ABSTRACT
To ensure long-term sustainability and ecological resilience of agricultural landscapes, cropping and grazing management protocols are needed that regenerate soil systems and ecosystem functions previously lost or being lost by neglect and destructive management practices. Effective soil management measures provide the most significant possibilities for achieving sustainable use of agricultural land with a rapidly changing, uncertain, and variable climate. Healthy grassland ecosystems are more productive, stable, and resilient than are those that subsist in poorer conditions, and they provide greater earnings for households and more abundant ecosystem services for society. This chapter reviews the ecosystem characteristics of grassland and savanna ecosystems that have evolved over many millennia and have resulted in carbon-rich soil systems with diverse biota through the co-evolution of soil biota, grasses, and grazers over millions of years.
