A hard-to-keep promise: Vegetation use and aboveground carbon storage in silvopastures of the Dry Chaco

• Autores: Fernandez, Pedro David; de Waroux, Yann le Polain; Jobbagy Gampel, Esteban Gabriel; Loto, Dante E.; Gasparri, Néstor Ignacio
• Año de publicación: 2020
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Fuente: Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 303 : 107117 (November 2020)
• Materia: Silvopastoral Systems; Carbon Sequestration; Carbon Stock Assessments; Argentina; Sistemas Silvopascícolas; Secuestro de Carbono; Estimación de las Existencias de Carbono; Subtropical Dry Woodlands; Social-Ecological Systems; Carbon Stock Degradation; Gran Chaco; Silvopastures
• Institución: Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria

In dry woodland regions, silvopastures have emerged as a promising option to balance cattle production, carbon storage and biodiversity. However, one of the major challenges in these systems, particularly when implemented in a matrix of natural vegetation, is the preservation of tree populations in the face of management actions implemented by ranchers to control woody encroachment. Here, we investigate the extent of that tradeoff by analyzing the impact of woody encroachment control practices on carbon storage in silvopastures of the Argentine Dry Chaco. First, we analyze tree density and carbon storage in aboveground woody biomass for silvopastures and woodlands at 24 sites in five properties across the Argentine Dry Chaco. Then, we characterize vegetation management goals and actions of ranchers who have adopted silvopastures in that same region, combining field assessments, high-resolution imagery analysis, characterization of site history, and surveys. We find that woody biomass in silvopastures retains an average of 64 % of the carbon present in aboveground biomass in intact woodlands (28.8 Mg C ha−1). However, we also find that this storage capacity decreases by 12 % with each woody encroachment control intervention, due to these interventions’ negative effects on tree density. Ranchers expressed concern about tree mortality, but also indicated low profitability of wood products and highlighted woody encroachment as a major issue for livestock production. Therefore, ranchers feel they have no choice but to continue preventing woody encroachment, even if this implies the gradual depletion of tree populations. Understanding how ranchers manage silvopastures, and how that management affects the provision of ecosystem services, is essential and will require more careful long-term monitoring and evaluation. This is particularly true in agricultural frontiers such as the Argentine Dry Chaco, where silvopastoral systems have the potential to mitigate the seemingly irremediable conflict between commodity production and nature
Instituto de Investigación Animal del Chaco Semiárido
Fil: Fernandez, Pedro David. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Investigación Animal del Chaco Semiárido; Argentina
Fil: Fernandez, Pedro David. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Ecología Regional; Argentina
Fil: de Waroux, Yann le Polain. McGill University. Institute for the Study of International Development. Department of Geography; Canadá
Fil: Jobbágy, Estéban G. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Grupo de Estudios Ambientales e IMASL; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Grupo de Estudios Ambientales e IMASL; Argentina
Fil: Loto, Dante E. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Instituto de Silvicultura y Manejo de Bosques; Argentina
Fil: Gasparri, N. Ignacio. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Ecología Regional; Argentina