Semi\uffe2\uff80\uff90natural grasslands are an important habitat for endangered plant and animal species. In grasslands, low\uffe2\uff80\uff90intensity livestock grazing is frequently applied as a tool for nature conservation. We aim to investigate how different livestock species in various densities influence the state and flower production of a single plant species by selective defoliation and/or trampling. We hypothesized that (1) moderate stocking densities would cause more damage than low, and that (2) horses would cause more damage than cattle due to their higher activity. The experiment took place in a salt marsh in the Netherlands where grazing treatments with horses and cattle in two stocking densities were installed. Damage to individual Aster tripolium plants and number of flower heads were recorded at the end of the grazing season in late September. We found (1) more damage and fewer flower heads in moderate stocking densities compared to low densities. However, a reduction of flower heads by higher stocking densities was less clear with cattle. No clear difference (2) between livestock species was found, due to opposite trends in moderate and low densities. At low stocking densities, cattle caused more damage by selective defoliation. At moderate densities, horses caused more damage, because of their higher mobility, which led to damage by trampling. We conclude that the response of Aster to grazing is strongly affected by behavioral differences between livestock species. Grazing experiments and management schemes for semi\uffe2\uff80\uff90natural grasslands should therefore not only consider stocking densities, but also livestock species to reach desired conservation goals.
", "keywords": ["0106 biological sciences", "2. Zero hunger", "570", "Salt marsh", "AVAILABILITY", "WADDEN SEA", "VEGETATION CHANGE", "EUROPAEA L", "15. Life on land", "Horse", "01 natural sciences", "630", "Grazing", "REPRODUCTION", "Semi-natural grassland", "SALT-MARSH", "RESOURCE", "Cattle", "TOLERANCE", "HERBIVORY", "PERENNIAL HERB"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-013-1064-7"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Ecological%20Research", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1007/s11284-013-1064-7", "name": "item", "description": "10.1007/s11284-013-1064-7", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1007/s11284-013-1064-7"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2013-06-26T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.1007/s11852-014-0333-0", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"license": "Closed Access", "updated": "2026-06-26T16:16:28Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2014-07-09", "title": "Utilisation Of A Coastal Grassland By Geese After Managed Re-Alignment", "description": "In this study we evaluate the effect of coastal re-alignment on the utilisation of coastal grasslands by staging geese. We assessed vegetation change and utilisation by geese using repeated mapping and regular dropping counts in both the restored marsh and adjacent reference sites. All measurements were started well before the actual re-alignment. In addition, we studied the effects of livestock grazing on vegetation and geese, using exclosures. The vegetation transformed from fresh grassland into salt-marsh vegetation. A relatively large proportion of the de-embanked area became covered with secondary pioneer vegetation, and the overall cover of potential food plants for geese declined. Goose utilisation had initially dropped to low levels, both in autumn and in spring, but it recovered to a level comparable to the reference marsh after ten years. Exclosure experiments revealed that livestock grazing prevented the establishment of closed swards of grass in the poorly drained lower area of the restored marsh, and thereby negatively affected goose utilisation of these areas during spring staging. Goose grazing in the restored marsh during spring showed a positive numerical response to grass cover found during the preceding growing season. (1) The value of restored salt marsh as foraging habitat for geese initially decreased after managed re-alignment but recovered after ten years. (2) Our findings support the idea that the value of foraging habitats depends largely on the cover of forage plants and that this can be manipulated by adjusting both grazing and drainage.
", "keywords": ["0106 biological sciences", "Dark-bellied Brent geese", "Barnacle geese", "Livestock grazing", "Salt-marsh restoration", "ENGLAND", "SALT-MARSH RESTORATION", "PATTERNS", "WADDEN SEA", "15. Life on land", "TERM", "VEGETATION SUCCESSION", "01 natural sciences"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-014-0333-0"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Journal%20of%20Coastal%20Conservation", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1007/s11852-014-0333-0", "name": "item", "description": "10.1007/s11852-014-0333-0", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1007/s11852-014-0333-0"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2014-07-10T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.1016/j.baae.2006.08.008", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"license": "Open Access", "updated": "2026-06-26T16:17:03Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2007-02-21", "title": "Time-Scale Effects In The Interaction Between A Large And A Small Herbivore", "description": "In the short term, grazing will mainly affect plant biomass and forage quality. However, grazing can affect plant species composition by accelerating or retarding succession at longer time-scales. Few studies concerning interactions among herbivores have taken the change in plant species composition into account. In a salt-marsh system, the longterm effects of exclusion of a large herbivore (cattle) on the abundance of a small herbivore (hare) were studied. Excluding cattle grazing for 30 years resulted in large changes in vegetation composition. In general, the cover of tall-growing species increased in the absence of cattle grazing. These long-term changes negatively affected hare grazing intensity. Hares preferentially fed on Festuca rubra and negatively selected tall growing plants, such as Elymus athericus, both in cattle-grazed and long-term ungrazed areas. However, the intensity of hare grazing was not related to the cover of F rubra. The cover of tall-growing plants (E athericus, A triplex prostrata and Juncus maritimus) appeared to be the best predictor and hare grazing intensity decreased sharply with an increase of the cover of tall plants. When cover of tall plants did not increase, hare grazing intensity was not affected. The study shows that the time-scale of the experiment is of prime importance in studying interactions between herbivores. Species that do not seem to influence the abundance of one another or are competing for the same resources on a short time-scale might well be facilitating each other when looking at larger time-scales while taking plant species replacement into account. (c) 2007 Gesellschaft fur Okologie. Published by Elsevier GrnbH. All rights reserved.
", "keywords": ["0106 biological sciences", "Lepus europaeus", "productivity", "SUCCESSION", "COMPETITION", "brown hares", "barnacle geese", "HARES LEPUS-EUROPAEUS", "BARNACLE GEESE", "01 natural sciences", "facilitation", "SALT-MARSH", "MANAGEMENT", "BROWN HARES", "tall plants", "2. Zero hunger", "exclosures", "15. Life on land", "FACILITATION", "succession", "communities", "salt marsh", "hares lepus-europaeus", "salt-marsh", "13. Climate action", "mountain hares", "MOUNTAIN HARES", "COMMUNITIES", "competition", "management"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2006.08.008"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Basic%20and%20Applied%20Ecology", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1016/j.baae.2006.08.008", "name": "item", "description": "10.1016/j.baae.2006.08.008", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1016/j.baae.2006.08.008"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2008-03-01T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.1016/j.soilbio.2014.02.003", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"license": "Restricted", "updated": "2026-06-26T16:18:28Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2014-02-18", "title": "Productivity Affects The Density-Body Mass Relationship Of Soil Fauna Communities", "description": "The productivity of ecosystems and their disturbance regime affect the structure of animal communities. However, it is not clear which trophic levels benefit the most from higher productivity or are the most impacted by disturbance. The density-body mass (DBM) relationship has been shown to reflect changes in the structure of communities subjected to environmental modifications, so far, mainly in aquatic systems. We tested how different seawater inundation frequencies and cattle grazing, which both disturbed and impacted the productivity of a terrestrial system, a salt marsh, affected the size structure of soil fauna communities, expressed by their DBM relationship. We hypothesized that either: (1) all the trophic levels of soil fauna would benefit from higher productivity (i.e., amount of litter mass), reflected by a higher Y-intercept of the DBM relationship; (2) only smaller animals would benefit, reflected by a lower slope of the relationship; (3) or only larger animals would benefit, reflected by a higher slope of the relationship. We collected a large range of soil fauna from different elevation levels in grazed and ungrazed areas, thence subjected to different levels of productivity, represented by litter mass, with the most inundated and grazed area as the least productive one. Considering that pore size must be smaller in inundated and grazed areas, productivity seemed to be a greater factor influencing species distribution than soil structure. We found slopes lower than-0.75, showing that large animals dominated the community. However, a difference between the DBM relationships of the most and least frequently inundated ungrazed sites indicated that higher productivity benefited the smaller animals. Our findings show that high productivity does not equally affect the different trophic levels of this soil fauna community, suggesting inefficient transfers of energy from one trophic level to another, as smaller species benefitted more from higher productivity. \u00a9 2014 Elsevier Ltd.", "keywords": ["population-density", "0106 biological sciences", "abundance", "plant-species richness", "rain-forest", "size relationships", "energetic equivalence rule", "intermediate disturbance hypothesis", "15. Life on land", "01 natural sciences", "forest mull", "salt-marsh", "13. Climate action", "food webs", "SDG 14 - Life Below Water"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2014.02.003"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Soil%20Biology%20and%20Biochemistry", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1016/j.soilbio.2014.02.003", "name": "item", "description": "10.1016/j.soilbio.2014.02.003", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1016/j.soilbio.2014.02.003"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2014-05-01T00:00:00Z"}}], "links": [{"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "This document as GeoJSON", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=SALT-MARSH&f=json", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"rel": "alternate", "type": "text/html", "title": "This document as HTML", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=SALT-MARSH&f=html", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection URL", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"type": "application/geo+json", "rel": "first", "title": "items (first)", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=SALT-MARSH&", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"rel": "last", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "items (last)", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=SALT-MARSH&offset=6", "hreflang": "en-US"}], "numberMatched": 6, "numberReturned": 6, "distributedFeatures": [], "timeStamp": "2026-06-26T19:25:34.486571Z"}