Traditional cattle grazing in a mosaic alkali landscape: effects on grassland biodiversity along a moisture gradient.

ABSTRACT: Extensively managed pastures are of crucial importance in sustaining biodiversity both in local- and landscape-level. Thus, re-introduction of traditional grazing management is a crucial issue in grassland conservation actions worldwide. Traditional grazing with robust cattle breeds in low stocking rates is considered to be especially useful to mimic natural grazing regimes, but well documented case-studies are surprisingly rare on this topic. Our goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional Hungarian Grey cattle grazing as a conservation action in a mosaic alkali landscape. We asked the following questions: (i) How does cattle grazing affect species composition and diversity of the grasslands? (ii) What are the effects of grazing on short-lived and perennial noxious species? (iii

SUBMITTER: Torok P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4014582 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature