Grazing management that regenerates ecosystem function and grazingland livelihoods

Teague, Richard; Barnes, Matt

doi:10.2989/10220119.2017.1334706

Cited by 115 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…Two important limitations of grazing experiments conducted to date are that experiments occurred in artificially small pastures that prevented livestock from expressing the types of foraging behavior that typically occur on ranches (Briske et al. , Teague and Barnes ), and the rest periods implemented in these studies were too short. With short rest periods (e.g., where pastures could be grazed multiple times in a growing season), rotational grazing could potentially produce more homogenous vegetation structure because vegetation would not have sufficient time to regrow between rest periods (Fuhlendorf and Engle ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive rangeland management benefits grassland birds utilizing opposing vegetation structure in the shortgrass steppe

Davis

Augustine²,

Monroe

et al. 2019

Ecological Applications

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Rangelands are temporally and spatially complex socioecological systems on which the predominant land use is livestock production. In North America, rangelands also contain approximately 80% of remaining habitat for grassland birds, a guild of species that has experienced precipitous declines since the 1970s. While livestock grazing management may benefit certain grassland bird species by generating the vegetation structure and density they prefer, these outcomes are poorly understood for avian species breeding in the shortgrass steppe. We evaluated how two grazing management systems, continuous, season‐long grazing and adaptive, rest‐rotational grazing, affected grassland bird abundance from 2013 to 2017 in Colorado's shortgrass steppe. We examined grazing impacts in conjunction with ecological sites, which constitute unique soil and plant communities. When grazing management was evaluated in conjunction with spatial variation in ecological sites, we found three of our five focal bird species responded to grazing management. McCown's Longspur abundance decreased in pastures rested from grazing the previous year. The effect of grazing on Horned Lark and Grasshopper Sparrow depended on ecological site: Horned Lark density was highest in pastures that were intensively grazed and Grasshopper Sparrow density was highest in pastures that were rested the previous year in the least productive ecological site. In addition, densities of all species varied across ecological sites. Our results suggest consideration of soil and vegetation characteristics can inform how adaptive management is applied on a landscape to benefit the full suite of breeding grassland birds, including species that have seemingly contrasting habitat needs. For example, a manager could target adaptive drought mitigation practices, such as resting pastures for 1 yr to generate grassbanks, in less productive soils to benefit grassland birds that prefer taller/denser vegetation structure, or could apply intensive, short‐duration grazing on less productive soils to benefit species preferring shorter/sparser vegetation. A single year of intensive, short‐duration grazing (i.e., one component of our rotational treatment) across the landscape, however, might not create sufficient habitat for species that prefer short/sparse vegetation in our system (e.g., McCown's Longspur). Ultimately, our study indicates how cattle production on rangelands can congruently support grassland bird populations in the shortgrass steppe.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive rangeland management benefits grassland birds utilizing opposing vegetation structure in the shortgrass steppe

Davis

Augustine²,

Monroe

et al. 2019

Ecological Applications

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“…These ecosystems support over 2.5 billion people, most of whom directly rely on ecosystem services for survival and livelihood (Briske, ; Evans, Gill, Eviner, & Bailey, ; MEA ; Reynolds et al., ). However, grasslands are one of the most vulnerable ecosystems, facing degradation of plant diversity, soils and ecosystem services (MEA ; Teague & Barnes, ). Development of sustainable grazing systems that promote ecosystem resilience, enhance or maintain plant diversity, increase soil health and maintain ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) and delivery of multiple ecosystem services is a global concern (MEA ; Sala, Yahdjian, Havstad, & Aguiar, ; Teague & Barnes, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, grasslands are one of the most vulnerable ecosystems, facing degradation of plant diversity, soils and ecosystem services (MEA ; Teague & Barnes, ). Development of sustainable grazing systems that promote ecosystem resilience, enhance or maintain plant diversity, increase soil health and maintain ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) and delivery of multiple ecosystem services is a global concern (MEA ; Sala, Yahdjian, Havstad, & Aguiar, ; Teague & Barnes, ). Balancing these multiple objectives can be challenging because trade‐offs are common across multiple grassland management goals (Briske, Derner, Milchunas, & Tate, ; Jing et al., ; Maestre et al., ; MEA ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…services (MEA 2005;Teague & Barnes, 2017). Development of sustainable grazing systems that promote ecosystem resilience, enhance or maintain plant diversity, increase soil health and maintain ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) and delivery of multiple ecosystem services is a global concern (MEA 2005; Sala, Yahdjian, Havstad, & Aguiar, 2017;Teague & Barnes, 2017).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Livestock grazing regulates ecosystem multifunctionality in semi‐arid grassland

et al. 2018

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Livestock grazing has been shown to alter the structure and functions of grassland ecosystems. It is well acknowledged that grazing pressure is one of the strongest drivers of ecosystem‐level effects of grazing, but few studies have assessed how grazing pressure impacts grassland biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF). Here, we assessed how different metrics of biodiversity (i.e., plants and soil microbes) and EMF responded to seven different grazing treatments based on an 11‐year field experiment in semi‐arid Inner Mongolian steppe. We found that soil organic carbon, plant‐available nitrogen and plant functional diversity all decreased even at low grazing pressure, while above‐ground primary production and bacterial abundance decreased only at high levels of grazing pressure. Structural equation models revealed that EMF was driven by direct effects of grazing, rather than the effects of grazing on plant or microbial community composition. Grazing effects on plant functional diversity and soil microbial abundance did have moderate effects on EMF, while plant richness did not. Synthesis. Our results showed ecosystem functions differ in their sensitivity to grazing pressure, requiring a low grazing threshold to achieve multiple goals in the Eurasian steppe. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13215/suppinfo is available for this article.

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“…Regenerative agriculture is a relatively new term, and there are a number of similar terms, such as carbon farming, agroecology, conservation agriculture, holistic farm management, holistic planning grazing, adaptive multipaddock grazing and integrated ecological farming (Strong 2008; Cross 2013; Rhodes 2013, 2017; Rodale Institute 2014; Duncan and Falloon 2016; Hodbod et al 2016; Shelef et al 2017; Teague and Barnes 2017; Elevitch et al 2018; LaCanne and Lundgren 2018; Teague 2018; California State University 2019; Claughton and Ralph 2019; Hawkin 2019; Thorbecke and Dettling 2019). In this paper, regenerative agriculture is defined using a practice‐based approach, that is, extensive agriculture that uses no‐till farming; reduces or eliminates pesticide and herbicide use (e.g., spot spraying rather than broadacre spraying); reduces or eliminates fertilizer use; uses high‐intensity, short‐duration time‐controlled grazing with frequent rotation of livestock between small paddocks with perennial native grasses (i.e., cell grazing) and long rest periods; increases and subsequently maintains the proportion of land with native vegetation; and reduces or eliminates the use of supplementary feeding by destocking during periods of low vegetative primary productivity rather than operating at a fixed stocking rate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delta Life Cycle Assessment of Regenerative Agriculture in a Sheep Farming System

Colley

Olsen

Birkved

et al. 2020

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

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Regenerative agriculture is being used by a small number of innovative farmers in Australia and elsewhere, using a range of holistic methods that work with the land and climate, such as short duration time of controlled grazing with long rest periods for the paddock and higher proportions of aboveground biomass, to improve soil health and farm profitability. This paper uses a delta life cycle assessment, focusing only on the differences between regenerative and conventional production systems to assess the potential impact of regenerative agriculture on a full range of midpoint impact categories and end‐point areas of protection for an extensive sheep system in Australia. We assess the potential improvement to the water, carbon, and biodiversity footprints of sheep production, and find that regenerative agriculture has the potential to improve environmental performance compared with current industrial agricultural practices. In particular, there seems to be considerable potential to offset a significant proportion of the on‐farm climate change impacts through a combination of biosequestration in soils and aboveground biomass and using harvested biomass to offset fossil fuel use. The assessment highlights the need for additional data to confirm the findings and the potential contribution that regenerative agriculture can make to sustainability of ruminant livestock production. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2020;16:282–290. © 2019 SETAC

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Grazing management that regenerates ecosystem function and grazingland livelihoods

Cited by 115 publications

References 79 publications

Adaptive rangeland management benefits grassland birds utilizing opposing vegetation structure in the shortgrass steppe

Adaptive rangeland management benefits grassland birds utilizing opposing vegetation structure in the shortgrass steppe

Livestock grazing regulates ecosystem multifunctionality in semi‐arid grassland

Delta Life Cycle Assessment of Regenerative Agriculture in a Sheep Farming System

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