Consequences of protection from grazing on diversity and abundance of the coastal lowland vegetation in Eastern Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Fourteen years of protection against grazing and human impacts of the coastal lowland vegetation in Eastern Saudi Arabia (an experimental site in the vicinity of A1-Hassa region) has led to an increase of 68 % in the total cover, 33 % in species richness and 32% in species relative evenness. Many of the species with significantly higher abundance in the protected area are important forage and/or fuel plants. Soil salinity and important soil nutrients (N, K, Mg and Na) are significantly higher in the free grazing area which may be attributable to the fact that the passage of herbage through the grazing animals often enhances nutrient availability.

Changes in soil properties and vegetation following livestock grazing exclusion in degraded arid environments of South Tunisia

“…Comparable findings were reported by Shaltout et al (1996) and Eweg et al (1998) and supported other studies showing a high degree of covariation between species/area and the Shannon-Wiener diversity (Pielou, 1975). Zhang (1998) noted that change in plant species diversity in relation to grazing or the cessation of grazing depend on resource partitioning and competitive patterns in vegetation.…”

“…As a consequence, in grazed sites these palatable species are very threatened and become replaced by less palatable species which are often considered less desirable such as Asphodelus tenuifolius, Astragalus armatus and Peganum harmala (Abdallah et al, 2008;Chaieb and Boukhris, 1998). Other species such as Senecio gallicus and Reichardia tingitana that occur only in the free grazing area are some weeds of disturbed habitats (Shaltout et al, 1996).…”

Case studies in the conservation of biodiversity: degradation and threats

“…Outside the hema, Psiadia arabica (non-palatable) predominated, and Themeda triandra was severely grazed. Similarly, Shaltout et al (1996) examined the effect of protection for 14 years against grazing and human impacts of the coastal lowland vegetation in eastern Saudi Arabia. The protection increased species diversity in terms of richness and evenness.…”

Effects of grazing exclusion on carbon sequestration and plant diversity in grasslands of China—A meta-analysis

“…For plant diversity, the results are also conflicting. Several studies reported no effects of grazing exclusion on plant diversity (Milchunas and Lauenroth, 1993;Meissner and Facelli, 1999), while a number of studies reported increases (Shaltout et al,1996;Eweg et al, 1998;Shang et al, 2008;Mayer et al, 2009;Jeddi and Chaieb, 2010;Zhao et al, 2011), and others reported decreases (Proulx and Mazumder, 1998;Dullinger et al, 2003;Altesor et al, 2005;Peco et al, 2005Peco et al, , 2006Wu et al, 2009), in plant diversity in response to grazing exclusion. Generally, the effectiveness of grazing exclusion denpends on its duration (Milchunas and Lauenroth, 1993;Su et al, 2005;Wu et al, 2008;McSherry and Ritchie, 2013), environmental conditions (Conant and Paustian, 2002;Derner and Schuman, 2007;Piñeiro et al, 2010; J.S.…”