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HYDROLOGIC RESPONSE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILD HORSE GRAZING WITHIN LENTIC MEADOWS OF NORTHERN NEVADA
Author
Burdick, Jacob M.
Tsocanos, Sebastian
Swanson, Sherman R.
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2018
Body

Lentic systems scattered across Northern Nevada offer windows of opportunity for an ecosystem to make best use of its limiting resource: water. Compared to the surrounding landscape, these wet meadows have much higher plant productivity rates which capture sediment, reduce overland flow energy, and prevent excessive erosion.� This productivity also attracts grazing animals.� Large grazing species such as cattle and wild horses particularly prefer lentic and lotic riparian areas and will spend a disproportionate amount of their time within them.� If over-used, a meadow loses the stabilizing plant community necessary to prevent erosion, causing a meadow to degrade.� This study is working to quantify the hydrologic response to cattle versus wild horse use of 12 lentic meadow sites across Northern Nevada.� Trail cameras set to 5-minute intervals give a clear picture of which species use a meadow and when. � Camera data are combined with field surveys of vegetation species composition, stubble height measurements, and topographic survey data across meadow transects.� We are using this data to detect how different grazing timing and duration between cattle and horses affects the community structure of stabilizing vegetation.� We are then investigating the erosional response to stabilizing vegetation loss � particularly if lentic systems develop a thalweg, or channelized flow, that will increase shear stress and incision rates.� This incision transports water quickly down-drainage, lowering water tables and shrinking meadow size.� Meadow loss reduces important forage for grazing animals, threatens habitat for important conservation species such as the greater sage grouse, and reduces the hydrologic functionality of a drainage � making it more prone to destructive flows.� It is therefore important to understand how these major grazing species affect Northern Nevada�s lentic areas.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Reno, NV
Collection
SRM Annual Meeting Abstracts