Footpath morphology and terrain sensitivity on high plateaux: the Mamore Mountains, Western Highlands of Scotland

Abstract

Variations in the morphology of a high-level footpath are characterized using a new approach that relates footpath morphology to six terrain units defined jointly by two contrasting plant communities (U7 grass-heath communities dominated by Nardus stricta and Carex bigelowii, and U10 moss-heath communities dominated by Carex bigelowii and Racomitrium lanuginosum) and by the contrasting textural characteristics of underlying mineral soils developed on schist, granite and quartzite. All six terrain units are characterized by distinct footpath morphologies. The most critical factor affecting footpath morphology is the shear strength of the vegetation mat and underlying root zone. Vegetation mat shear strength was measured using a specially constructed shear rake. On all three lithologies, median shear strengths for U7 communities significantly exceed those for U10 communities, so that pathways on the former are significantly narrower and deeper than those developed on the latter. Adjacent zones of damaged or modified vegetation cover are also wider on U10 communities. The role of mineral soil (regolith) texture and thus underlying lithology in controlling footpath morphology is more complex. For soils with abundant fines, granite soils have lower shearing resistance than schist soils, and are associated with wider footpaths. Footpaths are also wide on clast-supported quartzite regolith, which has high shearing resistance: pathways are trapezoidal in cross-section in areas of U7 vegetation cover, but footpaths are very broad and diffuse in areas of U10 cover. Pathway depths are limited by increasing shear and compressive strength with depth. Implications of these findings for further research and management strategies are discussed.

A longitudinal multi-method study of recreational impacts in the Arthur Range, Tasmania, Australia

“…Leung & Marion, 1996, 2000Dixon, Hawes & McPherson, 2004;Morrocco & Ballantyne, 2007;Olive & Marion, 2009). Campsite impacts such as vegetation trampling and loss and site expansion, which typically develop rapidly and recover slowly, have also been studied extensively (Cole 2004).…”

Equine Grazing in Managed Subalpine Wetlands: Effects on Arthropods and Plant Structure as a Function of Habitat

“…Stohlgren et al (1989), also working in Sequoia and using experimental clipping, determined that assemblages dominated in part by sedge were more affected than assemblages dominated in part by reed grass. Reed grass forms a dense root mat (Botti and Sydoriak 2001), which, in combination with a shoot density six times greater than sedge, should confer some protection from trampling via higher shear strength (Morrocco and Ballantyne 2008;Monz et al 2010). The greater effects of grazing on sedge relative to reed grass in our study were likely also driven in part by soil moisture (Jensen 1985;Marlow et al 1987;Allen and Marlow 1994), which is two to fourteen times greater in sedge than in reed grass in the Sierra (Neuman 1996; Holmquist and Schmidt-Gengenbach unpublished).…”

Degradation of a protected mountain area by tourist traffic: case study of the Tatra National Park, Poland

“…The degree to which relief is transformed by tourists in many mountain areas is smaller than that in the study area. Examples of less significant relief change include the Wind River Range in the Rocky Mountains in the USA (Cole and Monz 2002); Mamore Range in the Western Grampians in Scotland (Morrocco and Ballantyne 2008), and Rocky Mountain National Park in the USA (Svajda et al 2016).…”