Abstract
We assess the impact of release from cattle grazing on the abundance and diversity of both winter and summer annual plant communities at an upper Chihuahuan Desert scrub site in south-eastern Arizona. In contrast to previous studies, we found that removal of herbivores (cattle) had little impact on ephemeral plant assemblages at our site. The total number of summer annual individuals per quadrat did not differ significantly, but there were significantly more winter annual plants on ungrazed quadrats. The number of species per quadrat, however, did not differ significantly between sites exposed to, or protected from, grazing in either season. Of 79 annual species recorded (34 in winter, 45 in summer), only 2 species, 1 in each season, responded significantly to the removal of cattle: Stephanomeria exigua and Polygala tweedyi were more abundant on ungrazed plots. Three additional species, Eriastrum diffusum and Cryptantha micrantha in winter, and Mollugo cerviana (summer), approached statistical significance. Differences in the effect of cattle grazing on annual plants between our results and those at other sites in the arid southwest most likely reflect differences in the speed of response by annuals in different areas. Comparisons of this with other studies underscores recent calls for studies at broader spatial and greater temporal scales.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Addicott JF (1974) Predation and prey community structure: an experimental study of the effect of mosquito larvae on the protozoan communities of pitcher plants. Ecology 55:475–492
Bahre CJ (1991) A legacy of change: historic land use and vegetation in the Arizona borderlands. University of Arizona Press, Tucson
Bahre CJ, Shelton ML (1993) Historic vegetation change, mesquite increases, and climate in southeastern Arizona. J Biogeogr 20:489–504
Barnes WC (1936) Herds of the San Simon valley. Am For 42: 456–457,481
Bock CE, Bock JH, Kenney WR, Hawthorne VM (1984) Responses of birds, rodents, and vegetation to livestock exclosure in a semidesert grassland site. J Range Manage 37:239–242
Brown DE (1982) Biotic communities of the American Southwest — United States and Mexico. Desert Plants 4:1–342
Brown JH, Heske EJ (1990) Control of a Desert-grassland transition by a keystone rodent guild. Science 250:1705–1707
Brown JH, Munger JC (1985) Experimental manipulation of a desert rodent community: food addidition and species removal. Ecology 66:1545–1563
Buffington LC, Herbel CH (1965) Vegetational changes on a semidesert grassland range from 1858 to 1963. Ecol Monogr 35: 139–164
Chew RM (1982) Changes in herbaceous and suffruscent perennials in grazed and ungrazed desertified grassland in southeastern Arizona, 1958–1978. Am Midl Nat 108:159–169
Chew RM, Chew AE (1965) The primary productivity of a desert shrub (Larrea tridentata) community. Ecol Monogr 35:355–375
Connell JH (1961) The effects of competition, predation by Thais lapillus, and other factors on natural populations of the barnacle, Balanus balanoides. Ecol Monogr 31:61–104
Connell JH (1978) Diversity in tropical rainforests and coral reefs. Science 199:1302–1310
Crawley MJ (1983) Herbivory: the dynamics of animal-plant interactions. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Crawley MJ (ed) (1986) Plant ecology. Blackwell, Oxford
Crawley MJ (1989) The relative importance of vertebrate and invertebrate herbivores. In: Bernays EA (ed) Insect-plant interactions, vol. 1. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, pp 45–71
Cremony JC (1868) Life among the Apaches. Roman, San Francisco
Davidson DW, Samson DA, Inouye RS (1985) Granivory in the Chihuahuan Desert: interactions within and between trophic levels. Ecology 66:486–502
Harper JL (1969) The roles of predation in vegetational diversity. Brookhaven Symp Biol 22:48–62
Harper, JL (1977) Population biology of plants. Academic Press, New York
Heske EJ, Campbell M (1991) Effects of an 11-year livestock exclosure on rodent and ant numbers in the Chihuahua desert, southeastern Arizona. Southwest Nat 36:89–93
Heske EJ, Brown JH, Guo Q (1993) Effects of kangaroo rat exclusion on vegetation structure and plant species diversity in the Chihuahuan Desert. Oecologia 95:520–524
Humphrey RR (1958) The desert grassland: a history of vegetational change and an analysis of causes. Bot Rev 24:193–252
Huntly N (1991) Herbivores and the dynamics of communities and ecosystems. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 22:477–503
Jefferies RL (1984) The phenotype: its development, physiological constraints and environmental signals. In: Dirzo R, Sarukhan J (eds) Perspectives in plant population ecology. Sinauer, Sunderland, Massachusetts, pp 347–358
Jordan GL, Maynard ML (1970) The San Simon watershed — historical review. Progressive Agric Ariz 22:10–13
Likens GE (ed) (1989) Long-term studies in ecology: approaches and alternatives. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Lubchenco J (1978) Plant species diversity in a marine intertidal community: importance of herbivore food preference and algal competitive abilities. Am Nat 112:23–39
Lubchenco J, Menge BA (1978) Community development and persistence in a low rocky intertidal zone. Ecol Monogr 48: 67–94
Paine RT (1966) Food web complexity and species diversity. Am Nat 100:65–75
Paine RT, Vadas RL (1969) The effects of grazing by sea urchins, Strongylocentrotus spp., on benthic algal populations. Limnol Oceanogr 14:710–719
Rice WR (1989) Analyzing tables of statistical tests. Evolution 43:223–225
Ricklefs RE, Schluter D (eds) (1993) Species diversity in ecological communities: historical and eographical perspectives. University of Chicago, Chicago
Samson DA, Philippi TE, Davidson DW (1992) Granivory and competition as determinants of annual plant diversity in the Chihuahuan desert. Oikos 65:61–80
Sellers WD, Hill RH (1974) Arizona climate. University of Arizona Press, Tucson
Shaw RG, Mitchell-Olds T (1993) ANOVA for unbalanced data: an overview. Ecology 74:1638–1645
Steenbergh WF, Warren PL (1977) Preliminary ecological investigation of natural community status at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (Cooperative National Park Resource Studies Unit, Technical Report 3). Published in Tucson, AZ
Terborgh J (1988) The big things that run the world — a sequel to E. O. Wilson. Conserv Biol 2:402–403
Thornber JJ (1910) The grazing ranges of Arizona (Bulletin 65). University of Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station, Tucson, AZ
Underwood AJ, Petraitis PS (1993) Structure of intertidal assemblages in different locations: how can local processes be compared? In: Ricklefs, RE, Schluter D (eds) Species diversity in ecological communities: historical and geographical perspecives. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 39–51
Waser NM, Price MV (1981) Effects of grazing on diversity of annual plants in the Sonoran desert. Oecologia 50:407–411
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kelt, D.A., Valone, T.J. Effects of grazing on the abundance and diversity of annual plants in Chihuahuan desert scrub habitat. Oecologia 103, 191–195 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00329079
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00329079