Fuhlendorf and Smeins compared the influences of soil depth on plant community composition at sites that were exposed to no grazing or long-term heavy grazing. Species composition varied between grazed and ungrazed pastures. Grazed pastures were generally dominated by grazing tolerant shortgrasses while ungrazed pastures were dominated by mid to late-seral species. Species composition also varied among soil depths in both the grazed and ungrazed pastures. Rooting dynamics and competition for resources (ex. soil moisture) determined which species were present at each soil depth. These results indicate that soil depth affected plant community composition in grazed and ungrazed Texas arid grasslands, however, the authors suggest that plant community response will vary by the scale of soil depth variations and sampling area size within the study site.
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