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Livestock grazing supports native plants and songbirds in a California annual grassland

Over eight years we measured the effects of plant community composition, vegetation structure, and livestock grazing on occurrence of three grassland bird species—Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta), Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris), and Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum)—at sites in...

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Autores principales: Gennet, Sasha, Spotswood, Erica, Hammond, Michele, Bartolome, James W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5470661/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28614358
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0176367
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author Gennet, Sasha
Spotswood, Erica
Hammond, Michele
Bartolome, James W.
author_facet Gennet, Sasha
Spotswood, Erica
Hammond, Michele
Bartolome, James W.
author_sort Gennet, Sasha
collection PubMed
description Over eight years we measured the effects of plant community composition, vegetation structure, and livestock grazing on occurrence of three grassland bird species—Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta), Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris), and Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum)—at sites in central California during breeding season. In California’s Mediterranean-type climatic region, coastal and inland grassland vegetation is dominated by exotic annual grasses with occasional patches of native bunchgrass and forbs. Livestock grazing, primarily with beef cattle, is the most widely used management tool. Compared with ungrazed plots, grazed plots had higher bare ground, native plant cover, and vertically heterogeneous vegetation. Grazed plots also had less plant litter and shorter vegetation. Higher native plant cover, which is predominantly composed of bunchgrasses in our study area, was associated with livestock grazing and north-facing aspects. Using an information theoretic approach, we found that all three bird species had positive associations with native plant abundance and neutral (Western Meadowlark, Grasshopper Sparrow) or positive (Horned Lark) association with livestock grazing. All species favored flatter areas. Horned Larks and Western Meadowlark occurred more often where there were patches of bare ground. Western Meadowlarks and Grasshopper Sparrows were most common on north-facing slopes, suggesting that these species may be at risk from projected climate change. These findings demonstrate that livestock grazing is compatible with or supports grassland bird conservation in Mediterranean-type grasslands, including areas with high levels of exotic annual grass invasion, in part because grazing supports the persistence of native plants and heterogeneity in vegetation structure. However, conservation of low-lying grasslands with high native species presence, and active management to increase the abundance of native plant species are also likely to be important for sustaining grassland birds long-term.
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spelling pubmed-54706612017-07-03 Livestock grazing supports native plants and songbirds in a California annual grassland Gennet, Sasha Spotswood, Erica Hammond, Michele Bartolome, James W. PLoS One Research Article Over eight years we measured the effects of plant community composition, vegetation structure, and livestock grazing on occurrence of three grassland bird species—Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta), Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris), and Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum)—at sites in central California during breeding season. In California’s Mediterranean-type climatic region, coastal and inland grassland vegetation is dominated by exotic annual grasses with occasional patches of native bunchgrass and forbs. Livestock grazing, primarily with beef cattle, is the most widely used management tool. Compared with ungrazed plots, grazed plots had higher bare ground, native plant cover, and vertically heterogeneous vegetation. Grazed plots also had less plant litter and shorter vegetation. Higher native plant cover, which is predominantly composed of bunchgrasses in our study area, was associated with livestock grazing and north-facing aspects. Using an information theoretic approach, we found that all three bird species had positive associations with native plant abundance and neutral (Western Meadowlark, Grasshopper Sparrow) or positive (Horned Lark) association with livestock grazing. All species favored flatter areas. Horned Larks and Western Meadowlark occurred more often where there were patches of bare ground. Western Meadowlarks and Grasshopper Sparrows were most common on north-facing slopes, suggesting that these species may be at risk from projected climate change. These findings demonstrate that livestock grazing is compatible with or supports grassland bird conservation in Mediterranean-type grasslands, including areas with high levels of exotic annual grass invasion, in part because grazing supports the persistence of native plants and heterogeneity in vegetation structure. However, conservation of low-lying grasslands with high native species presence, and active management to increase the abundance of native plant species are also likely to be important for sustaining grassland birds long-term. Public Library of Science 2017-06-14 /pmc/articles/PMC5470661/ /pubmed/28614358 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0176367 Text en © 2017 Gennet et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Gennet, Sasha
Spotswood, Erica
Hammond, Michele
Bartolome, James W.
Livestock grazing supports native plants and songbirds in a California annual grassland
title Livestock grazing supports native plants and songbirds in a California annual grassland
title_full Livestock grazing supports native plants and songbirds in a California annual grassland
title_fullStr Livestock grazing supports native plants and songbirds in a California annual grassland
title_full_unstemmed Livestock grazing supports native plants and songbirds in a California annual grassland
title_short Livestock grazing supports native plants and songbirds in a California annual grassland
title_sort livestock grazing supports native plants and songbirds in a california annual grassland
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5470661/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28614358
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0176367
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