Abstract
Grazing lands should be monitored to ensure their productivity and the preservation of ecosystem services. The study objective was to investigate the effectiveness of an Ecological Health Index (EHI) for assessing ecosystem ecological health in grazing lands. The EHI was developed by synthesizing existing vegetation and soil cover indicators. We implemented long-term transects at 44 farms from two ecological regions in Patagonia, the Humid Magellan Steppe (HMS) (n = 24) and Subandean Grasslands (SG) (n = 20), to collect data on established quantifiable vegetative and soil measurements and the EHI. Using known quantifiable measures, the HMS had numerically greater species richness compared to SG. Similarly, the average percentage of total live vegetation was more favorable in HMS. Correlating the EHI with these known quantifiable measures demonstrated positive correlations with species richness, the percentage of total live vegetation and carrying capacity and was negatively correlations with bare ground. These results suggest that EHI could be a useful method to detect the ecological health and productivity in grazing lands. Overall, we conclude that EHI is an effective short-term monitoring approach that ranchers could implement annually to monitor grazing lands and determine the impacts of ranch decision-making on important ecosystem indicators.
Highlights
Grazing lands are necessary ecosystems to human life and occupy 3.6 billion ha or about one third of global land area [1]
Correlating the Ecological Health Index (EHI) with these known quantifiable measures demonstrated positive correlations with species richness, the percentage of total live vegetation and carrying capacity and was negatively correlations with bare ground. These results suggest that EHI could be a useful method to detect the ecological health and productivity in grazing lands
The EHI is a monitoring protocol that utilizes tools from multiple land assessment approaches. By measuring both EHI and quantifiable measurements (QM) and conducting correlation analysis between the two, our data indicate that EHI increased with species richness, percentage of total live vegetation and decreased with percentage of bare ground
Summary
Grazing lands are necessary ecosystems to human life and occupy 3.6 billion ha or about one third of global land area [1]. Existing grazing lands must be managed for their long-term productivity and health. Knowledge and techniques assessing the impact (positive or negative) of management of grazing lands on ecosystem services are critical. To monitor the ecological health of grazing lands, several methods and techniques are used. These monitoring strategies employ direct field sampling and lab measurement to obtain precise data of specific ecosystem properties such as vegetation composition and soil organic matter [3,4,5,6]. The ecological processes (water cycle, energy flow and nutrient cycle) and their interrelationships are very complex which make it difficult or expensive to directly measure, by land managers [7]. Spatial and temporal variability in extensive grazing management systems
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