Effects of grazing and inundation on pasture quality and seed production in a salt marsh

✍ Scribed by Pehrsson, Olof

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 848 KB
• Volume: 74
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1573-5052
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00044736

✦ Synopsis

During a six-year period, changes in the composition of dominant plant species of importance to foraging birds in a salt marsh on the Swedish west coast were followed inside and outside exclosures to document effects of grazing on herbage quality and seed production. Since marshes provide an important habitat for foraging geese and ducks, it was of interest to determine how cattle grazing would affect herbage production in Agrostis stolonifera and Puccinellia maritima and seed and root-tuber production in Scirpus maritimus. Measurements of cover and height in permanent plots revealed that a wetter weather type favoured Agrostis, probably through reduced salinity, at the expense of Puccinellia, which was the most favoured food of both cattle and birds. Agrostis out-competed Puccinellia when grazing pressure was low. Seed production in Scirpus maritimus was reduced by cattle grazing, particularly when Phragmites australis formed part of the vegetation. In the absence of cattle grazing, both herbage-and seed producing plants were gradually reduced, and Phragmites increased.

Since high herbage consumption and high seed production are mutually exclusive, grazing rotation in combination with mowing is suggested as a management strategy.