3 minute read
Taking stock of bison sustainability
Researchers: Facing similar issues to cattle, changes pose a threat on the Plains
By South Dakota Farm and Ranch
BROOKINGS — Accelerating climate change throughout the Great Plains may present the next major challenge to bison sustainability.
That is the main point the director of research for the Center of Excellence for Bison Studies at South Dakota State University, Jeff Martin, made in his article recently published in the People and Nature journal, titled “Vulnerability assessment of the multi-sector North American bison management system to climate change.”
The article, published in April, was a collaboration with researchers from Texas A&M University and Colorado State University.
“Climate change directly affects bison by increasing thermal stress and decreasing forage and water availability, issues that also challenge range beef cattle,” Martin said. “Indirect consequences of climate change include increasing distribution and intensity of parasites and several diseases that are known to reduce reproductive success. These stresses have been estimated to collectively reduce bison body size by 50% if the global temperature warms by 4° Celsius near the end of the 21st century.”
Furthermore, warming and drought may also result in declining productivity of the remaining grasslands of the Great Plains, which are the preferred habitat for both bison and cattle.
The current bison population of North America is approximately 400,000 animals and is maintained by a self-assembled bison management system (BMS). Publicly owned bison populations have remained static around 30,000 bison since the 1930s because the extent of public lands has not expanded, especially not in the Great Plains. Martin and his team coined the term ‘bison management system’ as a way to describe the whole system of bison managers that represent a multi-sector interest in the conservation and production of bison across private, public, Tribal, and non-governmental organization (NGO) sectors. It is a unique animal management system in the world.
A map of historic bison range in North America since 1868 is outlined in black. Most bison herds are located in northern and central regions on shortgrass and mixed grass, with a higher percentage of private herds on those grasses, rather than public or non-governmental organization-owned lands.
Martin conducted a vulnerability assessment of the bison management system to increasing climate variability and change to further clarify the challenges that bison conservation and production may face in future climates. He surveyed 132 bison managers within the private, public and NGO sectors located in North America, who mostly reside in the northern and central mixed-grass prairies and manage bison herds averaging 51-100 animals. He collected data on the exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity of the managers to climate change.
The study showed that access to grazing leases, varied external income, use of management plans and information exchange are variables that present stumbling blocks for bison managers across the private, public and NGO sectors to advance their adaptation to climate change and sustainability.
The complementary, shared environmental values and attitudes of the private and public/NGO sectors shape the foundation for enhanced collaboration among the multi-sector bison management, Martin wrote. But it is the sharing of diverse practices and respective consequences that will lead the BMS to discover credible, scalable adaptive solutions to climate change. This may lead to the bison community to decide whether to form a ‘bison coalition’ to seek solutions to adapt to climate change, he said.
“The experiences and shared environmental values and attitudes of bison managers across the bison management system are foundational to enhanced collaboration across sectors,” Martin said. “We believe it would be beneficial for the bison management system to form a bison coalition to instigate enhanced coordination of knowledge sharing.”
Source: South Dakota State University
