Location: Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory
Title: Building rangeland resilience to adapt to climate changeAuthor
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Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 4/14/2023 Publication Date: 4/14/2023 Citation: Toledo, D.N., Hendrickson, J.R., Liebig, M.A., Kronberg, S.L., Christensen, R. 2023. Building rangeland resilience to adapt to climate change. Meeting Abstract. 1. Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: The continued invasion of non-native cool season grasses in the northern Great Plains is making these landscapes less diverse and more susceptible to loss of function during extreme weather events. Current weather predictions suggest variable climates and more climate extremes. Increasing the diversity of native plant species and plant functional groups offer the potential for improving the resilience of these ecosystems. Fire and grazing are part of the natural disturbance regime of this region. Management practices using prescribed fire and high-intensity grazing have shown promise as a way to reduce cool season invasives and in some cases increase native species composition. We have compared the effects of prescribed fire, mob grazing, multi-species grazing, season-long grazing, and a combination of grazing and fire on grassland productivity and ecosystem services. We report on 4 years of results and tradeoffs associated with applying these different practices. |
