Grazing represents the most extensive use of land worldwide. Yet its impacts on ecosystem services remain uncertain because pervasive interactions between grazing pressure, climate, soil properties, and biodiversity may occur but have never been addressed simultaneously. Using a standardized survey at 98 sites across six continents, we show that interactions between grazing pressure, climate, soil, and biodiversity are critical to explain the delivery of fundamental ecosystem services across drylands worldwide. Increasing grazing pressure reduced ecosystem service delivery in warmer and species-poor drylands, whereas positive effects of grazing were observed in colder and species-rich areas. Considering interactions between grazing and local abiotic and biotic factors is key for understanding the fate of dryland ecosystems under climate change and increasing human pressure.

Increases in the abundance of woody species have been reported to affect the provisioning of ecosystem services in drylands worldwide. However, it is virtually unknown how multiple biotic and abiotic drivers, such as climate, grazing, and fire, interact to determine woody dominance across global drylands. We conducted a standardized field survey in 304 plots across 25 countries to assess how climatic features, soil properties, grazing, and fire affect woody dominance in dryland rangelands. Precipitation, temperature, and grazing were key determinants of tree and shrub dominance. The effects of grazing were determined not solely by grazing pressure but also by the dominant livestock species. Interactions between soil, climate, and grazing and differences in responses to these factors between trees and shrubs were key to understanding changes in woody dominance. Our findings suggest that projected changes in climate and grazing pressure may increase woody dominance in drylands, altering their structure and functioning.

Pastoral systems worldwide secure rural livelihoods in the harshest environments on Earth. Their low productivity per area unit or head makes them the subject of much criticism with regard to their environmental impact, particularly in relation to global warming, desertification and land degradation. Such is the case of the traditional pastoral systems of Patagonia, a vast and isolated region where sedentary and mobile pastoralism coexist and contribute to shape landscapes and cultures. We argue that pastoral systems provide a wide range of ecosystem services that may compensate for their negative impact on the environment. We review the scarcely available evidence from Patagonia to identify ecosystem services and disservices associated with pastoralism, and pay special attention to the carbon balance: with C footprints between 10 to 40 kg CO₂-eq.kg⁻¹ carcass, pastoral systems in dry Patagonia are below or within the range of semi-extensive livestock systems worldwide (35–45 CO₂-eq. kg⁻¹ carcass). To inform development and policy, the assessment of trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services needs to incorporate the intertwined social and ecological dynamics of complex pastoral systems, along resource regenerative trajectories.

Distinguishing the contributions of different vegetation cover such as shrubs and grasses components into the primary production in arid and semi-arid rangelands is a key step to understanding changes at a landscape scale. The aim was to assess the contribution of shrubs, grasses and bare soil components into a total biophysical variable at a patch level, and the relationship between that biophysical variable and remote sensing vegetation index, in a grass–shrub steppe from North-West Patagonia, Argentina. We conducted a field survey in the period 2015–2017 to analyzing the relationship between monthly values of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of two grasses, two shrub species and bare soil, weighted by their cover area at a patch level, and the concomitant patch NDVI records, respectively. The contribution of the patch components to the total NDVI value at a patch level was additive. The relationship between the weighted NDVI of patch components and the concomitant NDVI value at a patch level along time was linear for perennial grasses and deciduous shrub–grass patches, but linearity was not significant for most perennial shrub–grass patches. Differences among patch compositions and their surface reflectance suggest the need to move forward in a more precise distinction of the floristic composition of patches, to better understanding their contribution to NDVI temporal dynamics at a landscape scale.

La erosión hídrica es una de las principales causas de degradación de tierras. Las estimaciones de erosión son fundamentales para la optimización de estrategias de conservación de suelos. Por eso estudiamos la susceptibilidad a la erosión hídrica y sus factores predisponentes en una cuenca de la región árida de la Patagonia norte, con el modelo USLE (siglas en inglés para Ecuación Universal de Pérdida de Suelo). Empleamos herramientas de teledetección, SIG, y análisis de componentes principales para evaluar el escenario promedio de pérdida de suelo. Además, evaluamos los cambios en la erosión estimada bajo tres escenarios posibles de acuerdo a modificaciones en la cobertura y la intervención sobre los humedales. La tasa estimada de pérdida de suelo por erosión hídrica promedió 27 t ha-1 año-1 con distintos grados de afectación en el área. Éstos resultados fueron convergentes con la cantidad de sedimentos en suspensión colectados en tres arroyos de la cuenca. El factor que depende de la pendiente del terreno fue el que mostró el mayor control sobre la variabilidad de la erosión hídrica. Entre los escenarios planteados, las mayores diferencias con respecto a la situación promedio correspondieron a cambios en la erosividad en las precipitaciones más que a cambios en la cobertura o intervenciones en mallines. La extensión espacial del análisis fue posible gracias a la combinación de las herramientas empleadas y brinda un contexto acorde a la complejidad de los procesos ecológicos. Los resultados de este trabajo ponen de manifiesto la existencia de áreas sensibles a la erosión hídrica y permiten establecer prioridades y/o alcances de las decisiones para el cuidado de los recursos naturales en zonas áridas como esta porción de la Patagonia.