Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Indicator species and functional groups as predictors of proximity to ecological thresholds in Mongolian rangelands

  • Published:
Plant Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We focused on responses to grazing by individual species and functional groups in relation to ecological thresholds in Mongolian rangelands, with repeated measures from the same ecological sites to account for rainfall variability. At all sites, even under rainfall fluctuations, there were robust combinations of indicator species that could be used to forewarn managers to take action to minimize the probability of crossing ecological thresholds. Depending on the landscape condition of each site, the cover of functional groups, which shared traits of perennial life history, grass or forb growth form, linear leaf shape, and alternate leaf attachment, or the cover of functional groups of woody shrubs dramatically decreased before an ecological threshold was crossed. Thus, across all sites, the responses of certain functional groups to grazing appeared to predict the crossing of an ecological threshold. The ecological indicators derived in this study should help to improve land managers’ ability to prevent adverse changes in states before ecological thresholds are reached.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adler PB, Milchunas DG, Sala OE, Burke IC, Lauenroth WK (2005) Plant traits and ecosystem grazing effects: comparison of U.S. sagebrush steppe and Patagonian steppe. Ecol Appl 15:774–792

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andrew MH (1988) Grazing impact in relation to livestock watering points. Trends Ecol Evol 3:336–339

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bestelmeyer BT (2006) Threshold concepts and their use in rangeland management and restoration: the good, the bad, and the insidious. Restor Ecol 14:325–329

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bestelmeyer BT, Brown JR, Havstad KM, Alexander R, Chavez G, Herrick JE (2003) Development and use of state-and-transition models for rangelands. J Range Manag 56:114–126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briske DD, Fuhlendorf SD, Smeins FE (2003) Vegetation dynamics on rangelands: a critique of the current paradigms. J Appl Ecol 40:601–614

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briske DD, Fuhlendorf SD, Smeins FE (2005) State and transition models, thresholds, and rangeland health: a synthesis of ecological concepts and perspectives. Range Ecol Manag 58:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briske DD, Fuhlendorf SD, Smeins FE (2006) A unified framework for assessment and application of ecological thresholds. Range Ecol Manag 59:225–236

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briske DD, Bestelmeyer BT, Stringham TK, Shaver PL (2008) Recommendations for development of resilience-based state-and-transition models. Range Ecol Manag 61:359–367

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bullock JM, Franklin J, Stevenson MJ, Silvertown J, Coulson SJ, Gregory SJ, Tofts R (2001) A plant trait analysis of responses to grazing in a long-term experiment. J Appl Ecol 38:253–267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buttolph LP, Coppock DL (2004) Influence of deferred grazing on vegetation dynamics and livestock productivity in an Andean pastoral system. J Appl Ecol 41:664–674

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cingolani AM, Noy-Meir I, Diaz S (2005) Grazing effects on rangeland diversity: a synthesis of contemporary models. Ecol Appl 15:757–773

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cleveland WS (1979) Robust locally weighted regression and smoothing scatterplots. J Am Stat Assoc 74:829–836

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Angelis DL, Waterhouse J (1987) Equilibrium and nonequilibrium concepts in ecological models. Ecol Monogr 57:1–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Bello F, Leps J, Sebastia MT (2005) Predictive value of plant traits to grazing along a climatic gradient in the Mediterranean. J Appl Ecol 42:824–833

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diaz S, Noy-Meir I, Cabido M (2001) Can grazing response of herbaceous plants be predicted from simple vegetative traits? J Appl Ecol 38:497–508

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dyksterhuis EJ (1949) Condition and management of rangeland based on quantitative ecology. J Range Manag 2:104–105

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis JE, Swift DM (1988) Stability of African pastoral systems: alternate paradigms and implications for development. J Range Manag 41:450–459

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fensham RJ, Fairfax RJ, Dwyer JM (2010) Vegetation responses to the first 20 years of cattle grazing in an Australian desert. Ecology 91:681–692

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez-Gimenez ME, Allen-Diaz B (1999) Testing a non-equilibrium model of rangeland vegetation dynamics in Mongolia. J Appl Ecol 36:871–885

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez-Gimenez ME, Allen-Diaz B (2001) Vegetation change along gradients from water sources in three grazed Mongolian ecosystems. Plant Ecol 157:101–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez-Gimenez ME, Batbuyan B (2004) Law and disorder: local implementation of Mongolia’s land law. Dev Change 35:141–165

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedel MH (1991) Range condition assessment and the concept of thresholds: a viewpoint. J Range Manag 44:422–426

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gillson L, Hoffman MT (2007) Rangeland ecology in a changing world. Science 315:53–54

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grime JP (2001) Plant strategies, vegetation processes, and ecosystem properties, 2nd edn. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  • Grubov VI (1982) Key to the vascular plants of Mongolia. Science Publishers, Enfield, NH

    Google Scholar 

  • Gunin PD, Vostokova EA, Dorefeyuk NI, Tarasov PE, Black CC (1999) Vegetation dynamics of Mongolia. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Hastie T, Tibshirani R (1990) Generalised additive models. Chapman & Hall, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hilbig W (1995) The vegetation of Mongolia. SPB Academic Publishing, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoshino A, Yoshihara Y, Sasaki T, Okayasu T, Jamsran U, Okuro T, Takeuchi K (2009) Comparison of vegetation changes along grazing gradients with different numbers of livestock. J Arid Environ 73:687–690

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Illius AW, O’Connor TG (1999) On the relevance of nonequilibrium concepts to arid and semiarid grazing systems. Ecol Appl 9:798–813

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson RD, Bartolome JW (2002) A state-transition approach to understanding nonequilibrium plant community dynamics of California grasslands. Plant Ecol 162:49–65

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Landsberg J, James CD, Morton SR, Muller WJ, Stol J (2003) Abundance and composition of plant species along grazing gradients in Australian rangelands. J Appl Ecol 40:1008–1024

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lavorel S, Garnier E (2002) Predicting changes in community composition and ecosystem functioning from plant traits: revising the Holy Grail. Funct Ecol 16:545–556

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Legendre P, Legendre L (1998) Numerical ecology, 2nd English edn. Elsevier Science, Amsterdam

  • Milchunas DG, Sala OE, Lauenroth WK (1988) A generalized model of the effects of grazing by large herbivores on grassland community structure. Am Nat 132:87–106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nash MS, Whitford WG, de Soyza AG, Van Zee JW, Havstad KM (1999) Livestock activity and Chihuahuan desert annual-plant communities: boundary analysis of disturbance gradients. Ecol Appl 9:814–823

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pakeman RJ (2004) Consistency of plant species and trait responses to grazing along a productivity gradient: a multi-site analysis. J Ecol 92:893–905

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pringle H, Landsberg J (2004) Predicting the distribution of livestock grazing pressure in rangelands. Austral Ecol 29:31–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R Development Core Team (2008) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria

    Google Scholar 

  • Riginos C, Hoffman MT (2003) Changes in population biology of two succulent shrubs along a grazing gradient. J Appl Ecol 40:615–625

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sasaki T, Okayasu T, Takeuchi K, Jamsran U, Jadambaa S (2005) Patterns of floristic composition under different grazing intensities in Bulgan, South Gobi, Mongolia. Grassl Sci 51:235–242

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sasaki T, Okayasu T, Jamsran U, Takeuchi K (2008a) Threshold changes in vegetation along a grazing gradient in Mongolian rangelands. J Ecol 96:145–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Sasaki T, Okayasu T, Shirato Y, Jamsran U, Okubo S, Takeuchi K (2008b) Can edaphic factors demonstrate landscape-scale differences in vegetation responses to grazing? Plant Ecol 194:51–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sasaki T, Okayasu T, Ohkuro T, Shirato Y, Jamsran U, Takeuchi K (2009a) Rainfall variability may modify the effects of long-term exclosure on vegetation in Mandalgobi, Mongolia. J Arid Environ 73:949–954

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sasaki T, Okubo S, Okayasu T, Jamsran U, Ohkuro T, Takeuchi K (2009b) Management applicability of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis across Mongolian rangeland ecosystems. Ecol Appl 19:423–432

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sasaki T, Okubo S, Okayasu T, Jamsran U, Ohkuro T, Takeuchi K (2009c) Two-phase functional redundancy in plant communities along a grazing gradient in Mongolian rangelands. Ecology 90:2598–2608

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scheffer M, Carpenter S (2003) Catastrophic regime shifts in ecosystems: linking theory to observation. Trends Ecol Evol 18:648–656

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strauss A, Schickhoff U (2007) Influence of soil ecological conditions on vegetation zonation in a western Mongolian lake shore—semi-desert ecotone. Erdkunde 61:72–92

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stringham TK, Krueger WC, Shaver PL (2003) State and transition modeling: an ecological process approach. J Range Manag 56:106–113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stumpp M, Wesche K, Retzer V, Miehe G (2005) Impacts of grazing livestock and distance from water sources on soil fertility in southern Mongolia. Mt Res Dev 25:244–251

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Todd SW (2006) Gradients in vegetation cover, structure and species richness of Nama-Karoo shrublands in relation to distance from watering points. J Appl Ecol 43:293–304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toms JD, Lesperance ML (2003) Piecewise regression: a tool for identifying ecological thresholds. Ecology 84:2034–2041

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (1997) National range and pasture handbook. United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • van de Koppel J, Rietkerk M, Weissing FJ (1997) Catastrophic vegetation shifts and soil degradation in terrestrial grazing systems. Trends Ecol Evol 12:352–356

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • van Staalduinen MA, During H, Werger MJA (2007) Impact of grazing regime on a Mongolian forest steppe. Appl Veg Sci 10:299–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vesk PA, Westoby M (2001) Predicting plant species’ responses to grazing. J Appl Ecol 38:897–909

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vesk PA, Leishman MR, Westoby M (2004) Simple traits do not predict grazing response in Australian dry shrublands and woodlands. J Appl Ecol 41:22–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vetter S (2005) Rangelands at equilibrium and non-equilibrium: recent developments in the debate. J Arid Environ 62:321–341

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker S, Wilson JB (2002) Tests for nonequilibrium, instability, and stabilizing processes in semiarid plant communities. Ecology 83:809–822

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson IW, Burnside DG, Holm AMR (1996) Event-driven or continuous; which is the better model for managers? Rangel J 18:351–369

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westoby M, Walker BH, Noy-Meir I (1989) Opportunistic management for rangelands not at equilibrium. J Range Manag 42:266–274

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood SN (2006) Generalized additive models: an introduction with R. Chapman & Hall/CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL

    Google Scholar 

  • Zemmrich A (2007) Equilibrium or non-equilibrium ecosystems? Scaling effects in rangeland ecosystems of western Mongolia. Erdkunde 61:335–343

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank B. T. Bestelmeyer and A. Cingolani for their helpful comments and discussions on an earlier draft of this manuscript. The associate editor and two anonymous reviewers also contributed significantly to the clarity of the manuscript. This work was financially supported by the Global Environmental Research Fund of Japan’s Ministry of the Environment (no. G-071), with additional support from Tohoku University’s Global COE program “Ecosystem Adaptability Science for the Future.”

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan

    Takehiro Sasaki

  2. Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8657, Japan

    Satoru Okubo, Tomoo Okayasu, Toshiya Ohkuro & Kazuhiko Takeuchi

  3. Center for Ecosystem Study, Mongolian State University of Agriculture, Ulaanbaatar, 210153, Mongolia

    Undarmaa Jamsran

Authors
  1. Takehiro Sasaki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Satoru Okubo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Tomoo Okayasu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Undarmaa Jamsran
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Toshiya Ohkuro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Kazuhiko Takeuchi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Takehiro Sasaki.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOC 64 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sasaki, T., Okubo, S., Okayasu, T. et al. Indicator species and functional groups as predictors of proximity to ecological thresholds in Mongolian rangelands. Plant Ecol 212, 327–342 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-010-9825-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-010-9825-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation