Coffin et al. evaluated the importance of disturbance intensity and herbivory by cattle and white grubs, or the larvae of June beetles, to recovery of shortgrass steppe ecosystems in Colorado over a 14 year period. Successional patterns on patches killed by larvae of June beetles were similar to patterns in species groups found on other type of disturbances, in that annuals initially dominated vegetation, followed by short-lived perennials, and finally long-lived perennial grasses. However, rate of recovery was faster on grub-killed patches compared to higher intensity disturbances, such as cattle grazing, where all plants are killed. The importance of disturbance intensity to plant recovery has not been well-studied in grasslands, but was found to be more important than other factors (ie., grazing by cattle) to plant recovery through time for shortgrass communities. Disturbance intensity was important to variability in cover of Bouteloua gracilis on ungrazed patches throughout the study period. However, grazing became more important through time compared to initial intensity for grazed patches. Therefore, grazing by cattle had important initial affects on plant survival due to interactions with grubs, and also had continuing effects through time on variability in B. gracilis cover.
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