Functional Resource Heterogeneity Increases Livestock and Rangeland Productivity |
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| Authors: | Richard WS Fynn |
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| Institution: | 1. Research Ecologist, USDA-ARS, Rangeland Resources Research Unit, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA;2. Rangeland Scientist, Rangeland Resources Research Unit, Cheyenne, WY 82009, USA;3. Natural Resource Specialist, USDI-BLM, Cheyenne, WY 82009, USA;4. Rangeland Scientist and Research Leader, USDA-ARS, Rangeland Resources Research Unit, Cheyenne, WY 82009, USA;1. Research Ecologist, USDA-ARS Rangeland Resources Research Unit, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA;2. Research Scientist, Forest and Rangeland Stewardship Department and Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA;3. Research Leader and Rangeland Scientist, USDA-ARS Rangeland Resources Research Unit, Cheyenne, WY 82009, USA;1. Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China;2. Department of Ecology, School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, No. 235 West College Road, 010021 Hohhot, China;3. Grassland Department of Animal Science and Technology College, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China;4. Guizhou Institute of Forest Inventory and Planning, Guiyang, Guizhou 550003, China;5. Institute of Desertification Studies, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China;6. Institute of Ecological Planning and Design, Orient Landscape Arts (Beijing) Co., Beijing 100015, China;7. State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China;8. Department of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China |
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| Abstract: | Most of the world's rangelands are subject to large spatial and temporal variation in forage quantity and quality, which can have severe consequences for the stability and profitability of livestock production. Adaptive foraging movements between functional seasonal resources can help to ameliorate the destabilizing effects on herbivore body stores of spatial and temporal variability of forage quantity and quality. Functional dry-season habitats (key resources) provide sufficient nutrients and energy to minimize reliance on body stores and are critical for maintaining population stability by buffering the effects of drought. Functional wet-season habitats dominated by short, nutritious grasses facilitate optimal intake of nutrients and energy for lactating females, for optimal calf growth rates and for building body stores. Adaptive foraging responses to high-quality focal patches induced by rainfall and disturbance further facilitate intake of nutrients and energy. In addition, focused grazing impact in high-quality patches helps to prevent grassland maturing and losing quality. In this regard, the design of many rotational grazing systems is conceptually flawed because of their inflexible movement of livestock that does not allow adaptation to spatial and temporal variability in forage quantity and quality or sufficient duration of stay in paddocks for livestock to benefit from self facilitation of grazing. Similarly the fixed intraseasonal resting periods of most rotational grazing systems might not coincide with the key pulses of nitrogen mineralization and rainfall in the growing season, which can reduce their efficiency in providing a functional recovery period for grazed grasses. This might explain why complex rotational grazing systems on average have not out-performed continuous grazing systems. It follows, therefore, that ranchers need to adopt flexible grazing management practices that allow adaptation to spatial and temporal variability in forage quantity and quality, allow facilitation of grazing (season-long grazing), and allow more effective recovery periods (season-long resting). |
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