Data from: Remotely-sensed primary productivity shows that domestic and native herbivores combined are overgrazing Patagonia

1. Carrying capacity is the maximum density of animals an area can sustain without a deterioration of its resources. Overgrazing degraded Patagonia grasslands in the past, but sheep stocks decreased in the last three decades and gave way to a mixed system with cattle, goats and guanacos (native wild camelids). 2. The objective of this paper was to develop a method to estimate carrying capacity based on remotely sensed data, and to assess wild and domestic herbivore numbers to establish if combined grazing stocks have evolved to a balance with carrying capacity. 3. Net Primary Productivity (NPP) MOD17/A3 images and Aerial Net Primary Productivity (ANPP) data of 66 sites were linearly regressed (R2= 0.83, P<0.01), and the slope 0.236 was used to convert MOD17/A3 NPP to ANPP. The proportion of ANPP that can be sustainably consumed (Harvest index) was HI=-5.71+0.72 ANPP0.5. Consumable forage was CF =ANPP.HI and carrying capacity CC =CF.EAC-1, where EAC is an estimate of annual consumption: 500, 3200 and 750 kg DM.head-1.year-1 for sheep or goats, cattle and guanacos, respectively. 4. Regional ANPP±SD (2000-2015) was 758±52 kg DM ha-1.yr-1; HI= 13.7±0.6% and CF= 104±12 kg DM ha-1yr-1 resulting in regional carrying capacity of 14.8±1.6 M sheep or goats, 2.3±0.3 M cattle or 9.9±1.2 M guanacos. 5. Domestic stock was high from 1920 to 1980, but declined thereafter and remained mostly within ±1SD of carrying capacity in this century. Annual mean provincial stocks and carrying capacity (2000-2015) correlated well (R²= 0.94, p