| Popis: |
Stoddart and Smith1 defined range management as ".. .the science and art of planning and directing range use..." (p. 2). Over the past 100 years, the art and science of grazing management have sometimes taken divergent paths. Early observations that moderate stocking rates improved rangeland health and vegetation composition were followed by research that identified the ecological and physiological mechanisms for vegetation responses to grazing. However, these scientific principles have seen limited application in grazing systems research. Briske et al.2 concluded, "The ecological relationships of grazing systems have been reasonably well resolved, at the scales investigated, and a continuation of costly grazing experiments adhering to conventional research protocols will yield little additional information." If further research "at the scales investigated" and "adhering to conventional research protocols" is not warranted, does this mean there should be no further grazing management research? We suggest that more grazing management research is needed, but with new protocols. Heady3 stated, "The time has arrived to organize the information from research or few-factor analysis with whole-system practical experience so that specialized grazing systems will be even better" (p. 897). We suggest that achieving this laudable goal will require addressing grazing management research not as the comparison of fixed treatments with the "winner" recom mended as a best management practice, but as an analysis of a dynamic system that requires continuous management. In this paper, we present modeling as one component of a new research protocol for grazing management research. Although researchers have modeled ecosystem functions for over 40 years, there are few applications focused specifically on grazing management. |
