Relationship Between Pastoralists’ Evaluation of Rangeland State and Vegetation Threshold Changes in Mongolian Rangelands

• Published in: Environmental management (New York) Vol. 54; no. 4; pp. 888 - 896
• Main Authors: Kakinuma, Kaoru, Sasaki, Takehiro, Jamsran, Undarmaa, Okuro, Toshiya, Takeuchi, Kazuhiko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer-Verlag 01.10.2014; Springer US; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agriculture; Animals; Aquatic Pollution; Arid zones; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; botanical composition; Camelus; Cattle; Climate change; Conservation of Natural Resources; Desert Climate; Deserts; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Ecosystems; Environment; Environmental Management; Flowers & plants; Forestry Management; Goats; Grazing; Herbivory; Horses; Humans; interviews; Knowledge; Livestock; Management; Mongolia; Nature Conservation; Perception; Perceptions; Plant species; Plants; Plants (organisms); prediction; Protected areas; Range management; Rangelands; researchers; scientists; Sheep; Steppes; surveys; Thresholds; Vegetation; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Mongolia; Mobility; Vegetation changes; Rangeland management; Threshold concept; Local knowledge; Grazing intensity
• ISSN: 0364-152X; 1432-1009
• DOI: 10.1007/s00267-014-0341-8

Applying the threshold concept to rangeland management is an important challenge in semi-arid and arid regions. Threshold recognition and prediction is necessary to enable local pastoralists to prevent the occurrence of an undesirable state that would result from unsustainable grazing pressure, but this requires a better understanding of the pastoralists’ perception of vegetation threshold changes. We estimated plant species cover in survey plots along grazing gradients in steppe and desert-steppe areas of Mongolia. We also conducted interviews with local pastoralists and asked them to evaluate whether the plots were suitable for grazing. Floristic composition changed nonlinearly along the grazing gradient in both the desert-steppe and steppe areas. Pastoralists observed the floristic composition changes along the grazing gradients, but their evaluations of grazing suitability did not always decrease along the grazing gradients, both of which included areas in a post-threshold state. These results indicated that local pastoralists and scientists may have different perceptions of vegetation states, even though both of groups used plant species and coverage as indicators in their evaluations. Therefore, in future studies of rangeland management, researchers and pastoralists should exchange their knowledge and perceptions to successfully apply the threshold concept to rangeland management.