Rangeland Biodiversity and Climate Variability: Supporting the Need for Flexible Grazing Management

Mounir Louhaichi,Azaiez Ouled Belgacem,Farah Ben Salem,Mouldi Gamoun

doi:10.3390/su13137124

Mounir Louhaichi, Azaiez Ouled Belgacem + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137124

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Abstract

Resting or grazing exclusion is an effective practice widely adopted to restore degraded, arid rangelands. To understand its effect on plant diversity, we studied Hill’s diversity indices during two growing seasons (2017–2019). The experiment consisted of a three-level factorial design with four plant communities subjected to different resting durations (one, two, and three years) compared to continuously grazed areas (control). The results showed that rainfall plays an important role in arid rangeland restoration. Under favorable conditions, one-year grazing exclusion considerably enhanced species richness and evenness diversity compared to longer resting durations under dry to average rainfall conditions. The decision to how long livestock grazing exclusion would last should not be decided upfront as it depends on the climatic and the site-specific conditions. The findings of this study will have vital management implications for development agencies. Knowing that short grazing exclusion with adequate rainfall amount and distribution could be enough and offers a cost-effective technical option to ensure the sustainable restoration of arid rangeland. This flexible grazing management would also be more acceptable by the pastoral communities. Longer resting periods could have detrimental effects on arid rangeland vegetation, in addition to adding more pressure on the remaining rangeland areas open to grazing.

Highlights

IntroductionArid rangelands occupy approximately 60% of the global rangelands and 70% of drylands and sustain 14% of the world’s population and 50% of global livestock [1,2,3].The vegetation dynamics of arid rangelands have long been a focus for numerous scientists trying to understand their relationship with climate and human activities [4,5].Several researchers have challenged the findings of many previous studies that indicate the importance of natural arid rangeland diversity as the major driving force of rangeland health [6,7,8].Natural rangelands in Tunisia cover about 33% (5.5 million ha) of the country’s total territory, 87% of which are located in the south described as arid and desert areas (45%and 42%, respectively)
The highest number of species was in the R. raetam community followed by H. schmittianum, while the lowest value of N0 was recorded in the control
Our results showed the effect of grazing exclusion compared to free continuous grazing on the spatial and temporal dynamics of rangeland vegetation in this arid area

Summary

Introduction

Arid rangelands occupy approximately 60% of the global rangelands and 70% of drylands and sustain 14% of the world’s population and 50% of global livestock [1,2,3].The vegetation dynamics of arid rangelands have long been a focus for numerous scientists trying to understand their relationship with climate and human activities [4,5].Several researchers have challenged the findings of many previous studies that indicate the importance of natural arid rangeland diversity as the major driving force of rangeland health [6,7,8].Natural rangelands in Tunisia cover about 33% (5.5 million ha) of the country’s total territory, 87% of which are located in the south described as arid and desert areas (45%and 42%, respectively). Arid rangelands occupy approximately 60% of the global rangelands and 70% of drylands and sustain 14% of the world’s population and 50% of global livestock [1,2,3]. The vegetation dynamics of arid rangelands have long been a focus for numerous scientists trying to understand their relationship with climate and human activities [4,5]. Southern Tunisia is the driest area of the country as it includes the Great Eastern Erg. Southern Tunisia is the driest area of the country as it includes the Great Eastern Erg These arid rangelands suffer from accelerated degradation due to the combined effects of human pressure and climatic precarity.

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