Ecosystem Services Provided by Pastoral Husbandry: A Bibliometric Analysis

The ecosystem services provided by the age-old activity of husbandry are presently declining or seriously endangered. The situation is particularly serious for regulation services and for certain cultural services given their growing dependence on external inputs. This work performs a bibliometric analysis for the purpose of identifying the certainties and gaps associated with the different ecosystems generated by pastoral husbandry, and confirms the pressing challenges that the livestock industry is facing in the current context of global change. Two different tools, Scopus and VOSviewer, have been implemented to analyze 2230 documents published between 1961 and 2021 that include the terms grazing and service. The information required for the bibliometric analysis of authorship, country of origin, field of study and number of citations, among other categories, was drawn from the documents to the effect of evidencing their general thematic relationships. Finally, the current state of the ecosystem services currently provided by pastoral husbandry-provisioning, regulation, cultural and support services-was assessed. The results showed a greater abundance of scientific literature on provisioning and regulation services than on cultural and support services. An increase in the number of publications from the beginning of the 21st century was confirmed. The United States stands out as the country with the largest scientific production, and environmental sciences is the most prominent field in the study of ecosystem services. A recent larger academic effort to encourage the promotion of ecosystem services from the institutions has also been observed, as well as to include them as a factor in the development of environmental policies, which is described as the greatest challenge for the future of this discipline. Among other possible solutions, the new European Union agricultural subsidies-the so-called eco-schemes-appear to be essential for that effort to bear fruit as soon as possible.

Automated summary

The ecosystem services provided by husbandry are declining or endangered, especially regulation services and certain cultural services. A bibliometric analysis of documents published between 1961 and 2021, focusing on grazing and service, reveals the certainties and gaps in the ecosystem generated by pastoral husbandry, confirming the challenges faced by the livestock industry in the context of global change. The analysis shows a greater abundance of scientific literature on provisioning and regulation services than on cultural and support services. The United States has the highest scientific production, and environmental sciences are the most prominent field in studying ecosystem services. There has been a recent academic effort to promote ecosystem services and include them in environmental policies, which is considered the greatest challenge for the future of this discipline.