Cattle Grazing Fails to Control Shrub Encroachment in Mediterranean Landscapes
Calleja, Juan Antonio (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Escolà, Marta (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Servei d'Ecopatologia de Fauna Salvatge)
Carvalho, João (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Servei d'Ecopatologia de Fauna Salvatge)
Forcadell, Josep Maria (Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat)
Serrano Ferron, Emmanuel (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Servei d'Ecopatologia de Fauna Salvatge)
Bartolomé, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Grup de Recerca en Remugants (G2R))
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia

Date:	2019
Abstract:	The Common Agricultural Policy supports the use of free-ranging cattle herds to control woody encroachment and fire hazards in Europe. There is, however, little empirical evidence about the effectiveness of extensive grazing to preserve open landscapes in the Mediterranean Basin. In this work, we evaluated the effects of extensive beef cattle grazing on the vegetation structure in a Mediterranean ecosystem using a twofold framework: 1) analyzing temporal changes in the forest, shrub, and grassland cover in areas under different grazing pressures for 16 yr (1993−2009) and 2) studying diet selection to assess the impact of cattle on the local Mediterranean vegetation. Our landscape structure analyses revealed a remarkable change in land cover over the study period. However, woody community dynamics seemed to be more related to natural vegetation succession than to cattle effects. Extensive grazing seemed to preserve grasslands but only at high stocking rates. On the other hand, the diet analyses supported the lack of a role for cattle in encroachment control. Beef cattle diets were based on herbaceous plants (59%) with lower contribution of woody ones (41%). Cattle only showed a significant preference (P b 0. 05) for few woody species (Erica multiflora, Olea europaea, Quercus ilex, and Rosmarinus officinalis), mostly at high-density stocking rates. Hence, our results support the idea that extensive cattle grazing alone exerts a negligible effect on shrub encroachment and thus on the risk of fire in the studied Mediterranean area. We urge a redesign of current research to truly integrate extensive cattle grazing as High Nature Value farming in European policies to successfully meet its putative goals, such as shrub encroachment control and wildfire risk prevention.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad RYC-2016-21120
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject:	Pasturatge de vaques ; Emmatollament ; Gestió ramadera ; Afforestation ; Agroenvironmental policies ; Extensive grazing ; Long-term studies ; Pastoralism ; Wildfire risk
Published in:	Rangeland Ecology & Management, Vol. 72, Issue 5 (September 2019) , p. 803-811, ISSN 1551-5028

DOI: 10.1016/j.rama.2019.04.005

Postprint 11 p, 1006.7 KB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles