Rangeland Ecology & Management

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A GEOGRAPHICALLY-BROAD ASSESSMENT OF RANGELAND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AND INFLUENCE OF GRAZING MANAGEMENT
Author
White, Shannon R.
Habib, Thomas J.
Farr, Dan
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2014
Body

Quantitative assessment of multiple ecosystem services (ES) can help recognize the full value of a land base, identify management practices that lead to increased ES provision, and eventually lead to novel markets. However, we are generally lacking the geographically-broad, comprehensive assessments of ES that are needed to inform policy. This information is particularly necessary in rangelands, with their history of competing land uses, and importance in providing multiple ES. Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing value-neutral biological information, and is partnered with numerous universities, and private and public sector organizations. As such, it is well-suited to providing a credible, high-quality assessment of ES. We performed an extensive assessment of the value of two ES – forage production and carbon storage – across the native rangeland of Alberta, Canada, and effects of grazing management on these ES. We used publicly-available climate and soils data as input into the CENTURY model, which is widely used to model soil carbon and related ecosystem processes, to estimate these services at 29,105 rangeland sites with unique combinations of soil and climate characteristics. We estimate the value of rangeland in providing forage at $1.1 billion, based on the cost of equivalent supplemental feed, and the value of total stored soil carbon as $1.7 billion, based on current market value of carbon. Higher stocking rates decreased both aboveground productivity and total soil carbon, suggesting that sustainable stocking rates can be used to maximise ES provision. As the first province-wide assessment of its kind, we anticipate this evaluation will be invaluable in guiding management for ES, including assessing trade-offs in multiple ES provision and identifying ES priority areas.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Orlando, FL