Short-Term Cattle Grazing Effects on Restored Conservation Reserve Program Grasslands Across a Steep Precipitation Gradient

IF 2.4 3区 环境科学与生态学 Q2 ECOLOGY Rangeland Ecology & Management Pub Date : 2024-03-07 DOI:10.1016/j.rama.2024.02.002
D. Fraser Watson , Gregory R. Houseman , Mary Liz Jameson , William E. Jensen , Molly Reichenborn , Alexandra Morphew , Esben L. Kjaer
{"title":"Short-Term Cattle Grazing Effects on Restored Conservation Reserve Program Grasslands Across a Steep Precipitation Gradient","authors":"D. Fraser Watson ,&nbsp;Gregory R. Houseman ,&nbsp;Mary Liz Jameson ,&nbsp;William E. Jensen ,&nbsp;Molly Reichenborn ,&nbsp;Alexandra Morphew ,&nbsp;Esben L. Kjaer","doi":"10.1016/j.rama.2024.02.002","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Cattle <em>(Bos taurus)</em> grazing is often excluded from restored grasslands due to potential risks to grassland recovery. This restriction has often been applied to the 5.6 million acres of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) plantings designed to restore native grassland plant communities on former cropland. Because large herbivores historically played a key role in maintaining these grassland systems, excluding such grazers may hamper recovery of plant compositional and structural heterogeneity important to wildlife. We conducted a grazing experiment on 108 CRP sites in Kansas, quantifying the effects of periodic cattle grazing on plant communities restored via two CRP conservation practices (CP2, Establishment of Permanent Native Grasses and CP25, Rare and Declining Habitat) across a broad precipitation gradient. Cattle grazing was implemented during the growing season on 53 of the 108 sites in 2017−2018 with rest from grazing in 2019. Grazing reduced vegetation biomass and increased vegetation structural heterogeneity in 2017 and 2018. Grazing effects on plant community composition, specifically shifts in dominant grass abundances, were observed in 2018 but not 2017 or 2019. These effects were subtle and did not result in consistent changes to plant species richness, non-native abundance, or floristic quality. The effects of conservation practice were independent of grazing but strongly dependent on mean annual precipitation. Plant community composition differed significantly between CP2 and CP25 in the western (drier) and eastern (wetter) regions, but no differences were detected in the central region. Forb cover increased with precipitation at a greater rate on CP25 than CP2, indicating greater forb establishment in the eastern region. These results indicate that moderate, short-term grazing can enhance habitat structural heterogeneity that may be beneficial for wildlife while causing minimal plant community changes.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":49634,"journal":{"name":"Rangeland Ecology & Management","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Rangeland Ecology & Management","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550742424000150","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Cattle (Bos taurus) grazing is often excluded from restored grasslands due to potential risks to grassland recovery. This restriction has often been applied to the 5.6 million acres of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) plantings designed to restore native grassland plant communities on former cropland. Because large herbivores historically played a key role in maintaining these grassland systems, excluding such grazers may hamper recovery of plant compositional and structural heterogeneity important to wildlife. We conducted a grazing experiment on 108 CRP sites in Kansas, quantifying the effects of periodic cattle grazing on plant communities restored via two CRP conservation practices (CP2, Establishment of Permanent Native Grasses and CP25, Rare and Declining Habitat) across a broad precipitation gradient. Cattle grazing was implemented during the growing season on 53 of the 108 sites in 2017−2018 with rest from grazing in 2019. Grazing reduced vegetation biomass and increased vegetation structural heterogeneity in 2017 and 2018. Grazing effects on plant community composition, specifically shifts in dominant grass abundances, were observed in 2018 but not 2017 or 2019. These effects were subtle and did not result in consistent changes to plant species richness, non-native abundance, or floristic quality. The effects of conservation practice were independent of grazing but strongly dependent on mean annual precipitation. Plant community composition differed significantly between CP2 and CP25 in the western (drier) and eastern (wetter) regions, but no differences were detected in the central region. Forb cover increased with precipitation at a greater rate on CP25 than CP2, indicating greater forb establishment in the eastern region. These results indicate that moderate, short-term grazing can enhance habitat structural heterogeneity that may be beneficial for wildlife while causing minimal plant community changes.

查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
牛群短期放牧对陡峭降水梯度上的保护储备计划恢复草地的影响
由于对草原恢复的潜在风险,恢复后的草原通常不允许放牧牛群。这一限制通常适用于 560 万英亩的 "保护储备计划"(CRP)种植,旨在恢复原耕地上的本地草原植物群落。由于大型食草动物在历史上曾在维护这些草地系统中发挥过关键作用,因此将这类食草动物排除在外可能会阻碍对野生动物非常重要的植物组成和结构异质性的恢复。我们在堪萨斯州的 108 个 CRP 地点进行了放牧实验,量化了定期放牧牛群对通过两种 CRP 保护措施(CP2,建立永久性本地草地和 CP25,稀有和衰退栖息地)在广泛降水梯度上恢复的植物群落的影响。2017-2018 年,在 108 个地点中的 53 个地点的生长季节实施了放牧,2019 年将停止放牧。2017 年和 2018 年,放牧减少了植被生物量,增加了植被结构异质性。2018 年观察到放牧对植物群落组成的影响,特别是优势草丰度的变化,但 2017 年和 2019 年没有观察到。这些影响是微妙的,并没有导致植物物种丰富度、非本地物种丰富度或花卉质量的持续变化。保护措施的影响与放牧无关,但与年平均降水量密切相关。在西部(较干燥)和东部(较潮湿)地区,CP2 和 CP25 的植物群落组成差异很大,但在中部地区未发现差异。与 CP2 相比,CP25 的草本植物覆盖率随着降水量的增加而增加,这表明东部地区的草本植物建立率更高。这些结果表明,适度的短期放牧可以增强栖息地结构的异质性,这可能对野生动物有益,同时对植物群落的改变也很小。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
Rangeland Ecology & Management
Rangeland Ecology & Management 农林科学-环境科学
CiteScore
4.60
自引率
13.00%
发文量
87
审稿时长
12-24 weeks
期刊介绍: Rangeland Ecology & Management publishes all topics-including ecology, management, socioeconomic and policy-pertaining to global rangelands. The journal''s mission is to inform academics, ecosystem managers and policy makers of science-based information to promote sound rangeland stewardship. Author submissions are published in five manuscript categories: original research papers, high-profile forum topics, concept syntheses, as well as research and technical notes. Rangelands represent approximately 50% of the Earth''s land area and provision multiple ecosystem services for large human populations. This expansive and diverse land area functions as coupled human-ecological systems. Knowledge of both social and biophysical system components and their interactions represent the foundation for informed rangeland stewardship. Rangeland Ecology & Management uniquely integrates information from multiple system components to address current and pending challenges confronting global rangelands.
期刊最新文献
Table of Contents Evaluating the Sagebrush Conservation Design Strategy Through the Performance of a Sagebrush Indicator Species Defend and Grow the Core for Birds: How a Sagebrush Conservation Strategy Benefits Rangeland Birds The Carbon Security Index: A Novel Approach to Assessing How Secure Carbon Is in Sagebrush Ecosystems Within the Great Basin Crossing the Chasm: Using Technical Transfer to Bridge Science Production and Management Action
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1