About this Research Topic
Influenced by global processes of neoliberalization over the past several decades, property rights to grasslands around the world have been changed dramatically, with privatization being the dominant feature. Nevertheless, common property (or collective property) remains in existence. In addition to property rights transitions, grasslands have also been affected by climate change and other anthropogenic perturbations, such as the conversion of natural grasslands to cultivated pastures or crop fields, changes from extensive to intensive management that increase stocking rate or stocking intensity and transform pastoralism to confined industrial feeding, specialized management of livestock, and marketization. There is a growing body of evidence that suggests grasslands around the world have undergone serious processes of degradation as a result of transformations to private property regimes, climate change, and other disturbances. Accordingly, various measures have been adopted to try to reverse this degradation, including temporary and permanent bans on grazing, seeding of grasslands, conversion of arable lands to grasslands, and rotational grazing. More investigation is needed into how these factors, including processes of privatization, are affecting social/cultural systems, grazing system, and in turn, characteristics of vegetation and soils.
We seek to bring together studies that shed light on the following questions:
a) What effects do changes in property rights/climate/management have on grassland ecosystems? By what mechanisms and processes are these effects produced?
b) What are the social, cultural, and economic effects of changes in grassland property rights? What is the best way to achieve both grassland protection and restoration and environmental and social justice?
c) Do various measures related to grassland protection and restoration achieve positive effects on grassland social-ecological systems? By what measures? Do improvements in specific ecosystem functions come at the expense of others? What are the tradeoffs?
The goal of answering these questions is to increase sustainability through the reduction of capital and technological inputs. This should also increase the resilience of the complex socio-ecological systems of pastoral areas.
The contents of the Research Topic include but are not limited to:
1. Effects of different grassland management patterns (individual grassland management or collective/ group grassland management on social-cultural systems and traditional grazing system?
2. Effects of different grassland management patterns, or different measures of grassland protection or restoration, on vegetation, soils and microbes, C and N cycles, or other aspects of ecosystem structure and function;
3. Under climate change, what forms of adaptive management are most appropriate for pastoral areas and why?
4. Effects of livestock herd structure on spatial distribution of soil nutrients and its effects on growth of plants.
5. What are the environmental/ecological effects of replacing natural with cultivated pastures either with annual or perennial species?
6. Effects of marketization on grassland ecosystem’s function and sustainable development.
We seek to bring together studies that shed light on the following questions:
a) What effects do changes in property rights/climate/management have on grassland ecosystems? By what mechanisms and processes are these effects produced?
b) What are the social, cultural, and economic effects of changes in grassland property rights? What is the best way to achieve both grassland protection and restoration and environmental and social justice?
c) Do various measures related to grassland protection and restoration achieve positive effects on grassland social-ecological systems? By what measures? Do improvements in specific ecosystem functions come at the expense of others? What are the tradeoffs?
The goal of answering these questions is to increase sustainability through the reduction of capital and technological inputs. This should also increase the resilience of the complex socio-ecological systems of pastoral areas.
The contents of the Research Topic include but are not limited to:
1. Effects of different grassland management patterns (individual grassland management or collective/ group grassland management on social-cultural systems and traditional grazing system?
2. Effects of different grassland management patterns, or different measures of grassland protection or restoration, on vegetation, soils and microbes, C and N cycles, or other aspects of ecosystem structure and function;
3. Under climate change, what forms of adaptive management are most appropriate for pastoral areas and why?
4. Effects of livestock herd structure on spatial distribution of soil nutrients and its effects on growth of plants.
5. What are the environmental/ecological effects of replacing natural with cultivated pastures either with annual or perennial species?
6. Effects of marketization on grassland ecosystem’s function and sustainable development.
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