Abandonment in grazing systems: Consequences for vegetation and soil

Peco, Begoña; Sánchez, Ana M.; Azcárate, Francisco M.

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2005.09.017

Cited by 202 publications

(171 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…The results are in line with some studies in western U.S. (Loeser et al, 2007) and in central Spain (Peco et al, 2005(Peco et al, , 2006. With regards to the duration of grazing exclusion, we found that short-term (no more than 5 years) grazing exclusion remarkably increased species richness, but the effects were not significant in the long run.…”

Section: Effects Of Grazing Exclusion On Plant Diversitysupporting

confidence: 81%

“…For plant diversity, the results are also conflicting. Several studies reported no effects of grazing exclusion on plant diversity (Milchunas and Lauenroth, 1993;Meissner and Facelli, 1999), while a number of studies reported increases (Shaltout et al,1996;Eweg et al, 1998;Shang et al, 2008;Mayer et al, 2009;Jeddi and Chaieb, 2010;Zhao et al, 2011), and others reported decreases (Proulx and Mazumder, 1998;Dullinger et al, 2003;Altesor et al, 2005;Peco et al, 2005Peco et al, , 2006Wu et al, 2009), in plant diversity in response to grazing exclusion. Generally, the effectiveness of grazing exclusion denpends on its duration (Milchunas and Lauenroth, 1993;Su et al, 2005;Wu et al, 2008;McSherry and Ritchie, 2013), environmental conditions (Conant and Paustian, 2002;Derner and Schuman, 2007;Piñeiro et al, 2010; J.S.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of grazing exclusion on carbon sequestration and plant diversity in grasslands of China—A meta-analysis

Xiong

Shi

Zhang

et al. 2016

Ecological Engineering

173

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a b s t r a c tWidespread land degradation has strengthened the urgent need to restore overgrazing grasslands. China has implemented the program 'Returning Grazing Land to Grassland' (RGLG) through grazing exclusion by fence since 2003. Despite a lot of field experiments, there is still controversy on the effects of grazing exclusion on rangeland restoration, highlighting the need for synthetic analysis. We conducted a metaanalysis of 447 entries from 78 papers to analyze the spatiotemporal effects of grazing exclusion on plant diversity, productivity and soil carbon sequestration in the major RGLG-implemented provinces of China. Our results showed that, compared with the grazed sites, grazing exclusion significantly increased carbon stored in aboveground biomass, litter mass, belowground biomass and soils by 84.7%, 111.6%, 25.5% and 14.4%, respectively. Plant coverage, soil available nitrogen, soil available phosphorus and soil microbial biomass carbon increased by 52.0%, 21.7% 22.8% and 26.3%, respectively. However, grazing exclusion had little effects on recovering plant diversity in China's grasslands. Of the factors examined, climatic factors strongly modified the effects of grazing exclusion on ecosystem carbon stocks, for example, precipitation significantly amplified the positive effects. Grazing exclusion played a positive role in soil carbon sequestration in most grassland types except in temperate desert-steppe. But annual soil carbon sequestration rates decayed rapidly over time in both alpine meadow and temperate steppe. Short-term (≤5 years) grazing exclusion remarkably increased species richness, but not significantly in the long run. The threshold from neutral to negative effects of grazing exclusion on species evenness occurs after approximately ten years. Our findings provide evidence that grazing exclusion is an effective way to restore vegetation and sequestrate carbon in degraded grasslands, but not beneficial to plant diversity maintenance. The benefits of grazing exclusion are more effective in humid area than arid area. We suggest that grazing exclusion should be ceased after about six to ten years. Additionally, grazing exclusion should integrate with other appropriate management practices instead of operating on a stand-alone basis.

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Section: Effects Of Grazing Exclusion On Plant Diversitysupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of grazing exclusion on carbon sequestration and plant diversity in grasslands of China—A meta-analysis

Xiong

Shi

Zhang

et al. 2016

Ecological Engineering

173

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…They got the results that there is an increase in complexity of communities, an improvement in edaphic conditions, and a stronger positive correlation between the nutritional level and plant communities with an increase in abandoned time (Dana and Mota 2006). Peco et al studied the changes in floristic composition, species richness, and heterogeneity on abandoned grazing grasslands, and they concluded that species numbers in abandoned zones were not significantly different from grazed zones and floristic heterogeneity increased with abandonment (Peco et al 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation dynamics during different abandoned year spans in the land of the Loess Plateau of China

Hou

2013

Environ Monit Assess

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In this semi-arid area, many studies focused on the two-phase vegetation pattern were carried out to explore a changing vegetation trajectory on degraded land. However, this study conducted an analysis of a two-phase vegetation pattern and explored the successional vegetation trajectories in a positive succession without disturbance. In this work, 60 randomly distributed plots (1×1 m) were invested on four abandoned land areas (4-, 12-, 22-, and 50-year abandoned land) to determine attributes of vegetation, and soil physical and nutritional properties. It was found that vegetation distribution development went from homogeneous on 4-year abandoned land to heterogeneous on 50-year abandoned land, with a positive succession. Meanwhile, there was a significant difference in soil physical and nutritional properties for the inside and outside of vegetation patches. Vegetation patches can supply better soil physical and nutritional properties for vegetation than bare patches along the abandoned time. Vegetation diversity changes without a regular trend which may be due to the effect of environment and interspecies competition. This work picked up the slack for vegetation patterns succession research and provided a quantitative analysis approach.

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“…Successivamente, ma la tempistica dipen de anche dalle caratteristiche delle specie (razze) pa scolanti, l'azione selettiva incide anche sulla compo nente arbustiva. Come ultimo stadio di regressione si ha la completa scomparsa della vegetazione e l'insor genza di fenomeni erosivi più o meno spinti (Peco et al 2006). …”

Section: Caratteristiche Dei Cespugliunclassified

Observations on natural regeneration in grazed Holm oak stands in the Ogliastra province (Sardinia, Italy)

Bianchi¹,

Calamini²,

Sioni³

2011

Forest@

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PremessaL'attenzione del mondo scientifico e dell'opinione pubblica è da tempo concentrata sui problemi riguar danti la gestione sostenibile delle risorse ambientali, considerato anche che l'azione dell'uomo, negli ulti mi cinquanta anni, ha cambiato gli ecosistemi più ra pidamente ed in modo più intenso di qualunque al tro periodo della storia umana (Valentini in Corona et al. 2006). La Sardegna non rappresenta un'eccezione e, alme no per quanto riguarda una parte consistente dei ter ritori montani dell'Isola, la mancanza di regolamen tazione del pascolo nelle aree boscate, rappresenta una delle maggiori cause di regressione degli ecosi stemi forestali (Plieninger 2007, Dufour-Dror 2007, come del resto descritto anche per altre aree mediter ranee.L'uso del bosco per il pascolo ha in Sardegna e nel resto del mondo radici antiche, e la sua compatibilità con la gestione sostenibile della foresta era resa pos sibile da alcune consuetudini che alleggerivano la pressione sul bosco da parte degli animali, come la transumanza e il periodico allontanamento del be stiame 1 (Campus 2005). Oggi la gestione dell'attività di pascolo è cambiata, è migliorato il tenore di vita dei pastori, che spesso svolgono anche altre attività, è migliorata la viabilità ed è notevolmente aumentata la diffusione dei mezzi di trasporto per cui la presen za di una guida presso le greggi è quasi sempre sal tuaria e quindi anche meno sensibile e attenta alle "necessità" della natura.Per questi motivi, soprattutto nei boschi di pro prietà pubblica gravati da usi civici, al naturale in vecchiamento degli alberi si accompagnano una sin tomatica carenza di rinnovazione naturale,la compat tazione del suolo, l'innesco di fenomeni erosivi, i fur ti di legname, con fenomeni di degradazione spesso molto intensi, che mettono in serio pericolo la con 1 -In Sardegna, fino al 1980 veniva fatto osservare, nella maggior parte dei terreni comunali, un periodo di riposo (su vardau) che andava dal 20 marzo al 20 maggio, periodo nel quale era proibito il pascolo. Attualmente questa regola non scritta non esiste più per cui spesso i pastori tengono il proprio bestiame nel comunale tutto l'anno. Abstract: Observations on natural regeneration in grazed Holm oak stands in the Ogliastra province (Sardinia, Italy). This paper deals with the effects of grazing pressure in two Holm oak (Quercus ilex) stands in Ogliastra (cen tral-eastern Sardinia, Italy), with particular reference to the interactions with the natural regeneration proces ses. There is a positive interaction (facilitation) between shrubs and seedlings of tree species, as observed in other similar studies carried out by the same authors in other areas of Sardinia. Rubus ulmifolius proved to be the most efficient shrub for the protection and growth of saplings; the other shrub species play a less marked facilitating role. Although the density of shrubs hosting Holm oak seedlings is fairly high, their age and small size confirm that the current grazing pressure is incompatible with any chance of growth of th...

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Abandonment in grazing systems: Consequences for vegetation and soil

Cited by 202 publications

References 44 publications

Effects of grazing exclusion on carbon sequestration and plant diversity in grasslands of China—A meta-analysis

Effects of grazing exclusion on carbon sequestration and plant diversity in grasslands of China—A meta-analysis

Vegetation dynamics during different abandoned year spans in the land of the Loess Plateau of China

Observations on natural regeneration in grazed Holm oak stands in the Ogliastra province (Sardinia, Italy)

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