Grazing Effects

• Herbaceous (dicotyledonous) plants grow from meristems in the stem and grazing will remove many or most of the meristems and thus severely hinder growth
• Monocotylenous species such as grasses grow meristems at the base of the plant and thus are less affected by grazing
• Grazing will tend to increase the proportion of monocot plants

Grazing and diversity

• Grazing can either increase or decrease species diversity
• If the dominant species is palatable then grazing will increase the diversity by reducing the abundance of the dominant species
• If the dominant species is unpalatable then grazing will reduce the diversity by making the dominant species even more common

Grazing Species

• Moderate grazing intensities can increase the structural complexity
• Different grazing species produce different effects
• Sheep nibble the vegetation to a uniform sward and their scattered faces have little impacts
• Cattle pull clumps of vegetation, often break the sward, and their dung have grater impacts

Trampling effects

• • High level of trampling will encourage those plant species which are resistant to trampling
• • Extent of trampling depend upon the grazer
• • Cattle are heavier than sheep, horses are active than cattle, youngs are active than old

Grazing Methods

• Natural
  • Using natural populations of wild species
  • Preferred, realistic in large sites
• Rotational
  • Moving stock between areas
  • Mosaic of different habitats can be created
  • Use of ditches, fences
  • Avoid areas in sensitive periods where ground nesting birds
• Continuous
  • Keeping stock throughout the year
  • Intense grazing-uniform short sward
• Seasonal
  • Restricting the grazing to certain seasons
  • Grazing in winter-no effects on flowering
• Spasmodic
  • Beneficial in setting back succession

Fire

• Cheapest option for creating early successional habitat
• Mosaic of habitat by fire
• Breaking the seed dormancy, increased regeneration, reduce diseases, prevents large fires
• Burnt area-animals' hub due to new sprouts
• Some species are intolerant of fire (pigmy hug)

Fire as a Tool

• Frequency, intensity, seasonality is imp.
• Small area first- experimental basis
• Create a fire breaks
• Season, temperature, wind speed and direction,
• Canopy fire spread over a large areas than surface fire
• Crown fires in coniferous forests due to resin smaller needles, branches etc