There are three main degrees of degraded grassland.[1] In order of decreasing frequency, they are lightly, moderately, and highly degraded grassland.[7] These stages are sequential so no grassland can be highly degraded without first being lightly and moderately degraded and so forth.[2] Lightly degraded grassland is the least potent of the three and is characterized by patches of dead or no grass, spottily dispersed throughout the land.[3] Plant and animal diversity starts to lessen but becomes really apparent in moderately degraded grasslands, in which patches of dead grass increase in size and number.[5][4] Also during this stage pests, be they rats, insects, or other grassland animals, start to disturb the environment by damaging the soil through, for instance, extracting from the soil nutrients vital to a plant’s well-being or by just damaging to plants themselves.[2] The grasslands that are affected the worst are those that are highly degraded which can be recognized by its wide expanse of dead grass, a quality which makes this land neither arable nor suitable for livestock.[5] Hence it makes sense that the animal and plant diversity is extremely low.[2] The few plants that do inhabit this area are quite poisonous and ward off any animals or plants potentially trying to move back in.[2]