This document discusses resilience-based management approaches used in the US, Argentina, and Mongolia. It recognizes that ecosystem change is inevitable and the goal is to nudge systems towards desirable states and avoid undesirable losses of options. Regional collaborative groups are established to identify key concerns, develop models of ecosystem dynamics, and classify ecological potential. This supports long-term adaptive management and monitoring through knowledge sharing across institutional scales.

1. A general approach for resilience-
based management in the US,
Argentina, and Mongolia
Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Jeffrey E. Herrick
USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range
www.jornada.nmsu.edu

2. Changes of the past
Black grama (Bouteloua eriopoda) grassland

3. Changes of the past
1936
“…some overgrazing may be tolerated during
infrequent emergencies without damage to the range.”
--Jornada Annual Report, 1949

4. Changes of the past
1956
“December closed a year which in many respects was the
most disastrous in Jornada history”
--Jornada Monthy Report, December 1951

5. Changes of the past
Now
“A transition to an alternative state”
“Persistent degradation”
“Difficult to restore”

6. Changes to come
Warmer/drier
More people
Changing land use

7. What we learned from the era steady-state
management
• Tipping points are unpredictable, sometimes inevitable
• Even with foreknowledge that dramatic change was possible,
managers were unable to prevent it
• We recognized the gradually changing vulnerability only in
retrospect
• The forces resulting in vulnerability have social and ecological
origins, are complex, and sometimes cannot be directly
controlled

8. Resilience-based management (RBM)
• Recognize that change is inevitable
• Nudge trajectories such that undesirable changes are
avoided—specifically a loss of options
• Make broadly available information about ecological
processes and services for specific places
• Work collaboratively, at different institutional scales, to test
and reevaluate decisions
• Innovate and learn from what we do

9. How do we develop knowledge systems that enable societies to
direct ecosystems toward desirable states or to adapt to
irreversibly changed conditions?
Livestock numbers
Erosion
Fire/Thicketization

10. Developing a method of RBM
Regional/landscape
collaborative groups
Classifications of
Models of
ecological potential
ecosystem dynamics
and heterogeneity
Ecosystem service
bundles provided by
ecological states Long-term adaptive
management and
monitoring
Knowledge systems

11. Establish regional stakeholder organizations to identify key state change/resilience
concerns
Organizations comprise one or more
Major Land Resource Areas
Invasive plant-fire driven
Drought-triggered
state change
forest dieback
43A 43A 52 53A 55A
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58A 54 143
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90A
102
2
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58
143
55
103
10
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C
95B
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98
23
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10
65
10
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7
139
7B
12
71 7
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24
75 109
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B 72
28A
28
67
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6
6
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12
48
73
22
A
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121
11
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69 79
11
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5
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77A
35
78C
B
17
30 130 6
13
70C
78B 119
77C
131A
38
31
86A
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3B
41 13
42 85 133A 3A
15
81B
Nonnative woody
Desertification 150
A
plant invasion
Thicketization
of woody plants
• National regulatory and assistance agencies
• NGOs, landholders
• Common concepts and databases
• Research groups as “bridging organizations”

12. Develop ecological models to describe how changes in state can occur
• Capture general mechanisms of state change
• Integrate science results/local knowledge
• Biophysical and social processes, indicators
• Guidance for more specific models

13. Ecological sites filter the general models based on soil, climate, and
landscape processes
Can soil databases serve as the core of
a spatially-explicit knowledge system?

14. Similar classification concepts outside US
Ecological sites-Great Britain (Ray 2001)
Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification-Canada (Green and
Klinka 1994)
Land systems-Australia (van Gool and Moore 1999)
http://www.publish.csiro.au/nid/289/aid/16090.htm
Landscape units-Germany, Netherlands (Bastian 2000)

15. Develop ecological-site specific state-and-transition models

16. Describe ecosystem service bundles provided by different states
Ecological states and services of Sandy ecological site: MLRA 42.2
Native perennial Savanna Shrubland Exotic perennial
grassland grassland
-excellent forage -biodiversity -sustained NPP -grassland functions
-soil stabilization elements during prolonged given warmer climate
-“nativeness” drought

17. Map ecological sites and states then specify where different interventions
are desired, and the expected consequences

18. Spatially-explicit management prescriptions and monitoring
States of sandy ecological site, Dona Ana
County, New Mexico
0 5 10 20 Kilometers
Black grama grassland [manage stocking rates]
Altered grassland type [maintain adequate cover]
Shrub-invaded type [shrub removal]
Shrubland [rest or alternative uses]

19. Institutional needs for RBM
 Support the organization of regional or landscape collaborative groups via
“bridging organizations”
 Promote structured monitoring and databasing assocaited with
expenditures on land management
 Develop national databases to serve as durable, logical knowledge systems
 Direct or support scientists to work with collaborative groups in addition to
performing other, general research
Bestelmeyer and Briske (2012), Rangeland Ecology and Management 65:543-544
www.jornada.nmsu.edu