Get reliable rangeland science

USABLE SCIENCE FOR RANGELAND WATER
Author
Dobrowolski, James P.
Engle, David M.
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2015
Body

As a key ecosystem driver, water impinges on other ecosystem components and processes, and ecosystem components and processes impinge on water. Moreover, water has always been highly sensitive to the dynamics of socio-economics, acting within landscapes at all scales. Pressure on rangelands to provide ecosystem services, including water, will continue to increase while ecosystem and landscape change will increasingly influence the water cycle and water available to support other rangeland processes. These challenges provide a rich suite of pressing research opportunities to produce usable science supporting management of rangelands, which our water research subgroup identified. Opportunities that workshop participants ranked highly include proactive tools for monitoring and predicting drought; and enhancing the nation's water related data by improving or establishing stream gages in watersheds that cross political boundaries. Proactive rangeland watershed management, including invasive pest management, appropriate use of fire and grazing, wildlife habitat management, appropriate recreation pressure, etc. and protecting high quality rangeland watersheds was viewed as high priority usable science that crosses ecological and social systems. Policies are needed that minimize the focus on restoration and maximize efforts to prevent degradation. A usable science research priority is constructing water budgets for rangelands from local to regional scales to inform management decisions from brush management to adapting to climate change. A pressing need is the development of technologies to productively restore abandoned cropland to rangeland, driven by aquifer depletion, drought, and climate change. Economic evaluation, particularly cost-benefit analysis, of rangeland restoration is usable science required to support this challenge. Our subgroup found that extending science and best management practices to users through Extension is a fundamentally necessary to building system resilience. Fortunately, water is equally recognized by the nation (e.g., The Six Grand Challenges of APLU) and international organizations, and funding to support this research is certain to follow.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Sacramento, CA
Collection
SRM Annual Meeting Abstracts