Determining Rangeland Species Palatability: Application of Principal Component Analysis

Abstract

• Since plant palatability affects many aspects of sustainable rangeland management, including grazing capacity and grazing behavior, introducing indicators
for determining rangeland species palatability can help rangeland managers determine rangeland species palatability accurately and precisely.
• The Karsanak rangelands in the Chaharmahal-VBakhtiari province in Iran are dominated by a mixture of patchily distributed grasses, forbs, and shrubs, with a high biodiversity of plants, which severely affects rangeland species palatability.
• The use of forage quality, secondary compounds, and external plant attributes are expected to help rangeland managers with plant palatability classification and in determining grazing capacity to achieve sustainable rangeland management.

Keywords: plant palatability, forage quality, secondary compounds, external plant attributes, principalcomponent analysis, Karsanak rangelands.