scholarly journals How Biodiversity-Friendly Is Regenerative Grazing?

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig D. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Structure ◽  
Habitat Heterogeneity ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Mechanical Action ◽  
Grazing Management ◽  
Forage Grasses ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Nest Sites ◽  
Total Plant ◽  
Macrofauna Communities

Regenerative grazing management (ReGM) seeks to mimic natural grazing dynamics to restore degraded soils and the ecological processes underpinning sustainable livestock production while enhancing biodiversity. Regenerative grazing, including holistic planned grazing and related methods, is an adaptive, rotational stocking approach in which dense livestock herds are rotated rapidly through multiple paddocks in short bouts of grazing to defoliate plants evenly and infrequently, interspersed with long recovery periods to boost regrowth. The concentrated “hoof action” of herds in ReGM is regarded vital for regenerating soils and ecosystem services. Evidence (from 58 studies) that ReGM benefits biodiversity is reviewed. Soils enriched by ReGM have increased microbial bioactivity, higher fungal:bacteria biomass, greater functional diversity, and richer microarthropods and macrofauna communities. Vegetation responds inconsistently, with increased, neutral, or decreased total plant diversity, richness of forage grasses and invasive species under ReGM: grasses tend to be favored but shrubs and forbs can be depleted by the mechanical action of hooves. Trampling also reduces numerous arthropods by altering vegetation structure, but creates favorable habitat and food for a few taxa, such as dung beetles. Similarly, grazing-induced structural changes benefit some birds (for foraging, nest sites) while heavy stocking during winter and droughts reduces food for seedeaters and songbirds. With herding and no fences, wildlife (herbivores and predators) thrives on nutritious regrowth while having access to large undisturbed areas. It is concluded that ReGM does not universally promote biodiversity but can be adapted to provide greater landscape habitat heterogeneity suitable to a wider range of biota.

Rotational grazing management of forage peanut

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 495-505
Author(s):  
Lucas da Rocha Carvalho ◽  
Lilian Elgalise Techio Pereira ◽  
Sila Carneiro Da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Period ◽  
Early Spring ◽  
Grazing Management ◽  
Dry Matter Accumulation ◽  
Adaptation Period ◽  
Forage Grasses ◽  
Rotational Grazing ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Grazing Tolerance ◽  
Tropical Forage

AbstractThe perennial forage peanut is a stoloniferous, perennial tropical legume with potential for use in pastures. Based on the hypothesis that under intermittent stocking herbage accumulation would follow a similar pattern to that described for tropical forage grasses, the objective of this study was to evaluate canopy characteristics and herbage accumulation of forage peanut subjected to strategies of rotational grazing management. Treatments corresponded to all possible combinations of two grazing frequencies (regrowth interrupted at 95% and maximum canopy light interception – LI95% and LIMax) and two grazing severities (post-grazing canopy heights (CHs) equivalent to 40 and 60% of the pre-grazing heights). Treatments were imposed to experimental units during an adaptation period (from November 2014 to January 2015) and the subsequent experimental period lasted from February 2015 to April 2016, comprising two consecutive pasture growing seasons with no interruption between them (summer I to summer II). The pre-grazing targets of LI95% and LIMax corresponded to CHs of 13 and 18 cm, respectively. Forage peanut showed high grazing tolerance as pre-grazing leaf area index (except during summer I and autumn/winter), total herbage, and leaflet dry matter accumulation varied only with seasons. Higher rates of herbage production were recorded during summer I and summer II, followed by those during late and early spring and autumn/winter. Since there was no difference in the pattern of herbage accumulation between LI95% and LIMax and stolons predominated at the bottom of the canopies, forage peanut may be rotationally grazed with greater flexibility than most tropical forage grasses. Recommended pre-grazing CHs are within 13 and 18 cm, and post-grazing heights between 40 and 60% of the pre-grazing height.

Rotational grazing and exclosure improves grassland condition of the halophytic steppe in Flooding Pampa (Argentina) compared with continuous grazing

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Cristina Vecchio ◽  
V. A. Bolaños ◽  
R. A. Golluscio ◽  
A. M. Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Structure ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Rotational Grazing ◽  
Rangeland Degradation ◽  
Flooding Pampa ◽  
Litter Cover ◽  
Continuous Grazing ◽  
Forage Value ◽  
High Forage

The most common grazing management applied on rangelands is continuous grazing. However, it can cause negative changes in vegetation structure and ecosystem functioning, leading to rangeland degradation. In Flooding Pampa rangelands, scientific evidence in favour of rotational over continuous grazing was developed on the humid mesophytic meadow and the humid prairie communities, but not on the halophytic steppe community. We evaluated the changes in species composition, richness and diversity, vegetation and litter cover, functional group composition and forage quality during 8 years in halophytic steppe subjected to both continuous or rotational grazing, and exclusion from grazing. Grazing exclusion and a rotational grazing system caused significant changes in the vegetation structure compared with continuous grazing. These treatments increased vegetation and litter cover, the contribution of summer and annual and perennial winter grasses, all them of high forage value, and encouraged the appearance of several grasses adapted to fertile, well drained and non-saline soils. Because of these structural changes, species richness, diversity and pastoral value increased in the halophytic steppe of the Flooding Pampa, in a manner previously demonstrated in other grassland communities of this region.

scholarly journals Integrating Environmental Variables by Multivariate Ordination enables the Reliable Estimation of Mineland Rehabilitation Status

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Gastauer ◽  
Silvio Ramos ◽  
Cecílio Caldeira ◽  
Leonardo Trevelin ◽  
Rodolfo Jaffé ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Structure ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Community Diversity ◽  
Reference Sites ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Mato Grosso ◽  
Multivariate Ordination ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Rehabilitation Status

Despite the wide variety of variables commonly applied to measure different aspects of rehabilitation, the assessment and subsequent definition of indicators of environmental rehabilitation status are not simple tasks. The main challenges are comparing rehabilitated sites with target ecosystems as well as integrating individual environmental and eventually collinear variables into a single tractable measure of the state of a system before effective indicators that track rehabilitation may be modeled. For that, a consensus is lacking regarding which and how many variables need to be surveyed. Our approach considered ecological processes, vegetation structure, and community diversity from nonrehabilitated, rehabilitating and reference sites. We applied this approach to a curated set of 32 environmental variables retrieved from nonrevegetated, rehabilitating and reference sites associated with iron ore mines from the Urucum Massif, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. By integrating variables from a single attribute or the entire set of variables into a single estimation of rehabilitation status, the proposed multivariate approach is straightforward and able to adequately address collinearity among variables. The proposed approach allows for the identification of biases towards single variables, surveys or analyses, which is necessary to rank environmental variables regarding their importance to the assessment. Furthermore, we show that bootstrapping permitted the detection of the minimum number of environmental variables necessary to achieve reliable estimations of the rehabilitation status. Finally, we show that the proposed variable integration enables the definition of environmental indicators for more comprehensive monitoring of mineland rehabilitation. Thus, the proposed multivariate ordination represents a powerful tool to outline the benefits of rehabilitating sites for the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services provided that sufficient environmental variables related to ecological processes, diversity and vegetation structure are gathered from nonrehabilitated, rehabilitating and reference study sites. By identifying deviations from predicted rehabilitation trajectories and providing assessments for environmental agencies, this proposed multivariate ordination increases the effectiveness of (mineland) rehabilitation.

scholarly journals Forage Yield of Five Grasses Under Intensive Grazing Management in the Humid Region of Puerto Rico

1969 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-263
Author(s):  
Edmundo Rivera ◽  
José Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Forage Yield ◽  
Grazing Management ◽  
Yield Potential ◽  
Experimental Plot ◽  
Forage Grasses ◽  
Humid Region ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Intensively Managed

Three grasses on intensively managed and grazed 10 x 10 m plots produced statistically similar yields of dry forage over a 3-year period expressed in kg/ha/yr as follows: Stargrass—12,445; Coast Cross #1—12,285; and Hemarthria PI 299995—13,685. Hemarthria PI 299994 produced significantly higher yields—15,370 kg/ha/yr. Cynodon plectostachyus, on the other hand, did not tolerate intensive grazing and produced only 4,695 kg/ha during the second year. Yields of Star and Hemarthria PI 299995 were comparable to yields obtained in a large scale grazing experiment nearby, which confirmed the validity of the small experimental plot technique in determining yield potential of grazed forage grasses.

Modeling the effect of changing market conditions on mountain pine beetle salvage harvesting and structural changes in the British Columbia forest products industry

2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (10) ◽  
pp. 1806-1820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olaf Schwab ◽  
Thomas Maness ◽  
Gary Bull ◽  
Don Roberts
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Mountain Pine Beetle ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
Wood Products ◽  
Forest Sector ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Mountain Pine ◽  
Pine Beetle ◽  
Salvage Harvesting

This paper describes the development and implementation of Cambium, an agent-based forest sector model for strategic analysis. This model is designed as a decision-support tool for assessing the effects that changes in product demand and resource inventories can have on the structure and economic viability of the forest sector. Cambium models aggregate product supply as an emergent property of individual companies’ production decisions and stand-level ecological processes. Modeling the forest-products sector as a group of interacting autonomous economic agents makes it possible to include production capacity dynamics and the potential for mill insolvencies as factors in analyzing the effects of market and forest inventory based disturbances. The utility of this model is tested by assessing the impacts of a market downturn in the US forest products market on forest industry structure and mountain pine beetle ( Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) salvage harvesting in British Columbia, Canada. Simulation results indicate a significant medium-term timber supply shortage; reduced stumpage revenues; intensive cost competition among primary wood-products manufacturers; and a large number of insolvencies in the panel, lumber, and pulp sectors.

Predicting the effects of grazing management on moorland bird abundance

2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 ◽  
pp. 69-69
Author(s):  
S. M. Gardner ◽  
G. M. Buchanan ◽  
J. W. Pearce-Higgins ◽  
M. C. Grant
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Plant Competition ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Grazing Management ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Bird Abundance

Field studies of grazing management have frequently concluded that the magnitude and direction of vegetation response is dependent on initial vegetation condition. On upland heath, this dependence reflects the importance of small-scale ecological processes (e.g. plant competition), and local neighbourhood effects (e.g. spatial distribution of plant species), in driving the vegetation dynamics. These small-scale effects, together with variation in grazing patterns, increase the difficulty of deriving general rules about the effect of grazing on vegetation change from field studies. However, we need to determine the impacts of such grazing-related vegetation change upon biodiversity, (e.g. birds). For many bird species it is impractical to use experimental approaches due to low breeding densities, and the influence of other site and management effects (e.g. predator control). To predict the effect of management changes on them requires an accurate assessment of the large-scale effects of grazing management on the ecological landscape using data from small-scale field studies. This paper sets out an approach that integrates field studies with theoretical models to investigate the large-scale effects of grazing management on plant and bird communities on upland heath.

Effects of slash-and-burn fallow periods on landscape structure

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 325-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Paul Metzger
Keyword(s):  
Landscape Structure ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Agricultural System ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Fallow Period ◽  
Slash And Burn ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Secondary Vegetation

Slash-and-burn is a widespread agricultural system practised by more than 250 million people in tropical regions. It is sustainable when fallow periods allow for the restoration of organic matter and nutrient losses that occur during the cropping phase. However, fallow periods have been reduced in most slash-and-burn systems as population density has increased. The consequent landscape structure modification occurring throughout this process can affect several ecological processes. As a first step in understanding these modifications, the present study aimed to test the effects of fallow period reduction on landscape structure by examining a total of 34 lots of 25–250 ha each in the north-east of the Brazilian Amazon. Sixteen lots with long fallow periods (about 10 years) were compared with 18 lots where fallow periods were reduced to c. four years. The reduction in fallow period created a more homogeneous landscape, largely dominated by agricultural and young secondary vegetation. The main mechanism leading to this homogenization was a more intensive use of initial secondary vegetation for agriculture. On average, the percentage of land used more intensively for agriculture was four times higher in short fallow period areas than in long-period areas. The increase in agricultural area is related to both an increase in the number of agricultural fields and also to an increase in the area of these fields. The proportions of forest and old secondary vegetation in the landscape were reduced as a consequence of a reduction in patch size, without significant fragmentation or patch losses. These structural changes appeared to be more usual in large properties belonging to several families. Further studies are needed to understand the consequences of these modifications for landscape functioning, but it is possible to speculate, based on previous studies, that these structural changes can lead to a reduction in the speed of regeneration processes.

scholarly journals Geographical analysis of vegetation structure and sightings for four large bird species in the Kruger National Park, South Africa

1998 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-108
Author(s):  
A. C. Kemp ◽  
G. W. Benn ◽  
K. S. Begg
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Vegetation Structure ◽  
National Park ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Kruger National Park ◽  
Bird Populations ◽  
Nest Sites ◽  
Large Bird ◽  
Kori Bustard

SummaryThe extensive spatial organization of many large-bird populations is difficult to assess. We used a geographic information system to correlate vegetation structure with random sightings for four large bird species that occur throughout the 20,000 km2 Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa. Vegetation structure was assessed visually during 1991-1992 for the 1093 2-5′-quadrats that cover the KNP. Sightings were made during 1991-1994 of Kori Bustard Ardeotis kori, Martial Eagle Polemaetus bellicosus, Lappet-faced Vulture Torgos tracheliotus and Southern Ground Hornbill Bucorvus leadbeateri, and their nest sites. As control, comparative data on ground hornbills were also available from annual aerial censuses during 1982-1994, and from records of nest sites during 1966-1996. Each species had its highest positive correlation with a different set of vegetation categories, ranging in value from the hornbill (1.13) and vulture (1.15) up to the eagle (1.32) and bustard (1.49). Nest sites had higher correlations (hornbill 1.65, vulture 2.85) than records of free-living birds. The same vegetation categories that had the highest correlations with random sightings of ground hornbills and their nests also had the highest correlations with the more extensive and systematic data from aerial census and long-term nest records. Our method of correlating vegetation structure with random data is predictive, testable and has application to the conservation management of other sparsely distributed species.

scholarly journals Productivity of Four Intensively Managed Grasses under Grazing Management in the Humid Hill Region of Puerto Rico

1969 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-240
Author(s):  
José Rodríguez ◽  
Edmundo Rivera ◽  
José Vicente-Chandler
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Grazing Management ◽  
Yield Potential ◽  
Experimental Plot ◽  
Forage Grasses ◽  
Grazing Experiment ◽  
Hill Region ◽  
Intensively Managed

Four grasses on intensively managed, grazed 10 x 10 m plots produced similar yields of dry forage expressed in kg/ha/yr as follows: Pangola—10,330; Signal—9,900; Tanner—11,030; and Transvala—10 ,620. Yields of Signal, Tanner and Congo grasses were comparable to yields obtained in a large scale grazing experiment nearby, a fact which confirmed the validity of the small experimental plot technique in determining yield potential of forage grasses under grazing management.

scholarly journals An Assessment of Leporid Research and Landscape Ecology Metrics in a European Landscape

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelsey Gilcrease
Keyword(s):  
Landscape Ecology ◽  
Landscape Metrics ◽  
Vegetation Structure ◽  
Habitat Type ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
European Rabbit ◽  
European Hare ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
And Function

Abstract Leporids play a dynamic role in the ecosystem and assessments must be undertaken in order to improve research efforts and methods. Landscape ecology metrics are used to quantify components of leporid habitat such as vegetation structure, vegetation cover, habitat type, and fragmentation; however, the degree to which the metrics are utilized in leporid research is relatively unknown. This paper assessed fifty-three published, peer reviewed papers on leporids from various European countries on where the study was done, the species of leporid that was studied, the content of the study (i.e. what the paper focused on), the length of the study, the size of the study area, and the method of study. The quantified landscape metrics within these papers were assessed. This study found that most of the studies occurred in Spain, the European rabbit and European hare were the most studied leporids, many papers were concerned with habitat relationships, many of the studies were conducted in a year or less, many papers utilized pellet surveys and trapping, and the most common landscape metric utilized was habitat type. This survey of research on leporids highlights that there is a lack of utilizing landscape structure and function metrics such as slope, fragmentation, and edge effect. These are important variables to help connect structure and function of ecological processes in the context of leporid habitat and landscapes. It is recommended that leporid researchers and landscape planners exchange research findings so that the best planning practices can occur on the ground for the leporids

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