Long-term dynamics of a semiarid grass steppe under stochastic climate and different grazing regimes: A simulation analysis

Paruelo, José M.; Pütz, Sandro; Weber, Gerhard E.; Bertiller, Mónica B.; Golluscio, Rodolfo A.; Aguiar, Martı́n R.; Wiegand, Thorsten

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2008.07.010

Cited by 45 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…(1978) found similar patterns for ANPP and evapotranspiration. In turn, modelling studies conducted by Paruelo et al. (2008) showed that Festuca pallescens grasslands’ PUE and PMR were negatively associated with grazing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Desertification alters the response of vegetation to changes in precipitation

Verón

Paruelo

2010

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Summary1. Desertification is of critical concern because it may affect 40% of the global land area inhabited by more than 1 billion people. During the process of desertification, defined as land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry subhumid areas, drylands shift to a state of reduced biological productivity that may lead to widespread loss of human well-being. Despite recent advances, we need a better understanding of the response of ecosystems to desertification to improve the assessment and monitoring of desertification. 2. We used a published physiognomic description, MODIS monthly NDVI data for [2000][2001][2002][2003][2004][2005] and rain gauge data to characterize the long-term effects of degradation for an area of 128 000 ha located in western Patagonia. 3. We focused on three aspects of vegetation dynamics: radiation interception, precipitation use efficiency (PUE) and the sensitivity of vegetation to interannual changes in precipitation (i.e. the slope of the relationship between the above-ground net primary productivity and precipitation, the precipitation marginal response, PMR). In particular, we analysed the response of PMR and PUE to long-term changes in vegetation structure due to grazing. 4. On average, NDVI decreased by 28%, ranging between 35% (grass or grass-shrub steppes to semi-deserts) and 22% (grass or grass-shrub steppes to low cover grass steppes) suggesting that, in Patagonia, desertification may imply a reduction in the above-ground net primary productivity. 5. Additionally, PMR and PUE captured the functional modifications associated with vegetation structure caused by desertification. In general, grass and grass-shrub steppes had the highest average PUE and PMR. Shrub steppes and semi-deserts had the lowest PMR and PUE. These results support the hypothesis that PUE is more sensitive to changes in total plant cover and PMR to changes in plant functional type composition. 6. Synthesis and applications. Our results indicate that the precipitation marginal response could complement current desertification assessments based only on precipitation use efficiency thereby improving our ability to monitor desertification. Enhanced monitoring programmes could provide an early warning signal for the onset of desertification allowing for timely management action.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1978; Milchunas & Lauenroth 1993; Paruelo & Lauenroth 1995) or from simulation models (Reynolds et al. 2004; Paruelo et al. 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Desertification alters the response of vegetation to changes in precipitation

Verón

Paruelo

2010

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…Grazing by domestic animals affects not only the aboveground vegetative tissues of the preferred plants but also their reproductive output through the removal of reproductive tissues and the reduction of seed production (Bertiller, 1992(Bertiller, , 1996Milchunas and Lauenroth, 1993;Paruelo et al, 2008). Moreover, animal trampling may negatively affect the structure of the upper soil layer by destruction of soil aggregates and fragmentation of biological crusts (Belnap and Eldridge, 2003;Du Toit et al, 2009: Scutari et al, 2004.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does sheep selectivity along grazing paths negatively affect biological crusts and soil seed banks in arid shrublands? A case study in the Patagonian Monte, Argentina

Bertiller

Ares

2011

Journal of Environmental Management

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“…Water redistribution and LBP rule are two essential factors representing the impacts of neighboring cells as in the model COIRON( [10]). The biomass production of each cell is determined by water redistribution of rainfall and its rain use efficiency(RUE)( [6]).…”

Section: A Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the introduce of some kinds of spacial heterogeneity to these grazing models will make the system more fragile( [2]). Specially, Paruelo pointed out that water redistribution determined by neighbor cell's state is one kind of spacial heterogeneity( [10]), and many works show that water redistribution does take place among different coverpatterns of vegetation( [3] [11]). In Paruelo's model, LBP was used as one of important factors for water redistribution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Water Redistribution and Large Bare Patch on Desertification

Huang

Chen

2009

2009 International Conference on Management and Service Science

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An agent-based model is developed to investigate the effect of water redistribution and Large Bare Patch(LBP) rule on desertification. Water redistribution of the focal cell refers to infiltration process determined by its neighbor cell's state. LBP rule is used to describe the phenomenon that more water will evaporate when many bare cells aggregate into a lager bare patch. Our results of simulation show that desertification will appear in the system with water redistribution and LBP rule, while in the system without these rules, desertification will not present with the same settings. Several features of desertification are revealed. Desertification occurs in a catastrophic way and there is a threshold of grazed density. Furthermore, the formation of LBP accelerates the process of desertification remarkably.

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Long-term dynamics of a semiarid grass steppe under stochastic climate and different grazing regimes: A simulation analysis

Cited by 45 publications

References 59 publications

Desertification alters the response of vegetation to changes in precipitation

Desertification alters the response of vegetation to changes in precipitation

Does sheep selectivity along grazing paths negatively affect biological crusts and soil seed banks in arid shrublands? A case study in the Patagonian Monte, Argentina

Effect of Water Redistribution and Large Bare Patch on Desertification

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