Riparian vegetation composition and diversity shows resilience following cessation of livestock grazing in northeastern Oregon, USA.

ABSTRACT: Riparian ecosystem restoration has been accomplished through exclusion of livestock using corridor fencing along hundreds of kilometers of streams in the western United States, for the benefit of riparian-obligate wildlife and endangered fishes. Yet, there are limited scientific studies that have evaluated more than short-term shifts in vegetation composition and diversity at a single location or handful of locations following grazing. We sampled riparian vegetation composition along 11-paired grazed and ungrazed (exclosed) stream reaches in northeastern Oregon. Exclosure ages ranged from 2 to >30 years and grazing treatments varied from light grazing every one out of three years to heavy season-long grazing. Species richness and diversity was higher in the ungrazed reaches (p = 0.002). Th

SUBMITTER: Kauffman JB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8782521 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature