Degradation and recovery processes in and grazing lands of central Australia. Part 2: vegetation

In a naturally heterogeneous landscape in and central Australia, a previous study found that grazing changed the distribution of water and nutrients amongst different geomorphic strata of the landscape. In this concurrent study, we show that herbage biomass, cover and composition responded primarily to these geomorphic strata and not to grazing. The cover of palatable species as a group proved the exception, and decreased with increasing grazing. The quantity of shrubs responded to both strata and grazing, and was greatest under least grazing. We suggest several potential reasons for the failure of damaged sites and strata to recover. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.