Soil, Plant and Livestock Interactions in Australian Tropical Savannas

This paper considers the various soil, plant and livestock interactions occurring in Australia’s wet-dry savanna rangelands. These regions are relatively intact compared to most of the world’s rangelands. However there is increasing pressure for more intensive use of the landscape, especially from pastoralism. This potentially threatens landscape health, function and productivity through reduced soil health and a loss of digestible perennial plants, especially given the low soil fertility and highly variable rainfall characteristic of these regions. There is an obvious need for understanding these impacts to devise sustainable management practices that promote soil health and viable perennial plant communities, and the restoration of soil health where required