, Tibet, New Zealand, Ethiopia, Canada, Kenya, Tanzania, Eritrea, Yemen, Ghana, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Syria, and Cantabria. [9] [10]
Pictures of upland pastures
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, located between China and Russia. The terrain is one of mountains and rolling plateaus, with a high degree of relief. The total land area of Mongolia is 1,564,116 square kilometres. Overall, the land slopes from the high Altai Mountains of the west and the north to plains and depressions in the east and the south. The Khüiten Peak in extreme western Mongolia on the Chinese border is the highest point. The lowest point is at 560 m (1,840 ft), is the Hoh Nuur or lake Huh. The country has an average elevation of 1,580 m (5,180 ft).
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica and are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. Furthermore, grasslands are one of the largest biomes on earth and dominate the landscape worldwide. There are different types of grasslands: natural grasslands, semi-natural grasslands, and agricultural grasslands. They cover 31–69% of the Earth's land area.
Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions, it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Generally only the herds travel, with a certain number of people necessary to tend them, while the main population stays at the base. In contrast, horizontal transhumance is more susceptible to being disrupted by climatic, economic, or political change.
A meadow is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable conditions, but are often artificially created from cleared shrub or woodland for the production of hay, fodder, or livestock. Meadow habitats, as a group, are characterized as "semi-natural grasslands", meaning that they are largely composed of species native to the region, with only limited human intervention.
Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally, upland refers to a range of hills, typically from 300 m (980 ft) up to 500–600 m (1,600–2,000 ft), while highland is usually reserved for ranges of low mountains. However, the two terms are sometimes interchangeable.
In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible cellulose within grass and other forages into meat, milk, wool and other animal products, often on land unsuitable for arable farming.
Rangelands are grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts that are grazed by domestic livestock or wild animals. Types of rangelands include tallgrass and shortgrass prairies, desert grasslands and shrublands, woodlands, savannas, chaparrals, steppes, and tundras. Rangelands do not include forests lacking grazable understory vegetation, barren desert, farmland, or land covered by solid rock, concrete and/or glaciers.
A zud, dzud of dzhut, zhut, djut, jut is a disaster in steppe, semi-desert and desert regions in Mongolia and Central Asia in which large numbers of livestock die, primarily due to starvation being unable to graze due to particular severe climatic conditions. Various kinds of zud are recognized, depending on the particular type of climatic conditions. In winter it may be caused by an impenetrable ice crust, in summer it may happen due to drought.
Bale Mountains National Park (BMNP) is a national park in Ethiopia. The park encompasses an area of approximately 2,150 km2 (830 sq mi) in the Bale Mountains and Sanetti Plateau of the Ethiopian Highlands.
The Mongolian-Manchurian grassland, also known as the Mongolian-Manchurian steppe or Gobi-Manchurian steppe, in the temperate grassland biome, is an ecoregion in East Asia covering parts of Mongolia, the Chinese Autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, and Northeast China.
The New England-Acadian forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion in North America that includes a variety of habitats on the hills, mountains and plateaus of New England and New York State in the Northeastern United States, and Quebec and the Maritime Provinces of Eastern Canada.
Conservation grazing or targeted grazing is the use of semi-feral or domesticated grazing livestock to maintain and increase the biodiversity of natural or semi-natural grasslands, heathlands, wood pasture, wetlands and many other habitats. Conservation grazing is generally less intensive than practices such as prescribed burning, but still needs to be managed to ensure that overgrazing does not occur. The practice has proven to be beneficial in moderation in restoring and maintaining grassland and heathland ecosystems. The optimal level of grazing will depend on the goal of conservation, and different levels of grazing, alongside other conservation practices, can be used to induce the desired results.
The Blue Mountains ecoregion is a Level III ecoregion designated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Pacific Northwest, mainly in the state of Oregon, with small areas over the state border in Idaho and southeastern Washington. It is also contiguous with the World Wildlife Fund's Blue Mountain forests ecoregion.
The Northern Basin and Range ecoregion is a Level III ecoregion designated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. states of Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and California. It contains dissected lava plains, rolling hills, alluvial fans, valleys, and scattered mountain ranges in the northern part of the Great Basin. Although arid, the ecoregion is higher and cooler than the Snake River Plain to the north and has more available moisture and a cooler climate than the Central Basin and Range to the south. Its southern boundary is determined by the highest shoreline of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, which once inundated the Central Basin and Range. The western part of the region is internally drained; its eastern stream network drains to the Snake River system.
The Ethiopian montane grasslands and woodlands is a montane grasslands and shrublands ecoregion in Ethiopia. It occupies the middle elevations of the Ethiopian Highlands, between the high-altitude Ethiopian montane moorlands and the lower-elevation Ethiopian montane forests.
The Canterbury-Otago tussock grasslands is an ecoregion of the South Island, New Zealand, part of the wider tussock grasslands of New Zealand.
Wales has a surface area of 20,779 km2 or 2,077,900 ha. It has a border with England to the east, and is bounded by the Irish Sea to the north and west, and by the Bristol Channel to the south. It has an oceanic temperate climate which is markedly influenced by the North Atlantic Current carrying warm water from tropical latitudes. As a result, it has a much milder climate than most places in the world at similar latitudes. Altitudes range from sea-level to 1085 m on the Snowdon Massif.
In the crop growing season, transhumance is practised on a broad scale in the northern Ethiopian highlands, as farmland and its stubble can no longer be accessed by livestock.
The Southland temperate forests is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion on New Zealand's South Island. The natural vegetation was mostly forest, but over the centuries human activities, including grazing and fires, replaced much of the original forest with grassland and agriculture.
