Stages of grassland degradation in subalpine ecosystems of the Central Caucasus, Russia

ABSTRACT Overgrazing and grassland degradation are significant environmental problems in the mountain ecosystems of the Central Caucasus. The aim was to define the criteria for the stages of grassland degradation to provide land managers with useful guidelines on evaluating grassland status. We iden...

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Autores principales:	Chadaeva,Victoria, Gorobtsova,Olga, Pshegusov,Rustam, Tsepkova,Nelli, Tembotov,Rustam, Khanov,Zalim, Gedgafova,Fatima, Zhashuev,Albert, Uligova,Tatyana, Khakunova,Elena, Stepanyan,Elena
Lenguaje:	English
Publicado:	Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, INIA 2021
Materias:	Grassland assessment grazing intensity indicators of grassland degradation
Acceso en línea:	http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-58392021000400630
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spelling	oai:scielo:S0718-583920210004006302021-10-27Stages of grassland degradation in subalpine ecosystems of the Central Caucasus, RussiaChadaeva,VictoriaGorobtsova,OlgaPshegusov,RustamTsepkova,NelliTembotov,RustamKhanov,ZalimGedgafova,FatimaZhashuev,AlbertUligova,TatyanaKhakunova,ElenaStepanyan,Elena Grassland assessment grazing intensity indicators of grassland degradation ABSTRACT Overgrazing and grassland degradation are significant environmental problems in the mountain ecosystems of the Central Caucasus. The aim was to define the criteria for the stages of grassland degradation to provide land managers with useful guidelines on evaluating grassland status. We identified four stages of grassland degradation based on a statistical analysis of 23 vegetation and soil parameters at 126 model plots in the subalpine meadows. Main indicators of grassland degradation were grass height, coverage of forage species, coverage of grazing-resistant species, and fresh herbage yield. Grass height decreased significantly (P < 0.05) with each stage of grassland degradation from 31.4 ± 3.6 cm in untransformed grasslands to 3.3 ± 1.7 cm in severely degraded pastures. Fresh herbage yield in untransformed grasslands (120.8 ± 12.5×102 kg ha-1) was 81% higher than in highly degraded pastures. Coverage of forage species decreased in the row of grassland degradation from 72% to 34%, while coverage of grazing-resistant species increased with grazing intensity from 23% to 77%. Critical values of the integral degradation index based on these four parameters are useful for a reliable assessment of grassland status in the field.info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessInstituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, INIAChilean journal of agricultural research v.81 n.4 20212021-12-01text/htmlhttp://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-58392021000400630en10.4067/S0718-58392021000400630
institution	Scielo Chile
collection	Scielo Chile
language	English
topic	Grassland assessment grazing intensity indicators of grassland degradation
spellingShingle	Grassland assessment grazing intensity indicators of grassland degradation Chadaeva,Victoria Gorobtsova,Olga Pshegusov,Rustam Tsepkova,Nelli Tembotov,Rustam Khanov,Zalim Gedgafova,Fatima Zhashuev,Albert Uligova,Tatyana Khakunova,Elena Stepanyan,Elena Stages of grassland degradation in subalpine ecosystems of the Central Caucasus, Russia
description	ABSTRACT Overgrazing and grassland degradation are significant environmental problems in the mountain ecosystems of the Central Caucasus. The aim was to define the criteria for the stages of grassland degradation to provide land managers with useful guidelines on evaluating grassland status. We identified four stages of grassland degradation based on a statistical analysis of 23 vegetation and soil parameters at 126 model plots in the subalpine meadows. Main indicators of grassland degradation were grass height, coverage of forage species, coverage of grazing-resistant species, and fresh herbage yield. Grass height decreased significantly (P < 0.05) with each stage of grassland degradation from 31.4 ± 3.6 cm in untransformed grasslands to 3.3 ± 1.7 cm in severely degraded pastures. Fresh herbage yield in untransformed grasslands (120.8 ± 12.5×102 kg ha-1) was 81% higher than in highly degraded pastures. Coverage of forage species decreased in the row of grassland degradation from 72% to 34%, while coverage of grazing-resistant species increased with grazing intensity from 23% to 77%. Critical values of the integral degradation index based on these four parameters are useful for a reliable assessment of grassland status in the field.
author	Chadaeva,Victoria Gorobtsova,Olga Pshegusov,Rustam Tsepkova,Nelli Tembotov,Rustam Khanov,Zalim Gedgafova,Fatima Zhashuev,Albert Uligova,Tatyana Khakunova,Elena Stepanyan,Elena
author_facet	Chadaeva,Victoria Gorobtsova,Olga Pshegusov,Rustam Tsepkova,Nelli Tembotov,Rustam Khanov,Zalim Gedgafova,Fatima Zhashuev,Albert Uligova,Tatyana Khakunova,Elena Stepanyan,Elena
author_sort	Chadaeva,Victoria
title	Stages of grassland degradation in subalpine ecosystems of the Central Caucasus, Russia
title_short	Stages of grassland degradation in subalpine ecosystems of the Central Caucasus, Russia
title_full	Stages of grassland degradation in subalpine ecosystems of the Central Caucasus, Russia
title_fullStr	Stages of grassland degradation in subalpine ecosystems of the Central Caucasus, Russia
title_full_unstemmed	Stages of grassland degradation in subalpine ecosystems of the Central Caucasus, Russia
title_sort	stages of grassland degradation in subalpine ecosystems of the central caucasus, russia
publisher	Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, INIA
publishDate	2021
url	http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-58392021000400630
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Stages of grassland degradation in subalpine ecosystems of the Central Caucasus, Russia

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