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Variation In Herbivore Effects On Grassland Primary Production: A Test Of Three Models, Jacob Penner
Variation In Herbivore Effects On Grassland Primary Production: A Test Of Three Models, Jacob Penner
Theses - ALL
Grazing animals influence a wide range of plant and soil processes in the world’s grasslands. Ecologists have long understood that grazing can stimulate aboveground net primary production (ANPP), although this phenomenon has not been broadly generalizable across grasslands and grazing regimes. The mechanisms underlying grazer stimulation of ANPP are therefore of interest to a wide variety of stakeholders from ecologists to land managers. Three data-supported hypotheses offer differing explanations for the ways in which grazing interacts with resource availability to drive ANPP: the compensatory continuum hypothesis (CCH) implicates background resource availability, the limiting resource model (LRM) considers the direct effects …
Human-Managed Vs. Natural Grazing Systems: Exploring Effects Of Livestock And Wildlife Grazing At Multiple Scales, Megan Esther Mcsherry
Human-Managed Vs. Natural Grazing Systems: Exploring Effects Of Livestock And Wildlife Grazing At Multiple Scales, Megan Esther Mcsherry
Dissertations - ALL
Grazing by large herbivores is the most prevalent land use on grassland ecosystems, which cover greater than 40% of the earth's land surface and provide critical ecological and economic benefits. As such, understanding how grazing impacts different aspects of the ecosystem is of especially great importance. This study uses a range of approaches to explore the potentially contrasting effects of grazing across human-managed, livestock-grazed systems and natural, wildlife-grazed systems. The first chapter uses a short-term, small-scale approach in assessing differences across management type in plant community composition following a relaxation of grazing. Results reveal that livestock and wildlife grazers may …