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Interactive influence of rainfall manipulation and livestock grazing on species diversity of the herbaceous layer community in a humid savannah in Kenya

Changes in rainfall regime and grazing pressure affect vegetation composition and diversity with ecological implications for savannahs. The savannah in East Africa has experienced increased livestock grazing and rainfall variability but the impacts associated with those changes on the herbaceous lay...

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Autores principales: Ondier, Joseph O., Okach, Daniel O., Onyango, John C., Otieno, Dennis O.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6702439/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31453419
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pld.2019.04.005
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author Ondier, Joseph O.
Okach, Daniel O.
Onyango, John C.
Otieno, Dennis O.
author_facet Ondier, Joseph O.
Okach, Daniel O.
Onyango, John C.
Otieno, Dennis O.
author_sort Ondier, Joseph O.
collection PubMed
description Changes in rainfall regime and grazing pressure affect vegetation composition and diversity with ecological implications for savannahs. The savannah in East Africa has experienced increased livestock grazing and rainfall variability but the impacts associated with those changes on the herbaceous layer have rarely been documented. We investigated the effect of livestock grazing, rainfall manipulation and their interaction on the composition and diversity of the herbaceous community in the savannah for two years in Lambwe, Kenya. Rainfall manipulation plots were set up for vegetation sampling; these plots received either 50% more or 50% less rainfall than control plots. Simpson's diversity and Berger–Parker indices were used to determine diversity changes and dominance respectively. The frequency of species was used to compute their abundance and their life forms as determined from the literature. Grazing significantly increased species diversity through suppression of dominant species. Rainfall manipulation had no significant impact on plant diversity in fenced plots, but rainfall reduction significantly reduced diversity in grazed plots. In contrast, rainfall manipulation had no impact on dominance in either fenced or grazed plots. The interaction of grazing and rainfall manipulation is complex and will require additional survey campaigns to create a complete picture of the implications for savannah structure and composition.
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spelling pubmed-67024392019-08-26 Interactive influence of rainfall manipulation and livestock grazing on species diversity of the herbaceous layer community in a humid savannah in Kenya Ondier, Joseph O. Okach, Daniel O. Onyango, John C. Otieno, Dennis O. Plant Divers Article Changes in rainfall regime and grazing pressure affect vegetation composition and diversity with ecological implications for savannahs. The savannah in East Africa has experienced increased livestock grazing and rainfall variability but the impacts associated with those changes on the herbaceous layer have rarely been documented. We investigated the effect of livestock grazing, rainfall manipulation and their interaction on the composition and diversity of the herbaceous community in the savannah for two years in Lambwe, Kenya. Rainfall manipulation plots were set up for vegetation sampling; these plots received either 50% more or 50% less rainfall than control plots. Simpson's diversity and Berger–Parker indices were used to determine diversity changes and dominance respectively. The frequency of species was used to compute their abundance and their life forms as determined from the literature. Grazing significantly increased species diversity through suppression of dominant species. Rainfall manipulation had no significant impact on plant diversity in fenced plots, but rainfall reduction significantly reduced diversity in grazed plots. In contrast, rainfall manipulation had no impact on dominance in either fenced or grazed plots. The interaction of grazing and rainfall manipulation is complex and will require additional survey campaigns to create a complete picture of the implications for savannah structure and composition. Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences 2019-04-25 /pmc/articles/PMC6702439/ /pubmed/31453419 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pld.2019.04.005 Text en © 2019 Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ondier, Joseph O.
Okach, Daniel O.
Onyango, John C.
Otieno, Dennis O.
Interactive influence of rainfall manipulation and livestock grazing on species diversity of the herbaceous layer community in a humid savannah in Kenya
title Interactive influence of rainfall manipulation and livestock grazing on species diversity of the herbaceous layer community in a humid savannah in Kenya
title_full Interactive influence of rainfall manipulation and livestock grazing on species diversity of the herbaceous layer community in a humid savannah in Kenya
title_fullStr Interactive influence of rainfall manipulation and livestock grazing on species diversity of the herbaceous layer community in a humid savannah in Kenya
title_full_unstemmed Interactive influence of rainfall manipulation and livestock grazing on species diversity of the herbaceous layer community in a humid savannah in Kenya
title_short Interactive influence of rainfall manipulation and livestock grazing on species diversity of the herbaceous layer community in a humid savannah in Kenya
title_sort interactive influence of rainfall manipulation and livestock grazing on species diversity of the herbaceous layer community in a humid savannah in kenya
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6702439/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31453419
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pld.2019.04.005
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