Vegetation response to grazing management in a Mediterranean herbaceous community: a functional group approach

Abstract

Summary 1.A 4-year study was conducted in a Mediterranean herbaceous community in north-eastern Israel to investigate the eects of cattle grazing management on the structure and composition of the community. Understanding the eects of grazing on the dynamics of Mediterranean herbaceous communities is important in formulating rational management plans for both conservation and sustainable animal production. 2. The relationships among plant functional groups were studied in the context of inter-annual variation in rainfall. Treatments included manipulations of stocking rates (moderate, heavy and very heavy) and grazing regimes (continuous vs. seasonal), in a factorial design. 3. The herbaceous community was rich in species, with 166 species recorded at the site, of which 74% were annuals. Plant cover was dominated by 10 species that accounted for 75% of the total cover. 4. Inter-seasonal rainfall variation was a dominant factor in the expression of different grazing treatments on the structure of the plant community. Grazing eects were stronger in wet years than in dry years. 5. Paddocks under continuous grazing were higher in number of species compared with paddocks subjected to seasonal grazing, independently of grazing intensity. 6. Functional group analyses showed that reduction in cover of tall grasses was correlated with an increase in cover of prostrate annual legumes and less palatable groups such as annual and perennial thistles, crucifers and forbs. 7. Cover of functional groups composed of hemicryptophytic species was less variable (lower coecient of variation) in response to grazing treatments and interannual variation in climatic conditions compared with functional groups with annual species. 8. The persistence of the dominant species and the relatively small amplitude of change in plant cover of the functional groups suggest that the community was rather stable in spite of wide variation in grazing regimes and climatic conditions. East-Mediterranean grasslands appear to be adapted to grazing due to their long history of human association.

Grazing depresses soil carbon storage through changing plant biomass and composition in a Tibetan alpine meadow

“…Consistently, there was a shift across the grazing intensity gradient in the dominant species from palatable grasses and sedges to less-palatable forbs (Table 2), which is probably because of the preferential grazing of tall, palatable dominant grasses and sedges (Table 2). Grazing creates canopy gaps and/or bare soil patches, relaxes intra-and inter-specific competition for light (Sternberg et al 2000, Pavlů et al 2007, and ultimately favors the establishment of short-stature, less-palatable forbs (Table 2, Pavlů et al 2007). These results Means with different letters indicate significant differences (P < 0.05; LSD after significant one-way ANOVA); G 0 , G 1 , G 2 , and G 3 indicated 100%, 66%, 55%, and 30% residual biomass, respectively; † was the mean of three measured maximum values of plant individual height in all sites; *was defined based on Zhang et al (1990).…”

Faecal near-IR spectroscopy to determine the nutritional value of diets consumed by beef cattle in east Mediterranean rangelands

“…In the rangelands of Northern Israel, the rainy season starts in October and ends in April, with annual rainfall varying unpredictably in a range between 300 and 900 mm. Rangelands may be very productive, but plant growth extends from January to April, and herbaceous biomass consists mainly of short-lived annuals characterized by high seasonality (Sternberg et al, 2000). Consequently, free-grazing beef cattle face a reduction in the nutritional value of forage during the hot and dry summer season (Brosh et al, 2004).…”

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

“…Several explanations have been suggested for these patterns. Excessive grazing and trampling by domestic animals may inhibit plant reproduction and regeneration, and resulting in the loss of some associated species in overgrazed grasslands (Sternberg et al, 2000;Firincioglu et al, 2007). Therefore, removing grazing pressure would facilitate the growth of suppressed species and increase species richness at the early stage of grazing exclusion (Luno et al, 1997;Shang et al, 2008).…”