Productive and income contributions of sheep, goat, and cattle, and different diversification schemes in smallholder production systems of Northern Patagonia, Argentina

Are winter rangelands enough to satisfy the nutritional requirements of late-gestation transhumant goats in Patagonia?

Transhumant herds graze across two different rangeland types according to the season. Winter rangelands differ from summer rangelands in the amount and quality of available fodder, with the former being the less productive. In cold areas, winter rangeland has low forage quality where goats may suffer severe nutritional restrictions during gestation which lead to significant reproductive losses in the form of abortions and perinatal losses. In Argentinian northern Patagonia, the transhumant Criollo goat is a dual-purpose breed, producing both meat and cashmere and grazing on winter rangelands where they complete their reproductive cycle. Our objective was to evaluate to what extent the winter rangelands of northern Argentine Patagonia satisfy the nutritional requirements needed by Criollo transhumant goats during late gestating. We evaluated a study between 2010 and 2012 where we analysed the body weight and body condition score of the goats reaching the winter rangelands and before kidding. We also analysed the botanical composition of their diet, the quality forage (metabolizable energy, crude protein and digestibility) contribution offered by the species and the proportions of the nutritional requirements of the goats during the last third of gestation. Significantly, we found a decrease in body weight and body condition score in late gestation. In 2010, the goats’ diet showed a nutritional deficiency value of 0.6 Mcal/day metabolizable energy and 30.43 g/day crude protein; in 2011, a deficiency of 0.77 Mcal/day metabolizable energy and 65.48 g/day crude protein; and in 2012, a deficiency of 0.75 Mcal/day metabolizable energy and 55.41 g/day crude protein. Forage present 51, 52 and 48% digestibility in each year, respectively. We conclude that forage quality in winter rangelands in Argentinean Patagonia is not high enough to satisfy the nutritional requirements of Criollo transhumant goats during the last third of gestation. We recommend 550 g/day of an 80:20 mixture of corn:soy expeller supplementation during late gestation.

Woody encroachment and soil carbon stocks in subalpine areas in the Central Spanish Pyrenees

Woody encroachment has been an ongoing process in the subalpine belt of Mediterranean mountains, after land abandonment, the disappearance of the transhumant system and the decrease of the livestock number. The main objectives of this study were: (i) to identify land use/land cover (LULC) changes from 1956 to 2015, and (ii) to investigate the effects of LULC changes in physical and chemical soil properties and soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) stocks. It is hypothesized that woody encroachment in the subalpine belt may lead to significant changes in soil properties, and will generate an increase in the SOC stocks. A land use gradient was identified in the subalpine belt of the Central Spanish Pyrenees: (i) subalpine grasslands, (ii) shrublands, (iii) young forests, and (iv) old forests. Mineral soil samples were collected every 10 cm, down to 40 cm, at three points per each LULC and a total of 48 samples were analyzed. The results showed that (i) woody encroachment has occurred from 1956 to 2015 due to the expansion of coniferous forests and shrublands (at the expense of grasslands), (ii) land cover and soil depth had significant effects on soil properties (except for pH), being larger in the uppermost 0-10 cm depth, (iii) SOC and N contents and stocks were higher in the grassland sites, and (iv) the woody encroachment process initially produced a decrease in the SOC stocks (shrublands), but no differences were observed considering the complete soil profile between grasslands and young and old forests. Further studies, describing SOC stabilization and quantifying above-ground carbon (shrub and tree biomass) are required.

Sustainable livelihoods approach through the lens of the State-and-Transition Model in semi-arid pastoral systems

Dealing with complex challenges worldwide regarding sustainable development and environmental management requires applied frameworks to understand and manage change in complex social-ecological systems. In this regard, frameworks that have originated from different research arenas such as the State-and-Transition Model and the sustainable livelihoods approach provide a conceptual basis for theory and operative integration. The aim of this paper was to provide a conceptual model for social-ecological research and sustainable management in semi-arid pastoral systems. We suggest integrating the state-and-transition model by including structural and functional features of social-ecological systems into the sustainable livelihoods approach. Both attributes are analysed at a household level in five types of capital that typically comprise social-ecological systems: natural, human, manufactured, social and financial. We propose to perform the structural-functional analysis for each capital as separate sub-systems in order to assess the impact of different disturbance factors. Some implications of this framework are explained by providing an example of the impact of drought in smallholder pastoral systems from semi-arid rangelands of North-West Patagonia, Argentina. This approach is encouraging as a step towards two main challenges: (i) the provision of applied frameworks for social-ecological assessment and management, and (ii) an attempt to bring closer science and decision making.