Evaluation of the effect of grazing on the soil seed bank, under field conditions, in mountain grasslands of central Argentina
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14526593Abstract
The grasslands of the Comechingones mountains, Córdoba, Argentina are made up of a mosaic of plant communities with different productive potentials and differential responses to the disturbances generated by grazing or its absence. The relationship between grazing-conservation of natural grasslands has been a cause of concern for the scientific community. The need to study the changes that occur in the soil seed bank, after a disturbance, plays a significant role in the floristic composition of future plant communities; these changes have not been studied in the southern end of the Sierras Grandes. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of grazing and its absence on the size and floristic composition of the transient soil seed bank in two communities: high grassland (Deyeuxia hieronymi) and low grassland (Sorghastrum pellitum) in the field. A grazing test was carried out with two animal loads and closure. The soil seed bank was evaluated with the seedling emergence methodology. The tall grassland showed the highest bank size values in the grazed treatments compared to the short grassland. Richness, equity and diversity were higher in the low grassland and for both communities, grazing exclusion obtained the highest values of these parameters. It is concluded that the seed bank of these grasslands behaves differently in the face of different grazing intensities or its exclusion, modifying its size and floristic composition in both communities.
Keywords: seed bank, grazing, floristic composition, mountain grasslands
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