Impacts of holistic planned grazing with bison compared to continuous grazing with cattle in South Dakota shortgrass prairie

Hillenbrand, Mimi; Thompson, Ry; Wang, Fugui; Apfelbaum, Steve

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2019.02.005

Cited by 42 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…However, they generally lack a systems perspective to net GHG fluxes, thereby omitting soil carbon sequestration, which has great potential to mitigate GHG emissions for grass-fed systems (Liebig et al, 2010;Pelletier et al, 2010a). Inclusion of field-measured soil C sequestration (as a CO 2 -e sink) has been shown to completely mitigate the C footprint of intensively managed grass-finished cattle in some specific cases (Stanley et al, 2018) and drastically lower (but not neutralize it) in others (Machmuller et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2015;Hillenbrand et al, 2019). Although few exist, these cases present a unique nexus that (a) alleviates the pressure to use input and fossil-fuel intensive production systems to maximize cattle gains and lower per-kg CO 2 -e and (b) maximizes biological ecosystem functions to reduce net GHG emissions while maintaining productivity.…”

Section: Meat Production and Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem Impacts and Productive Capacity of a Multi-Species Pastured Livestock System

Rowntree¹,

Stanley²,

Maciel³

et al. 2020

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Regenerative agriculture is a newly codified approach to agriculture that emphasizes reducing reliance on exogeneous inputs, as well as restoring and enhancing ecosystem services such as soil carbon (C) sequestration. These regenerative agriculture principles suggest that modern livestock systems can be redesigned to better capitalize on animals' ecological niche as biological up cyclers and may be necessary to fully regenerate some landscapes. One example is a multispecies pasture rotation (MSPR) system, which symbiotically stacks multiple animal production enterprises (i.e., chickens, cattle, sheep, and pigs) on one landscape. We conducted a whole-farm life cycle assessment (LCA) of an MSPR in the southeastern United States that was originally converted from degraded cropland. We compared the production outputs, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, land footprints, and soil health outcomes to a conventional, commodity (COM) production system of each respective species. Our 20-year MSPR chronosequence of soil C and other soil health indicators shows dramatic improvement since establishment, sequestering an average of 2.29 Mg C ha−1 yr−1. Incorporation of soil C sequestration into the LCA reduced net GHG emissions of the MSPR by 80%, resulting in a footprint 66% lower than COM. However, when comparing required land between the two systems for food production, MSPR required 2.5 times more land when compared to COM. Thus, while our model indicates that MSPR can simultaneously produce protein while regenerating land, a considerably greater land area is needed when compared to COM. Our results present an important yet paradoxical conclusion on land and food production balance. Should society prioritize an input-intensive, COM system that produces more food from a smaller yet degrading land base? Or, alternatively, should systems such as MSPR that produce less food on a larger, but more ecologically functional landscape be more highly prioritized? These complexities must be considered in the global debate of agricultural practice and land. Our results indicate MSPRs are a useful model for alternative livestock production systems with improved environmental outcomes, but in this study may present considerable land-use tradeoffs.

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Section: Meat Production and Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem Impacts and Productive Capacity of a Multi-Species Pastured Livestock System

Rowntree¹,

Stanley²,

Maciel³

et al. 2020

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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“…Possible negative effects of grazing on plant biomass and soil quality have been reported previously (Qasim et al, 2017;Hillenbrand et al, 2019;Sato et al, 2019). Keeping animals in the limited space of the zoo aviaries leads to soil compaction and a decrease in water permeability, which leads to stagnation of moisture on the surface, the formation of puddles and dirt in the conditions of heavy clay soil composition.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 84%

Assessment of ecological state of Rostov zoo soil

Казеев¹,

Zhadobin²,

Gobarova³

et al. 2021

Eurasian Journal of Soil Science (Ejss)

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A comparative study of ecological and biological parameters of soils of the Rostov-on-Don Zoo was carried out in 2017-2020. Monitoring sites were studied in areas of various purpose: aviaries with different animals, recreation area, park area. The control plot was a relatively undisturbed park section in the territory of the zoo. Different sites revealed heterogeneity of ecological conditions and soil properties. The most significant difference was in the physical properties of soils. Density, penetration resistance, and soil structure were degraded in aviaries with large animals: rhinos, zebras, deer. Using methods of bioindication, the degree of change in the soil of aviaries was determined compared with the soil of the control plot. The abundance of nitrogen-fixing bacteria of the Azotobacter genus was reduced in the soils of aviaries with zebras, rams, rhinos and giraffe due to the artificial addition of sand to the soil for the purpose of improvement of its physical properties. The activity of soil enzymes (urease and dehydrogenases) was significantly increased in the soils of aviaries due to their contamination with animal excretory products. A particularly high increase was in urease (up to 7.4 times relative to the control soil). The main problems of the topsoil of the zoo are overconsolidation, structural degradation, organic pollution, change in biological activity. The degree of change depends on the size of aviaries, the size and activity of animals and soil amelioration aimed at regulating physical properties of the soil.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We theorize the native arthropod communities measured in our AMP pasture systems may be more resilient to invading S. invicta , effectively able to buffer against invasion by a foreign species as a result of community or habitat structure. A keystone goal of AMP producers is to increase the resilience of an operation by bolstering various aspects of the environment, e.g., vegetation diversity, soil microbiota, soil physical properties, and water holding capacity (Teague et al 2011, Hillenbrand et al 2019). Strengthening these environmental features supports a more diverse array of flora and fauna (including arthropods) (Huston and Marland 2003, Welti et al 2017, Aldebron et al 2020), and this increased habitat complexity provides more niches, structure, resources, etc.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of pasture management on fire ant, Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), abundance and the relationship to arthropod community diversity

Schmid

Lundgren

2020

Preprint

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The red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, is one of the most prolific invasive species to the Southeastern U.S. These invaders preferentially colonize highly disturbed land and grassland habitat. Management of livestock in pasture systems can have a profound impact on the level of disturbance in grassland habitats, and we hypothesized that pasture management would have a significant effect on S. invicta abundance in the Southeastern U.S., and arthropod diversity would negatively correlate with this invasive species. We studied the effects that pasture management systems (based on stocking density, rotation frequency, and insecticide application rates) have on fire ant mound abundance and arthropod diversity for the soil, foliar, and dung communities. S. invicta mounds were quantified and mound areas were documented along transect lines in six pastures. Soil and foliar arthropod communities were collected along the same transect lines, and dung communities sampled from pats within the pasture system. Pastures managed under adaptive multi-paddock (AMP) practices had 3.35× more S. invicta mounds and 4.64× more mound area than their conventionally managed counterparts. However, arthropod diversity did not correlate with S. invicta abundance for any of the three arthropod communities sampled. This study shows pasture management can have a significant impact on S. invicta mound abundance, but arthropod communities in AMP managed pastures did not suffer decreased diversity from increased abundance of S. invicta. Additionally, this study demonstrates that this invasive species does not necessarily contribute to diversity decline, at least under AMP pasture systems.

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Impacts of holistic planned grazing with bison compared to continuous grazing with cattle in South Dakota shortgrass prairie

Cited by 42 publications

References 34 publications

Ecosystem Impacts and Productive Capacity of a Multi-Species Pastured Livestock System

Ecosystem Impacts and Productive Capacity of a Multi-Species Pastured Livestock System

Assessment of ecological state of Rostov zoo soil

The effect of pasture management on fire ant, Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), abundance and the relationship to arthropod community diversity

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