Contemporary methods of rangeland health (RH) assessment evaluate indicators designed to assess land use impacts on ecosystem function. These methods have not been tested relative to variation in specific grazing practices, including grazing period length and stocking rates during the growing season. We report on RH outcomes for three habitat types (native grassland, tame pasture, and forested pasture) across 97 pastures on 28 beef cattle ranches in Alberta, Canada. Pastures were distributed along a climatic gradient encompassing the grassland, parkland/foothill, and boreal regions. Surveys of ranchers were used to quantify typical grazing period length (1 May–31 October) and, if applicable, rotation length, along with corresponding stocking rates for each pasture over the previous 5 yr. Pastures were assessed for RH using indicators of vegetation composition and structure, litter abundance, soil stability, weed presence, and within tame pastures, woody plant encroachment. An Akaike Information Criterion analysis compared the influence of aridity, grazing period length, and stocking rate on total range health scores (RHS) and ordination used to identify associations between indicator scores and grazing metrics. Total RHS varied among habitat types, being greater in forests than native and tame grasslands (P < 0.05), and declined with increasing forage utilization, particularly in forests. Within tame pastures, total RHS varied primarily in response to regional climate, with RHS decreasing as moisture deficits increased and declining with longer grazing periods during summer. Native grasslands also decreased in RHS in response to longer grazing periods, with stocking rates having little impact on RHS. Select RH indicators were associated with improved health in native grasslands grazed for shorter periods including low weed abundance and greater litter. Further studies are recommended to understand how, over and above climatic influences, variation in grazing practices alter the health of northern temperate grasslands.

牧场健康（RH）评估的现代方法评估旨在评估土地利用对生态系统功能的影响的指标。尚未针对特定放牧方式的变化对这些方法进行测试，这些特定放牧方式包括生长期的放牧期长度和放养率。我们报告了加拿大艾伯塔省28个肉牛牧场的97个牧场中三种生境类型（天然草地，温和的牧场和森林牧场）的RH结果。牧场沿气候梯度分布，包括草地，公园地/丘陵地带和北方地区。通过对牧场主的调查来量化典型的放牧期长度（5月1日至10月31日）以及轮换长度（如果适用）以及过去5年中每个牧场的相应放养率。使用植被组成和结构，凋落物丰富度，土壤稳定性，杂草的存在以及在温和牧场中木本植物的侵染指标评估牧场的相对湿度。Akaike信息准则分析比较了干旱，放牧期长度和放养率对总范围健康得分（RHS）和排序的影响，该得分用于确定指标得分和放牧指标之间的关联。总体RHS随生境类型的不同而变化，在森林中要比原生草地和温驯草地更大（总范围健康得分（RHS）的放养率和用于识别指标得分和放牧指标之间关联的排序。总体RHS随生境类型的不同而变化，在森林中要比原生草地和温驯草地更大（总范围健康得分（RHS）的放养率和用于识别指标得分和放牧指标之间关联的排序。总体RHS随生境类型的不同而变化，在森林中要比原生草地和温驯草地更大（P <0.05），并随着饲草利用率的增加而下降，特别是在森林中。在温和的牧场内，总的RHS主要根据区域气候而变化，随着湿度不足的增加和夏季放牧时间的延长，RHS减少，RHS减少。随着放牧时间的延长，本地草原的RHS也减少了，放牧率对RHS的影响很小。选择的RH指标与短时间放牧的原生草原健康状况相关，包括低杂草丰度和更大的凋落物。建议进一步研究，以了解除气候影响外，放牧方式的变化如何改变北部温带草原的健康。