TY - JOUR
T1 - Vegetation, water infiltration, and soil carbon response to Adaptive Multi-Paddock and Conventional grazing in Southeastern USA ranches
AU - Apfelbaum, Steven I.
AU - Thompson, Ry
AU - Wang, Fugui
AU - Mosier, Samantha
AU - Teague, Richard
AU - Byck, Peter
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful for the funding support from McDonald's Corporation , the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and The Eddie Schwartz Conservation Fund .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2022/4/15
Y1 - 2022/4/15
N2 - We examine Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) grazed with short grazing events and planned recovery periods and paired ranches using Conventional Continuous Grazing (CG) at low stock density on vegetation, water infiltration, and soil carbon across SE USA. Increased vegetation standing biomass and plant species dominance-diversity were measured in AMP grazed ranches. Invasive perennial plant species richness and abundance increased with AMP grazing in the south, while in the north they increased on CG grazed ranches. Percent bare ground was significantly greater in CG at the Alabama and Mississippi sites, no different at the Kentucky and mid-Alabama sites, and greater on AMP at the Tennessee pair. On average, surface water infiltration was higher on AMP than paired CG ranches. Averaged over all locations, soil organic carbon stocks to a depth of 1 m were over 13% greater on AMP than CG ranches, and standing crop biomass was >300% higher on AMP ranches. AMP grazing supported substantially higher livestock stocking levels while providing significant improvements in vegetation, soil carbon, and water infiltration functions. AMP grazing also significantly increased available forage nutrition for key constituents, and increased soil carbon to provide significant resource and economic benefits for improving ecological health, resilience, and durability of the family ranch.
AB - We examine Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) grazed with short grazing events and planned recovery periods and paired ranches using Conventional Continuous Grazing (CG) at low stock density on vegetation, water infiltration, and soil carbon across SE USA. Increased vegetation standing biomass and plant species dominance-diversity were measured in AMP grazed ranches. Invasive perennial plant species richness and abundance increased with AMP grazing in the south, while in the north they increased on CG grazed ranches. Percent bare ground was significantly greater in CG at the Alabama and Mississippi sites, no different at the Kentucky and mid-Alabama sites, and greater on AMP at the Tennessee pair. On average, surface water infiltration was higher on AMP than paired CG ranches. Averaged over all locations, soil organic carbon stocks to a depth of 1 m were over 13% greater on AMP than CG ranches, and standing crop biomass was >300% higher on AMP ranches. AMP grazing supported substantially higher livestock stocking levels while providing significant improvements in vegetation, soil carbon, and water infiltration functions. AMP grazing also significantly increased available forage nutrition for key constituents, and increased soil carbon to provide significant resource and economic benefits for improving ecological health, resilience, and durability of the family ranch.
KW - AMP grazing
KW - Biodiversity
KW - Carbon sequestration
KW - Ecosystem services
KW - Regenerative ecosystem management
KW - Soil health
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114576
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114576
M3 - Article
C2 - 35101805
AN - SCOPUS:85123613923
SN - 0301-4797
VL - 308
JO - Journal of Environmental Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Management
M1 - 114576
ER -