Cattle Dung as Vector of Spreading Seeds of Exotic Species in the Flooding Pampa Grasslands (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Abstract

Emergence of seedlings from cattle dung collected in different seasons from grasslands of the Flooding Pampa was analysed. The objective of this work was to find out (1) how high the proportion of seeds from exotic species in the seeds spread by cattle dung is, and (2) what the forage quality of the species spread through cattle dung is. Fresh dung was collected in late spring and late summer from three grasslands. Seedling emergence from dung was done in greenhouse conditions. Seedling number, forage quality and origin of the species were determined. We found 121 plant species growing in the grasslands. The number of species emerging from dung was 41. Twenty-four and 36 species emerged from dung collected in late spring and late summer, respectively. Nineteen species were common for both seasons. There were 5.33 ± 0.26 and 1.00 ± 0.15 (mean ± SE) native and exotic species, respectively, per dung sample (22.50 g dry weight) collected in late spring. From the dung collected in late summer emerged 7.70 ± 0....