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136 results for “rangeland”
Carbon sequestration in degraded intermountain west rangelands, USA
<p>Rangelands are often ignored in the discussion of using management to sequester carbon but demonstrating that restoration of vast degraded rangelands might pay for itself through carbon credit markets would be a significant conservation contribution. The additional amount and cost of carbon sequestered was quantified by simulating seeding perennial grass and shrub species in sagebrush shrublands dominated by non-native annual grass and forb species (NNAGF) compared to doing nothing in a 485,623 km<sup>2</sup> Area Of Interest (AOI) centered around Nevada, USA. Using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, NNAGF cover was mapped across the AOI to locate areas dominated by NNAGFs. Spatial state-and-transition simulation models with a carbon stock-and-flow sub-model simulated the seeding of perennial species in NNAGF-dominated sagebrush shrublands in the Columbian Plateau ecoregion (IL Ranch, Nevada), north-central Great Basin ecoregion outside the North American Monsoon (TS-Horseshoe Ranch, Nevada), and the southeastern Great Basin ecoregion within the North American monsoon (PVMH landscape, Utah). The net biome productivity (NBP) and cost per unit area of sagebrush shrublands was quantified by simulating restoration of NNAGF to perennial vegetation over a 25-year period. The unseeded PVMH landscape, IL Ranch, and TS-Horseshoe Ranch were sinks of carbon (i.e., positive NBP) at 84, 9, and 11 g C∙m-<sup>2</sup>∙yr<sup>-1</sup>, respectively. About 58% to 90% of NBP was stored in the soil. The IL Ranch required only small levels of seeding and was a small sink of C at 0.71 ± 0.65 g C∙m-<sup>2</sup>∙yr<sup>-1</sup>, whereas the additional NBP for the seeded PVMH landscape was 19.9 ± 10.6 g C∙m-<sup>2</sup>∙yr<sup>-1</sup>. When extrapolated to the AOI, the most and least carbon stored, respectively, was in Utah (136,132 metric Ton∙yr<sup>-1</sup>, cost: $287M) and the central Great Basin (3,196 metric Ton∙yr<sup>-1</sup>, cost: $23M). Positive NBP values reported here showed that carbon sequestration in sagebrush shrublands compares favorably with those of more productive systems in the USA and worldwide.</p>
Rotational grazing with cattle-free zones supports the coexistence of cattle and wild herbivores in African rangelands
<p>African wildlife populations are declining at an alarming rate. To stop further population declines and restore ecosystems, more areas for wildlife are needed. Community-based conservation with wildlife-livestock coexistence in the vast rangelands of Africa presents a major opportunity. However, the efficacy of wildlife conservation in mixed land-use areas remains an outstanding question. To assess the ecological outcomes of land-sharing between regulated livestock herds and wildlife populations in African savannas, we test how rotational cattle grazing affects spatiotemporal dynamics of 15 large herbivore species in the Maasai Mara, Kenya.</p> <p>First, we tested how wild herbivore distributions across the Greater Mara Ecosystem (the Mara, ~2,600 km2) are related to cattle density and environmental variables using 584,561 observations of wild herbivores (ecosystem scale). In a second analysis, we tested how rotational cattle grazing affects wild herbivore distributions in a 300 km2 subsection of the Mara using 30,583 observations (landscape scale). Finally, we tested how functional traits of wild herbivores affect species-level spatiotemporal responses to cattle grazing. </p> <p>At the ecosystem scale, the presence of five wild herbivore species was positively correlated with cattle density, while cattle effects on wild herbivore abundances were species-dependent with both increases and decreases. At the landscape scale, rotational cattle grazing strongly impacted the spatiotemporal habitat selection of wild herbivores, resulting in distinct lag periods with which different species are attracted to areas previously grazed by cattle. These lag periods were linked to functional traits, with body mass and herd size explaining 35% of the interspecific differences. Small to medium-sized herbivores with large herds select areas recently grazed by cattle, whereas large species with large herd sizes and small species with small herd sizes avoid recently grazed areas.</p> <p><strong><em>Synthesis and applications</em></strong> Our results revealed that the effect of cattle on wild herbivores varies considerably among species, suggesting that cattle-wildlife interactions range from facilitation to competition. To maintain species that strongly avoid cattle, designated livestock-free zones remain essential, also in rotational grazing systems. Rotational grazing systems with regulated livestock densities present an important opportunity to better manage wildlife-livestock coexistence and thus improve wildlife conservation in African rangelands.</p>
Data from: Applying a dryland degradation framework for rangelands: the case of Mongolia
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Data from: Aridity exacerbates grazing-induced rangeland degradation: a population approach for dominant grasses
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Rotational grazing with cattle-free zones supports the coexistence of cattle and wild herbivores in African rangelands
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Cross-scale analysis reveals interacting predictors of annual and perennial cover in Northern Great Basin rangelands
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Data from: Spatio-temporal dynamics in syntopy are driven by variability in rangeland conditions
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Data from: Plant demographic and functional responses to management intensification: a long-term study in a Mediterranean rangeland
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Domestic and wild native herbivores combined are still overgrazing Patagonia rangelands: A response to Marino et al. (2019)
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Grazing and climate change have site-dependent interactive effects on vegetation in Asian montane rangelands
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Mitigating ecosystem service tradeoffs in rangelands by using grazing duration and timing to manage water quality
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Carbon sequestration in degraded intermountain west rangelands, USA
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Animal use of fence crossings in Southwestern Rangelands
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Associated data for: Disease and weather induce rapid shifts in a rangeland ecosystem mediated by a keystone species (Cynomys ludovicianus)
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Forage provision is more affected by droughts in arid and semi-arid than in mesic rangelands
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Data from: Assessing spatial patterns of soil erosion in a high‐latitude rangeland
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Rainfall pulses mediate long-term plant community compositional dynamics in a semi-arid rangeland
<p>1. Semi-arid rangelands, comprising more than 40% of the Earth's land surface, provide critical ecosystem services. Worldwide, these ecosystems are experiencing rapid degradation due to overgrazing and precipitation changes. However, how plants respond to these interacting factors remains relatively unexplored, and precisely which and how rainfall factors determine plant community dynamics in rangelands has not been well developed.</p> <p>2. We used a long-term (1953‒2018) dataset from semi-arid rangeland to investigate coupled effects of grazing intensity and rainfall intensity (the total amount of precipitation) on different groups of plant cover (herbaceous, woody, and cacti plants) using linear mixed-effects models, redundancy analysis and structural equation models. We examined how rainfall intensity influenced plant cover dynamics according to pulse size (intensity over time) categories, which we analyzed at three scales: yearly, within the wet season only (June to September), and within the dry season only (October to May). </p> <p>3. Plant community cover showed a humpbacked trend in the last six decades, mostly through changes in woody plants. Although both grazing intensity and rainfall presented similar humpbacked trends with plant community cover, our models demonstrated that the reduction of plant cover from the 1990s has been mainly caused by a decrease of rainfall rather than grazing intensity, particularly due to profound reductions of the intensity of relatively small rainfall pulses (e.g., 5.1 ~ 15 mm·day<sup>-1</sup>) during the dry season. Specifically, these small rainfall pulses can increase plant cover of all subgroups of woody and herbaceous species, thereby increasing plant community cover. Moreover, rainfall pulses during the wet season had negative effects on herbaceous species and positive effects on woody plants. These results suggest a phenological niche partitioning between woody plants and herbaceous in subtropical rangelands.</p> <p>4. <i>Synthesis and applications.</i><b> </b>Our results show how critical seasonal rainfall pulses are for regulating plant community compositional dynamics, which has significant implications for rangeland management and our ability to adapt and mitigate amplified climate influences in semi-arid ecosystems.</p>
Morphoecological characteristics of grasses used to restore degraded semi-arid African rangelands
<p class="CxSpFirst">Progressive loss of productivity and plant diversity has been a major concern for land managers of global arid and semi-arid rangelands. This is often attributed to heavy grazing by large livestock herds and wildlife leading to land degradation threatening millions of livelihoods that rely on rangeland resources. Consequently, combating land degradation has increasingly become important global agenda. Active restoration technologies such as indigenous grass reseeding has been identified as a viable ecological solution for restoring degraded rangeland landscapes and providing forage for sustainable livestock production. Grass species indigenous to African rangelands <i>Cenchrus ciliaris</i> L. (African foxtail grass), <i>Eragrostis superba</i> Peyr. (Maasai love grass), <i>Enteropogon macrostachyus</i> (Hochst. Ex A. Rich.) Monro ex Benth. (Bush rye grass), <i>Chloris roxburghiana </i>Schult. (Horsetail grass) and <i>Chloris gayana </i>Kunth. cv Boma (Rhodes grass) were established in an African semi-arid rangeland landscape under natural conditions to compare their morphoecological characteristics and suitability for ecological restoration. Seed viability, seedling emergence, biomass dry matter yields, plant densities, basal cover, seed production, tiller densities and plant height were determined. <i>Chloris gayana </i>cv Boma and <i>E. superba </i>produced significantly higher<i> </i>dry matter biomass yields and seed production. High biomass and seed production demonstrate their suitability to support livestock production and replenish depleted soil seed banks, respectively.<i> Enteropogon macrostachyus </i>and <i>C. ciliaris </i>displayed significantly higher values for plant densities, tiller densities and basal cover, also used to measure establishment and ecological restoration success. <i>Chloris roxburghiana </i>ranked lowest in all the measured morphoecological characteristics. This could be a strong indicator of ecological site-specific characteristic of <i>C. roxburghiana</i>. Active restoration of degraded African semi-arid rangelands and forage provision for herbivores using indigenous grass reseeding can best be achieved through careful selection of grass species to take advantage on their specific multiple morphoecological characteristics. Furthermore, selection of the grass species to use should primarily be informed by the intended use of the rangeland.</p>
Data from: Patterns of rangeland productivity and land ownership: implications for conservation and management
Rangelands cover 40-50% of the earth's terrestrial surface. While often characterized by limited, yet variable resource availability, rangelands are vital for humans, providing numerous ecosystem goods and services. In the conterminous United States (CONUS) the dominant component of rangeland conservation is a network of public rangelands, concentrated in the west. Public rangelands are interspersed with private and tribal rangelands resulting in a complex mosaic of land tenure and management priorities. We quantify ownership patterns of rangeland production at multiple scales across CONUS and find that both total production and average productivity of private rangelands more than doubles that of public and tribal rangelands. At finer scales, private rangelands are consistently more productive than their public counterparts. We also demonstrate an inverse relationship between public rangeland acreage and productivity. While conserving acreage is crucial to rangeland conservation, just as critical are broad scale ecological patterns and processes that sustain ecosystem services. Across CONUS, ownership regimes capture distinct elements of these patterns and services, demonstrated through disparate production dynamics. As ownership determines the range of feasible conservation actions, and the technical and financial resources available to implement them, understanding ownership-production dynamics is critical for effective and sustained conservation of rangeland ecosystem services.
Data from: Plant species richness and shrub cover attenuate drought effects on ecosystem functioning across Patagonian rangelands
Drought is an increasingly common phenomenon in drylands as a consequence of climate change. We used 311 sites across a broad range of environmental conditions in Patagonian rangelands to evaluate how drought severity and temperature (abiotic factors) and vegetation structure (biotic factors) modulate the impact of a drought event on the annual integral of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI-I), our surrogate of ecosystem functioning. We found that NDVI-I decreases were larger with both increasing drought severity and temperature. Plant species richness (SR) and shrub cover (SC) attenuated the effects of drought on NDVI-I. Grass cover did not affect the impacts of drought on NDVI-I. Our results suggest that warming and species loss, two important imprints of global environmental change, could increase the vulnerability of Patagonian ecosystems to drought. Therefore, maintaining SR through appropriate grazing management can attenuate the adverse effects of climate change on ecosystem functioning.
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Allen Brain Atlas
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Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
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