Jeffries and Klopatek investigated the vegetative features of blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima)-dominated sites with low or high grazing pressures, a site where grazing pressure has been removed, and a relic ungrazed community to assess what changes, if any, had been caused by grazing. The relic and lightly grazed sites had more total plant cover which consisted of greater shrub and cryptogamic crust cover than the heavily grazed and recovering sites. The relic site had a slightly lower soil pH than the grazed sites and the greatest herbaceous and plant cover of all sites. The recovering site showed no significant differences than the heavily grazed site for any of the measured parameters. Blackbrush is able to tolerate heavy grazing and survive, but at much reduced cover. Recovery of all parameters is very slow in this system, perhaps due to edaphic factors related to the sandy soil, the lack of precipitation, and compounded by grazing of animals.
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