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Surviving or Thriving in Drought
by Toni Malmberg and Jim Howell
Published in Land & Livestock, January/February 2008
Excerpt from Land & Livestock:
"We established four permanent trend and condition transects in 1999, so we have solid data on the health of our upland range prior to the drought. Since then, our monitoring has primarily been through close daily observation and informal step transects. But, this past summer, we hired Charlie Orchard of Land EKG (www.landekg.com) to come re-read our permanent biological monitoring transects. We felt it was time for a more objective reading of how our drought-induced management adjustments have enabled us to maintain the integrity of the ecosystem processes.
"In the chart titled 1999 vs. 2007 Monitoring Data, we get a quick sense of how our measured indicators have changed over the course of the eight-year drought. This chart averages the change in all four transects. At first glance, we see that we had about the same number of indicators change for the positive as for the negative. But, if we look at the major changes (and disregard anychange of less than 10 percent), we can get to the heart of the matter.
"The two big positives, increased Litter Contact and reduced Plant Pedestaling, might be explained due to greater stock density and regular herding practices. Charlie Orchard suspects the forbs dried up early and before the transects were read, explaining a portion of the Species Diversity decline. Many of the negative trends, such as declines in Production Potential, Plant Vigor and Total Canopy, can be at least partially explained by drought and little precipitation. If it rains less, less forage is going to grow, no matter how good the state of the ecosystem processes.
"To us, the primary concerns are the changes in Bare Ground and Plant Distribution. The significant drops in these indicators mean that we are struggling to retain what little moisture we have received (due primarily to evaporation off of the bare surface), and that plants are dying. Is our management causing this, or can we blame it all on the drought? Could our management adjustments have been more appropriate from the point of view of the effectiveness of the ecosystem processes?"
Published in Land & Livestock, January/February 2008
Excerpt from Land & Livestock:
"We established four permanent trend and condition transects in 1999, so we have solid data on the health of our upland range prior to the drought. Since then, our monitoring has primarily been through close daily observation and informal step transects. But, this past summer, we hired Charlie Orchard of Land EKG (www.landekg.com) to come re-read our permanent biological monitoring transects. We felt it was time for a more objective reading of how our drought-induced management adjustments have enabled us to maintain the integrity of the ecosystem processes.
"In the chart titled 1999 vs. 2007 Monitoring Data, we get a quick sense of how our measured indicators have changed over the course of the eight-year drought. This chart averages the change in all four transects. At first glance, we see that we had about the same number of indicators change for the positive as for the negative. But, if we look at the major changes (and disregard anychange of less than 10 percent), we can get to the heart of the matter.
"The two big positives, increased Litter Contact and reduced Plant Pedestaling, might be explained due to greater stock density and regular herding practices. Charlie Orchard suspects the forbs dried up early and before the transects were read, explaining a portion of the Species Diversity decline. Many of the negative trends, such as declines in Production Potential, Plant Vigor and Total Canopy, can be at least partially explained by drought and little precipitation. If it rains less, less forage is going to grow, no matter how good the state of the ecosystem processes.
"To us, the primary concerns are the changes in Bare Ground and Plant Distribution. The significant drops in these indicators mean that we are struggling to retain what little moisture we have received (due primarily to evaporation off of the bare surface), and that plants are dying. Is our management causing this, or can we blame it all on the drought? Could our management adjustments have been more appropriate from the point of view of the effectiveness of the ecosystem processes?"
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