SWCS 2011 How international research cooperation is benefiting … · 2018. 4. 21. · How international research cooperation in Africa, Asia and Latin America is benefiting U.S.

How international research cooperation in Africa, Asia and Latin America is benefiting U.S. efforts to address land use change and managementJeff Herrick, Jason Karl, Brandon Bestelmeyer and Kris Havstad USDA‐ARS Jornada Experimental Range – Las Cruces, NM

Chad Ellis and Pat ShaverUSDA‐NRCS – Fort Worth, TX and Portland, OR

Jim ReynoldsDuke University/ARIDnet – Durham, NC

… and many international collaborators

Presentation at SWCS Fellows Forum, Washington DC, July 17 2011

Challenge: technology + increased mobility of labor and capital + demand for fixedcarbon (food, fuel, fiber, lumber) land use change, especially on ‘marginal’ lands

“…grain prices are ‘screaming’ for more acres which will push farmers to convert pasture used for grazing animals to cropland and consider planting in questionable weather conditions…” – I. Berry. 2011. Wall Street Journal.

United States

“Grasslands are being converted to cultivation in sites with >600mm (24”) precipitation … This is having a major impact.”

– Tony Palmer ‐ Agricultural Research Council Grahamstown, South Africa

South Africa

Kenya

Argentina

Año 1973Año 1989Año 1997Año 2007

Pastizal

Cultivos

Bosque

Demaría 2008 (Tesis Doctoral)

Pastizal Nat1973: 76 %2007: 37 %(> 600 mm)

Pastizal Nat1973: 98 %2007: 82 %(< 600 mm)

China: 1987

Mongolia: former rangeland experimental exclosure

Mongolia: former rangeland

North Dakota: CRP land going into crop production in much of the state

Global road Network

United States: increased road density in arid and semi‐arid regions associated with alternative energy development

Mongolia

Mexico

Basic pressures and processes similar, especially for similar soils/climate

How international (research) cooperation in Africa, Asia and Latin America is benefiting (and can benefit) U.S. efforts to address land use change and managementI. Examples of new knowledge, and systems for

further expanding our knowledge (research and monitoring methods)

II. System for sharing knowledge

I. Examples of new knowledge, and systems for further expanding our

knowledge (research and monitoring methods)

EXAMPLE – monitoring. Simplified monitoring system for EAST AFRICA that generates BLM/NRCS compatible indicators is being considered for application by US landowners (AID: ARS/Princeton).

EXAMPLE – grazing systems. Land health effects of a grazing system change are being tested in MONGOLIA at a scale far greater than would be possible in the US on land similar to that in the US northern Great Plains using standard NRCS‐BLM inventory & monitoring methods (MCC: ARS).

II. Sharing new knowledge: assumptions• Sustainable land management depends on matchingdisturbance type, frequency, intensity and duration to the land’s resilience (capacity to resist and recover from degradation)

• Both resilience and the land’s productive potential depend on relatively static properties (climate, soil profile, landform) mediated by short‐term changes in dynamic properties (soil fertility and structure, weather)

• Knowledge about management systems with similar disturbance characteristics should be relevant to land with similar climate, relatively static soil properties and landform

“Personal field observations led Vavilov … in 1932 to propose using information on the environments as a way to conduct plant germplasmcollection expeditions. He believed that this would allow collections to be made in shorter periods of time and more economically.”

‐ J. Steiner, Exploring the Relationship of Plant Genotype and Phenotype to Ecogeography

Global Conservation Effects Assessment Project?

Global Sustainable Land Management

KNOWLEDGE System

LOCATION (lat, long)

1. SITE CHARACTERISTICS (Climate + Soil +

Landform)

4. LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

(Global)

2. SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE (Global)

3. KNOWLEDGE DATABASES

(e.g. US Ecological Site Descriptions and Europe’s WOCAT*)

*WOCAT is currently limited by the lack of a formal system for defining site potential


KNOWLEDGE System



Landform)

4. LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

(Global)





• User‐defined or estimated from global geo‐databases from location (e.g. )

• Identify all other regions in the world with similar soils and climate (system under development)


Landform)


EcologicalSite:

Group of Soils with Similar

PotentialPotential Resistance to Degradation

PotentialCapacity to

Recover from Degradation

Resilience

Potential Production

Ecological sites build on VIII-class Land Capability Classification widely applied by USAID by integrating productive potential, thresholds and resilience

www.landscapetoolbox.org/visualization




Lat/long (study location)

Link to “Soil Erosion Thresholds and Alternative States…” in “Rangeland Ecology and Management”

WWF Ecoregion + MLRA (if US)


Lat/long (study location)

Link to “Soil Erosion Thresholds and Alternative States…” in “Rangeland Ecology and Management”

WWF Ecoregion + MLRA (if US)

Note to JSWC editorial board: this requires detailed lat/long for each article.

SOILWEB for the iPHONE

CLICK to openEcological SiteDescription

CLICK to selectrequiredinformation

CLICK to access soil map unit components at your location



Search on “iPhone SoilWeb” or “Android SoilWeb”

4. LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

(Global)

International cooperation conserves research funding by minimizing globally redundant research. Studies tillage of shallow, semi‐arid rangeland soils in northern MEXICO may inform future decisions by US land managers (facilitated by eventual extension of ecological site system to Mexico – CONAFOR/NRCS/ARS).

International cooperation improves the knowledge system itself. Experience in KENYA supports increased emphasis on functional approach to ecological site development based on an understanding of soil profile‐plant‐water relationships (AID: ARS/NRCS).

“Japan, by far, has showcased the most discipline during the three‐week [World Cup] tournament, and its dedication is never more evident than when the team is down.”

‐‐Washington Post Express July 15, 2011, page 18

“Japan, by far, has showcased the most discipline during the three‐week [World Cup] tournament, and its dedication is never more evident than when the team is down.”

“…when the team falls behind, there is a system to rely on, a belief there is still a way to win…”

‐‐Washington Post Express July 15, 2011, page 18


KNOWLEDGE System



Landform)

4. LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

(Global)





Thank youGraciasMerciAsante

谢谢 (Xièxiè)Баярлалаа (Bayarlalaa)

USDA‐ARS Jornada Experimental Rangewww.usda‐ars.nmsu.edu

Background documents used for this presentation• Knowledge systems

– Herrick & Sarukhan. 2007. A strategy for ecology in an era of globalization. (Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment)

– Karl and Herrick. In Review. Ecoinformatics and rangeland management: can wiki make science relevant?

• Interdisciplinary approaches and local knowledge– Reynolds et al. 2007. Global desertification: building a science for dryland

development. (Science) – Herrick et al. 2010. National ecosystem assessments supported by local and scientific

knowledge. (Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment). • The role of science in supporting sustainable land use change

– Herrick et al. In Review. Revolutionary land use change in the 21st century: is rangeland science relevant?

• Land potential/ecological sites– Bestelmeyer et al. 2009. State‐and‐Transition Models for Heterogeneous

Landscapes: A Strategy for Development and Application. (Rangeland Ecology and Management)

• Monitoring manuals: jornada.nmsu.edu

SWCS 2011 How international research cooperation is benefiting … · 2018. 4. 21. · How international research cooperation in Africa, Asia and Latin America is benefiting U.S.

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