The MARAS dataset, vegetation and soil characteristics of dryland rangelands across Patagonia

Abstract

We present the MARAS (Environmental Monitoring of Arid and Semiarid Regions) dataset, which stores vegetation and soil data of 426 rangeland monitoring plots installed throughout Patagonia, a 624.500 km2 area of southern Argentina and Chile. Data for each monitoring plot includes basic climatic and landscape features, photographs, 500 point intercepts for vegetation cover, plant species list and biodiversity indexes, 50-m line-intercept transect for vegetation spatial pattern analysis, land function indexes drawn from 11 measures of soil surface characteristics and laboratory soil analysis (pH, conductivity, organic matter, N and texture). Monitoring plots were installed between 2007 and 2019, and are being reassessed at 5-year intervals (247 have been surveyed twice). The MARAS dataset provides a baseline from which to evaluate the impacts of climate change and changes in land use intensity in Patagonian ecosystems, which collectively constitute one of the world´s largest rangeland areas. This dataset will be of interest to scientists exploring key ecological questions such as biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships, plant-soil interactions and climatic controls on ecosystem structure and functioning.

Resilience, Adaptability, and Regime Shifts Thinking: A Perspective of Dryland Socio-Ecology System

“…The MARAS system launched in 2018 consisted of 379 ground monitors in a 624.5 km 2 semi-arid area of southern Argentina and Chile to record 11 landscape indicators (Oliva et al, 2019). And the related vegetation and soil characteristics of dryland rangelands across Patagonia were released this year (Oliva et al, 2020). Other studies have looked at using the correlation between the easier-collecting surface indicators and soil multi-functionality in further to conduct resilience measuring in global drylands (Eldridge et al, 2020).…”

Cushion Shrubs Encroach Subhumid Rangelands: Fertility Islands in Fragile Soils Along a Grazing Gradient in Patagonia

“…To better capture vegetation heterogeneity after more than a century of sheep livestock grazing in the area, we randomly selected two of them (one of each condition). Following the MARAS method (Oliva et al 2020) we placed in each selected spot 3 transects of 50 m length (6 in total). We determined, by point-intercept lines, oristic composition, diversity and cover, and soil surface conditions in two transects.…”

“…We converted stocking densities of a 20-year period to Unidad Ganadera Ovina (UGO), a dry sheep equivalent used in Northern Patagonia which equals to 331 kg yr -1 (Oliva et al 2020). Then, we estimated for each paddock the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) values for the same time lapse through Landsat TM 5 and Landsat 8 OLI satellite images using QGIS software (QGIS Development Team 2009).…”

“…Rangelands across the world are under increasing pressure by a growing demand for livestock products, land competition with agriculture and urbanisation, cultural and social drivers, and climate change (Godde et al 2018). Large modi cations in soil and vegetation are expected, especially in drylands (Oliva et al 2020). Shrub encroachment in grasslands is a global concern since this shift in density and cover of native shrubs represents losses from a livestock production standpoint (Beeskow et al 1995;D'Odorico et al 2012) though Eldridge and Soliveres (2014) consider that shrub traits may in uence encroachment outcomes.…”

Spatial structure of vegetation cover of Sharyn SNNP

“…Plants that were farther away were recorded as number, dimensions and modal distance from the central transect. A total of 578 vascular plants have been [28].…”