Livestock species rather than grazing intensity shape plant guild proportions in interaction with multiple environmental drivers in grassland from the Pyrenees

IF 2 3区环境科学与生态学 Q3 ECOLOGY

Applied Vegetation Science Pub Date : 2023-04-01 DOI:10.1111/avsc.12724

Antonio Rodríguez, Mercedes Ibanez, Cristina Chocarro, M.-Teresa Sebastià

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Questions

Does grazing management shape the proportion of plant guilds (grasses, legumes, forbs and sedges) in mountain grasslands?
Which properties of grazing management have the greatest effect on the proportion of plant guilds: grazer diversity/identity or grazing intensity?
Are the effects of grazing management on guild proportion modified by other environmental variables that explain plant guild distribution at broad spatial scales?

Location

Mountains in the Pyrenees.

Methods

We modelled the proportion of grasses, legumes, forbs and sedges using data from the PASTUS database (n = 96), which contains a wide range of environmental and management conditions due to the high variety of environmental conditions in mountain grasslands in the Pyrenees. We used a machine-learning algorithm to find those variables that best explained the proportions of each plant guild. We focussed on the differences between the levels of grazing intensity and the grazing species included in the model, and on detecting interactions between grazing variables and climate, topography and soil conditions.

Results

The proportion of forbs and grasses strongly depended on the grazing livestock species at broad spatial scales. Only soil pH showed a higher overall explanatory power on guild distribution. In general, forbs were favoured in cattle- and grasses in sheep-grazed grasslands, the latter also being favoured on acidic soils, while forbs were favoured in more alkaline soil conditions. However, the effects of those factors (grazing species and soil pH) were modulated through interactions with several other environmental variables, including soil Mg, K and P, and terrain slope. In contrast, grazing intensity was a minor driver of guild distribution.

Conclusions

Our results provide information about the relationship between plant functional diversity, indicated by the different plant guild proportions, and grazing management in the Pyrenean grasslands. This information could be useful for developing hypotheses for future experimental studies and for designing policies to improve the management of mountain grasslands.

查看原文本刊更多论文

比利牛斯草原上与多种环境驱动因素相互作用时，牲畜物种而非放牧强度形成了植物群落比例

放牧管理是否影响了山地草原植物群落(草、豆科植物、牧草和莎草)的比例?放牧管理的哪些特性对植物群落的比例影响最大:放牧者多样性/同一性还是放牧强度?放牧管理对群落比例的影响是否被其他环境变量所修正，从而解释了植物群落在大空间尺度上的分布?比利牛斯山脉。方法利用PASTUS数据库(n = 96)的数据对禾草、豆科植物、牧草和莎草的比例进行建模。由于比利牛斯山脉山地草原的环境条件多样性高，该数据库包含了广泛的环境和管理条件。我们使用机器学习算法来找到最能解释每种植物群落比例的变量。我们重点研究了放牧强度水平与模型中放牧物种之间的差异，以及放牧变量与气候、地形和土壤条件之间的相互作用。结果在较宽的空间尺度上，牧草和牧草的比例强烈依赖于放牧家畜的种类。只有土壤pH值对行会分布具有较高的总体解释力。一般来说，牧草在放牧牛和放牧羊的草地上是有利的，后者在酸性土壤上也有利，而牧草在碱性土壤条件下是有利的。然而，这些因子(放牧种类和土壤pH)的影响是通过与土壤Mg、K、P和地形坡度等其他环境变量的相互作用来调节的。放牧强度对群落分布的影响较小。结论本研究结果揭示了比利牛斯草原植物功能多样性与放牧管理之间的关系。这些信息可能有助于为未来的实验研究提出假设，并有助于制定改善山地草原管理的政策。

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.