Theme 1-1: Rangeland/Grassland Ecology--Oral Sessions
Description
Grasslands can play a crucial role in mitigation of global warming by serving as carbon sink. Nevertheless, to achieve the grasslands’ potential, sustainable management is of the utmost importance as it determines system’s productivity and ecosystem services. Due to the increasing demand for animal products in developing countries, grazed areas increase exponentially in the tropics, mainly due to unsustainable management leading to low productivity and soil degradation. We evaluated the impact of intensive rotational grazing management (IRG) on early indicators of soil quality following land-use change based on on-farm observations of visual soil characteristics using two different widely used assessment methods: visual soil assessment-VSA and visual evaluation of soil structure-VESS. Correlation of visual methods were combined with measurements of soil macrofauna abundance and physical properties (e.g. bulk density, soil porosity). The IRG established in two study sites in Colombia was compared with traditional long-term continuous grazing with low stocking rate (1 LU ha-1). The IRG was based on rapid (1 day) cattle grazing in paddocks with high stocking rate (180 LU ha-1) followed by 60 days of recovery. In both study sites, IRG increased considerably total stocking rate to 4 LU ha-1 while improving grassland composition by enabling more valuable species, which contributed to soil quality and increased grassland productivity. Both VSA and VESS discriminated IRG-managed sites in less than one year after IRG adoption. Our results demonstrate that visual soil assessment is a useful mean for evaluation of soil quality and grassland productivity. Furthermore, VSA and VESS seemed to be more suitable in discriminating among management in early stages, when compared to commonly used soil physical properties, and were strongly correlated mainly to the abundance of earthworms. Furthermore, our study confirms the importance of grazing management in soil quality and ecosystem productivity/sustainability.
Included in
Visual Assessment of Soil Structure as an Early Indicator of Soil Quality in Response to Intensive Rotational Grazing
Grasslands can play a crucial role in mitigation of global warming by serving as carbon sink. Nevertheless, to achieve the grasslands’ potential, sustainable management is of the utmost importance as it determines system’s productivity and ecosystem services. Due to the increasing demand for animal products in developing countries, grazed areas increase exponentially in the tropics, mainly due to unsustainable management leading to low productivity and soil degradation. We evaluated the impact of intensive rotational grazing management (IRG) on early indicators of soil quality following land-use change based on on-farm observations of visual soil characteristics using two different widely used assessment methods: visual soil assessment-VSA and visual evaluation of soil structure-VESS. Correlation of visual methods were combined with measurements of soil macrofauna abundance and physical properties (e.g. bulk density, soil porosity). The IRG established in two study sites in Colombia was compared with traditional long-term continuous grazing with low stocking rate (1 LU ha-1). The IRG was based on rapid (1 day) cattle grazing in paddocks with high stocking rate (180 LU ha-1) followed by 60 days of recovery. In both study sites, IRG increased considerably total stocking rate to 4 LU ha-1 while improving grassland composition by enabling more valuable species, which contributed to soil quality and increased grassland productivity. Both VSA and VESS discriminated IRG-managed sites in less than one year after IRG adoption. Our results demonstrate that visual soil assessment is a useful mean for evaluation of soil quality and grassland productivity. Furthermore, VSA and VESS seemed to be more suitable in discriminating among management in early stages, when compared to commonly used soil physical properties, and were strongly correlated mainly to the abundance of earthworms. Furthermore, our study confirms the importance of grazing management in soil quality and ecosystem productivity/sustainability.
