当前位置： SCI文献检索 > JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT期刊下所有文献 > Songbird response to rest-rotation and season-long cattle grazing in a grassland sagebrush ecosystem.

Songbird response to rest-rotation and season-long cattle grazing in a grassland sagebrush ecosystem.

Abstract：

:Grazing on natural rangelands, which are areas dominated by native vegetation that are used for livestock grazing, can achieve desired vegetation outcomes, preserve native habitat, and economically benefit multiple stakeholders. It is a powerful tool that can be manipulated to reduce wildlife declines and benefit ecosystems. However, the benefits of conservation grazing systems on many wildlife communities remain relatively unexplored. We compared songbird communities between two grazing systems in eastern Montana: rest-rotation, which is a conservation grazing system, and season-long. We measured differences in abundance of eight songbird species over a two year period using dependent double-observer transect surveys and a multispecies dependent double-observer abundance model. The species were chosen to be representative of the sagebrush grassland community: a sagebrush obligate, Brewer's sparrow (Spizella breweri); a faculatative grassland species, brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater); grassland obligate species, chestnut-collared longspur (Calcarius ornatus), horned lark (Eremophila alpestris), lark bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys), McCown's longspur (Rhynchophanes mccownii), and western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta); and a generalist, vesper sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus). Our results show that these species exhibit mixed responses to these two grazing systems. The sagebrush obligate (Brewer's sparrow), generalist (vesper sparrow), and two grassland associated species (horned lark and chestnut-collared longspur) were equally abundant on both grazing systems, suggesting grazing system had no effect on their abundance. However, the remainder of the grassland associated species showed a response to grazing: three (brown-headed cowbird, lark bunting, and western meadowlark) were more abundant in season-long than rest-rotation, whereas one (McCown's longspur) was more abundant in rest-rotation. These results suggest that differences in grazing management affect a subset of grassland obligate species and that only one species, McCown's longspur, preferred conservation grazing. Our findings provide useful information for assessing the suitability of grazing as a conservation tool for songbirds.

journal_name

J Environ Manage

journal_title

Journal of environmental management

authors

Golding JD,Dreitz VJ

doi

10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.09.044

subject

Has Abstract

pub_date

2017-12-15 00:00:00

pages

605-612

issue

Pt 1

eissn

0301-4797

issn

1095-8630

pii

S0301-4797(17)30913-1

journal_volume

204

pub_type

杂志文章

在线工具

Songbird response to rest-rotation and season-long cattle grazing in a grassland sagebrush ecosystem.