Sward structure measurements to monitor the effect of grazing in nature management situations

Summary

In Denmark private farmers under contract with the society manage many nature conservation areas on low-lying organic soil. In the contract the grazing system is poorly difined in relation to the goals and there is a lack of monitoring intruments for practical use in natural areas. Thus there is a need to define grazing system indicators, which should make it possible toevaluate effect from grazing and provide a feed-back to the goals. To describe the effect of grazing on the vegetation structure, detailed measurements of sward heights, species composition, species phenology, distance to flowering speecimens of Juncus effeusus I. or J. conglomeratus I. were carried out in paddocks grazed by 1st year steers at two different levels of plant species diversity and at two levels of grazing intensity. The aim was to identify variables able to ecpose the effect of the different treatments.