Impact of different-sized herbivores on recruitment opportunities for subordinate herbs in grasslands

By E. S. Bakker, H. Olff. 2003

140 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Potential effects of herbivores on plant species diversity depend on herbivore size, species and density. In this study we examine the effect of different-sized herbivores (cattle and rabbits) on recruitment of subordinate herbs in grasslands. We show that in a grazed floodplain, grassland plant species richness is mainly determined by the presence of many species of subordinate herbs. These herbs experience high colonization and extinction rates. We conclude that the creation of colonization opportunities for subordinate herbs plays a crucial role in maintaining plant species richness in productive grasslands. We found that cattle disperse large amounts of seeds via their dung, over ten times more than rabbits. Rabbits create more and on average larger bare soil patches than cattle. In a field experiment artificial disturbances improved germination success tremendously for four tested herb species. We found that bare soil is the best regeneration site, while cattle dung gave a too strong nutrient stimulus, resulting in tall vegetation and therefore light limitation. These results can be confirmed with results from field monitoring plots where plant species richness was positively related to the occurrence of bare soil patches. Therefore both large and small herbivores have a major impact on dispersal and colonization, but for different reasons. Cattle are identified as most important for seed dispersal whereas rabbits have a main effect as creators of disturbances. These results emphasize the importance of distinguishing between herbivore species in assessing their (potential) effects. Nomenclature: van der Meijden (1990).

Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/99c6b030004b8b407e2c89951e431c0f5cc72731

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In Ecology

In Global and Planetary Change

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

Citations in the corpus

Response diversity determines the resilience of ecosystems to environmental change (2013, background): “A typical example is that grazing often suppresses competitively dominant but highly palatable grasses and thus favours diversity by allowing the increase of subordinate grasses and forbs (Bakker & Olff, 2003; Sasaki et al., 2009b).”
Small mammalian herbivores as mediators of plant community dynamics in the high-altitude arid rangelands of Trans-himalaya (2006, background): “They influence plant diversity and dominance hierarchies (Brown and Heske, 1990) directly via defoliation (Detling and Painter, 1983) as well as through . indirect effects on plant–soil interactions (Aho et al., 1998).”
Seed dispersal by ungulates as an ecological filter: a trait-based meta-analysis (2015, background): “These effects may create regeneration niches (Bakker and Olff 2003), help incorporate diaspores into the soil (Eichberg et al.”