Rangeland Ecology & Management

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CATTLE-WILD UNGULATE EFFECTS ON SAGEBRUSH PLANT COMMUNITIES IN NORTHERN UTAH
Author
Veblen, Kari E.
McGlone, Christopher
Nehring, Kyle
Ritchie, Mark E.
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2014
Body

Rangelands cover more 31% of the land area of the US. Historically, about 62 million ha in North America were dominated by sagebrush, but today, half has been lost or highly degraded. The majority of these sagebrush ecosystems are managed for livestock grazing.  Sagebrush ecosystems also are important habitat for sensitive species such as sage-grouse.  The large herbivore community in these systems typically includes livestock, such as cattle, and wild ungulates, such as elk, pronghorn and mule deer. Herbivory by all these species can influence long- and short-term plant community dynamics. We used a series of long-term 90m x 90m exclosures to investigate the separate and combined effects of cattle (managed under a rotational grazing system) and wild ungulates in an area of sagebrush steppe in northern Utah.  We used semi-permeable fencing to create the following three exclosure treatments:  1) all large herbivores (i.e., cattle + wild ungulates) excluded, 2) livestock excluded, 3) no large herbivores excluded.  Biomass was sampled in 1992-1998, 2002, and again in 2012-2013. Intensive field sampling of ground cover (including biological soil crusts) and shrub densities took place in 2013, twenty-two years after the initiation of the experiment. We report on changes in plant densities, plant community composition and other indicators of range condition associated with various combinations of livestock and wild ungulate herbivory.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Orlando, FL