Post-Soviet Land-Use Change Affected Fire Regimes on the Eurasian Steppes

Dara, Andrey; Baumann, Matthias; Hölzel, Norbert; Hostert, Patrick; Kamp, Johannes; Müller, Daniel; Ullrich, Benjamin; Kuemmerle, Tobias

doi:10.1007/s10021-019-00447-w

Cited by 37 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…; Savchenko and Ronkin ) and fires have been increasing recently (Dara et al. ). On steppes and abandoned fields, frequent fires are likely to result in denser and taller swards, as grasses are favoured over dwarf shrub when stands burn frequently (Dubinin et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marmots from space: assessing population size and habitat use of a burrowing mammal using publicly available satellite images

Koshkina

Grigoryeva

Tokarsky

et al. 2019

Remote Sens Ecol Conserv

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Social, burrowing mammals such as prairie dogs, ground squirrels or marmots are keystone species in grassland ecosystems. Grasslands have been converted into cropland or pastures globally, yet it remains virtually unknown how this has affected the biogeography of burrowing mammals, as efficient, broad‐scale survey methods are lacking. We aimed to test whether structures created by burrowing rodents can be reliably detected on publicly available, very‐high‐resolution satellite images, in order to assess rodent distribution and abundance. We identified burrows of Bobak marmot (Marmota bobak), a keystone burrowing steppe rodent, on 1300 randomly selected plots of 1 km diameter (78.53 ha) across the species’ range (~950 000 km²) in Kazakhstan and southern Russia using Google Earth and Bing images. We then used burrow occurrences and species distribution models to map marmot distribution. We assessed how marmot occurrence and density vary across land‐use types. We also combined satellite‐based burrow densities and ground‐survey data to derive a new population estimate for the species across Kazakhstan. We mapped a total of 7425 burrows from the satellite imagery. Field visits at a subsample of burrows suggested that burrow occurrence was detected reliably. Broad‐scale marmot distribution was mainly determined by summer rainfall, land use and elevation. Occurrence probability was highest on arable croplands, followed by abandoned croplands and grazed steppe. The current Bobak marmot population size for Kazakhstan was estimated at 6.1 (±2.4) million individuals. Our results demonstrate that publicly available, very‐high‐resolution images can be used to reliably map the distribution of burrowing mammals across large geographic scales. The observed and predicted distributions indicate that the Bobak's range has remained almost unchanged in Kazakhstan since the 1950s, despite several drastic episode of land‐use change. This suggests that burrowing mammals can be remarkably resilient to land‐use pressure, questioning prevailing narratives of population collapse in these species following agricultural expansion.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marmots from space: assessing population size and habitat use of a burrowing mammal using publicly available satellite images

Koshkina

Grigoryeva

Tokarsky

et al. 2019

Remote Sens Ecol Conserv

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“…The collapse in livestock numbers and the associated increase in plant biomass likely caused an increase in fires on the steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan (Dara, Baumann, Hölzel, et al., 2020; Dubinin et al., 2011), which have recently become a global fire hotspot (Archibald et al., 2013). These are the same areas where overall grazing pressure has decreased massively (Dara, Baumann, Freitag, et al., 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, while C4 grasses dominate the North American prairies and subtropical/tropical grasslands, C3 grasses dominate the Eurasian steppe. As recent research has highlighted that the Kazakh steppe has faced widespread increases in burned area (Dara, Baumann, Hölzel, et al., 2020) and large‐scale declines in grazing pressure (Dara, Baumann, Freitag, et al., 2020), here we combine these novel data sources with a large dataset of field‐sampled vegetation, plant traits and soil data to determine the following:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post‐Soviet shifts in grazing and fire regimes changed the functional plant community composition on the Eurasian steppe

Freitag

Kamp

Dara

et al. 2020

Global Change Biology

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Globally, grasslands are shaped by grazing and fire, and grassland plants are adapted to these disturbances. However, temperate grasslands have been hotspots of land‐use change, and how such changes affect interrelations between herbivory, fire and vegetation are poorly understood. Such land‐use changes are widespread on the Eurasian steppe, where the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 triggered the abandonment of cropland and pasture on globally relevant scales. Thus, to determine how relationships between plant functional composition, grazing and fire patterns changed after the Soviet Union dissolved, we studied a 358,000 km2 region in the dry steppe of Kazakhstan, combining a large field dataset on plant functional traits with multi‐scale satellite data. We found that increases in burned area corresponded to decreases in livestock grazing across large areas. Furthermore, fires occurred more often with high cover of grasses with high leaf dry matter content and thus higher flammability, whereas higher grazing pressure favoured grazing‐tolerant woody forbs and ruderal plants with high specific leaf area. The current situation of low grazing pressure represents a historically exceptional, potentially non‐analogue state. We suggest that the dissolution of the Soviet Union caused the disturbance regime to shift from grazer to fire control. As grazing and fire each result in different plant functional compositions, we propose that this led to widespread increases in grasses and associated changes in steppe plant community structure. These changes have potentially occurred across an area of more than 2 million km2, representing much of the world's largest temperate grassland area, with globally relevant, yet poorly understood implications for biodiversity and ecosystem functions such as carbon cycling. Additionally, future steppe management must also consider positive implications of abandonment (‘rewilding’) because reverting the regime shift in disturbance and associated changes in vegetation would require grazing animals to be reintroduced across vast areas.

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“…However, our results suggest that while birds were highly faithful to their migration stopover areas and wintering areas, they appeared to show much lower fidelity to breeding sites. The reasons for this are unclear, but may be related to the species' requirement for very short-grazed steppe for breeding, which in natural steppe systems is produced by herds of native migratory ungulates and by fire, both of which may be spatially unpredictable (Kamp et al 2009, Dara et al 2019. Thus a strategy of strict breeding site fidelity may be less adaptive than in species in less variable habitats.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migration strategy and site fidelity of the globally threatened Sociable Lapwing Vanellus gregarius

Donald

Kamp

Green

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Population declines of the critically endangered Sociable Lapwing are probably due to high mortality along its migration routes or on its wintering grounds, both of which are very poorly known. We therefore undertook a long-term study of the species' movements using satellite tagging, colour-ringing and targeted field surveys. We also compiled a database of historical and recent sightings of the species from published and unpublished sources. There were two migration flyways from the breeding grounds in Kazakhstan, along which birds used different staging strategies. A longer western route (c. 5200 km) takes birds west to southern Russia, then south through the Caucasus and the Levant to wintering areas in Saudi Arabia and eastern Sudan. A shorter eastern route (c. 2800 km) takes birds south to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, then over the mountains of northern Afghanistan to wintering areas in Pakistan and north-western India. In spring, birds of the western flyway cut out the Caucasus by making a direct crossing of the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan. The migration strategy is characterised by infrequent long-distance movements followed by often lengthy stopovers in a small number of staging areas that are used consistently across years, and by high individual and low between-individual consistency in patterns of movement, both spatially and temporally. At least four main autumn stopover areas and one additional spring stopover area were identified along the longer western route, but only one autumn and one spring staging area along the eastern route. There was no relationship between latitude or longitude of capture for tagging or colour ringing and the subsequent migration route used, and the same breeding colonies could contain breeding adults and produce chicks of both flyway populations, suggesting that no clear migratory divide exists within the breeding range. Sociable Lapwings spend around a third of the year on their breeding grounds, a third on their wintering grounds and a third moving between them. Birds were highly faithful to their passage and wintering sites, but showed low fidelity to breeding sites. The migration stopover areas and the wintering sites are usually located at the interface of agriculture, particularly irrigated cropland along rivers, and dry steppe-like or desert habitats. This species selects, and perhaps relies upon, agricultural habitats throughout its entire life cycle, and its heavy reliance on some of the world's most anciently cultivated regions suggests that this synanthropic relationship may have evolved over many millennia. The recent emergence of irrigated cropfields in Arabia is likely to have allowed birds using the western route to winter well north of their previous wintering range and maybe to spread into new wintering areas along the coasts of the Arabian Gulf. The concentration of large numbers of birds at a small number of traditional but unprotected migration stopover areas offers the opportunity to quantify and monitor the global population size, for which we derive...

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Post-Soviet Land-Use Change Affected Fire Regimes on the Eurasian Steppes

Cited by 37 publications

References 72 publications

Marmots from space: assessing population size and habitat use of a burrowing mammal using publicly available satellite images

Marmots from space: assessing population size and habitat use of a burrowing mammal using publicly available satellite images

Post‐Soviet shifts in grazing and fire regimes changed the functional plant community composition on the Eurasian steppe

Migration strategy and site fidelity of the globally threatened Sociable Lapwing Vanellus gregarius

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