Grazing as a factor structuring grasslands in the Pyrenees
Issue date
2008Suggested citation
Sebastià, Ma. T.;
de Bello, Francesco;
Puig, Laura;
Taull, Marc;
.
(2008)
.
Grazing as a factor structuring grasslands in the Pyrenees.
Applied Vegetation Science, 2008, vol. 11, núm. 2, p. 215-222.
https://doi.org/10.3170/2008-7-18358.
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Questions: What are the relative roles of abiotic and grazing
management factors on plant community distribution in
landscapes? How are livestock type and stocking rate related
to changes in vegetation structure and composition?
Location: Sub-alpine grasslands in the central and eastern
Pyrenees.
Methods: Multivariate analysis and variance partitioning methods
were used to evaluate the relative roles of environmental
factors in structuring vegetation composition and diversity
patterns in three surveys on differently managed grasslands.
Results: Vegetation composition within a region was affected
by environmental factors hierarchically, changing first according
to abiotic factors and then to grazing management.
At landscape scales, abiotic factors explained two-fold more
variation in vegetation composition than grazing factors. Within
landscape units, cattle grazing increased vegetation heterogeneity
at landscape and patch scales, while sheep grazing favoured
the presence of a specific set of species with high conservation
value. Species composition was highly responsive to management
variables compared to diversity components.
Conclusions: The combination of sheep and cattle grazing
at various stocking rates is an effective tool to preserve the
diversity of plant species and communities within a region
with a long tradition of livestock management, through the
scaling up of effects by local processes occurring in patches
at smaller scales.