The UK Biodiversity Action Plan identifies upland heath and blanket bog as priorities for conservation. Heavy grazing by livestock has damaged these habitats in many parts of the UK. Agri-environment schemes have partly addressed the problem by encouraging farmers to reduce sheep stocking levels on degraded moorland. This can prevent further loss of dwarf shrub cover, but the increased biomass of moorland grasses can inhibit regeneration of dwarf shrubs and other desirable species. The objectives of this system-scale study are to assess the impact on plant species composition and animal performance, of sheep-only and mixed grazing regimes with both cattle and sheep on degraded wet heath vegetation. It is being carried out as part of a wider project to determine environmentally sustainable and economically viable grazing systems for heather moorland.
The n -alkane technique (Dove and Mayes, 1991; Mayes and Dove, 2000) has been developed as a method to determine the voluntary intake of herbivores grazing freely at pasture. The technique relies on the fact that each herbage species contain a unique profile of odd-chain n -alkane compounds within the cuticular waxes of each plant part. Whilst some n -alkane profiles for the major intensively managed herbage species are available, there is little comprehensive information on the n -alkane profiles of many of the herbage species found commonly in semi-natural vegetation communities (SNVC) in the hills and uplands of the UK. If the n -alkane technique is to be extended for use with herbivores grazing SNVC’s, it is necessary that such profiles be determined. This study details the n -alkane concentrations found in ten herbage species sampled from SNVC’s in the UK during late summer in 2000.
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