Analysis of GPS trajectories to assess goat grazing pattern and intensity in Southern Morocco

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zakia Akasbi ◽  
Jens Oldeland ◽  
Jürgen Dengler ◽  
Manfred Finckh

The assessment of grazing intensity is important for making adequate management decisions on rangelands. Using GPS collars, tended goat herds from three villages in southern Morocco were studied. The aim was to characterise their spatio-temporal movement patterns, i.e. the seasonal variation in grazing intensities, and daily trajectories of the herds. Furthermore, the effect of recording interval on recorded daily walking distances and the relationship between grazing intensities and distance was assessed. Grazing intensities were calculated within 4-ha grid cells for areas around settlements. The highest grazing intensities were found in the 250 m nearest the settlement. Some directions were totally avoided due to either community boundaries or adverse topography. The daily and maximum walking distances were significantly different between seasons. In the arid ecosystems the longest mean daily walking distance were found to be in the spring whereas in semiarid ecosystems it was in summer. It is argued that this variation in grazing pattern is mainly driven by varying fodder availability and its nutritive value, weather conditions and the length of day. The distances were longer in periods when fodder of high nutritive value was available, while cold temperatures and short days in winter limited the distances walked. The relationship between GPS recording interval and recorded trajectory length was described well by an exponential function, which in turn allows extrapolation from data with longer intervals to the actual distances travelled. Using non-linear regressions, the decay of grazing intensity with increasing distance was described better with power functions. The exponents ranged from –1.69 to –2.18, demonstrating that the goats were clumped around the settlements. The description of the grazing patterns of goats in this study provides valuable data for the parameterisation of grazing models.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina Hamidi ◽  
Martin Komainda ◽  
Bettina Tonn ◽  
Jens Harbers ◽  
Natascha Alexandria Grinnell ◽  
...  

Extensively grazed semi-natural grasslands contribute to a wide range of ecosystem services, including the preservation of biodiversity and provision of livestock feed. Depending on the grazing intensity, cattle are set in motion to fulfill their nutritional needs. In this way, they influence the vegetation composition, while at the same time the foraging behavior is affected by the vegetation. A better understanding of the relationship between grazing intensity and animal behavior is an essential component for strategies to improve the value of semi-natural grasslands and for gaining insights for the development of smart farming technologies. The long-term cattle grazing experiment “FORBIOBEN” with its replicated three paddock-scale (1 ha) grazing intensities [moderate (M), lenient (L), very lenient (VL)] was used to investigate the movement behavior of suckler cows during four grazing periods between 2017 and 2020. For this, pregnant suckler cows (Fleckvieh) were equipped with Vectronics GPS Plus (VECTRONIC Aerospace GmbH, Berlin) collars, which recorded the position of the animals at defined time intervals. The main outcomes were that with an increase in the grazing intensity, the herbage on offer declined and, consequently the herbage allowance. However, the spatial heterogeneity of the herbage on offer decreased with increasing grazing intensity (M < VL) which means that the amount of available herbage was lower but more evenly distributed under moderate grazing. Further, there was a tendency that the moderate grazing intensity was associated with the highest effort of walking compared to lenient and very lenient grazing in three out of four grazing periods. We found a strong (p < 0.001) negative correlation among walking distance vs. herbage variability across all treatments × periods. Consequently, the grazing intensity itself was not a good predictor of walking distances which were mainly a result of the available herbage, its distribution or heterogeneity. Future smart farming livestock management systems will, therefore, likely require interfaces with the grassland growth rates and heterogeneity benchmarks if decisions based on livestock movement should be reliable.


VASA ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 275-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
da Rocha Chehuen ◽  
G. Cucato ◽  
P. dos Anjos Souza Barbosa ◽  
A. R. Costa ◽  
M. Ritti-Dias ◽  
...  

Background: This study assessed the relationship between lower limb hemodynamics and metabolic parameters with walking tolerance in patients with intermittent claudication (IC). Patients and methods: Resting ankle-brachial index (ABI), baseline blood flow (BF), BF response to reactive hyperemia (BFRH), oxygen uptake (VO2), initial claudication distance (ICD) and total walking distance (TWD) were measured in 28 IC patients. Pearson and Spearman correlations were calculated. Results: ABI, baseline BF and BF response to RH did not correlate with ICD or TWD. VO2 at first ventilatory threshold and VO2peak were significantly and positively correlated with ICD (r = 0.41 and 0.54, respectively) and TWD (r = 0.65 and 0.71, respectively). Conclusions: VO2peak and VO2 at first ventilatory threshold, but not ABI, baseline BF and BFHR were associated with walking tolerance in IC patients. These results suggest that VO2 at first ventilatory threshold may be useful to evaluate walking tolerance and improvements in IC patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1566
Author(s):  
Rong-Chang Jou ◽  
Ming-Che Chao

Introduction—Medical emergency vehicles help patients get to the hospital quickly. However, there were more and more ambulance crashes on the road in Taiwan during the last decade. This study investigated the characteristics of medical emergency vehicle crashes in Taiwan from January 2003 to December 2016. Methods—The ordered logit (OL) model, multinominal logit (MNL) model, and partial proportional odds (PPO) model were applied to investigate the relationship between the severity of ambulance crash injuries and its risk factors. Results—We found the various factors have different effects on the overall severity of ambulance crashes, such as ambulance drivers’ characteristics and road and weather conditions. When another car was involved in ambulance crashes, there was a disproportionate effect on the different overall severity, as found by the PPO model. Conclusions—The results showed that male ambulance drivers and car drivers who failed to yield to an ambulance had a higher risk of severe injury from ambulance crashes. Ambulance crashes are an emerging issue and need further policies and public education regarding Taiwan’s ambulance transportation safety.


Author(s):  
Natalie Rose ◽  
Les Dolega

AbstractThe weather is considered as an influential factor on consumer purchasing behaviours and plays a significant role in many aspects of retail sector decision making. As a result, better understanding of the magnitude and nature of the influence of variable UK weather conditions can be beneficial to many retailers and other stakeholders. This study addresses the dearth of research in this area by quantifying the relationship between different weather conditions and trading outcomes. By employing comprehensive daily sales data for a major high street retailer with over 2000 stores across England and adopting a random forest methodology, the study quantifies the influence of various weather conditions on daily retail sales. Results indicate that weather impact is greatest in the summer and spring months and that wind is consistently found to be the most influential weather condition. The top five most weather-dependent categories cover a range of different product types, with health foods emerging as the most susceptible to the weather. Also, sales from out-of-town stores show a far more complex relationship with the weather than those from traditional high street stores with the regions London and the South East experiencing the greatest levels of influence. Various implications of these findings for retail stakeholders are discussed and the scope for further research outlined.


1998 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 699-706 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. I. Gill ◽  
M. A. Naeth ◽  
D. S. Chanasyk ◽  
V. S. Baron

Currently, there is interest in Western Canada in extending the grazing season using perennial and annual forages. Of greatest concern is the environmental sustainability of these grazing systems, with emphasis on their ability to withstand erosion. A study to examine the runoff and sediment yields of annual and perennial forages in central Alberta was initiated in 1994. Runoff and sediment yield were quantified under snowmelt and rainfall events for two seasons. Rainfall simulation was used to further examine runoff under growing season conditions. Four forage treatments (two annuals: triticale and a barley/triticale mixture and two perennials: smooth bromegrass and meadow bromegrass) and three grazing intensities (light, medium and heavy) were studied, each replicated four times. Total annual runoff was dominated by snowmelt. Generally runoff volumes, sediment yields, sediment ratios and runoff coefficients were all low. Bare ground increased with increasing grazing intensity and was significantly greater in annuals than perennials for all grazing intensities. Litter biomass decreased with increasing grazing intensity and was generally similar in all species for both years at heavy and medium grazing intensities. Results from the rainfall simulation corroborated those under natural rainfall conditions and generally indicated the sustainability of these grazing systems at this site. Key words: Forages, soil erosion, sustainability, rainfall simulation


2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen L. Webb ◽  
Kenneth L. Gee ◽  
Bronson K. Strickland ◽  
Stephen Demarais ◽  
Randy W. DeYoung

Few studies have documented fine-scale movements of ungulate species, including white-tailed deer(Odocoileus virginianus), despite the advent of global positioning system (GPS) technology incorporated into tracking devices. We collected fine-scale temporal location estimates (i.e., 15 min/relocation attempt) from 17 female and 15 male white-tailed deer over 7 years and 3 seasons in Oklahoma, USA. Our objectives were to document fine-scale movements of females and males and determine effects of reproductive phase, moon phase, and short-term weather patterns on movements. Female and male movements were primarily crepuscular. Male total daily movements were 20% greater during rut () than postrut (). Female daily movements were greatest during postparturition (), followed by parturition (), and preparturition (). We found moon phase had no effect on daily, nocturnal, and diurnal deer movements and fine-scale temporal weather conditions had an inconsistent influence on deer movement patterns within season. Our data suggest that hourly and daily variation in weather events have minimal impact on movements of white-tailed deer in southern latitudes. Instead, routine crepuscular movements, presumed to maximize thermoregulation and minimize predation risk, appear to be the most important factors influencing movements.


1998 ◽  
Vol 1998 ◽  
pp. 32-32
Author(s):  
F.J. Lewis ◽  
J. McEvoy ◽  
K.J. McCracken

Whilst wheat is a major component in many pig diets it has the most variable composition of any of the cereals (Bolton & Blair, 1974) with wheat variety and the environment in which it was grown influencing its chemical and physical properties and thus nutritive value. A rapid and inexpensive method for prediction of nutritive value is thus needed to account for these variations in wheat composition. Viscosity is closely related to the soluble arabinoxylan content of wheat (Dusel et al., 1997) with a high in vitro wheat viscosity associated with a reduction in apparent metabolisable energy (AME) for poultry (Classen et al, 1995). The relationship between viscosity and nutritive value for pigs is therefore of interest. The present study investigated the effect of wheat quality measured by extract viscosity, on ileal and overall digestibility using the post-valve ‘T’ caecal (PVTC) canulation method in growing pigs.


Author(s):  
Sean O'Sullivan ◽  
John Morrall

A quantifiable basis for developing design guidelines for pedestrian access to light-rail transit (LRT) stations is provided for planners based on observations in Calgary, Canada. Calgary's LRT system, which began operations in 1981, has been operating for long enough for walking patterns to and from its stations to become established. Interviews were conducted with 1,800 peak-hour LRT users about the origins and destinations of their LRT trips. Those who walked to or from a station were asked to point out on a map their approximate origins or destinations. The distances were then measured off the maps. Walking distance guidelines were developed for central business district (CBD), transfer and local stations. Catchment area maps were produced, and the relationship between reported walking time and measured walking distance was calculated. Also compared are the walking distances at LRT stations and the walking distances at bus stops. The research strongly indicates that people walk farther to reach an LRT station than a bus stop. Using bus walking standards would result in an underestimate of LRT walking distances by about half. For the city of Calgary the average walking distance to suburban stations is 649 m with a 75th-percentile distance of 840 m. At CBD stations the average walking distance is 326 m and the 75th-percentile distance is 419 m.


2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 17939-17986 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Schaap ◽  
A. Apituley ◽  
R. M. A. Timmermans ◽  
R. B. A. Koelemeijer ◽  
G. de Leeuw

Abstract. To acquire daily estimates of PM2.5 distributions based on satellite data one depends critically on an established relation between AOD and ground level PM2.5. In this study we aimed to experimentally establish the AOD-PM2.5 relationship for the Netherlands. For that purpose an experiment was set-up at the AERONET site Cabauw. The average PM2.5 concentration during this ten month study was 18 μg/m3, which confirms that the Netherlands are characterised by a high PM burden. A first inspection of the AERONET level 1.5 (L1.5) AOD and PM2.5 data at Cabauw showed a low correlation between the two properties. However, after screening for cloud contamination in the AERONET L1.5 data, the correlation improved substantially. When also constraining the dataset to data points acquired around noon, the correlation between AOD and PM2.5 amounted to R2=0.6 for situations with fair weather. This indicates that AOD data contain information about the temporal evolution of PM2.5. We had used LIDAR observations to detect residual cloud contamination in the AERONET L1.5 data. Comparison of our cloud-screed L1.5 with AERONET L2 data that became available near the end of the study showed favorable agreement. The final relation found for Cabauw is PM2.5=124.5*AOD–0.34 (with PM2.5 in μg/m3) and is valid for fair weather conditions. The relationship determined between MODIS AOD and ground level PM2.5 at Cabauw is very similar to that based on the much larger dataset from the sun photometer data, after correcting for a systematic overestimation of the MODIS data of 0.05. We applied the relationship to a MODIS composite map to assess the PM2.5 distribution over the Netherlands. Spatial dependent systematic errors in the MODIS AOD, probably related to variability in surface reflectance, hamper a meaningful analysis of the spatial distribution of PM2.5 using AOD data at the scale of the Netherlands.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document