Impact of piospheric points on Mediterranean rangelands
2003
Ghossoub, R. S.
The present study is devoted to an evaluation of rangeland health around the piospheric points (animal sheds) on Mediterranean rangelands through the use of remote sensing and field measurements. The study area was located in the County Lagadas in Northern Greece where 3 representative animal sheds were selected to carry out the measurements. As a first step, a supervised classification was conducted to determine the different land cover types pertaining to the study area. Then, buffers of 800m each, composed by 8 rings of 100m, were generated around the piospheres in order to estimate their impact on vegetation cover. This estimation did not produce acceptable results due to the low geometric resolution of the image (30x30m). As a second step, field measurements were carried out in order to evaluate the impact of piospheric points on the biotic and the physical indicators. In June 2002, two transects, each measuring, of 800 m, were applied to each of the three sheds. Along the transects, plots of 30x30m were set up at distances of 0, 50, 100, 200, 400, and 800m away from the sheds. Within each plot, dominant species, ground cover type, health indicators, erosional status, topographic factors and ecosystem diversity were estimated. These results suggest tha range condition evaluation should not depend on one single factor but on a multiple of relevant factors. It is therefore recommended that a redistribution of the animal sheds should be carried out in the rangelands of the study area to allow a more uniform utilization of the forage produced.
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