Merging rigor and relevance in grazingland research: a comprehensive social-ecological monitoring approach

Despite decades of study, current research on grazing management’s impacts on ecosystem health and its socioeconomic drivers remains too limited in scope and scale to enable adaptive, evidence-based decision making by producers. There is a pressing need for interdisciplinary research that collects ecosystem data at broader spatial and temporal scales while incorporating working farms and ranches. Such efforts are critical for informing grazing decisions and understanding grazinglands’ potential to deliver ecosystem services, including climate mitigation, water cycling, resilience, and rural livelihoods. The Metrics, Management, and Monitoring (3M) project addresses this need through a novel social-ecological framework that integrates biophysical, socioeconomic, and management data across U.S. grazinglands. The project combines controlled experiments at four intensively monitored “hubs” with data from 59 producer-managed farms and ranches. Its core objectives are to: (1) assess the social-ecological health of grazinglands across diverse ecoregions, (2) refine monitoring approaches to improve scalability and accuracy, and (3) integrate producer-led data to balance experimental rigor with real-world relevance. Over 50 scientists collaborate on 3M to evaluate how grazing strategies affect soil carbon, water dynamics, CO₂ fluxes, plant communities, productivity, social wellbeing, and producer economics. These insights support the development of ecosystem models and decision-support tools to help producers make evidence-based choices. Beyond data generation, 3M offers a scalable research model that bridges ecological and social sciences to support adaptive, informed grazing management. This integrated framework provides a transferable template for studying any working landscape where human and ecological systems are deeply interconnected.

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Publication Details

Journal
Carbon Balance and Management
Published
2026-04-03
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13021-026-00431-7
Primary Topic
Rangeland and Wildlife Management
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Merging rigor and relevance in grazingland research: a comprehensive social-ecological monitoring approach

Douglas Jeffrey Goodwin, Nathan D. DeLay, Jonathan Vivas, Keith Paustian et al.
Carbon Balance and Management
Rangeland and Wildlife Management
article

Merging rigor and relevance in grazingland research: a comprehensive social-ecological monitoring approach

Douglas Jeffrey Goodwin, Nathan D. DeLay, Jonathan Vivas, Keith Paustian, John Derek Scasta, João Paulo Sacramento, Zekuan Dong, Jennifer Hodbod, Ada P. Smith, Erika S Peirce, Frank Lupi, Erica Patterson, Jason E. Rowntree, Florencia Colella, Dabit Bista, A. Kühl, Sangmi Lee Pallickara, Ethan Gordon, Jeremiah Asher, Dale T. Manning, Martha C. Anderson, Matt R. Raven, Paige L. Stanley, Hannah Gosnell, Jenna M. Likins, Nicole M. Nimlos, Feng Gao, Robert Clement, Isabella C.F. Maciel, Guilhermo F.S. Congio, Andrey K. Guber, M. Francesca Cotrufo, Sean P. Kearney, Glenn O’Neil, Abdul Matin, Justin D. Derner, Yining Wu, Timm M. Gergeni, Rebecca Mitchell, Sarah Brokus, Morgan MathisonSlee, Micaela Branecky, Yao Zhang
article en

Abstract

Despite decades of study, current research on grazing management’s impacts on ecosystem health and its socioeconomic drivers remains too limited in scope and scale to enable adaptive, evidence-based decision making by producers. There is a pressing need for interdisciplinary research that collects ecosystem data at broader spatial and temporal scales while incorporating working farms and ranches. Such efforts are critical for informing grazing decisions and understanding grazinglands’ potential to deliver ecosystem services, including climate mitigation, water cycling, resilience, and rural livelihoods. The Metrics, Management, and Monitoring (3M) project addresses this need through a novel social-ecological framework that integrates biophysical, socioeconomic, and management data across U.S. grazinglands. The project combines controlled experiments at four intensively monitored “hubs” with data from 59 producer-managed farms and ranches. Its core objectives are to: (1) assess the social-ecological health of grazinglands across diverse ecoregions, (2) refine monitoring approaches to improve scalability and accuracy, and (3) integrate producer-led data to balance experimental rigor with real-world relevance. Over 50 scientists collaborate on 3M to evaluate how grazing strategies affect soil carbon, water dynamics, CO₂ fluxes, plant communities, productivity, social wellbeing, and producer economics. These insights support the development of ecosystem models and decision-support tools to help producers make evidence-based choices. Beyond data generation, 3M offers a scalable research model that bridges ecological and social sciences to support adaptive, informed grazing management. This integrated framework provides a transferable template for studying any working landscape where human and ecological systems are deeply interconnected.

Carbon Balance and ManagementVol. 21(1)
University of Wyoming (US), University of Leeds (GB), Oregon State University (US), United States Department of Agriculture (US), Texas A&M University System (US), Universidade de São Paulo (BR), Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (US), Noble Research Institute (US), Agricultural Research Service - Plains Area (US), Ecosystem Sciences (AU), University of Tennessee at Knoxville (US), Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (GB), Michigan State University (US), Colorado State University (US)
Greenacres Foundation, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, Noble Research Institute, Jones Family Foundation
Openalex Percentile: Top 32%
Rangeland and Wildlife Management
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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