Spatio-temporal patterns of herbage availability and livestock movements: A cross-border analysis in the Chinese-Mongolian Altay

Abstract

Due to increasing population and the recent implementation of policies to intensify the use of land and water resources, the transhumant pastoral systems in the Chinese-Mongolian Altay-Dzungarian region are rapidly changing, leading to modifications of herd size, herd composition and spatial distribution of livestock grazing. This may have major consequences for the supply and quality of rangeland biomass. Despite similar topographic settings, the socio-political framework for Chinese and Mongolian pastoralists differs significantly, leading to differences in rangeland utilization. To substantiate these claims, the long-distance transhumance routes, frequency of pasture changes, daily grazing itineraries and size of pastures were recorded by means of GPS tracking of cattle and goats on 1,535 (China) and 1,396 (Mongolia) observation days. The status quo of the main seasonal pastures was captured by measuring the herbage offer and its nutritive value in 869 sampling spots. In the Altay-Dzungarian region, small ruminant herds covered up to 412 km (Mongolia) and grazed on up to nine pastures per year (China). In Mongolia, the herds' average duration of stay at an individual pasture was longer than in China, particularly in spring and autumn. Herbage allowance at the onset of a grazing period (kg dry matter per sheep unit and day) ranged from 34/17 to 91/95 (China/Mongolia). Comparing crude protein and phosphorous concentrations of herbage, in China, the highest concentrations were measured for spring and summer pastures, whereas in Mongolia, the highest concentrations were determined for autumn and winter pastures. Based on our data, we conclude that regulation of animal numbers and access to pastures seemingly maintained pasture productivity in China, especially at high altitudes. However, this policy may prohibit flexible adaptation to sudden environmental constraints. In contrast, high stocking densities and grazing of pastures before flowering of herbaceous plants negatively affected rangeland productivity in Mongolia, especially for spring and summer pastures.

Evolution of Rural Livelihood Strategies in a Remote Sino-Mongolian Border Area: A Cross-Country Analysis

“…The average annual temperature is generally lower in the mountainous regions and increases towards the lower reaches of the Qinghe and Bulgan watersheds. The mean minimum/maximum annual air temperatures on the Chinese and Mongolian sides range between 23 • C and 26 • C in the summer and between −33 • C and −40 • C in the winter [7]. Across the region, a slight increase in the mean annual temperature was observed from 1987 to 2000, ranging between 0.7 • C (128 meteorological stations in Northwest China) [32] and 1.4 • C [41].…”

“…The Bulgan sums of Khovd and Bayan-Ölgii provinces are governed by elected local municipalities residing in the respective central settlements; the sum centres and their vast hinterlands are inhabited by about 9018 and 5164 people, respectively, belonging to three ethnicities [7,34]; the rural dwellers are mostly engaged in livestock farming, and-to a much lesser extent than their Chinese neighbours-in crop production.…”

“…Given the ecological and climatic homogeneousness of this border region but its contrasting infrastructural, socio-economic and political settings [7], the present study aimed to understand whether environmental or anthropogenic components are more decisive in shaping the present evolution of rural livelihood strategies. The focus is (i) on the characterisation of current livelihood strategies and (ii) on the evaluation of the importance of the various activities for the households' current socio-economic situation and future prospects (that is, their sustainability) [38].…”

“…The mean annual precipitation amounts to 174 ± 50 mm in Qinghe and 75 ± 34 mm in Bulgan sum city [42]; precipitation amounts increase with altitude, reaching 214 mm (China) and 305 mm (Mongolia) at sites above 2000 m a.s.l. [7].…”

The relevance of herders’ local ecological knowledge on coping with livestock losses during harsh winters in western Mongolia

“…The loss of TEK and LEK on animal husbandry is viewed as one of the negative consequences of totalitarian collective farming during the 70-year socialist period in Mongolia and the subsequent social turbulences during the democratization process in the 1990s (FernandezGimenez 2000). There is recent evidence of spatially concentrated exploitation of grazing resources leading to rangeland degradation (Altmann et al 2016;Jordan et al 2016) and eventually severe livestock losses in the case of extreme environmental conditions such as an extremely harsh winter (Soma 2014).…”