This study looked at the effects of grazing by black brant (Branta bernicla nigricans) geese on plant community zonation and gosling growth between 1987 and 2000 at a nesting colony in southwestern Alaska. Authors mowed plots of ungrazed Carex ramenskii, an alternate forage species, meadows to create swards that brant geese could select and maintain as grazing lawns. Fecal counts were higher on mowed plots than on control plots in the year after plots were mowed. Nutritional quality and aboveground biomass of C. ramenskii in mowed plots was similar to that of C. subspathacea grazing lawns. Grazing lawns increased from 3% to 8% of surface area between 1991 and 1999. Since larger goslings have increased survival, through higher probability of breeding and higher fecundity, herbivore-mediated changes in the distribution of grazing may result in a numerical increase of the population within the next two decades.
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