Paper short abstract:

In this study, we recorded seasonal migration and daily herding distance of a Mongolian nomadic family. Vegetation condition was investigated. The seasonal migration was strongly depends on climatic and vegetation, and daily herding was clearly different between warm and cold season.

Paper long abstract:

Productivity of grassland vegetation is strongly affected by precipitation and its distribution. In the arid and cold climate dominated Mongolian plateau, about 70% of territory covered by herbaceous community. Nomadic pastoral livestock were historically managed in the region.

Several studies ecologically focused on the relationships between vegetation productivity and nomadic grazing intensity. And some studies were took angles form anthropology to discussing about seasonal migration and daily herding. But there is still no objective data showed that nomadic pastoral livestock how related with climatic and vegetative environment.

We conducted an experiment that handled portable GPS to nomadic family and settled a GPS logger on their sheep back to recording the seasonal migration and daily herding rout concurrently. Vegetation condition was investigated in remote sensing and ground truth level respectively.

As results, that number and distance of seasonal migration showed strongly depends on climatic and vegetation conditions. Daily herding was clearly different between warm and cold season.

Traditional nomadic knowledge played important roles on how to select and use the suitable pasture. It led to sustainability of grassland ecosystem in the Mongolian plateau.