In search of sustainable livestock management in the Dry Chaco: effect of different shrub-removal practices on vegetation

Increasing shrub density hinders cattle raising in central Argentina rangelands. While roller-chopping and hand-cutting are used to remove shrubs make land accessible for grazing, studies on the effects of these practices ecosystem composition, structure functioning scarce. We assessed impact removal (a) vegetation cover, species richness diversity (b) green biomass seasonal phenological dynamics. a randomised design with three treatments (degraded rangeland; hand-cutting) four replicates, compared least disturbed woodland (conserved woodland). Cenchrus ciliaris L. was sown following grass cover increased significantly (45% 84% vs 27% degraded rangeland, 13% conserved woodland), tree decreased (3% 2% 16% 23% Shrub reached 45% under roller-chopping, similar rangeland treatment (46% 60% but only 3% cover. Hand-cutting reduced diversity, whereas had no effect. Shrub-removal normalised difference index (NDVI; proxy biomass) modified phenology. Under both treatments, maximum, minimum integral NDVI (area curve) were lower than those treatment. The results suggest that shrub-removal increase forage livestock, reduce functional compromise return less states (woodland), where populations maintained.