Do sheep grazing patterns affect ecosystem functioning in steppe grassland ecosystems in Inner Mongolia?

Ren, Haiyan; Ohm, Magdalena; Schönbach, Philipp; Gierus, M.; Taube, F.

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2015.07.015

Cited by 38 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…This behavior was also reported by Ren et al. () when sheep avoided older vegetation accumulated over the years in paddock boundaries and consumed preferentially toward the center of the study area. Such behavior can be ascribed to the fact that as animal density increases, the percentage of area occupied by highly grazed patches also increases until reaching a maximum value beyond which animal selection becomes limited to the rejection of places soiled with feces (Cid & Brizuela, ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…The existence of spatial heterogeneity due to grazing has been well recognized and investigated in natural ecosystems (Lin et al., ; Ren et al., ; Wang, Johnson, Rong, & Wang, ; Zhao et al., , ). Besides, pasture heterogeneity has been associated with increased ecosystem services such as biodiversity and soil conservation (Benton, Vickery, & Wilson, ; Schönbach, Wan, Gierus, Bai, & Müller, ; Wang et al., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Grazing intensity determines pasture spatial heterogeneity and productivity in an integrated crop‐livestock system

et al. 2018

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Spatial heterogeneity is a property of natural ecosystems. Integrated crop‐livestock systems (ICLS) aim to mimic natural ecosystem functions as pillars of sustainable intensification, and grazing is a process that potentially affects spatial heterogeneity. Then, we investigated the effect of different grazing intensities, defined according to a range of sward heights (intensive grazing, 10 cm; moderate grazing, 20 cm; moderate‐light grazing, 30 cm; light grazing, 40 cm; and ungrazed), on the spatial heterogeneity and biomass productivity of mixed Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) and black oat (Avena strigosa Schreb.) pastures. The mixture was grazed by steers under continuous variable stocking, using put‐and‐take animals to maintain targeted sward heights. The pasture was in rotation with soybean in an integrated crop‐livestock system for 15 years. Data concerns pasture phase on the 15th rotation cycle. Cattle grazing at moderate to light intensities increased pasture spatial heterogeneity and total aboveground primary productivity, while intensive grazing led to homogeneous overgrazed canopies with frequent bare soil patches. Pre‐grazing sward structure suggests that the summer crop rotation buffers the contrasts created by grazing at different intensities. This study suggests that moderate to light grazing intensities increase pasture productive efficiency and create more heterogeneous canopies in ICLS, while intensive grazing should be avoided.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grazing intensity determines pasture spatial heterogeneity and productivity in an integrated crop‐livestock system

et al. 2018

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“…Adaptive grazing tends to balance grazing intensity over an entire region by interrupting grazing always in degraded (DD) areas, and looking for vegetation recovered (RR) areas or areas with no significant (NS) change in vegetation. Other enforced strategies such as fenced grazing also prevented grassland vegetation from severe degradation [4]. Similar outcomes resulted from the enforcement of those policies (e.g., adaptive grazing) may suggest certain clues for the insignificance of the grazing effect once the neighborhood interactions in TPs were included in the model.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…Grassland covers more than 40% of China's total land area, a large percentage of which is found in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR) [3]. Due to arid and semi-arid climate conditions, as well as the impact of human activities during the past several decades, the grassland ecosystems showed a limited capacity to withstand human interference; as a result, grassland degradation has been widely observed in IMAR [4][5][6]. Grassland degradation is a complex process in which grassland productivity, vegetation coverage, grass height, soil biodiversity, or community composition decreases [7][8][9][10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Modeling Grassland Degradation with and without Considering Localized Spatial Associations in Vegetation Changing Patterns

Wang

Li³

et al. 2018

Sustainability

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Abstract:Grassland ecosystems worldwide are confronted with degradation. It is of great importance to understand long-term trajectory patterns of grassland vegetation by advanced analytical models. This study proposes a new approach called a binary logistic regression model with neighborhood interactions, or BLR-NIs, which is based on binary logistic regression (BLR), but fully considers the spatio-temporally localized spatial associations or characterization of neighborhood interactions (NIs) in the patterns of grassland vegetation. The BLR-NIs model was applied to a modeled vegetation degradation of grasslands in the Xilin river basin, Inner Mongolia, China. Residual trend analysis on the normalized difference vegetation index (RESTREND-NDVI), which excluded the climatic impact on vegetation dynamics, was adopted as a preprocessing step to derive three human-induced trajectory patterns (vegetation degradation, vegetation recovery, and no significant change in vegetation) during two consecutive periods, T 1 (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008) and T 2 (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015). Human activities, including livestock grazing intensity and transportation accessibility measured by road network density, were included as explanatory variables for vegetation degradation, which was defined for locations if vegetation recovery or no significant change in vegetation in T 1 and vegetation degradation in T 2 were observed. Our work compared the results of BLR-NIs and the traditional BLR model that did not consider NIs. The study showed that: (1) both grazing intensity and road density had a positive correlation to vegetation degradation based on the traditional BLR model; (2) only road density was found to positively correlate to vegetation degradation by the BLR-NIs model; NIs appeared to be critical factors to predict vegetation degradation; and (3) including NIs in the BLR model improved the model performance substantially. The study provided evidence for the importance of including localized spatial associations between the trajectory patterns for mapping vegetation degradation, which has practical implications for designing management policies to counterpart grassland degradation in arid and semi-arid areas.

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“…As an alternative to spatial separation, temporal separation of grazed and ungrazed land, namely, rotational grazing, is a further promising sustainable management option for water‐limited grasslands (Pineiro, Paruelo, Oesterheld, & Jobbagy, ; Xiong et al, ). Similarly, rotational haymaking and grazing with strict spatial delimitation of grazing and haymaking areas (Baoyin, Li, Bao, Minggagud, & Zhong, ; Schönbach et al, ) and annual alternation of land management have been shown to be more resilient (Ren et al, ; Schönbach et al, ), to benefit plant response to rainfall (Wan, Bai, Schönbach, Gierus, & Taube, ) and to improve GHG balances (Schonbach et al, ) than traditional grazing systems, although they do require extra labour and materials. In these mixed systems, activities can be optimized according to precipitation, with mixed grazing and haymaking in high production years and grazing in drier years, enhancing overall sustainability (Baoyin et al, ; Wan et al, ; Zhou et al, ).…”

Section: Soil Organic Matter Conservation and Restorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reviewing our options: Managing water‐limited soils for conservation and restoration

et al. 2018

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The Food and Agriculture Organization considers around a quarter of global land to be degraded. Of particular concern are threats to soils in water‐limited regions, which are critical to food and economic security in countries across the globe but are under increasing pressure due to human use and climatic forcing. These soils have been used to feed and provide resources and services to human societies for millennia, with earliest land‐uses dating back to prehistoric times. With the adoption of modern, frequently unsuitable agricultural practices combined with the population pressures and shifting consumption patterns, soils in water‐limited regions have come under threat, resulting in degradation and in worst‐case scenarios, desertification. Here, we review the current state of soils in water‐limited environments and provide a guide to management for conservation and restoration of these fragile soils. Options to manage specific threats to soil functionality, namely, erosion, soil salinity, loss of functionality due to landscape homogenization, degradation of soil organic matter, and climate vulnerability are presented for specific land‐uses using a whole‐system approach management framework.

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Do sheep grazing patterns affect ecosystem functioning in steppe grassland ecosystems in Inner Mongolia?

Cited by 38 publications

References 42 publications

Grazing intensity determines pasture spatial heterogeneity and productivity in an integrated crop‐livestock system

Grazing intensity determines pasture spatial heterogeneity and productivity in an integrated crop‐livestock system

Comparison of Modeling Grassland Degradation with and without Considering Localized Spatial Associations in Vegetation Changing Patterns

Reviewing our options: Managing water‐limited soils for conservation and restoration

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