Effects of livestock management on the supply of ecosystem services in pastures in a tropical dry region of western Mexico

Autor: Ernesto Vega, Patricia Balvanera, Víctor J. Jaramillo, Jenny M. Trilleras
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
Zdroj: Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 211:133-144
ISSN: 0167-8809
DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2015.06.011
Popis: Human beings manage ecosystems to obtain ecosystem services. Through selected interventions they modify ecosystem condition to increase the provisioning services of interest to people. We analyzed the effect of livestock management regime components (duration, grazing period, number of burns and slashes and stocking density) on ecosystem services (provisioning, regulating and supporting) in seeded pastures in a tropical dry region. Our main questions were: (1) How is livestock management duration related to the magnitude of service supply?; (2) How are the different components of the livestock management regime and site conditions related to the magnitude of ecosystem service supply?; and (3) How do the components of management regime, the site conditions and the magnitude of ecosystem service supply interact? We quantified 15 service indicators within 24 plots (20 × 50 m) chosen along a 40-year gradient of livestock management duration. Livestock management regime was documented with semi-structured interviews to landowners. Simple linear regressions showed that increasing livestock management duration was related to increasing forage amount (p = 0.03) and to decreasing forage quality (p = 0.05), soil structure (p = 0.002), and several biodiversity indicators (p = 0.002-0.03). Stepwise multiple regression analyses showed that the increase in the total number of burns was related to decreases in foliar and soil nitrogen (p
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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