Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Peer-reviewed

Grazing livestock move by Lévy walks: Implications for soil health and environment

Alejandro Romero‐Ruiz, M. Jordana Rivero, Alice E. Milne, Sarah Morgan, Paulo Méo-Filho, Simon Pulley, Carmen Segura, Paul Harris, Michael R. F. Lee, K. Coleman, L. M. Cardenas, A. P. Whitmore

Journal of Environmental Management · 2023

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Summary

Grazing livestock plays an important role in the context of food security, agricultural sustainability and climate change. Understanding how livestock move and interact with their environment may offer new insights on how grazing practices impact soil and ecosystem functions at spatial and temporal scales where knowledge is currently limited. We characterized daily and seasonal grazing patterns using Global Positioning System (GPS) data from two grazing strategies: conventionally- and rotationally-grazed pastures. Livestock movement was consistent with the so-called Lévy walks, and could thus be simulated with Lévy-walk based probability density functions. Our newly introduced "Moovement model" links grazing patterns with soil structure and related functions by coupling animal movement and

Source type
Peer-reviewed study
DOI
10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118835
Catalogue ID
BFmoakvjs3-6wc0hm
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