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Overgrazing in the Montado? The need for monitoring grazing pressure at paddock scale

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Abstract

Montados are presently facing the threat of either abandonment or intensification, and livestock overgrazing has been suspected of contributing to reduced natural regeneration and biodiversity. However, reliable data are to our knowledge, lacking. To avoid potential risks of overgrazing, an adaptive and efficient management is essential. In the present paper we review the main sources of complexity for grazing management linked with interactions among pasture, livestock and human decisions. We describe the overgrazing risk in montados and favour grazing pressure over stocking rate, as a key indicator for monitoring changes and support management decisions. We suggest the use of presently available imaging and communication technologies for assessing pasture dynamics and livestock spatial location. This simple and effective tools used for monitoring the grazing pressure, could provide an efficient day-to-day aid for farm managers’ operational use and also for rangeland research through data collection and analysis.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank three anonymous referees for their comments that greatly improved a previous version of the manuscript. The authors are grateful to Margarida Brandão for her help on the preparation of Fig. 1. This work was funded by FEDER Funds through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors—COMPETE and National Funds through FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology under the Strategic Projects PEst-C/AGR/UI0115/2011 and PEst-C/QUI/UI0062/2011. MI Ferraz de Oliveira is in receipt of a Post-Doctoral grant within the research project ALENT-07-0224-FEDER-001744. The funding sources played no role in the development of the present work or upon its submission for publication.

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  1. ICAAM - Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas and Departamento de Zootecnia, Universidade de Évora, Pólo da Mitra, Ap. 94, 7006-554, Évora, Portugal

    Elvira Sales-Baptista & Manuel Cancela d’Abreu

  2. ICAAM - Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas, Universidade de Évora, Pólo da Mitra, Ap.94, 7006-554, Évora, Portugal

    Maria Isabel Ferraz-de-Oliveira

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  1. Elvira Sales-Baptista
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  2. Manuel Cancela d’Abreu
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  3. Maria Isabel Ferraz-de-Oliveira
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Correspondence to Elvira Sales-Baptista.

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Sales-Baptista, E., d’Abreu, M.C. & Ferraz-de-Oliveira, M.I. Overgrazing in the Montado? The need for monitoring grazing pressure at paddock scale. Agroforest Syst 90, 57–68 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-014-9785-3

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