Determining and comparing grazing zones based on animals’ dung in semi-steppe rangelands: The case of North Iran

Aarons, 2009, Dung pads increase pasture production, soil nutrients and microbial biomass carbon in grazed dairy systems, Nutr. Cycl. Agroecosyst., 84, 81, 10.1007/s10705-008-9228-5 Abdalla, 2018, Critical review of the impacts of grazing intensity on soil organic carbon storage and other soil quality indicators in extensively managed grasslands, Agric. Ecosyst. Environ., 253, 62, 10.1016/j.agee.2017.10.023 Alvarado, 2019, Linking dung beetle diversity and its ecological function in a gradient of livestock intensification management in the Neotropical region, Appl. Soil Ecol., 143, 173, 10.1016/j.apsoil.2019.06.016 Badenhorst, 2018, Dung beetle activity improves herbaceous plant growth and soil properties on confinements simulating reclaimed mined land in South Africa, Appl. Soil Ecol., 132, 53, 10.1016/j.apsoil.2018.08.011 Bailey, 2019, Targeted livestock grazing: prescription for healthy rangelands, Rangel. Ecol. Manage., 72, 865, 10.1016/j.rama.2019.06.003 Barnes, 2008, Paddock size and stocking density affect spatial heterogeneity of grazing, Rangeland Ecol. Manage., 61, 380, 10.2111/06-155.1 Beynon, 2015, The application of an ecosystem services framework to estimate the economic value of dung beetles to the UK cattle industry, Ecol. Entomol., 40, 124, 10.1111/een.12240 Bhandari, 2018, Review: techniques used in plant tissue analysis for essential elements on horticultural plants and correlate with nutrient requirement, NAAR, 1, 94 Brinkmann, 2009, Vegetation patterns and diversity along an altitudinal and a grazing gradient in the Jabal al Akhdar Mountain range of northern Oman, J. Arid Environ., 73, 1035, 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2009.05.002 Briske, 2008, Recommendations for development of resilience-based state-and-transition models, Rangeland., 10.2111/07-051.1 Briske, D.D., Bestelmeyer, B.T., Stringham, T.K., Shaver, P.L. (2008). Recommendations for development of resilience-based state-and-transition models. Rangeland Ecology & Management, 61, 359-367. Brown, 2010, Dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) can improve soil hydrological properties, Appl. Soil Ecol., 46, 9, 10.1016/j.apsoil.2010.05.010 Buttler, 2008, 377, 10.1007/978-1-4020-8272-6_19 Carmona, 2013, Does cattle dung cause differences between grazing increaser and decreaser germination response?, Acta Oecologica, 47, 1, 10.1016/j.actao.2012.11.001 Carnevalli, 2019, Spatial distribution of dairy heifers’ dung in silvopastoral systems, Ciência Rural, 49, 1, 10.1590/0103-8478cr20180796 Costa, 2021, Grazing intensity as a management strategy in tropical grasses for beef cattle production: a meta-analysis, Animal, 15, 1, 10.1016/j.animal.2021.100192 da Silva, 2020, Spatiotemporal Distribution of Cattle Dung Patches in a Subtropical Soybean-Beef System under Different Grazing Intensities in winter, Agronomy, 10, 1, 10.3390/agronomy10091423 Du, 2019, Soil and plant community characteristics under long-term continuous grazing of different intensities in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan plateau, Biochem. Syst. Ecol., 85, 72, 10.1016/j.bse.2019.05.012 Eldridge, 2017, Do grazing intensity and herbivore type affect soil health? Insights from a semi-arid productivity gradient, J. Appl. Ecol., 54, 976, 10.1111/1365-2664.12834 Fensham, 2008, Water-remoteness for grazing relief in Australian arid-lands, Biol. Conserv., 141, 1447, 10.1016/j.biocon.2008.03.016 Ganjurjav, 2019, Differential resistance and resilience of functional groups to livestock grazing maintain ecosystem stability in an alpine steppe on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, J. Environ. Manage., 251, 109579, 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.109579 Gillet, 2008, Modelling vegetation dynamics in heterogeneous pasture-woodland landscapes, Ecol. Model., 217, 1, 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2008.05.013 Gillet, 2010, Effect of dung deposition on small-scale patch structure and seasonal vegetation dynamics in mountain pastures, Agric. Ecosyst. Environ., 135, 34, 10.1016/j.agee.2009.08.006 Grande, 2016, Can goats disperse seeds of herbaceous pasture plants in Mediterranean grasslands?, Small Ruminant Research, 143, 67, 10.1016/j.smallrumres.2016.09.003 Guretzky, 2007, Plant species richness in relation to pasture position, management, and scale, Agric. Ecosyst. Environ., 122, 387, 10.1016/j.agee.2007.02.002 Hou, 2020, Asymmetric effects of grazing intensity on macroelements and microelements in grassland soil and plants in Inner Mongolia Grazing alters nutrient dynamics of grasslands, Ecol. Evol., 10, 8916, 10.1002/ece3.6591 Jewell, 2005, Vegetation patterns maintained by cattle grazing on a degraded mountain pasture, Bot. Helv., 115, 109, 10.1007/s00035-005-0727-6 Jewell, 2007, Redistribution of phosphorus by cattle on a traditional mountain pasture in the Alps, Agric. Ecosyst. Environ., 122, 377, 10.1016/j.agee.2007.02.012 Johnson, 2019, Ecosystem services provided by prairie wetlands in northern rangelands, Rangelands, 41, 44, 10.1016/j.rala.2018.12.003 Manthey, 2010, Estimation of grazing intensity along grazing gradients e the bias of nonlinearity, J. Arid Environ., 74, 1351, 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2010.05.007 Mofidi, 2013, Grazing exclusion effect on soil and vegetation properties in Imam Kandi rangelands, Iran. Arid Land Res. Manag., 27, 32, 10.1080/15324982.2012.719575 Mofidi, 2012, Impact of grazing on chemical, physical and biological properties of soils in the mountain rangelands of Sahand, Iran. The Rangeland Journal, 34, 297, 10.1071/RJ11087 Motamedi, 2016, Variation in biomass and morphology of Artemisia fragrans Willd. under grazing in northwest mountainous rangelands of Iran, Acta Ecologica Sinica, 36, 477, 10.1016/j.chnaes.2016.07.004 Nakagawa, 2013, A general and simple method for obtaining R2 from generalized linear mixed-effects models, Methods Ecol. Evol., 4, 133, 10.1111/j.2041-210x.2012.00261.x Niknahad Gharmakher, 2016, Effects of Exclosure on Soil Properties in Winter Rangelands in Golestan Province, Iran. Journal of Rangeland Science, 7, 55 Pelve, 2020, Grazing and fouling behaviour of cattle on different vegetation types within heterogeneous semi-natural and naturalised pastures, Livestock Science, 241, 1, 10.1016/j.livsci.2020.104253 Popp, 2009, Ecohydrological feedback mechanisms in arid rangelands: simulating the impacts of topography and land use, Basic Appl. Ecol., 10, 319, 10.1016/j.baae.2008.06.002 Rahmanian, 2019, Effects of livestock grazing on soil, plant functional diversity, and ecological traits vary between regions with different climates in northeastern Iran, Ecol. Evol., 9, 8225, 10.1002/ece3.5396 Sasaki, 2008, Threshold changes in vegetation along a grazing gradient in Mongolian rangelands, J. Ecol., 96, 145, 10.1111/j.1365-2745.2007.01315.x Scotton, 2019, Traditional grazing systems in the Venetian Alps: Effects of grazing methods and environmental factors on cattle behavior, J. Environ. Manage., 250, 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.109480 Smet, 2006, Soil quality gradients around water-points under different management systems in a semi-arid savanna, South Africa, J. Arid Environ., 64, 251, 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2005.04.014 Sun, 2018, Grazing increases litter decomposition rate but decreases nitrogen release rate in an alpine meadow, Biogeosciences, 15, 4233, 10.5194/bg-15-4233-2018 Tadey, 2006, Grazing without grasses: Effects of introduced livestock on plant community composition in an arid environment in northern Patagonia, Appl. Veg. Sci., 9, 109, 10.1111/j.1654-109X.2006.tb00660.x Török, 2016, Grazing in European open landscapes: How to reconcile sustainable land management and biodiversity conservation?, Agric. Ecosyst. Environ., 234, 1, 10.1016/j.agee.2016.06.012 Wang, 2019, Effects of grazing season and stocking rate on seed bank in sheep dung on the semiarid Loess Plateau, The Rangeland Journal, 41, 405, 10.1071/RJ19036 Wenger, 2019, The missing dead: The lost role of animal remains in nutrient cycling in North American Rivers, Food Webs, 18, e00106, 10.1016/j.fooweb.2018.e00106 Wiens, 2002, Integrating land scape structure and scale into natural resource management, 23 Yang, 2019, Grazing activity increases decomposition of yak dung and litter in an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, Plant Soil, 444, 239, 10.1007/s11104-019-04272-x Yoshitoshi, 2016, Methodology to predict the spatial distribution of cattle dung using manageable factors and a Bayesian approach, Agric. Ecosyst. Environ., 220, 135, 10.1016/j.agee.2015.12.025 Zhang, 2021, Diversity of plant and soil microbes mediates the response of ecosystem multifunctionality to grazing disturbance, Sci. Total Environ., 776, 123, 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145730