Ross Louise C, Austrheim Gunnar, Asheim Leif-Jarle, Bjarnason Gunnar, Feilberg Jon, Fosaa Anna Maria, Hester Alison J, Holand Øystein, Jónsdóttir Ingibjörg S, Mortensen Lis E, Mysterud Atle, Olsen Erla, Skonhoft Anders, Speed James D M, Steinheim Geir, Thompson Des B A, Thórhallsdóttir Anna Gudrún
The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH, Scotland, UK.
Department of Natural History, University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491, Trondheim, Norway.
Ambio. 2016 Sep;45(5):551-66. doi: 10.1007/s13280-016-0771-z. Epub 2016 Mar 1.
Sheep grazing is an important part of agriculture in the North Atlantic region, defined here as the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Scotland. This process has played a key role in shaping the landscape and biodiversity of the region, sometimes with major environmental consequences, and has also been instrumental in the development of its rural economy and culture. In this review, we present results of the first interdisciplinary study taking a long-term perspective on sheep management, resource economy and the ecological impacts of sheep grazing, showing that sustainability boundaries are most likely to be exceeded in fragile environments where financial support is linked to the number of sheep produced. The sustainability of sheep grazing can be enhanced by a management regime that promotes grazing densities appropriate to the site and supported by area-based subsidy systems, thus minimizing environmental degradation, encouraging biodiversity and preserving the integrity of ecosystem processes.
在北大西洋地区（这里定义为法罗群岛、格陵兰岛、冰岛、挪威和苏格兰），牧羊是农业的重要组成部分。这一过程在塑造该地区的景观和生物多样性方面发挥了关键作用，有时会产生重大环境后果，并且在其农村经济和文化发展中也起到了重要作用。在本综述中，我们展示了第一项跨学科研究的结果，该研究从长期角度审视了绵羊管理、资源经济以及绵羊放牧的生态影响，结果表明，在财政支持与绵羊产量挂钩的脆弱环境中，最有可能超出可持续性界限。通过一种管理制度可以提高绵羊放牧的可持续性，这种制度促进适合当地的放牧密度，并得到基于面积的补贴系统的支持，从而将环境退化降至最低，鼓励生物多样性并维护生态系统过程的完整性。
