Exploring linked ecological and cultural tipping points in Mongolia

Fernández‐Giménez, María E.; Venable, N. B. H.; Angerer, Jay P.; Fassnacht, S. R.; Reid, Robin S.; Khishigbayar, J.

doi:10.1016/j.ancene.2017.01.003

Cited by 97 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 110 publications

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“…Last, grazing is the single most important form of land-use (Zheng et al, 2010). Improvements during the last century in both well digging and veterinarian maintenance have led to increased livestock numbers (Fernández-Giménez et al, 2017). This is also the warmest quarter of the year (June to August).…”

Section: Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands

Lang

Ahlborn

Munkhzul

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Functional traits are proxies for plant physiology and performance, which do not only differ between species but also within species. In this work, we hypothesized that (a) with increasing precipitation, the percentage of focal species which significantly respond to changes in grazing intensity increases, while under dry conditions, climate-induced stress is so high that plant species hardly respond to any changes in grazing intensity and that (b) the magnitude with which species change their trait values in response to grazing, reflected by coefficients of variation (CVs), increases with increasing precipitation. Chosen plant traits were canopy height, plant width, specific leaf area (SLA), chlorophyll fluorescence, performance index, stomatal pore area index (SPI), and individual aboveground biomass of 15 species along a precipitation gradient with different grazing intensities in Mongolian rangelands. We used linear models for each trait to assess whether the percentage of species that respond to grazing changes along the precipitation gradient. To test the second hypothesis, we assessed the magnitude of intraspecific trait variability (ITV) response to grazing, per species, trait, and precipitation level by calculating CVs across the different grazing intensities. ITV was most prominent for SLA and SPI under highest precipitation, confirming our first hypothesis. Accordingly, CVs of canopy height, SPI, and SLA increased with increasing precipitation, partly confirming our second hypothesis. CVs of the species over all traits increased with increasing precipitation only for three species. This study shows that it remains challenging to predict how plant performance will shift under changing environmental conditions based on their traits alone.In this context, the implications for the use of community-weighted mean trait values are discussed, as not only species abundances change in response to changing environmental conditions, but also values of traits considerably change. Including this aspect in further studies will improve our understanding of processes acting within and among communities. K E Y W O R D S environmental gradients, grasslands, intraspecific trait variability, land-use, rainfall, steppes S U PP O RTI N G I N FO R M ATI O N Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section. How to cite this article: Lang B, Ahlborn J, Oyunbileg M, et al. Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands. Ecol

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Section: Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands

Lang

Ahlborn

Munkhzul

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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“…However, this tradition has begun to shift in response to a variety of changes in institutions, administrative boundaries, climate variability, urbanization, and economic development (Fernández-Giménez et al 2012;John et al 2013;Chen et al 2015a;Zhang et al 2017). With economic advances in the region and continued globalization, the demands in the ADB for livestock production have increased (Delgado 2005;Kearney 2010;FAO 2013;Fernández-Giméneza et al 2017), raising some serious questions regarding long-term sustainability, as the region has scarce water and additional resources for food production.…”

Section: Socio-ecology Of the Asian Dryland Beltmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding livestock production and sustainability of grassland ecosystems in the Asian Dryland Belt

Xin

John

et al. 2017

Ecol Process

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Background: Companioned by economic development, a dietary shift toward higher meat consumption is seen in developing countries and transitional economies, where the demand for livestock production has been increasing in response to such a dietary shift. In the Asian Dryland Belt, approaches to meet this demand have focused on grazing intensification, cropland conversion for animal feed, and supplemental feeding. With the scarcity of water, energy, and food in the region, a key question is whether or not the current approaches are sustainable. If not, what are the pathways to increase livestock production while protecting the region's environment for a sustainable future? We provide our reviews and discuss current approaches in response to these dietary shifts and assess their environmental resilience with a focus on the grassland ecosystems in the Asian Dryland Belt. Results: While current approaches alleviate the urgent need for short-term livestock production, they lead to longterm vulnerability in food security. Trade-offs between short gains and long-term losses, between food for humans and for animals, and between agricultural intensification and environmental degradation need to be holistically examined for the sustainable development of the region. A grassland water, energy, and food nexus framework is proposed with specific recommendations to increase livestock production while considering other ecosystem services of the dryland grassland ecosystems in the Asian Dryland Belt. Conclusions: Current practices to increase livestock production are likely to lead to long-term, large-scale ecological degradation of the grassland ecosystems in the Asian Dryland Belt and are thus unsustainable. By considering the trade-offs in the nexus of water, land, food, and livelihoods, sustainable pathways were articulated and recommended. Future pilot studies are needed for validation and adoption.

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“…We discussed these interactions with group members from the original planning workshop during subsequent smaller meetings, and gathered feedback about social-political dynamics driving rural out-migration. These discussions revealed that future empirical efforts need to focus more specifically on better understanding the evolving relationship between total rural herder population and livestock populations (Fernández-Giménez et al 2017). The baseline models assumed that the historic strong relationships between rural human population and livestock populations will continue in the future.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining participatory scenario planning and systems modeling to identify drivers of future sustainability on the Mongolian Plateau

Allington¹,

Fernández‐Giménez²,

Chen³

et al. 2018

E&S

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. 2018. Combining participatory scenario planning and systems modeling to identify drivers of future sustainability on the Mongolian Plateau. Ecology and Society 23 (2) ABSTRACT. The study of social-ecological systems (SES) is an inherently interdisciplinary endeavor that necessitates collaboration among multiple researchers and stakeholders. These collaborations often result in novel insights into the dynamics and feedbacks that occur within these systems. Achieving these insights requires methods and tools that integrate diverse knowledge from multiple disciplines and sectors of society to inform actionable research on complex systems. Past research has demonstrated the contributions that stakeholders can make to defining scenarios that are subsequently applied to quantitative modeling. Here, we focus on the feedback from quantitative modeling to refinement and interpretation of scenarios, and demonstrate how quantitative modeling can reveal aspects of system dynamics that were not considered during scenario development. We present a case study in which we use qualitative scenario planning as a tool to engender systems thinking by a diverse set of stakeholders in a complex transboundary SES: the Mongolian Plateau. This exercise demonstrated the value of participatory scenario planning as a tool for facilitating interdisciplinary and crosssectoral dialog and knowledge generation. It also ensured the integration of place-based knowledge into scenario development for subsequent quantitative modeling. In addition to incorporating stakeholder knowledge in simulation of complex human-environment dynamics, the quantitative modeling revealed how the dynamics of rural out-migration contribute to the decoupling of rural herder populations and livestock numbers. The emergent knowledge gained from this process underscores the utility of pairing the qualitative scenarios with quantitative simulations to reveal unanticipated system behavior and key drivers not identified or overlooked by stakeholders.

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Exploring linked ecological and cultural tipping points in Mongolia

Cited by 97 publications

References 110 publications

Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands

Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands

Understanding livestock production and sustainability of grassland ecosystems in the Asian Dryland Belt

Combining participatory scenario planning and systems modeling to identify drivers of future sustainability on the Mongolian Plateau

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