Rangeland Ecology & Management

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EXPLORING THE JORDANIANS; RANGELAND STATUS TRANSITION: MERGING THE RESTORATION EXPERIMENT WITH MODELING
Author
Haddad, Mira
Strohmeier, Stefan
Vries, Job de
Nouwakpo, Sayjro K.
Al-Hamdan, Osama
Weltz, Mark A.
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2018
Body

Due to recurring droughts and severe overgrazing, Jordan�s dry rangelands are exceptionally prone to degradation. Establishing both restoration and sustainable rangeland management practices are crucial to reverse the negative impacts on soil stability, biotic integrity, and hydrological function of the ecosystem; however, a primary estimate of baseline water and sediment fluxes is essential to properly identify ecological potential for a sustainable transition from degraded to a more productive re-vegetated landscape. In Jordan, application of mechanized micro-Water Harvesting (WH) for an out-planting of native shrub seedlings is a widely applied restoration approach; thus, supporting the development of shrub communities forming islands within the previously ploughed micro-pits on degraded and hard-crusted lands. In this study, the Rangeland Hydrology and Erosion Model (RHEM) was used to explore three different rangeland states and their implications on water and soil fluxes: i) the purported historical vegetation and baseline of site condition using peer reviewed literature, testimonies provided by scientists, and citizen science provided data, ii) the actual land degradation status, and iii) micro-Water Harvesting equilibrium restored site scenarios based on field monitoring and modeling. A rangeland experimental site near Amman, Jordan, provided diverse monitoring data for subsequent validation by modeling. RHEM was applied to conduct 1) a long-term state and transition assessment for hill slope scenarios (i-iii), and 2) an event based on spatially distributed watershed models that provided different scenarios which suggested various landscape response patterns. The spatial-temporal assessment of water and sediment transport at baseline, and on degraded and restored rangelands in Jordan sheds light on the sustainability of sites restored with the micro-WH approach and assessment of future applications of restoration to approximate resilient equilibrium water and soil dynamics.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Reno, NV