Using Cattle Grazing to Restore a Rough Fescue Prairie Invaded by Kentucky Bluegrass

Otfinowski, Rafael; Pinchbeck, Hilary G.; Sinkins, Peter A.

doi:10.1016/j.rama.2016.10.008

Cited by 16 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Others have used it to describe returning disturbed ecosystems to a target condition (Prach et al 2007; Rottler et al 2018; Gann et al 2019). Rough fescue ( Festuca hallii ), a valuable resource for livestock production, is negatively impacted by suppression of natural fires, intensive agriculture, and energy development activities (Desserud et al 2010; Otfinowski et al 2017; Woosaree & Otfinowski 2018). Fescue grasslands now cover less than 5% of their original area, and public land and conservation managers are concerned with continued development that threatens these prairie remnants (Alberta Environment and Parks 2016; Woosaree & Otfinowski 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plains rough fescue grassland restoration using natural regeneration after pipeline disturbances

Elsinger

Dhar

Naeth

2022

Restoration Ecology

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Plains rough fescue (Festuca hallii), once a dominant grassland in the Northern Great Plains, has been reduced to a fraction of its original extent by agricultural intensification and energy sector disturbances and has become a threatened community type. Despite thousands of kilometers of pipelines in grasslands, little is documented about long-term restoration outcomes. This research assessed recovery of rough fescue grassland 6-21 years after pipeline construction with topsoil stripping and natural regeneration relative to undisturbed reference sites in south-central Canada. Soil properties varied between pipelines and undisturbed prairie, although most were within theoretical values to support plant growth and development. Vegetation cover, species richness and Shannon diversity and evenness did not differ significantly between pipelines and undisturbed prairie. Multivariate analysis (multi-response permutation procedure) showed plant community composition, and its dominant species differed significantly between pipelines and undisturbed prairie. Bray-Curtis dissimilarity indices showed dominant species and functional species groups on pipelines were more similar to undisturbed prairie than the undesirable species group. Presence of early-to late-successional species and increasing F. hallii with pipeline age indicate restoration was possible with topsoil salvage and replacement, using natural regeneration as a revegetation method, but requires time to develop and restore a typical rough fescue grassland ecosystem.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plains rough fescue grassland restoration using natural regeneration after pipeline disturbances

Elsinger

Dhar

Naeth

2022

Restoration Ecology

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“…As the critical historical disturbances, fire and grazing by domestic animals are often considered as important management regimes to protect and restore native plant communities (Davies, Svejcar, & Bates, ). In rough fescue prairie and tallgrass prairie, the application of fire–grazing interaction can maintain native plant communities, improve productivity, promote heterogeneity and optimize plant diversity in restoring grasslands (Fuhlendorf & Engle, ; Otfinowski, Pinchbeck, & Sinkins, ). Targeted grazing that uses a specific kind of livestock at the appropriate season, duration and intensity to accomplish restoration goals has positive effects on controlling invasive weeds and reducing fire risk (Frost, Walker, Madsen, Holes, & Lehfeldt, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of fire and grazing on above‐ground biomass and species diversity in recovering grasslands in northeast China

Huang

Wang

Deng

et al. 2018

J Vegetation Science

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Questions:Fire and grazing can affect plant communities through different pathways in grasslands. However, little is known about how these disturbances affect plant communities in recovered semi-arid grasslands. Here we investigated effects of prescribed fire, sheep grazing and their interactions on above-ground biomass and species diversity in degraded semi-arid grasslands recovered from cropping agriculture.Location: Keerqin grasslands, northeast China. Methods:A short-term grazing and burning experiment with split-plot design was conducted, with burning applied at the main plot level and grazing applied at the subplot level. After 1 year of spring burning and 2 years of grazing by sheep, the above-ground biomass, species diversity, biomass proportion of plant functional groups and soil resource availability of the grasslands were measured and compared between treatments using a split-plot ANOVA model. Results:One-year of spring fire significantly increased above-ground biomass, while 2 years of grazing by sheep significantly decreased it. Species diversity was reduced by grazing in the burned plots but enhanced by grazing in the unburned plots. Fire significantly increased the biomass percentage of grasses and reduced that of forbs.Fire also changed soil water content and inorganic N concentration, and grazing enhanced light intensity to the soil surface. Moreover, above-ground biomass was positively related to soil water content and inorganic N concentration under both disturbances. Species diversity had a positive linear relationship with biomass percentage of grasses and a negative relationship with biomass percentage of forbs under sheep grazing.Conclusions: Both short-term fire and grazing are important in determining the above-ground biomass in degraded semi-arid grasslands, and their effects are opposite. Grazing coupled with fire has negative effects on species diversity. Thus, we advise that fire and grazing should be carefully applied when used in the same management regime to maintain above-ground biomass and species diversity in managing this grassland ecosystem.

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“…To minimize detrimental effects of bluegrass on the ecosystem, grassland management strategies such as fire, grazing, and their combination can diminish the competitive advantage of bluegrass. In general, studies show that grazing alone has a limited effect on bluegrass control (Biondini et al., 1998; Otfinowski, et al., 2017; Rogers et al., 2005). Both overgrazing and the exclusion of grazing can increase bluegrass levels (Grant et al., 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil properties are resilient despite grass invasion, fire, and grazing

Gerhard

Gasch

Sedivec

2022

Agrosystems Geosci & Env

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Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.; hereafter referred to as bluegrass) is an invasive perennial grass that has become naturalized throughout the entire United States. This species is an effective competitor and produces abundant litter, which in turn creates a thick thatch layer. In the northern Great Plains, fire and grazing are effective management tools for reducing the thatch layer, promoting expression of native grasses and forbs, and improving forage quality. The overall objective of this research was to examine belowground characteristics under accumulated thatch in response to management with fire and grazing. Soil samples were collected from plots dominated by bluegrass with thatch and from plots one year after management with fire and season-long grazing. Additionally, to understand immediate and in-season effects of fire and grazing on soil properties, we sampled soil immediately before and at increasing time steps after spring fires and exposure to grazing. All soils were analyzed for carbon and nitrogen pools, microbial abundance and community structure, and decomposition rates. In general, belowground pools of carbon, nitrogen, and microbial communities were stable despite vegetation management treatments.However, prescribed burning caused a brief decline of labile carbon and decomposition rates in shallow soil, but both properties returned to prefire levels within one year after burning. Our observations indicate that the combination of fire and grazing has minimal effect on the soil and is effective at removing thatch and reducing bluegrass.Abbreviations: KBG, Kentucky bluegrass-dominated plots; MBC, microbial biomass carbon; PMN, potentially mineralizable nitrogen; POX C, permanganate oxidizable carbon.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Using Cattle Grazing to Restore a Rough Fescue Prairie Invaded by Kentucky Bluegrass

Cited by 16 publications

References 34 publications

Plains rough fescue grassland restoration using natural regeneration after pipeline disturbances

Plains rough fescue grassland restoration using natural regeneration after pipeline disturbances

Effects of fire and grazing on above‐ground biomass and species diversity in recovering grasslands in northeast China

Soil properties are resilient despite grass invasion, fire, and grazing

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