Abstract
Effective grazing management in Australia’s semi-arid rangelands requires monitoring landscape conditions and identifying sustainable and productive practice through understanding the interactions of environmental factors and management of soil health. Challenges include extreme rainfall variability, intensifying drought, and inherently nutrient-poor soils. We investigated the impacts of grazing strategies on landscape function—specifically soil health—as the foundation for productive pastures, integrating the heterogenous nature of grass tussocks and the interspaces that naturally exist in between them. At Wambiana—a long-term research site in north-eastern Australia—we studied two soil types, two stocking rates (high, moderate), and resting land from grazing during wet seasons (rotational spelling). Rotational spelling had the highest biocrust (living soil cover), in interspaces and under grass tussocks. Biocrusts were dominated by cyanobacteria that binds soil particles, reduces erosion, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, and improves soil fertility. Rotational spelling with a moderate stocking rate emerged as best practice at these sites, with adjustment of stocking rates in line with rainfall and soil type recommended. In drought-prone environments, monitoring the presence and integrity of biocrusts connects landscape function and soil health. Biocrusts that protect and enrich the soil will support long-term ecosystem integrity and economic profitability of cattle production in rangelands.
Highlights
Beef cattle grazing is the dominant industry in Australia’s subtropical and tropical savannas and grasslands that cover much of the continent
We investigated the drivers of soil function that influence the key principles for grazing management in northern Australia [18] including: (1) manage stocking rates to meet goals for livestock production and land condition, (2) periodically rest pastures to maintain a good condition, and (3) restore pastures from poor condition to increase productivity
We found a similar occurrence in the red-yellow earths, where the loss of biocrust in all the stocked paddocks has resulted in a significant loss of landscape function across all three soil health indices
Summary
Beef cattle grazing is the dominant industry in Australia’s subtropical and tropical savannas and grasslands that cover much of the continent. We investigated the drivers of soil function that influence the key principles for grazing management in northern Australia [18] including: (1) manage stocking rates to meet goals for livestock production and land condition, (2) periodically rest pastures to maintain a good condition, and (3) restore pastures from poor condition to increase productivity. It follows that cattle stocking rates influence soil condition through the removal of the understory vegetation with grazing and the trampling of the soil’s surface. We expect the preferential use of interspaces by easy passageway to access pasture to be impacted by stocking density, exace the soil unrdaeirngfarallssdesef[i8c]i.eWnceitehseraenfodredhryopuogthhets[i1ze9d].thWatebaiolscorusetv-caoluvearteeddinwtehrespthaecerspaereriodic w iamndpoprltaannt-tradevrsaitivilnaebrgslefornfoutmhtreiecsnaottistll.–eWpplearneotxvpcioedncettsitnhtuehuepmroe,pfepprreoonrvttiiudanlinuitgsyesfoooiflrisnbttaieobrscilprituaycs,etwsrbaetyceocrvaitnetfirleylta.rsateiaosny, passageway to access pasture to be impacted by stocking density, exacerbated by rainfall deficiencie2s.aMndadterroiuaglhsta[n19d].MWeetahlosodsevaluated whether periodic wet season resting from cattle prov2id.1e.sStihte Bopapckogrrtuounnitdy for biocrust recovery
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