Stohlgren et al. investigate the effects of herbage removal on three subalpine meadow plant communities in the Rock Creek drainage of Sequoia National Park, California. There is evidence of compensatory growth of aboveground biomass resulting from continued herbage removal in the Carex exserta (short-hair sedge) type. However, declines in productivity in the recovery year suggest there may be long-term deleterious effects on overall plant vigor. There is stronger evidence that herbage removal had negative effects on aboveground productivity in the Eleocharis (spike-rush)-Calamagrostis (short-hair grass) type and Deschampsia (tufted hairgrass)-Carex (sedge) community types. These data suggest that long-term, intensive herbage removal may be more detrimental to moderately mesic and mesic subalpine meadow community types than to xeric types.
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