Impacts of feral horses on a desert environment.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Free-ranging horses (Equus caballus) in North America are considered to be feral animals since they are descendents of non-native domestic horses introduced to the continent. We conducted a study in a southern California desert to understand how feral horse movements and horse feces impacted this arid ecosystem. We evaluated five parameters susceptible to horse trampling: soil strength, vegetation cover, percent of nonnative vegetation, plant species diversity, and macroinvertebrate abundance. We also tested whether or not plant cover and species diversity were affected by the presence of horse feces.

Results

Horse trailing resulted in reduced vegetation cover, compacted soils, and in cases of intermediate intensity disturbance, increased plant species diversity.

SUBMITTER: Ostermann-Kelm SD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2781800 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature