El abandono del pastoreo afecta negativamente a la calidad del pasto en pastizales atlánticos ibéricos

  1. Aldezabal, Arantza 1
  2. Pérez-López, Usue 1
  3. Laskurain, Nere Amaia 1
  4. Iñaki Odriozola Larrañaga
  1. 1 Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU
  2. 2 Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU - Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology of the CAS
Journal:
Pirineos

ISSN: 0373-2568

Year of publication: 2019

Issue: 174

Pages: 42-42

Type: Article

DOI: 10.3989/PIRINEOS.2019.174002 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Pirineos

Abstract

Forage quality in mountain grasslands is an important factor for maintaining or improving animal performance. Previous studies identified plant traits beneficial for animal nutrition; however, little is known regarding their maintenance in plant communities. Our main hypothesis was that grazing favors plants with high regrowth capacity and low resource utilization efficiency, promoting the production of high-quality forage. To test the hypothesis, we conducted a grazer exclusion experiment in an Iberian Atlantic grassland combined with a response-effect framework based on various plant traits and an appropriate statistical methodology to measure the relative contribution of species turnover and intraspecific trait variability (ITV) after grazing abandonment. Our results showed that forage quality declined after short-term grazing abandonment, via strong ITV effects and weak species turnover effects. Strong species turnover effects might appear after longer period of abandonment if, as expected, tall grasses with low tissue quality outcompete species with high tissue quality.

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Funding information

The authors would like to thank Nuria Vitores (post-graduate student of UPV/EHU), Jon Miranda (postdoc researcher of UPV/EHU) and Joxe Antonio Irastortza (guard of the Aralar Natural Park) for their technical assistance. This study was funded by the Basque Government (IT1022-15), the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spanish Government (ref: AGL2013-48361-C2-1-R), and an FPI-EHU grant provided to I.O.

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