Abstract
In this paper we take a fresh look at how to reach a predictable understanding of how rangelands work by viewing them as landscape systems3. What are the landscape structures and processes operating in rangelands that allow us to better understand how limited resources, such as water and soil nutrients, are naturally conserved within these systems? How can this understanding help us to better manage the use of rangelands so that degradation can be prevented? Can we distinguish between utilization and desertification? These kinds of questions can be addressed within a logical framework based on landscape ecology. This framework, labeled the trigger-transfer-reserve-pulse (TTRP) conceptual model, is built upon existing concepts applied to arid and semiarid, resource-limited rangelands. The TTRP framework focuses on how materials in short-supply such as water and soil nutrients (in sediments) are carried by runoff, or by winds, and are captured and concentrated within landscape patches (reserves). If the availability of these resources within a patch exceeds a critical threshold, a production ‘pulse’ occurs. The organic structures and materials produced in such pulses feedback to build on the integrity of landscape patches, and through them to the landscape as a whole, enabling them to capture more resources in the future. However, if patches are degraded by disturbances such as grazing, fewer scarce resources will be captured and landscapes can become dysfunctional. The relative ‘state’ of dysfunction for a rangeland unit can be measured and used to position the unit along a continuum of landscape functionality, from highly functional to highly dysfunctional. Whether this position on the continuum is acceptable for the current uses being made of the rangeland can then be evaluated. If an undesirable change in landscape functionality is detected by monitoring indicators on a unit of rangeland, then management recommendations and strategies can be developed to reverse this change by viewing the rangeland unit as a dynamic landscape system functioning to conserve resources.
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Ludwig, J.A., Tongway, D.J. (2000). Viewing rangelands as landscape systems. In: Arnalds, O., Archer, S. (eds) Rangeland Desertification. Advances in Vegetation Science, vol 19. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9602-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9602-2_4
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