Efecto del abandono del pastoreo sobre la salud de los ecosistemas pascícolas

Laburpena

The decline in pastoral activity in areas with long lasting livestock raising tradition leads to changes not only at the surface level (plant communities) but also at the belowground level (physicochemical and biological soil properties). The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of grazing abandonment on the health of pasture ecosystems, with special emphasis on the soil ecosystem. To this purpose, three grazing exclusion areas were established in Neiker-Tecnalia Experimental Farm (Arkaute, Alava) where traditionally a flock of sheep (latxa breed) graze. After one and a half years, field measurements were performed and samples were taken to the laboratory to obtain information about the status of plant communities and the activity, biomass and diversity of soil communities. In the study pe- riod, plant diversity of pastures showed no variation in grazed areas versus exclusion areas. By contrast, in the grazing exclusion areas, macrofauna diversity was significantly higher than in areas grazed by sheep. The remaining physical and microbial parameters also ap- peared to follow this positive trend, although differences were not statistically significant due to the high variability between samples. This highlights the need to increase the number of replicates in this type of field experiments, since the soil ecosystem is highly heterogeneous