Enhancing subtropical monsoon grassland management: Investigating mowing and nutrient input effects on initiation of grazing lawns.
Description
Subtropical monsoon grasslands within the subtropical regions of Asia are commonly in a fire-dominated state with high biomass and tall (> 2m) grasses that are not of higher quality forage for mammalian herbivores. Grazing lawns on the other hand have short nutritious grasses and are sparsely distributed within a tall-bunch-grass matrix mainly in the grassland-forest mosaic in the Asian subtropical region. The process of formation of mosaics of grazing lawns has not been studied in the subtropics in Asia. Our study demonstrated that management intervention can mediate frequent grazing and can initiate a process of grazing lawn formation in highly productive subtropical monsoon grasslands. Hence, our results may be of particular value in a grassland management context, where the grassland management interventions would establish grazing lawns and thereby conserve the wildlife species that rely on the system.
Files
Institutions
Categories
Funding
US Fish and Wildlife Service
F19AP00728
National Trust for Nature Conservation, Nepal
Himalayan Tiger Foundation, the Netherlands
Zoological Society of London (ZSL) Nepal office