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Roughly half of Nebraska’s land area is rangeland that produces livestock, forage, clean water, clean air, recreation and other ecosystem services. Managing rangelands for productivity is important to meet society’s needs. At the same time, managing rangelands to be resilient is essential for ensuring that their ecosystem services will continue to be delivered in the future, even under challenging conditions.
This research, which is supported by a University of Nebraska–Lincoln Grand Challenges Grant, monitors social-ecological resilience indicators across Nebraska rangelands with different grassland ecosystems, environmental conditions and management approaches. The goal of the project is to better understand tradeoffs in ecosystem services and rangeland resilience under different approaches to rangeland management, especially grazing systems aimed at maximizing carbon sequestration. Resilience indicators being monitored across eastern Nebraska and Sandhills research sites include plant, bird, insect and human communities. Among the numerous university entities contributing to this resilience research are the Center for Resilience in Agricultural Working Landscapes, the Center for Grassland Studies, the Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies, the Applied Wildlife Ecology and Spatial Movement Lab and the Doctor of Plant Health Program.