Effects of removing sheep grazing on soil chemistry, plant nutrition and forage digestibility: Lessons for rewilding the British uplands

Marrs, R. H.; Sánchez, R.; Connor, Leslie; Blackbird, Sabena; Rasal, Jennifer; Rose, Rob

doi:10.1111/aab.12462

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The recovery of vegetation after a reduction in grazing should reduce rates of overland flow (Bond et al, 2020), with impacts on downstream flooding. In our study reduced grazing was introduced fairly recently ($ 7 years ago) and whilst relatively little is known about the effects of reducing stock grazing pressures, it may take 48-62 years to see the benefits of reduced grazing due to the long-term soil degradation caused by intensive sheep-grazing and slow rates of recovery (Marrs et al, 2018;Marrs et al, 2020).…”

Section: Soil Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 95%

The impact of semi‐natural broadleaf woodland and pasture on soil properties and flood discharge

Monger

Spracklen

Kirkby

et al. 2022

Hydrological Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Woodlands can reduce the risk of rainfall-generated flooding through increased interception, soil infiltration and available storage. Despite growing evidence, there is still low confidence in using woodlands as a flood mitigation method due to limited empirical data, particularly for broadleaf woodlands. We measured soil properties and streamflow for nine small (<0.2 km 2 ) upland catchments and compared mature semi-natural broadleaf woodland where no stock grazing occurs to pasture with varied grazing intensity. We compared streamflow across 28 storm events including a 1 in 10-year event, two 1 in 4-year events and five 1 in 1.5-year events, identified over a 13-month period. We found that semi-natural broadleaf woodlands reduce specific peak discharge by 23%-60% and peak runoff coefficients by 30%-60% compared with pasture. Response to storm events took 14-50% longer in woodland compared to pasture. These differences in flood response are partly explained by more permeable woodland soils, 11-20 times greater than pasture soil. The more muted response of wooded catchments to storm events is consistent across the storms investigated, including Storm Ciara, a 1 in 10-year event. Our analysis strengthens the argument that semi-natural woodlands can reduce rainfall-generated flooding contributing to the evidence base for natural flood management.catchment-based flood management, natural flood management, pasture, soil permeability, woodland | INTRODUCTIONOver the past three decades the frequency of flood events has increased across the UK (Rogger et al., 2017) and worldwide (Hall et al., 2014;Kundzewicz et al., 2014;Wingfield et al., 2019). In England, floods cause damages of £1.1 billion annually with one in six properties at risk from flooding (Priestley, 2017). This risk is expected to further increase under future climate change (Iacob et al., 2017).Because of recent floods, there is a growing interest in the use of 'soft-engineered' flood mitigation schemes (Dadson et al., 2017;Stevens et al., 2016). Natural Flood Management (NFM), also referred to as working with natural processes or nature-based solutions (Seddon et al., 2020), is an approach to flood management that seeks to work with natural processes to enhance the flood regulatory capacity of a catchment. Often these approaches also provide ecosystem services such as pollution assimilation, habitat creation and carbon storage (Hankin et al., 2017). NFM approaches may include the

show abstract

Section: Soil Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 95%

The impact of semi‐natural broadleaf woodland and pasture on soil properties and flood discharge

Monger

Spracklen

Kirkby

et al. 2022

Hydrological Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Controlled observations (quadrants) N (wildlife grazing) Mallik and Gimingham (1983), Hobbs and Gimingham (1984) and Gong (1976) Howden Moor, Sheffield (GB) Aerial photographs N (wildlife grazing) Harris et al (2011) and Allen et al (2016) Knettishall Heath, East Anglia (GB) Aerial photographs 1946Aerial photographs , 1951Aerial photographs , 1967Aerial photographs , 1976 Some tree removal 1979 Marrs et al (1986) Kringsjå, Rogaland (NO) Aerial photographs N (wildlife grazing) Gjedrem and Log (2020) N (wildlife grazing) Marrs (1992;Marrs et al, 2018) and Milligan et al (2016) for keeping the heathlands in place? And how does this scale of ecological resilience correlate with the archaeological evidence for past heathland regimes?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the ecological resilience of Atlantic postglacial heathlands

Løvschal

Damgaard

2022

Journal of Applied Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Anthropogenic heathlands are semi‐natural ecosystems with a unique cultural and biodiversity value, considered worthy of preservation across most of the world. Their rate of loss, however, is alarming. Currently, we know little about the heathlands' actual span of resilience affordances and their association with abiotic and anthropogenic factors, including how much additional intervention they need to persist. Consequently, we are missing out on vital knowledge for conservation, management and the historical persistence of heathlands. This paper develops a method to assess the ecological resilience affordances of Atlantic postglacial heaths in the absence of human management. We use 12 existing cases of heathland succession to establish a four‐step resilience grade for each site, which we regress onto a series of explaining factors and use it in predicting heath resilience across postglacial Atlantic Northern Europe. We find that temperature, humidity, elevation and sandiness have a positive correlation with high heathland resilience. Our predictive mapping shows an uneven distribution of ecological heath resilience across Atlantic Northern Europe within an area of 1,000 × 1,200 km of 5 × 5 km resolution. Historic heathland distributions far exceed areas that afford high heath resilience, suggesting that heath distribution and persistence depend on both abiotic and anthropogenic factors. Policy implications: The map predicting the ecological resilience of Atlantic postglacial heaths can be used by managers working towards heath preservation and restoration to prioritize conservation efforts and to plan management practices across Atlantic Northern Europe. Together with the predictive model, it provides an important initial screening tool to assess heathland resilience in the absence of management as well as the impact of atmospheric nitrogen. The results are equally relevant for scholars who are interested in humans' role in increasing and decreasing ecosystem resilience. Our predictive method can be applied in other regions across the world by adding regionally specific variables.

show abstract

“…One positive approach to land abandonment that is currently gaining momentum is re-wilding/wilding (henceforth referred to as wilding), which in its simplest form is the removal/reduction in livestock grazing with the intention that this will improve the conservation benefit of grassland and shrublands (Sandom et al, 2013;Marrs et al, 2018Marrs et al, , 2020. This belief is inherent in the "wet-desert" description of the British uplands by Frank Fraser Darling (1955), who argued that sheep-grazing, in particular, was very detrimental to British upland plant communities, reducing the species diversity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 sheep ha -1 in 2001. The studies, therefore, compare no sheep grazing to the "business-as-usual" grazing pressure across the North Pennines reserve over a considerable timescale (Milligan et al, 2016Marrs et al, 2018). As these upland plant communities have been traditionally considered degraded by overgrazing (McGovern et al, 2011), conservation managers expected that grazing reductions would lead to an improvement in the conservation value of the vegetation, by increasing diversity including bryophytes and lichens, and by reducing the abundance of unpalatable species (Marrs et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of long-term removal of sheep-grazing in a series of British upland plant communities: Insights from plant species composition and traits

Alday

O’Reilly

Rose

et al. 2021

Science of The Total Environment

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Effects of removing sheep grazing on soil chemistry, plant nutrition and forage digestibility: Lessons for rewilding the British uplands

Cited by 7 publications

References 32 publications

The impact of semi‐natural broadleaf woodland and pasture on soil properties and flood discharge

The impact of semi‐natural broadleaf woodland and pasture on soil properties and flood discharge

Mapping the ecological resilience of Atlantic postglacial heathlands

Effects of long-term removal of sheep-grazing in a series of British upland plant communities: Insights from plant species composition and traits

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About