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International symposium on silvopastoral systems and second congress on agroforestry and livestock production in Latin America

Year of publication 2002

Pages 478

Author Animal Production and Health Division

Product type Book (stand-alone)

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) Pasture degradation is a significant problem throughout the world. Restoration of degraded pastures is expensive. This information is needed in order to (a) target limited resources to degraded areas with the highest potential for recovery, (b) document restoration project success, and (c) explain the effects of restoration projects to farmers and funding organizations. Most existing monitoring systems either focus on one specific aspect (e.g. forage production) or are extremely expensive. Furt hermore, they rarely integrate soil and vegetation indicators. The USDA Agricultural Research Service in cooperation with a large number of individuals and organizations recently developed a flexible system for designing long-term soil and vegetation monitoring programs for grassland, shrubland and savanna ecosystems (Herrick et al., in review). The indicators reflect changes in basic ecological processes which are fundamental to the sustainability and productivity of nearly all pasture and rangeland ecosystems. Three core soil and vegetation measurements (line-point intercept, gap intercept and soil aggregate stability) are used to calculate multiple indicators of three key ecosystem attributes: soil and site stability, hydrologic function and biotic integrity. The core measurements can also be used to generate use-specific indicators, such as composition of key forage species. Optional measurements are incorporated based on site-specific resource concerns, such as nutrient availability. Nutrient availability is treated separately because different measurements are often required for different soils and plant species. Furthermore, nutrient availability is difficult to measure accurately in the field and biotic integrity indicators generally reflect overall soil nutrient status at a much lower cost. However, where nutrient limitation is a significant problem which can be addressed through management, nutrient measurements should be considered.

Language English

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