Sensitivity of Global Pasturelands to Climate Variation

Radost Stanimirova,Paulo Arévalo,Robert K Kaufmann,Mark A Friedl,Petr Havlík,Myroslava Lesiv,Victor Maus

doi:10.1029/2019ef001316

Abstract

AbstractPasturelands are globally extensive, sensitive to climate, and support livestock production systems that provide an essential source of food in many parts of the world. In this paper, we integrate information from remote sensing, global climate, and land use databases to improve understanding of the resilience and resistance of this ecologically vulnerable and societally critical land use. To characterize the effect of climate on pastureland productivity at global scale, we analyze the relationship between satellite‐derived enhanced vegetation index data from MODIS and gridded precipitation data from CHIRPS at 3‐ and 6‐month time lags. To account for the effects of different production systems, we stratify our analysis by agroecological zones and by rangeland versus mixed crop‐livestock systems. Results show that 14.5% of global pasturelands experienced statistically significant greening or browning trends over the 15‐year study period, with the majority of these locations showing greening. In arid ecosystems, precipitation and lagged vegetation index anomalies explain up to 69% of variation in vegetation productivity in both crop‐livestock and rangeland‐based production systems. Livestock production systems in Australia are least resistant to contemporaneous and short‐term precipitation anomalies, while arid livestock production systems in Latin America are least resilient to short‐term vegetation greenness anomalies. Because many arid regions of the world are projected to experience decreased total precipitation and increased precipitation variability in the coming decades, improved understanding regarding the sensitivity of pasturelands to the joint effects of climate change and livestock production systems is required to support sustainable land management in global pasturelands.

Highlights

More than a third of Earth's ice‐free land surface is occupied by agriculture, of which nearly 70% is used as pastureland to support livestock (Foley et al, 2011)
As part of our analysis, we examined two key properties of pastureland response to precipitation: engineering resilience, which we define here as the time required for vegetation to recover following a disturbance, and resistance, which reflects the ability of pasturelands to withstand drought
This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the sensitivity of global pasturelands to change in precipitation across multiple agroecological zones and livestock production systems

Summary

Introduction

More than a third of Earth's ice‐free land surface is occupied by agriculture, of which nearly 70% is used as pastureland to support livestock (Foley et al, 2011). Pasturelands occupy a disproportionate share of agricultural land, their productivity, resilience, and resistance to climate change are much less well‐ studied relative to croplands (Foley et al, 2011; Ramankutty et al, 2002). Because these systems are important both ecologically and to local and global economies, incomplete understanding regarding the dynamics and vulnerabilities of pastureland ecosystems to the joint effects of climate and livestock production systems represents a key knowledge gap. Friedl Software: Radost Stanimirova, Paulo Arévalo, Robert K.

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Discussion

Conclusion