Intensification of livestock farming in times of climate change: The challenges of domestic grazing in the drylands of the Argentine Patagonia

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.13.21553

Keywords:

Patagonian steppe, functional diversity, biological soil crusts, sheep production, desertification

Abstract

Livestock grazing modifies and even degrades arid ecosystems, which threatens the sustainability of livestock farming itself. It is essential to learn more about the effects of grazing on vegetation and soil to design strategies to avoid desertification, perhaps the most serious problem faced by drylands. In this paper, we evaluate the changes in the functional traits of the plant community and the biological soil crust induced by the intensification of grazing in Patagonian ecosystems. This description, together with changes in diversity, plant composition, and ecosystem functioning, can help us to understand the mechanisms by which the intensification of sheep grazing could degrade arid ecosystems.

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Author Biographies

Laura Yahdjian, CONICET (Argentina).

Ecologist specialising in the functioning of herbaceous-dominated ecosystems. She has experience in designing and conducting experiments on drought, nutrients, and grazing in grasslands and arid steppes. She is an independent researcher at the Argentine National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and the Agricultural Physiology and Ecology Research Institute (IFEVA). She is an associate professor at the Faculty of Agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina), where she teaches ecology and biodiversity. She also directs the Master’s Degree Programme in Renewable Terrestrial Natural Resources at the Graduate School at the Faculty of Agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires (EPG-FAUBA).

Lucas J. Carboni, CONICET (Argentina).

Graduate in Environmental Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina). He is currently pursuing a PhD at the Graduate School at the Faculty of Agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires (EPG-FAUBA) with a doctoral scholarship from the UBA, and works at the Agricultural Physiology and Ecology Research Institute (IFEVA). He is also teaching assistant at the Department of Quantitative Methods and Information Systems at the Faculty at Agronomy of the UBA.

Sergio Velasco Ayuso, CONICET (Argentina).

Researcher at the Argentine National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), in the Centre for Marine and Atmospheric Research (CIMA), CONICET, and UBA (Argentina). Prior to that, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Agricultural Physiology and Ecology Research Institute (IFEVA). He is a specialist in biological soil crusts and microbial communities in general. He obtained his PhD in Biological Sciences at the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain).

Gaston R. Oñatibia, CONICET (Argentina).

Researcher at the Argentine National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and the Agricultural Physiology and Ecology Research Institute (IFEVA) and professor of Ecology at the Faculty of Agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA, Argentina). He obtained his degree in Agricultural Engineering, a Master’s Degree in Natural Resources, and a PhD in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires. For the last ten years he has been working on the ecology of domestic grazing management and plant-herbivore interactions. He is currently studying how dryland ecosystems respond to changes in climate and land use.

References

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Published

2023-02-23

How to Cite

Yahdjian, L., Carboni, L. J., Velasco Ayuso, S., & Oñatibia, G. R. (2023). Intensification of livestock farming in times of climate change: The challenges of domestic grazing in the drylands of the Argentine Patagonia. Metode Science Studies Journal, (13), 25–31. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.13.21553
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Issue

Science. The genesis of ideas (vol. 13, 2023)

Section

Drylands. Opportunities, challenges, and threats

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