Carbon Stock and Change Rate under Different Grazing Management Practices in Semiarid Pastoral Ecosystem of Eastern Ethiopia
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Date
2022
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Land
Abstract
Grazing management strategies tend to have different effects on rangeland plant production.
Changes in grazing management can, therefore, affect the carbon stock potential of rangelands.
Despite rangeland ecosystems being important global sinks for carbon, we know relatively little
about the effect of traditional grazing management practices on their potential to store carbon. In this
study, we evaluated the carbon stock and change rate of rangelands using three traditional grazing
management practices in the semiarid pastoral ecosystem of eastern Ethiopia. By comparing data on
vegetation and soil carbon stocks, we found that there was a strong significant difference (p < 0.001)
between these different management practices. In particular, the establishment of enclosures was
associated with an annual increase in carbon stocks of soil (3%) and woody (11.9%) and herbaceous
(57.6%) biomass, when compared to communal open lands. Both enclosure and browsing management
practices were found to have the highest levels of soil organic carbon stocks, differing only in
terms of the amount of woody and herbaceous biomass. Thus, modest changes in traditional grazing
management practices can play an important role in carbon storage and sequestration. Further
research is required on a wider range of traditional pastoral management practices across space and
time, as understanding these processes is key to combating global climate change.
Description
Keywords
Open grazing, Enclosure, Browsing area, Climate change mitigation, Rangeland ecosystem services, Carbon stock
Citation
Gebremedhn, H.H.; Kelkay, T.Z.; Tesfay, Y.; Tuffa, S.; Dejene, S.W.; Mensah, S.; Devenish, A.J.M.; Egeru, A. Carbon Stock and Change Rate under Different Grazing Management Practices in Semiarid Pastoral Ecosystem of Eastern Ethiopia. Land 2022, 11, 639. https://doi.org/10.3390/ land11050639