RESEARCH ON SUSTAINABLE RANGELAND MANAGEMENT

Research Needs in the 21st Century

1. Does the indicator assess the criterion?

2. At what scales are the indicator valid?

3. How do we come up with thresholds?

4. How to we integrate the criteria?

ECC versus Percent Bare Ground by Site

Percent Bare Ground

706050403020100-10

EC

C80

60

40

20

0 Rsq = 0.7734

Maintenance and Enhancement of Multiple Economic and Social Benefits to Current and Future Generations

Community-level indicators that might be relevant to sustainability:

•Value produced by agriculture and recreation as percent of total economy.

•Land tenure, land use, ownership patterns by size class

•Population pyramid and population change

Grain = Resolving power of data.

Grain determines smallest entities that can be found in data.

Extent = highest level that can be accessed.

If size of entity is larger than data (spatial, temporal), then associated attributes cannot be observed.

Scale in Ecological Observations

The larger the system,the longer the cycle time of unperturbed behavior.

From top to bottom of a hierarchy, there is a continuum of natural frequencies.

FREQUENCY OF BEHAVIOR

- Systems have particular characteristic frequencies.- Monitoring must accommodate frequency of a system’s scale.

Research on Benefits to Management in the Field

An issue of scale and interactions among indicators

• Fire• Invasive species• Drought• Exurban development

Thresholds

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Thresholds related to Sustainability

• Biodiversity Ecosystem resilience

• Biodiversity Productive capacity

• Fragmentation Biodiversity• Invasive species Biodiversity &

Productive capacity

• Soil cover Erosion

Evaluating Rangeland Sustainability

SRM Task Group on Unity and Concepts in Terms

Rangelands 17(3):85-921995

• Focused on the site level; i.e. rangeland condition and trend.• Soil is the basic resource.• Sought unity in terminology and methodology.

Site conservation thresholdsSite Conservation rating: sustainable and unsustainable

Sustainability as Expressed by Forms of Capital

• Capital has investment value• Sustainability attained when combination of

investments provide for future needs of society.

Human capital:Resources of individuals

Social capital:Resources of communities

Natural capital:Resources from nature.

Financial capital:Resources measured in dollars.

SRRValidates/develops

indicators and measurement protocols.

NRI / FIA / etc.Rangeland monitoring

systems incorporate new protocols.

NAT’L ASSESSMENTS

Monitors trends of SRR indicators.

Are the indicators valid and useful?

no

yes

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