Regional forage production assessment in arid and semi-arid rangelands - A step towards social-ecological analysis

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• 作者：M.H. Easdale^a ; ^{measdale@bariloche.inta.gov.ar} ; M.R. Aguiar^b
• 关键词：Livestock ; Monte ; Patagonia ; Policy design ; Remote sensing ; Social&ndash ; ecological systems ; Temporal and spatial variability ; Vulnerability
• 刊名：Journal of Arid Environments
• 出版年：2012
• 期刊代码：93_01401963
• 类别：ear
• 出版时间：August, 2012
• 卷：83
• 期：Complete
• 页码：35-44
• 文件大小：614 K

摘要

Many of the complex issues worldwide regarding environmental management and sustainable develo-pment require integrating the social and natural sciences. Nevertheless, while theoretical discussions have been increasingly developed, operative issues are still major barriers to integrated social-ecological analysis. The aim of this paper was to assess regional forage production in semi-arid rangelands as a key feature in social-ecological analysis, by using human organizational units (i.e. counties). We used these state-administrative units to explore demographic and farming indicators in order to address socio-productive implications of different regional forage production dynamics. We studied the forage spatial and temporal dynamics in two different large ecological regions: Monte and Patagonia, under a single administrative unit (i.e. province). Since forage production estimations in arid rangelands are not trivial, we tested two different methods. We found that inter-annual variability in forage production explained the main differences between regions. At a regional level, zones with higher temporal variability in forage production registered less rural residents and farm numbers, but inverse situations were registered at sub-regional scales. We found a non-linear relationship between forage production variability and rural population density. We proposed differentiated policy recommendations regarding rangeland management and animal husbandry, considering both the social and ecological contexts.