Plant–herbivore interactions affect the initial direction of community changes in an ecosystem manipulation experiment

Dumont, Bertrand; Carrère, Pascal; Ginane, Cécile; Farruggia, Anne; Lanore, Laurent; Tardif, Antoine; Decuq, Francis; Darsonville, Olivier; Louault, Frédérique

doi:10.1016/j.baae.2011.02.011

Cited by 50 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Moreover, the excluded area may have represented a suitable nesting place for bumblebees (since all species were ground-nesting) as well as for egg-laying and larval development for butterflies during the two-month exclusion period. The experiment confirmed that flower cover (mainly forbs and legumes) was strongly affected by grazer species, due to specific intake behaviour, with sheep preferring forbs and legumes and flowering plant parts, whilst cattle are less selective (Dumont et al, 2011;Sharp et al, 2012). Moreover, the positive interaction found between year and grazer species might indicate that the lower selection for legumes, forbs and flowers by cattle may enhance the overall flower cover, above all in years with favourable weather conditions (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

“…The detailed botanical composition of the plots and subplots was recorded only once in July 2011, as no significant changes in plant community composition due to the grazing treatments were expected in the time span under investigation (2011 -2013), since the vegetation dynamics in these permanent mountain grasslands are slow (Dumont et al, 2011). The botanist carried out botanical surveys during the main flowering period, i.e.…”

Section: Data Collection 231 Flower Cover and Sward Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Each of these actions depends on livestock species and management, due to grazer/browser feeding preferences, live weight and social behaviour (Iussig et al, 2015;van Klink et al, 2015). Amongst the most common grazer species, the higher selectivity of sheep for legumes and forbs and flowering plant parts can lead to grass-dominated plant communities with a lower diversity of nectar-dependent insect taxa than cattlegrazed grasslands (Dumont et al, 2011;Öckinger et al, 2006). Furthermore, Sjödin et al (2008) highlighted that it is essential to consider different insect taxa simultaneously in a systemic research as the effects of livestock pressure on insect diversity and abundance may differ when more than a single insect group is taken into consideration.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A biodiversity-friendly rotational grazing system enhancing flower-visiting insect assemblages while maintaining animal and grassland productivity

Enri

Probo

Farruggia

et al. 2017

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

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Highlights1. Biodiversity-friendly rotational grazing (BR) was applied using cattle and sheep 2. The BR increased the flower cover of the vegetation community 3. Butterfly and bumblebee abundance and diversity increased under BR as did cattle 4. Ground beetles were not affected by grazer species or BR 5. Herbage mass and animal performances were comparable with continuous grazing AbstractGrazing management is an important tool to preserve insect biodiversity. Although literature has discussed the importance of grazing pressure adjustment to support grassland insect communities for the ecosystem services they provide, little has been published on the economic sustainability of such management adjustments to date. This study compared continuous grazing (CG) to an innovative rotational grazing system (the biodiversity-friendly rotation -BR), where a subplot was excluded from grazing for two months during the main flowering period. The effects of grazing two different species (cattle and sheep) within both systems were also evaluated. The aims were to assess the effects on butterfly, bumblebee, and ground beetle assemblages, along with the impact on herbage mass and animal performance. The BR enhanced both the abundance and species richness of flower-visiting insect assemblages and it was observed that cattle provided better results than sheep grazing. A multivariate redundancy analysis highlighted that most of the flower-visiting species (including almost all the endangered and locally rare species) were favoured by BR-cattle treatment, mainly due to the high percentage of flower cover and sward heterogeneity involved in this treatment. However, grazing Page 3 of 29 system and grazer species did not affect ground beetle species richness or abundance. Moreover, herbage mass and animal performance (live weight and body condition score) were comparable between CG and BR throughout the grazing season. The BR could be a useful management system to enhance grassland flower-visiting insect assemblages whilst meeting farm production objectives, especially in protected environments where insect conservation is a major target.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Section: Data Collection 231 Flower Cover and Sward Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A biodiversity-friendly rotational grazing system enhancing flower-visiting insect assemblages while maintaining animal and grassland productivity

Enri

Probo

Farruggia

et al. 2017

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

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“…The authors pinpointed sheep selectivity and the lack of sheep-created bare ground niches compared with cattle as detrimental to biodiversity. Consistently, sheep were less likely than cattle to maintain short patches over successive years in lightly grazed mesotrophic grasslands, and could not therefore buffer the negative effects of competition for light on small-sized plants (Dumont et al, 2011). Sheep have also been assumed to negatively impact nectar-dependent insect groups as a result of their preferential use of flowering plants; the species richness of bumblebees (Carvell, 2002) and butterflies (Ö ckinger et al, 2006) is lower in sheep-grazed pastures than in similar grasslands used by cattle.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do sheep affect plant communities and arthropod populations in temperate grasslands?

Scohier

Dumont

2012

Animal

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Grasslands being used in sheep farming systems are managed under a variety of agricultural production, recreational and conservational objectives. Although sheep grazing is rarely considered the best method for delivering conservation objectives in seminatural temperate grasslands, the literature does not provide unequivocal evidence on the impact of sheep grazing on pasture biodiversity. Our aim was therefore to review evidence of the impacts of stocking rate, grazing period and soil fertility on plant communities and arthropod populations in both mesotrophic grasslands typical of agriculturally improved areas and in native plant communities. We therefore conducted a literature search of articles published up to the end of the year 2010 using 'sheep' and 'grazing' as keywords, together with variables describing grassland management, plant community structure or arthropod taxa. The filtering process led to the selection of 48 articles, with 42 included in the stocking rate dataset, 9 in the grazing period dataset and 10 in the soil fertility dataset. The meta-analysis did not reveal any significant trends for plant species richness or plant community evenness along a wide stocking rate gradient. However, we found frequent shifts in functional groups or plant species abundance that could be explained by the functional properties of the plants in the community. The meta-analysis confirmed that increasing soil fertility decreased plant species richness. Despite the very limited dataset, plant species richness was significantly greater in autumn-grazed pastures than in ungrazed areas, which suggests that choosing an appropriate grazing period would be a promising option for preserving biodiversity in sheep farming systems. Qualitative review indicated that low grazing intensity had positive effects on Orthoptera, Hemiptera (especially phytophagous Auchenorrhyncha) and, despite a diverse range of feeding strategies, for the species richness of Coleoptera. Lepidoptera, which were favoured by more abundant flowering plants, also benefited from low grazing intensities. Spider abundance and species richness were higher in ungrazed than in grazed pastures. In contrast, there are insufficient published studies to draw any firm conclusions on the benefits of late grazing or stopping fertilization on insect diversity, and no grounds for including any of this information in decision support tools at this stage.Keywords: biodiversity, grazing period, insect, stocking rate, soil fertility ImplicationsThere is a general trend toward a gradual intensification of ruminant production to meet the increasing demand for livestock products (Bouwman et al., 2005), which logically raises major concerns over the environmental consequences involved. Grassland intensification entails higher livestock densities and fertilizer application rates to increase soil productivity, which negatively affects the diversity of resident plant communities. Grasslands are being managed under a variety of agricultural production and conservation objectives;...

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“…Dumont, et al, 2011). Intensive grazing and mowing support strong, competitive species such as grasses, containing a higher proportion of nitrogen and mineral substances and a lower proportion of fibre and other non-nutritious substances (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological-agricultural perspective on the quality of pasture vegetation

Hakrová¹,

Novotná²,

Sýkorová³

et al. 2015

JCEA

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One of the important goals of current research is to find a balance between the diversity of grass covers and their economically sustainable use for farming purposes. The aim of this study was to find relationships between the number of species (N), the Shannon-Wiener index (H), the forage value of vegetation (FV) and the proportion of grasses (G), legumes (L) and other forbs (F). Eleven extensively grazed pasture vegetations, located at the foothills of Šumava and Nové Hrady mountain ranges in South Bohemia, were selected with permanent plots marked out for phytosociological monitoring.The results proved a statistically confirmed positive correlation between the N and H factors and a negative correlation between these two diversity indicators and the forage value of vegetation. Pasture vegetations are significantly influenced by the proportion of grasses, legumes and other forbs. The average number of species and the Shannon-Wiener index increases with the growing proportion of other forbs while the forage value decreases. The observed pasture vegetations were predominantly evaluated as "good/valuable" and "very good/most valuable". , 2015, 16(1), p.225-234 DOI: 10.5513/JCEA01/16.1.1570 porostů v šumavském a novohradském podhůří v jižních Čechách, na kterých byly vytyčeny trvalé plochy pro fytocenologické snímkování. Výsledky potvrdily statisticky průkaznou pozitivní korelaci mezi N a H a negativní korelaci těchto dvou ukazatelů diverzity k pícninářské hodnotě. Na pastevní porost má podstatný vliv poměr trav, leguminóz a bylin. Průměrný počet druhů a Shannon index s rostoucí pokryvností bylin stoupá, zatímco pícninářská hodnota klesá. Sledované pastevní porosty byly převážně vyhodnoceny jako dobré a velmi dobré.European Agriculture, 2015, 16(1), p.225-234 225 Journal of Central European Agriculture, 2015, 16(1), p.225-234 225 Journal of Central European Agriculture, 2015, 16(1), p.225-234 DOI: 10.5513/JCEA01/16.1.1570 225 Journal of Central European Agriculture

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Plant–herbivore interactions affect the initial direction of community changes in an ecosystem manipulation experiment

Cited by 50 publications

References 21 publications

A biodiversity-friendly rotational grazing system enhancing flower-visiting insect assemblages while maintaining animal and grassland productivity

A biodiversity-friendly rotational grazing system enhancing flower-visiting insect assemblages while maintaining animal and grassland productivity

How do sheep affect plant communities and arthropod populations in temperate grasslands?

Ecological-agricultural perspective on the quality of pasture vegetation

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