We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Spatial pattern of grazing affects influence of herbivores on spatial heterogeneity of plants and soils.
- Authors
Yoshihara, Yu; Ohkuro, Toshiya; Buuveibaatar, Bayarbaatar; Jamsran, Undarmaa; Takeuchi, Kazuhiko
- Abstract
With our enhanced understanding of the factors that determine biodiversity and assemblage structure has come increasing acknowledgment that the use of an appropriate disturbance regime to maintain spatial heterogeneity is an effective conservation technique. A herbivore’s behavior affects its disturbance regime (size and intensity); this, in turn, may modify the associated spatial heterogeneity of plants and soil properties. We examined whether the pattern of spatial disturbance created by the Siberian marmot ( Marmota sibirica) affects the spatial heterogeneity of vegetation and soils at a colony scale on the Mongolian steppe. We expected that the difference in management between two types of area (protection against hunting marmots vs. hunting allowed) would result in different behavioral patterns; therefore, we estimated the patterns of spatial disturbance separately in protected and unprotected areas. We then surveyed plant communities and soil nutrients in these areas to assess their spatial heterogeneity. We found that disturbance of both vegetation and soil was more concentrated near marmot burrows in the unprotected area than in the protected area. In addition, the degrees of spatial heterogeneity of vegetation and soil NO3-N were greater in the unprotected area than in the protected area, where disturbance was more widely distributed. These results indicate that the spatial pattern of disturbance by herbivores affects the spatial heterogeneity of vegetation and soil properties through changes in the disturbance regime. Our findings also suggest that the intensity of disturbance is more important than its size in determining community structure in Mongolian grasslands.
- Subjects
MONGOLIA; MARMOTS; GRAZING; HERBIVORES; ECOLOGICAL heterogeneity; PLANT-soil relationships; ECOLOGICAL disturbances
- Publication
Oecologia, 2010, Vol 162, Issue 2, p427
- ISSN
0029-8549
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00442-009-1481-z