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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fort Collins, Colorado » Center for Agricultural Resources Research » Rangeland Resources & Systems Research » Research » Research Project #447541

Research Project: Collaborative, Adaptive, and Precision Management Strategies to Improve Multiple Ecosystem Services in Shortgrass Rangeland Systems

Location: Rangeland Resources & Systems Research

Project Number: 3012-21500-001-041-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Jan 1, 2025
End Date: Sep 30, 2027

Objective:
Objective 1 - Assess synergies and tradeoffs among ecosystem services with collaborative, adaptive, and precision management in the semiarid, shortgrass rangeland social-ecological system.

Approach:
The Cooperator and ARS will collaborate in combining collaborative, adaptive, and precision management to improve provision of multiple ecosystem services and assess synergies and tradeoffs among ecosystem services in the semiarid, shortgrass rangeland social-ecological system. Combining adaptation, precision, and collaboration in rangeland management requires a better understanding of how to use novel data streams to improve decision making, and how more frequent and precise management decisions influence ecosystem services. Field experiments will use both within- and between-grazing season precision livestock management to support multiple ecosystem services in shortgrass steppe. These experiments build upon the first 10 years of the Collaborative Adaptive Rangeland Management (CARM) experiment at the Central Plains Experimental Range as part of the 18-site Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network common experiment. Field experiments will use the following inter-annual and intra-annual adaptive grazing management strategies: 1) an increase in paddock sizes and delineation of paddock boundaries using ecological sites (Loamy Plains and Sandy Plains) to allow for more selective grazing behavior by cattle at fine spatial scales, 2) incorporation of prairie dog management and heavy stocking rates into Loamy Plains paddocks, to improve habitat for grassland birds needing short vegetation structure and bare ground, and 3) adaptive timing of cattle movement among ecological sites based on rainfall patterns to improve livestock gains.