Biophysical variability and politico-economic singularity: Responses of livestock numbers in South Mongolian nomadic pastoralism
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Authors
We analyzed a unique data set of livestock numbers in the Mongolian southern Gobi. In a novel approach, we combined biophysical data on precipitation and pasture biomass productivity with data on fine wool prices from 1981 through 2015 to investigate dynamic patterns and responses of livestock numbers in Mongolia's southern Gobi. Using piecewise structural equation modeling enabled us to disentangle the effects of biophysical and politico-economic factors on livestock numbers and species composition, paying particular attention to the singular transition from centrally planned to free-market economy that happened in Mongolia in 1992. Our analysis reveals that biophysical and politico-economic factors were both important determinants of livestock numbers, and highlights the politico-economic singularity of 1992 as the single-largest driver of livestock dynamics in the period investigated.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 107073 |
| Journal | Ecological Economics |
| Volume | 187 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| ISSN | 0921-8009 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 01.09.2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the National Agency of Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring of Mongolia and the National Statistical Office of Mongolia for kindly providing precipitation and herd size data. In particular, JOE would like to thank Julian Ahlborn for providing the map shown in Fig. 1 , and for many helpful and illuminating discussions on nomadic herding in the study area. Neil French Collier and Jannik Schultner provided useful advice on statistical modeling issues. Research of HvW and KW was financed by the FWF (P18624) and German Science Foundation (DFG WE 2601/8-1), KW received additional support from German Federal Ministry of Science and Ecudation – project MoreStep within the BMBF BioTip framework (grant number 01LC1820C); JOE and HvW gratefully acknowledge financial support by the VolkswagenFoundation (grant number VWZN3188).
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the National Agency of Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring of Mongolia and the National Statistical Office of Mongolia for kindly providing precipitation and herd size data. In particular, JOE would like to thank Julian Ahlborn for providing the map shown in Fig. 1, and for many helpful and illuminating discussions on nomadic herding in the study area. Neil French Collier and Jannik Schultner provided useful advice on statistical modeling issues. Research of HvW and KW was financed by the FWF (P18624) and German Science Foundation (DFG WE 2601/8-1), KW received additional support from German Federal Ministry of Science and Ecudation ? project MoreStep within the BMBF BioTip framework (grant number 01LC1820C); JOE and HvW gratefully acknowledge financial support by the VolkswagenFoundation (grant number VWZN3188).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
- Extreme Events, Piecewise Structural Equation Modeling, Gobi, Nomadic Herding, Post-Soviet Mongolia, Precipitation Variability, Productivity
- Ecosystems Research
- Biology