Traditional Cattle Grazing in a Mosaic Alkali Landscape: Effects on Grassland Biodiversity along a Moisture Gradient

Abstract

Extensively managed pastures are of crucial importance in sustaining biodiversity both in local- and landscape-level. Thus, re-introduction of traditional grazing management is a crucial issue in grassland conservation actions worldwide. Traditional grazing with robust cattle breeds in low stocking rates is considered to be especially useful to mimic natural grazing regimes, but well documented case-studies are surprisingly rare on this topic. Our goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional Hungarian Grey cattle grazing as a conservation action in a mosaic alkali landscape. We asked the following questions: (i) How does cattle grazing affect species composition and diversity of the grasslands? (ii) What are the effects of grazing on short-lived and perennial noxious species? (iii) Are there distinct effects of grazing in dry-, mesophilous- and wet grassland types? Vegetation of fenced and grazed plots in a 200-ha sized habitat complex (secondary dry grasslands and pristine mesophilous- and wet alkali grasslands) was sampled from 2006–2009 in East-Hungary. We found higher diversity scores in grazed plots compared to fenced ones in mesophilous- and wet grasslands. Higher cover of noxious species was typical in fenced plots compared to their grazed counterparts in the last year in every studied grassland type. We found an increasing effect of grazing from the dry- towards the wet grassland types. The year-to-year differences also followed similar pattern: the site-dependent effects were the lowest in the dry grassland and an increasing effect was detected along the moisture gradient. We found that extensive Hungarian Grey cattle grazing is an effective tool to suppress noxious species and to create a mosaic vegetation structure, which enables to maintain high species richness in the landscape. Hungarian Grey cattle can feed in open habitats along long moisture gradient, thus in highly mosaic landscapes this breed can be the most suitable livestock type.

Vegetation type and grazing intensity jointly shape grazing effects on grassland biodiversity

“…In both alkali grassland types, the low functional richness (associated also with low species richness) is caused mostly by the high dominance of some graminoids which were likely suppressed by grazing. The suppression of the competitor species by grazing can lead to three well‐documented benefits: (a) direct decrease in species competition by the suppression of the dominant competitor (Török et al., ) (b) influencing the light availability near to the soil surface and opening vegetation gaps for colonization (Rook et al., ) and (c) increasing the establishment success of zoochorous species transferred by livestock (Ozinga et al., ). Surprisingly, we did not detect an increase in species richness, species diversity or functional diversity in the subjected alkali grasslands.…”

Livestock Type is More Crucial Than Grazing Intensity: Traditional Cattle and Sheep Grazing in Short‐Grass Steppes

“…For designing management plans, it is very important to know the livestock‐specific and intensity‐specific effects of grazing on the respective grassland type. Most studies focus on species richness and compositional changes in the vegetation in relation to (i) a single livestock type under various intensity of grazing (mostly grazed and ungrazed; Díaz et al, ), (ii) comparing the effects of multiple livestock types by using the same grazing intensity (Dumont et al, ) or (iii) studying the effect of a single livestock type and grazing intensity on the composition and diversity of multiple grassland types (Török et al, ).…”

The role of seed banks in sustaining alkali grassland biodiversity in the Hortobágy National Park, Hungary

“…A szikes gyepekre jellemző a kontinentális klíma, a talaj mérsékelt vagy magas sótartalma és magas talajvízszint a tavaszi időszakban. A szikes gyepek hagyományosan extenzíven kezelt legelők (Török et al 2014b), mert a gyenge minőségű talaj és ingadozó talajvízszint alkalmatlanná teszi őket az intenzív mezőgazdasági termelésre és erdészeti művelésre (Molnár és Borhidi 2003). A szikes gyepek vegetációját számos stresszfaktor befolyásolja, mint például a (i) magas ozmotikus nyomás, (ii) iontoxicitás, (iii) egyenlőtlen és változó ionkoncentráció, (iv) kedvezőtlen talajszerkezet, (v) kedvezőtlen talaj pH és (vi) tápanyaghiány.…”