Efecto del abandono del pastoreo en los atributos funcionales de los pastos atlánticos de montaña
- A. Aldezabal
- N. Vitores
- I. Odriozola
- U. Pérez-lópez
- N.A. Laskurain
- Mª Dolores Báez Bernal (coord.)
- Laura Campo Ramírez (coord.)
- Sonia Pereira Crespo (coord.)
- María J. Bande Castro (coord.)
- Julio E. López Díaz (coord.)
Publisher: Sociedad Española para el Estudio de los Pastos
ISBN: 978-84-608-7722-6
Year of publication: 2016
Pages: 59-64
Congress: Sociedad Española para el Estudio de los Pastos. Reunión Científica (55. 2016. Lugo-A Coruña)
Type: Conference paper
Abstract
The main objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of grazing cessation on plant functional traits of Atlantic mountain grasslands at species and community level. The study was located in the Aralar Natural Park (Basque Country, SW Europe), where two permanent fenced plots were installed in June of 2005 in order to exclude livestock grazing. After vegetation sampling, the most important and structural plant species were defined and functionally characterized. The functional characterization was based on the following traits: plant height, specific leaf area (SLA), and leaf C/N-ratio. Traits were measured at individual level. Results showed that non-grazed plant communities tended to have lower SLA values than grazed communities. However, differences in height and C/N ratio depended on experimental site. SLA seems to be the most sensitive trait to grazing abandonment.