Ungrazed salt marsh has well connected soil pores and less dense sediment compared with grazed salt marsh: a CT scanning study

Abstract

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Impact of three co-occurring physical ecosystem engineers on soil Collembola communities

“…Consistent with other studies, all aspects of porosity we measured increased without grazers, which compact the soil through trampling (Schrama et al 2013;Keshta et al 2020). Soil porosity increased when grazers were excluded, particularly in presence of tall grass vegetation.…”

“…In the studied salt marsh, cattle are the primary EE. They compact the soil through trampling, reduce soil porosity and connectivity, and increase anoxic conditions (Schrama et al 2013;Howison et al 2017;Keshta et al 2020), all reducing habitat space for Collembola. Furthermore, defoliation through grazing results in mosaics with short and tall vegetation patches (i.e.…”

Soils with more clay and dense vegetation were rich in soil carbon along Wadi Al-Sharaea, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

“…Soil bulk density has a major role in soil C content build up [ 50 , 51 ], where less dense soils would have higher soil C content especially with more fresh and less decomposed plant materials. Our results indicated that SBD was strongly and negatively correlated with SOC content ( R 2 = 0.95 for soils with dense vegetation cover, p < 0.05), and many research studies reported similar findings [ 38 , 41 , [52] , [53] , [54] , [55] , [56] , [57] ]. Sites with no or scarce vegetation cover had the highest SBD, while soil sites with dense vegetation cover had the lowest (less dense) – and that our findings were similar to others [ 54 , 55 ].…”

The importance of marshes providing soil stabilization to resist fast‐flow erosion in case of a dike breach

“…This was driven by few samples with thick detritus layers, found with Elytrigia atherica , and in muddy samples on the silty marsh edge (silty pioneer marsh) or swampy areas, all having higher dynamic soil deformation. Additionally, livestock grazing may contribute to lower erosion by compacting the soil (Elschot et al, 2013; Keshta et al, 2020; Marin‐Diaz et al, 2021; Pagés et al, 2018). However in this study, grazing does not seem essential to further reduce surface erosion because similar low erosion values were obtained both in grazed and ungrazed marshes (Appendix S1: Table S1).…”