Patch-Burn Grazing Increased Structural Heterogeneity in Southwestern North Dakota Rangelands

IF 2 3区环境科学与生态学 Q3 ECOLOGY

Applied Vegetation Science Pub Date : 2025-02-28 DOI:10.1111/avsc.70016

Jonathan W. Spiess, Devan Allen McGranahan, Torre Hovick, Marisol Berti, Caley Gasch, Benjamin Geaumont

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Aims

Persistent land use change throughout the North American Great Plains increases the need to maintain and improve ecosystem service delivery from remaining rangelands to meet production and conservation goals. Vegetation structure is an ecosystem property influenced by management that has site selection and use implications for wildlife and livestock. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of patch-burn grazing to increase structural heterogeneity on semi-arid post-Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands in southwestern North Dakota.

Location

Hettinger Research Extension Center in Hettinger, North Dakota.

Methods

We surveyed plant community composition and structural characteristics in patch-burn grazing pastures during the 2017–2020 summer grazing seasons. Three pastures were stocked with cow-calf pairs and three were stocked with sheep. We also surveyed structural characteristics on units with conventional management (hay or idle) for active and post-CRP enrolled grasslands during the summers of 2018–2020. We tested for vegetative and structural differences between patches with varying time since fire and between grazer types on patch-burn pastures using mixed-effect models and ordination. We used variance partitioning to determine if structural contrast on patch-burn pastures increased over the study period and if structural contrast was higher on patch-burn grazing pastures relative to conventional management.

Results

Time since fire was significant for all structural characteristics, with recently burned patches being different from other patches. There were no structural differences between cattle and sheep pastures, but forb and legume cover were lower in sheep pastures. Structural contrast on patch-burn pastures increased over the study and was greater than conventional management.

Conclusions

Increased structural heterogeneity is important for supporting a broad suite of rangeland wildlife and can stabilize forage production. This study supports the expectation that patch-burn grazing with moderate stocking rates will increase structural contrast regardless of grazer type, but practitioners should consider which suites of species that management may benefit.

查看原文本刊更多论文

斑块燃烧放牧增加了北达科他州西南部牧场的结构异质性

整个北美大平原持续的土地利用变化增加了维持和改善剩余牧场生态系统服务提供的需求，以满足生产和保护目标。植被结构是一种受管理影响的生态系统属性，对野生动物和牲畜具有选址和利用意义。本研究以美国北达科他州西南部半干旱保护区（CRP）后草地为研究对象，研究了斑块燃烧放牧对草地结构异质性的影响。位于北达科他州Hettinger的Hettinger研究推广中心。方法对2017-2020年夏放牧季节斑块烧草地植物群落组成及结构特征进行调查。三个牧场养着一对对牛，三个牧场养着羊。在2018-2020年夏季，我们还调查了采用常规管理（干草或闲置）的活跃草地和crp登记后草地的结构特征。采用混合效应模型和排序法，对不同火灾发生时间斑块间和不同放牧动物类型间的植被和结构差异进行了检验。我们使用方差划分来确定在研究期间，斑块燃烧草场的结构对比是否增加，以及相对于传统管理，斑块燃烧草场的结构对比是否更高。结果火灾后的时间对所有结构特征都有显著影响，最近烧伤的斑块与其他斑块不同。牛、羊牧场的牧草盖度无结构差异，但羊牧场的牧草和豆科植物盖度较低。在研究过程中，斑块燃烧牧场的结构对比增加，并且大于传统管理。结论：增加的结构异质性对支持广泛的牧场野生动物很重要，并且可以稳定饲料生产。该研究支持了这样的预期，即适度放养率的斑块燃烧放牧将增加结构对比，而不管放牧者类型如何，但从业者应该考虑哪些物种的管理可能会受益。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Applied Vegetation Science 环境科学-林学

CiteScore

6.00

自引率

10.70%

发文量

审稿时长

3 months

期刊介绍： Applied Vegetation Science focuses on community-level topics relevant to human interaction with vegetation, including global change, nature conservation, nature management, restoration of plant communities and of natural habitats, and the planning of semi-natural and urban landscapes. Vegetation survey, modelling and remote-sensing applications are welcome. Papers on vegetation science which do not fit to this scope (do not have an applied aspect and are not vegetation survey) should be directed to our associate journal, the Journal of Vegetation Science. Both journals publish papers on the ecology of a single species only if it plays a key role in structuring plant communities.