Testing the limits of resistance: a 19-year study of Mediterranean grassland response to grazing regimes.

A synthesis of a long-term (19 years) study assessing the effects of cattle grazing on the structure and composition of a Mediterranean grassland in north-eastern Israel is presented, with new insights into the response of the vegetation to grazing management and rainfall. We hypothesized that the plant community studied would be resistant to high grazing intensities and rainfall variability considering the combined long history of land-use and unpredictable climatic conditions where this community evolved. Treatments included manipulations of stocking densities (moderate, heavy, and very heavy) and of grazing regimes (continuous vs. seasonal), in a factorial design. The effect of interannual rainfall variation on the expression of grazing impacts on the plant community was minor. The main effects of grazing on relative cover of plant functional groups were related to early vs. late seasonal grazing. Species diversity and equitability were remarkably stable across all grazing treatments. A reduction in tall grass cover at higher stocking densities was correlated with increased cover of less palatable groups such as annual and perennial thistles, as well as shorter and prostrate groups such as short annual grasses. This long-term study shows that interannual fluctuations in plant functional group composition could be partly accounted for by grazing pressure and timing, but not by the measured rainfall variables. Grazing affected the dominance of tall annual grasses. However, the persistence of tall grasses and more palatable species over time, despite large differences in grazing pressure and timing, supports the idea that Mediterranean grasslands are highly resistant to prolonged grazing. Indeed, even under the most extreme grazing conditions applied, there were no signs of deterioration or collapse of the ecosystem. This high resistance to grazing intensity and interannual fluctuation in climatic conditions should favor the persistence of the plant community under forecasted increasing unpredictability due to climate change.

Carrion odor and cattle grazing: Evidence for plant defense by carrion odor.

Recently, it has been proposed on theoretical grounds that carrion odor from flowers may not only attract pollinators, but also repel mammalian herbivores. Two grazing experiments involving 16 to 26 cattle heads per year, one for eight years (1982-1989) and the other for seven (1994-2000), in a region with no large carnivores that could influence cattle behavior, show that cattle avoid areas where dead cattle have recently been dumped. They grazed much less in these unfenced plots that were used to dump dead cattle each year. In the first experiment, with an area of ca. 20,000 m(2) per head, the average grass biomass at the end of the season was 124.6 gr/m(2) for the regular grazing area, whereas it was 236.5 gr/m(2) for the carcass dumping area. In the second experiment, with a higher stocking level, with ca. 9,000 m(2) per head, the average grass biomass at the end of the season was 61.7 gr/m(2) for the regular grazing area, and 153.7 gr/m(2) for the carcass dumping area. These significant differences existed throughout the 15 y of the experiments. We propose that these results are clear evidence of necrophobia in cattle, a character that might defend them from both pathogenic microbes and predators. This in turn demonstrates that carrion odor, primarily used by plants to attract pollinators, can simultaneously defend plants from herbivory by mammals as proposed.