Sward patterns created by patch grazing are stable over more than a decade

Tonn, Bettina; Raab, Christoph; Isselstein, J.

doi:10.1111/gfs.12389

Cited by 20 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(84 reference statements)

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“…Soil texture ranges between a silt loam and a clay soil (Nüsse et al, 2017 (Wrage et al, 2012). For at least 10 years prior to the setup of the experiment in 2002, there had not been any fertilizer or herbicide application and the sward had been treated uniformly with rotational grazing and cutting, inhibiting the formation of a sward mosaic driven by patchy grazing (Cid & Brizuela, 1998;Tonn et al, 2019). Scrubs have been removed mechanically when necessary.…”

Section: Experimental Site and Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Primary productivity in patches of heterogeneous swards after 12 years of low‐intensity cattle grazing

Ebeling

Tonn

Isselstein

2020

Grass and Forage Science

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In low‐intensity grazing systems, patch grazing leads to a mosaic structure of short (frequently defoliated) and tall (rarely defoliated) patches, with the stocking rate determining the proportion of these patch types on the pasture. Little is known about the long‐term effects of patch grazing on the productivity of contrasting sward height patches developed under varying stocking rates. On a 12‐year low‐intensity cattle pasture we investigated aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and its seasonal variation in different patch types (‘short’, ‘medium’ and ‘tall’) under three stocking rates (‘moderate’, ‘lenient’ and ‘very lenient’) over two years. Additionally, we determined stocks of soil phosphorus, potassium and magnesium as well as soil pH. ANPP was affected by an interaction of patch type and stocking rate and ranged from less than 300 g/m2 in short patches under very lenient stocking to more than 1,000 g/m2 in medium patches under moderate stocking. In contrast with observations at the start of the experiment, ANPP in short patches was similar to or less than that in medium and tall patches. As topsoil phosphorus and potassium stocks were lowest in short patches, this indicates a long‐term redistribution of nutrients by grazing animals, which limits short‐patch productivity. Productivity of medium patches increased with stocking rate, and soil potassium concentration showed a similar trend, pointing towards enhanced nutrient cycling under more intensive stocking. We conclude that nutrient redistribution may lead to increasing trade‐offs between ecological and agronomic aims in long‐term low‐intensity grazing systems.

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Section: Experimental Site and Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Primary productivity in patches of heterogeneous swards after 12 years of low‐intensity cattle grazing

Ebeling

Tonn

Isselstein

2020

Grass and Forage Science

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“…In each paddock, we sampled vegetation and soil parameters in three patch types: short, intermediate and tall. We defined these patch types as the lower, middle and upper third of the total 450 (Tonn et al, 2018). Based on a total of 34 measurement dates in 2013 and 2014, short patches made up 0.60, 0.31 and 0.17, and tall patches 0.15, 0.36 and 0.59 of the paddock area for moderate, lenient and very lenient grazing, respectively.…”

Section: Sampling Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At first, such positive feedbacks can be based on the higher digestibility of biomass regrowth within the same vegetation period (Bakker, Leeuw, & Wieren, 1983;Cid & Brizuela, 1998). Over time, the initial patch grazing pattern can remain relatively stable in temperate livestock grazing systems (Bakker et al, 1983;Cid & Brizuela, 1998;Tonn, Raab, & Isselstein, 2018;Willms, Dormaar, & Schaalje, 1988), causing vegetation development to diverge between short and tall patches (Cid & Brizuela, 1998;Ludvíková, Pavlů, Pavlů, Gaisler, & Hejcman, 2015), which may reinforce the pattern (Adler et al, 2001). Short and tall patches of a patch-grazing system are a small-scale combination of high and low grazing intensity within the same paddock, but in contrast to physically separated plots with different grazing intensities, they are connected via nutrient flows through animal dung and urine.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…biodiversity, grassland, micro-scale pattern, patch grazing, patch structure, soil nutrients, spatial heterogeneity, stocking rate pronounced and temporally stable mosaic of short and tall patches had developed (Tonn et al, 2018). We considered three spatial scales: individual sampling plots, patch types within each paddock, and total paddocks ( Figure 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Grazing‐induced patchiness, not grazing intensity, drives plant diversity in European low‐input pastures

Tonn

Densing

Gabler

et al. 2019

Journal of Applied Ecology

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1. Livestock grazing at low stocking rates is widely recommended to maintain grassland biodiversity. However, empirical evidence of grazing-intensity effects on plant diversity is contradictory. Explicitly considering the small-scale heterogeneity of short, frequently grazed and tall, rarely grazed patches typical of low-input grazing systems may be crucial to the understanding of paddock-scale grazing effects.2. We studied three patch types (short, intermediate, tall) within an unfertilised long-term cattle grazing experiment in Lower Saxony, Germany, comparing three paddock-scale grazing intensities. We analysed soil nutrient concentrations and recorded vegetation composition at a total of 135 plots. We determined species richness, Simpson diversity, Simpson evenness and beta diversity of individual plots (plot scale) and patch types within paddocks (patch scale). To quantify paddock-scale diversity, we resampled plot-scale species composition across a gradient of relative proportions of short and tall patches within a paddock.3. Patch type, not paddock-scale grazing intensity, was the main driver of plant diversity at both plot and patch scale. Short patches were more diverse than tall patches, but the effect was not strongly mediated by the lower soil nutrient concentrations in the short patches. By contrast, both patch type and grazing intensity affected vegetation composition at plot and patch scale. 4. Beta-diversity within and between patch types was independent of grazing intensity; consequently, paddock-scale diversity was determined by the relative proportion of short versus tall patches. Higher alpha diversity of short patches compared to tall patches was more important than beta diversity between the two patch types in shaping paddock-scale diversity. Consequently, with increasing short-patch proportion, paddock-scale diversity increased. Synthesis and applications.Our study identifies the grazing-induced patch structure as the most important driver of plant diversity across different grazing intensities in low-input, that is, unfertilised and continuously stocked, pastures. To optimise grazing management for biodiversity, understanding plant-diversity responses to grazing at the patch scale is indispensable. Our results suggest that, in unfertilised, continuously stocked European pastures, trade-offs between biodiversity and | 1625Journal of Applied Ecology TONN eT al.

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“…Fluctuating patch boundaries result from what Bakker et al (1984), Cid and Brizuela (1998) boundaries result in a decrease in interannual patch stability as time intervals increase. Long-term patch stability can be affected by pasture grazing intensity (Tonn et al, 2019). It is probably impossible to carry out a grazing experiment with enough replicates to test whether long-term patch stability would also be affected by pasture size.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%