IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i13p7124-d581829.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rangeland Biodiversity and Climate Variability: Supporting the Need for Flexible Grazing Management

Author

Listed:
  • Mounir Louhaichi

    (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Tunis 1004, Tunisia)

  • Mouldi Gamoun

    (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Tunis 1004, Tunisia)

  • Farah Ben Salem

    (Institut des Régions Arides, Medenine 4191, Tunisia)

  • Azaiez Ouled Belgacem

    (Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

Resting or grazing exclusion is an effective practice widely adopted to restore degraded, arid rangelands. To understand its effect on plant diversity, we studied Hill’s diversity indices during two growing seasons (2017–2019). The experiment consisted of a three-level factorial design with four plant communities subjected to different resting durations (one, two, and three years) compared to continuously grazed areas (control). The results showed that rainfall plays an important role in arid rangeland restoration. Under favorable conditions, one-year grazing exclusion considerably enhanced species richness and evenness diversity compared to longer resting durations under dry to average rainfall conditions. The decision to how long livestock grazing exclusion would last should not be decided upfront as it depends on the climatic and the site-specific conditions. The findings of this study will have vital management implications for development agencies. Knowing that short grazing exclusion with adequate rainfall amount and distribution could be enough and offers a cost-effective technical option to ensure the sustainable restoration of arid rangeland. This flexible grazing management would also be more acceptable by the pastoral communities. Longer resting periods could have detrimental effects on arid rangeland vegetation, in addition to adding more pressure on the remaining rangeland areas open to grazing.

Suggested Citation

  • Mounir Louhaichi & Mouldi Gamoun & Farah Ben Salem & Azaiez Ouled Belgacem, 2021. "Rangeland Biodiversity and Climate Variability: Supporting the Need for Flexible Grazing Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-16, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:13:p:7124-:d:581829
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/13/7124/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/13/7124/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Katja Tielbörger & Mark C. Bilton & Johannes Metz & Jaime Kigel & Claus Holzapfel & Edwin Lebrija-Trejos & Irit Konsens & Hadas A. Parag & Marcelo Sternberg, 2014. "Middle-Eastern plant communities tolerate 9 years of drought in a multi-site climate manipulation experiment," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Mouldi Gamoun & Mounir Louhaichi, 2021. "Botanical Composition and Species Diversity of Arid and Desert Rangelands in Tataouine, Tunisia," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-12, March.
    3. Suizi Wang & Jiangwen Fan & Yuzhe Li & Lin Huang, 2019. "Effects of Grazing Exclusion on Biomass Growth and Species Diversity among Various Grassland Types of the Tibetan Plateau," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-13, March.
    4. Azaiez Ouled Belgacem & Mounir Louhaichi, 2013. "The vulnerability of native rangeland plant species to global climate change in the West Asia and North African regions," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 119(2), pages 451-463, July.
    5. Jerry L. Holechek & Hatim M. E. Geli & Andres F. Cibils & Mohammed N. Sawalhah, 2020. "Climate Change, Rangelands, and Sustainability of Ranching in the Western United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-24, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Moses Fayiah & ShiKui Dong & Sphiwe Wezzie Khomera & Syed Aziz Ur Rehman & Mingyue Yang & Jiannan Xiao, 2020. "Status and Challenges of Qinghai–Tibet Plateau’s Grasslands: An Analysis of Causes, Mitigation Measures, and Way Forward," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-21, February.
    2. Lixiang Liu & Yongwei Han & Weiwei Liu & Yuemin Liu, 2023. "Plant Community and Soil Properties Regulate Space-Scale Dependence of Species Diversity under Grazing Exclusion and Rest Grazing in the Qilian Mountains of China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-19, October.
    3. Mouldi Gamoun & Mounir Louhaichi, 2021. "Botanical Composition and Species Diversity of Arid and Desert Rangelands in Tataouine, Tunisia," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-12, March.
    4. Zhilu Sheng & Jiaqiang Du & Bingqing Sun & Jialin Mao & Yangchengsi Zhang & Jing Zhang & Zhaoyan Diao, 2022. "The Role of Plant Functional Diversity in Regulating Soil Organic Carbon Stocks under Different Grazing Intensities in Temperate Grassland, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-13, April.
    5. Fathi Abdellatif Belhouadjeb & Abdallah Boumakhleb & Abdelhalim Toaiba & Abdelghafour Doghbage & Benbader Habib & Hassen Boukerker & Enrique Murgueitio & Walid Soufan & Mohamad Isam Almadani & Belkace, 2022. "The Forage Plantation Program between Desertification Mitigation and Livestock Feeding: An Economic Analysis," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, June.
    6. Castaño-Sánchez, José P. & Rotz, C. Alan & McIntosh, Matthew M. & Tolle, Cindy & Gifford, Craig A. & Duff, Glenn C. & Spiegal, Sheri A., 2023. "Grass finishing of Criollo cattle can provide an environmentally preferred and cost effective meat supply chain from United States drylands," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    7. Afshin Ghahramani & S. Mark Howden & Agustin del Prado & Dean T. Thomas & Andrew D. Moore & Boyu Ji & Serkan Ates, 2019. "Climate Change Impact, Adaptation, and Mitigation in Temperate Grazing Systems: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-30, December.
    8. Ashraf J. Zaied & Hatim M. E. Geli & Andres F. Cibils & Mohammed N. Sawalhah & Jerry L. Holechek & Charlotte C. Gard & Saleh A. Idhirij & Melakeneh G. Gedefaw & Greg L. Torell, 2021. "Beef Cattle Price and Production Patterns in Relation to Drought in New Mexico," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-20, September.
    9. Edoardo Bellini & Raphaël Martin & Giovanni Argenti & Nicolina Staglianò & Sergi Costafreda-Aumedes & Camilla Dibari & Marco Moriondo & Gianni Bellocchi, 2023. "Opportunities for Adaptation to Climate Change of Extensively Grazed Pastures in the Central Apennines (Italy)," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-22, January.
    10. Ji-Zhong Wan & Chun-Jing Wang & Fei-Hai Yu, 2017. "Spatial conservation prioritization for dominant tree species of Chinese forest communities under climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 303-316, September.
    11. Youssef Chebli & Mouad Chentouf & Jean-François Cabaraux & Samira El Otmani, 2023. "Floristic Composition, Diversity, Palatability, and Forage Availability of Forest Rangelands in the Southern Mediterranean Region of Northern Morocco," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, January.
    12. Jerry L. Holechek & Hatim M. E. Geli & Mohammed N. Sawalhah & Raul Valdez, 2022. "A Global Assessment: Can Renewable Energy Replace Fossil Fuels by 2050?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-22, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:13:p:7124-:d:581829. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.