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NREM researchers receive grantOklahoma Researchers in Oklahoma State University's Natural Resource and Ecology Management department received a $490,000 USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative grant. The project, "Role of rangeland heterogeneity in biodiversity, riparian stability, livestock production and landowner landscape preference," will investigate how patch burning treatments affect biodiversity, livestock distribution and impacts on riparian areas and livestock productivity. Project investigators include Sam Fuhlendorf, NREM professor, Sarkeys Distinguished professor, rangeland and ecology management; Dwayne Elmore, NREM assistant professor, wildlife ecology and management; and Dave Engle, Water Research and Extension Center director and holder of the Thomas E. Berry Professorship of Integrated Water Research and Extension. "Traditional management of rangelands has predominately focused on maintaining dominate forage species and reducing variability across the landscape," said Fuhlendorf. "This has been promoted based on small-scale research without consideration of the ecological or economic consequences at sensible ranching scales. This has lead to homogenization of rangelands and loss of biodiversity." The project will be conducted from 2010 to 2014 at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Osage County. The goal is to optimize multifunctionality, which includes biodiversity, agricultural productivity and riparian stability of privately owned rangeland by focusing on heterogeneity achieved through the fire-grazing interaction. Fuhlendorf said this is a unique experiment where fire and grazing interact to create a spatial and temporal heterogeneity gradient. The study's results will be used to develop Cooperative Extension programming to assist landowners understand the value and approach to managing for heterogeneity, thereby promoting multifunctionality of rangelands. "We believe the results of this research will have broad implication for managing rangelands that are sustainable over time," Fuhlendorf said. Funding for the study is from the USDA--Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service Agriculture and Food Research Initiative in the Managed Ecosystems program.
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