Abstract
A grazing enclosure (GE) is one of the most effective techniques for restoring degraded rangelands by modifying the composition, abundance, and diversity of species. However, the effect of GEs on different grazing intensities and durations compared to open-grazing (OG) rangelands is not well known. We aimed to assess the effect of GE on the characteristics of plant species. We established five plots in a short-term enclosure, a long-term enclosure, and an OG treatment to examine the effect of GE on vegetation species’ height, abundance, diversity, phenology, biomass, heterogeneity, and the carrying capacity (CC) of rangeland under grazed and enclosed conditions. We found that GE significantly (P< 0.05) increased vegetation height, abundance, biomass, CC, phenological period, and species diversity. However, the increase in height, diversity, and phenological periods were not consistent with enclosure duration, and higher increments were recorded at the short-term enclosure site. The highest Shannon index value recorded at StGE (2.45) was 28.6 and 12.2% greater than the LtGE (1.75) and OG (2.15) sites, respectively. The advanced phenological periods were higher at the StGE site and showed 22.6 and 60.3% higher values than the LtGE and OG sites, respectively. The highest carrying capacities of 23.4 and 114.3% for livestock were observed at the LtGE compared to the StGE and OG grazing sites. In addition, the heterogeneity of the plants’ community was significantly higher in the long-term GE, due to the decrease in species’ diversity. In conclusion, this paper further contributes to the development of the theoretical basis on the effects of GEs and recommends strategies like rotational grazing and reseeding to be used in tandem with a GE for sustainable management of rangelands.
Highlights
Rangelands are major parts of the global ecosystem and occupy more than a quarter of Earth’s land area (Muhammad et al, 2019)
grazing enclosures (GEs) was found to have a significant effect on height, abundance, biomass, phenology, diversity, spatial heterogeneity, and carrying capacity (CC) of vegetation species, yet had no significant effects on species’ evenness and yearly average dominance index in all the treatment sites of the Borana grassland
The duration of GE has a positive effect on species abundance, biomass, and CC, it has a negative effect on species’ diversity, phenology, and height of grass species and decreased the proportion of poisonous herbs and weeds
Summary
Rangelands are major parts of the global ecosystem and occupy more than a quarter of Earth’s land area (Muhammad et al, 2019). Conserving the diversity of rangeland species is vital to sustaining productivity and minimizing the impact of other ecosystem services (Wu et al, 2014). Grazing animals have a great impact on the formation of vegetation community and cause changes in richness, diversity, productivity, and CC of rangelands (Peper et al, 2011). Many other studies have assessed the effects of grazing on forage nutritive value, forage quality, soil physicochemical properties, and biodiversity (Graff et al, 2007; Ma et al, 2019). Forage value, quality, quantity, and soil properties show an increasing trend or better condition, yet overgrazing has led to a decrease in forage quality, quantity, and overall degradation of rangeland (Maestre and Reynolds, 2006; Chen et al, 2015)
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