Lecture 8: Range Inventory And Monitoring Flashcards
Range Inventory
Systematic identification, mapping, and quantification of ecosystem biophysical components, and the human infrastructure needed to manage livestock
Rangeland monitoring
Evaluating the impact of grazing and browsing on a plant community to facilitate management changes. Can also be the interpretation of range inventory data
Which level does inventory occur at?
Occurs at the level of the landscape
What is included in an inventory?
- total area
- pasture size and fencing
- infrastructure, roads, buildings
- water, natural and artificial sources
- livestock and wildlife
- vegetation and soils
What does monitoring include?
- precipitation
- production
- plant community and ecosystem health
- grazing use
- animal production
- profits
- changes in wildlife populations
Mapping
Focuses on the vegetation present. Usually an aerial photo via GIS. From this we can classify vegetation broadly and estimate biomass
Vegetation
What types of plant communities are present? This includes spices composition and abundance. Plant classification includes community types and their associations. For site selection, we assume it is representative, and that if we manage for the sensitive areas, adequate management will be ensured at all areas.
Vegetation cover and density
Two different types of data
- density has to do with spatial arrangement, and how close they are.
- cover has to do with the actual biomass
Frequency
The proportion of fixed area plots with a given plant species. This is easy to measure, but is not good for management
Height
A crude indicator of plant vigorous. It is often used to assess habitat quality
Biomass production/productivity
The ANPP is the annual net primary production. This is the total new plant growth in a growing season
Herbage
Total plant biomass of all grasses and Forbes at one point in time
Forage
Total plant biomass that is acceptable for animal consumption
Browse
Leaves and twigs of shrubs and trees that are available and acceptable for animal consumption
Utilization
The amount of production removed by herbivores
Forage quality
This is the crude protein and the acid digestible fibre
Inventory data collection methods depend on
Cost, time, personnel, data needs, and variability
Infrastructure: pasture
Land areas exposed to herbivores at one point in time. Limits are usually fenced, includes the number and size of pastures, and the distribution of location, elevation, and topography
Infrastructure: fencing
Perimeter vs. Cross fencing, permanent or electric, and game proof or cattle proof
Infrastructure: water
Number of sources, location, distribution, type, and quality of water
Stages of grazing induced retrogression
- Reduction in vegetation stature/ height
- Decline in herbivore preferred plant species
- Replacement of preferred species with avoided and/ or grazing tolerant species
- Loss of litter, soil xerification
- Further composition shifts from mesic to xeric adapted species
- Extensive litter loss, leading to accelerated erosion, loss of OM, and decline in soil quality
Plant responses to grazing
Decreasers: decline in abundance under any grazing
Increasers: peak abundance under light to moderate grazing
Trend
The direction of change in range condition, used traditionally to describe conditions for livestock.
Linear retrogression model
Assumes response to grazing is predictable and reversible