Cattle treading effects on plant growth and soil stability in the mountain grassland of Japan

Abstract

Experiments were conducted in two types of Japanese mountain pastures to quantify the effects of cattle treading on plant growth, and on soil loss with runoff water. Duplicate plots (10 m  10 m) were trodden with zero, three, or six cows of approximately 300 kg body weight for 15 minutes on moderately-sloping and steep pastures on

Short-Term Impacts of Livestock Grazing on Vegetation and Track Formation in a High Mountain Environment: A Case Study from the Himalayan Miyar Valley (India)

“…Paths and areas with vegetation completely removed introduce other much more powerful erosive agents like water and wind, which affect surface relief modelling in a much more serious way (for examples see [31,66]). …”

“…There have been numerous studies looking at the impact of livestock on alpine meadows (e.g., [12,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34] and others as cited in Section 2: Anthropo-zoogenic erosion: terms and scale of the phenomenon). Naturally, the livestock's impact on terrain modification is not the same for each area, or even within the same area, for example, valleys.…”

Livestock redistribute runoff and sediments in semi-arid rangeland areas

“…This ability of the shrubs to collect runoff resulted from the combined effects of several processes that enhance infiltration: the shrub canopy and the litter beneath it soften direct raindrop impact on the soil and dissipate their kinetic energy, thereby preventing formation of mechanical crusts and, in turn, enhancing infiltration (Rostango and del Valle, 1988;Dunkerley and Brown, 1995;Bromley et al, 1997). Moreover, shrubs act as a physical barrier that moderates overland flow velocity and continuity (Sanchez and Puigdefabregas, 1994); consequently, they trap soil and litter (Bergkamp, 1998;Shachak et al, 1998), forming soil mounds (Rostango and del Valle., 1988;Parsons et al, 1992) and thereby changing the surface microtopography as well as the soil texture and bulk density (Van Haveren, 1983;Trimble and Mendel 1995;Stavi et al, 2008bStavi et al, , 2009). The combined physical, chemical and biological effects of shrub roots (Archer et al, 2002) and soil biological activity (Garner and Steinberger, 1989) improve soil organic matter content and structure (Oades, 1984;Sarah and Rodeh, 2004;Sarah, 2006), which reduces bulk density even more (Dunkerley and Brown, 1995), and creates macropores, in which water flows vertically at relative high rates (Bromley et al, 1997).…”

“…The loess soil is partially compacted by sporadic trampling by livestock, with consequent mechanical formation of crust, which is commonly developed in this area. The trampling routes have the highest soil compaction and a sparse covering of herbaceous plants, which can be attributed directly to the impact of intense animal traffic: hoof action damages and detaches tissue from growing plants (Pande and Yamamoto, 2006), thereby reducing canopy and herbaceous cover, and increasing the exposure of bare soil. The animal trampling compacts the soil, thereby increasing soil bulk density (Schlesinger et al, 1990;Stavi et al, 2008a) and destroying the topsoil structure (Manzano and Navar, 2000), especially along flock trampling routes (Warren et al, 1996;Stavi et al, 2008b).…”

“…Most of these studies were based on rainfall simulation experiments in the field Lavee, 1981, 1985;Lavee et al, 1991;Parsons et al, 1992;Bergkamp, 1998;Cerda, 1998c;Calvo-Cases et al, 2003;Arnau-Rosalén et al, 2008) or in the laboratory (Bryan, 2000); others were based on visual estimations (Bromley et al, 1997;Bergkamp, 1998). Furthermore, studies on runoff and sedimentation processes under natural rainfall conditions were conducted on medium and relatively large scales, i.e., part or all of the hillslope or catchment (e.g., Puigdefabregas et al, 1998Puigdefabregas et al, , 1999Bergkamp, 1998;Parsons et al, 1992); virtually all the studies based on small-scale runoff plots in the field used simulated rainfall and resembled one another in the means of application: they involved rainfall intensity of 50-55 mm h −1 during 45-60 min (Imeson et al, 1996;Cerdà, 1998b;Calvo-Cases et al, 2003;Arnau-Rosalén et al, 2008).…”