Journal of Rangeland

Vegetation and soil characteristics are highly affected by herbivores and exploring these relationships is essential for rangeland management. This study aimed to compare the plant composition and physico-chemical soil properties under livestock (sheep and goat) and wildlife (deer) grazing regimes in Kalmand-Bahadoran plain rangelands of Yazd province. A random-systematic method was used to collect the data from 10 randomly established transects with 100­ meters lengths and 3 plots of 2 m² were placed on each transect. CANOCO4 software was used to analyze the collected data. According to the results, livestock and wildlife grazing were identified as the most responsible factors, describing the sites places along the first axis of Redundancy analysis (RDA) plot. The frequency of some species such as Colchicum kotschyi, Stachys inflata, Iris songarica, Lolium rigidum, Boissiera squarrosa, Noaeae mucronata, Astragalus sp. and also stone percentage increased in the sites grazed by wildlifes. On the other hand, the frequency of  Echinops sp., Scorzonera sp., Launaea acantodes,  Zygophyllum eurypterum, Stipa barbata, Peganum harmala, litter and bare soil percentage raised in the sites grazed by livestock. livestock and wildlife grazing did not have any significant effects on the frequency of Artemisia sieberi as a dominant species, Lactuca sp. and Cousinia sp. Soil texture, soil moisture and soil organic carbon content did not varied significantly in the two studied areas but some soil characteristics such as EC, pH, TNV and soil bulk density were higher in the sites grazed by livestock than the other site. Wildlife grazing resulted to some positive changes in soil characteristics and vegetation composition, therefore it can be concluded that similar management practices experienced in sites grazed by wildlife can enhance the range condition of other sites.