Researches at the Edwards Plateau Land Resources Area in Texas clipped target plants (selective grazing), target plants and 5 nearest neighbors (uniform grazing), or neighbors only, in areas protected or exposed to moderate and heavy grazing by livestock for 45 years. The heavily grazed areas had a higher density of smaller Bouteloua curtipendula plants with 22% less tillers per plant, and basal area of only 5% of the basal area of plants in the moderately grazed and protected areas. Long term grazing history had a larger effect on competitive interactions and population persistence of Bouteloua curtipendula than short term defoliation patterns, that had a minimal affect on tiller recruitment and mortality of the basal area of plants. Selective grazing in semi-arid savannah is minimized by low and unpredictable resource availability, and may not modify competitive interactions to a sufficient extent to have a major influence on species replacement at the absence of an interaction with abiotic factors.
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