Twenty Years After Decollectivization: Mobile Livestock Husbandry and Its Ecological Impact in the Mongolian Forest-Steppe

Lkhagvadorj, Dorjburgedaa; Hauck, Markus; Dulamsuren, Choimaa; Tsogtbaatar, Jamsran

doi:10.1007/s10745-013-9599-3

Cited by 44 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…This was also described by other studies conducted in Mongolia (Lise et al 2006;Okayasu et al 2007;Kamimura 2013;Lkhagvadorj et al 2013b;Bruegger et al 2014).…”

Section: Mobility Patternsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…These circumstances may be aggravated according to climate change predictions for the Altay-Dzungarian region that foresee an increase in the average annual temperature, more frequent and prolonged summer droughts and temporal shifts of precipitation from summer to winter (Angerer et al 2008;Lkhagvadorj et al 2013a;Hilker et al 2014;Liao et al 2014a). Moreover, herd management such as daily herding practices and grazing duration, livestock numbers and herd composition are known to affect the occurrence, frequency, distribution and growth of grassland species and thus herbage yield and its nutritive value (Briske et al 2003;Schönbach et al 2012;Kreutzmann 2013a;Lkhagvadorj et al 2013b;Hilker et al 2014).…”

Section: Quantity and Quality Of Herbagementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Mongolian part of the Altay-Dzungarian region, privatization of the formerly state-owned livestock triggered an increase in livestock numbers and a change in herd composition (Lise et al 2006;Lkhagvadorj et al 2013b;Lkhagvadorj et al 2013a;. Additionally, the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy put considerably more responsibility on individual herders for careful use of pasture resources, access to markets, maintenance of infrastructure for seasonal movements and watering places and preparation of winter fodder (Janzen 2005;Fernández-Giménez and Le Febre 2006;Zhen et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2016

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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.

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“…This was also described by other studies conducted in Mongolia (Lise et al 2006;Okayasu et al 2007;Kamimura 2013;Lkhagvadorj et al 2013b;Bruegger et al 2014).…”

Section: Mobility Patternsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Quantity and Quality Of Herbagementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2016

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“…Biomass removal from the forest is also a likely cause of the lower SOC stock densities in the Mongolian forest‐steppe than in many other boreal forests. Deadwood is widely used as fuel and thus extracted to a great extent from the forest (Lkhagvadorj et al ., ,b). Remote unmanaged forests may contain large amounts of carbon in deadwood, parts of which are eventually transferred to the soil.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Carbon pool densities and a first estimate of the total carbon pool in the Mongolian forest‐steppe

Dulamsuren

Klinge

Degener

et al. 2016

Global Change Biology

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The boreal forest biome represents one of the most important terrestrial carbon stores, which gave reason to intensive research on carbon stock densities. However, such an analysis does not yet exist for the southernmost Eurosiberian boreal forests in Inner Asia. Most of these forests are located in the Mongolian forest-steppe, which is largely dominated by Larix sibirica. We quantified the carbon stock density and total carbon pool of Mongolia's boreal forests and adjacent grasslands and draw conclusions on possible future change. Mean aboveground carbon stock density in the interior of L. sibirica forests was 66 Mg C ha(-1) , which is in the upper range of values reported from boreal forests and probably due to the comparably long growing season. The density of soil organic carbon (SOC, 108 Mg C ha(-1) ) and total belowground carbon density (149 Mg C ha(-1) ) are at the lower end of the range known from boreal forests, which might be the result of higher soil temperatures and a thinner permafrost layer than in the central and northern boreal forest belt. Land use effects are especially relevant at forest edges, where mean carbon stock density was 188 Mg C ha(-1) , compared with 215 Mg C ha(-1) in the forest interior. Carbon stock density in grasslands was 144 Mg C ha(-1) . Analysis of satellite imagery of the highly fragmented forest area in the forest-steppe zone showed that Mongolia's total boreal forest area is currently 73 818 km(2) , and 22% of this area refers to forest edges (defined as the first 30 m from the edge). The total forest carbon pool of Mongolia was estimated at ~ 1.5-1.7 Pg C, a value which is likely to decrease in future with increasing deforestation and fire frequency, and global warming.

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“…Changing environmental conditions, water resources, pastures quality, reduced mobility and over grazing results in pastures degradation (Sternberg, 2008). Total livestock numbers rise considerably after decollectivization of the livestock sector in 1992 (Lkhagvadorj et al, 2013). About 75% of the total area has been affected by the unrestrained grazing of animals, including cattle (cows, yaks, and cow-yak hybrids), camels, goats, horses and sheep following a nomadic pattern for thousands of years, as nomadism appears to be a hazardous enterprise (Goldstein et al, 1990).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Hypothermia and Droughts on Livestock Mortality in Southern and Eastern Mongolia

Bilegjargal¹,

Lu²,

Ahmad³

et al. 2017

J. Anim. Health Prod.

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Twenty Years After Decollectivization: Mobile Livestock Husbandry and Its Ecological Impact in the Mongolian Forest-Steppe

Cited by 44 publications

References 23 publications

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

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

Carbon pool densities and a first estimate of the total carbon pool in the Mongolian forest‐steppe

Effect of Hypothermia and Droughts on Livestock Mortality in Southern and Eastern Mongolia

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