As part of Journal of Applied Ecology’s efforts to discuss how real-world impact can be achieved following research, we’re talking to authors about their studies. In this post, David Eldridge shares insights into conducting a large-scale collaborative study which explores the effects of livestock grazing on conservation in eastern Australia.
In late 2015 I was asked to be involved in a study to identify the ‘risks and benefits of continued livestock grazing in conservation reserves’ by the government agency I worked for in New South Wales, Australia. The project arose because former forests, which had current livestock grazing leases, were to be incorporated into the national park estate. But grazing was inconsistent with conservation in national parks, so this posed a major dilemma for the government.
Rather than just cancel a handful of leases, the government at the time decided that a study was needed to see if there were potential benefits of livestock grazing. These benefits, it was claimed, could include weed removal and a reduction in fire hazard. Along with this study came millions of dollars in cash, and in-kind contributions, but a great opportunity for cash-strapped scientists to do some applied science.
Australia: a short evolutionary history of livestock grazing
Yet, any ecologists working in Australia will tell you that livestock grazing is unlikely to have conservation benefits in Australia simply because Australia has had a very short evolutionary history of grazing by European livestock (about 250 years). Our plants, animals and soils have just not had enough time to adapt to livestock grazing. Nevertheless, despite the folly, and in my view wasteful expenditure of scarce research money, this was a great opportunity to ask some great questions about grazing, to have fun, and to do science that was clearly linked to government policy, something that government scientists love to do.
Not surprisingly, after three years of research, we found that livestock grazing had negative effects on native plants, soil function, soil health, reptiles, and birds, and there were even major impacts on microbes. Some of these results were published in our favourite scientific journal (Journal of Applied Ecology, Eldridge et al. (2016), Eldridge et al. (2018), Val et al. (2018) and Val et al. (2019)).
After five years we had published about 25 papers, produced videos, given tens of presentations, hit the media hard, and had a lot of fun along the way. The message was clear: grazing and conservation are incompatible, at least in our environment in eastern Australia across more than 0.4 million km2.
Plan, plan, plan and collaborate
The success of a study of this kind (multi-site, multi-community, multi-dimensional, multi-species, multi-season) requires a dedicated team of professionals with the same vision, passion, level of energy, and respect for one another, who all work well together, and enjoy each other’s company. I was extremely fortunate to be working with a team that shared all of these important attributes.
However, this needs to be matched with support from upper-level managers, and support of different government agencies that don’t often collaborate. We were fortunate to have great managers at all levels from the Science Director right down to our immediate line manager. We could never have produced the type of science we did without the support and encouragement of all of these people.
Planning was critical, right down to the way we coded each of our 451 sites. Establishing databases, checking plant names, the list goes on and on and on. And then there were the endless meetings and discussions needed so that we could agree on an appropriate research approach, not to mention field methodologies, statistical approaches and the need for pilot trials. All of this seemed very unnecessary and tedious to me. I’m a little bit overactive, and all I wanted to do was to get out in the field and start collecting data and do the analyses. But fortunately for me, this planning was unavoidable, and I soon learnt that planning meetings (at least it was pre-Covid, so there were no dreaded Teams/Zoom meetings) were critical and fundamental to a successful outcome.
The result of all this planning and contingency assessment was more rigorous science, and a client (the New South Wales Government) that not only felt ownership of the study, but was entirely confident in the rigour of the work. This science rigour also helped to show other parts (non-science) of the agency that science is an integral component of environmental management, and was needed to deliver rigorous and defensible outcomes.
One drawback of our study was that despite the unequivocal evidence that there were no conservation benefits of continued livestock grazing in the conservation reserves, the government decided not to revoke the grazing leases, but to let them run their course and then not review them. We all learned a great lesson; politics sometimes trumps good science. The cynic in me might say that it always trumps good science, but that’s a discussion for another day.
I found it extremely exhilarating to work with such a great bunch of dedicated scientists for three years on a specific project that was not only lots of fun, but answered some really important questions about how grazing affects semiarid ecosystems.
And it’s not over yet; data from the project still keep giving. The data are still being used and reused in various studies worldwide. Our study has even been termed ‘data piñata’ by our Spanish colleagues (‘all we have to do is hit you and out comes these beautiful data’).
So, what did we learn from all this? Preparation is key. If you iron out the bugs at the beginning, then things will go more smoothly. Try to work with people that you like; it’s not always possible, but it certainly makes work more enjoyable and rewarding. And finally, don’t expect that your science is going to change the world. We might have failed to change policy in relation to grazing, but we managed to generate some fantastic science that led to other great opportunities and future collaborations.
Learn more about the impact of work published in Journal of Applied Ecology in our latest Editorial, and check out associated articles in our accompanying Virtual Issue.