Efecto del abandono del pastoreo sobre la salud de los agroecosistemas en el Parque Natural de Gorbeia
- I. Mijangos
- L. Epelde
- I. Albizu
- M. Anza Hortalá
- I. Martín Sánchez
- S. Mendarte Azkue
- A. Lanzén
- C. Garbisu Crespo
- Josep Cifre Llompart (coord.)
- Isaac Janer March (coord.)
- Javier Gulías León (coord.)
- Jaime Jaume Sureda (coord.)
- Hipólito Medrano Gil (coord.)
Publisher: Sociedad Española para el Estudio de los Pastos
ISBN: 978-84-606-7295-1
Year of publication: 2015
Pages: 87-94
Congress: Sociedad Española para el Estudio de los Pastos. Reunión Científica (54. 2015. Palma (Mallorca))
Type: Conference paper
Abstract
Montainous grasslands in the Basque Country are a consequence of a permanent extensive grazing practice since atleast the Neolithic. These agroecosystems, nowadays protected, are considered to be affected by grazing abandonment both atabove-ground and below-ground level. Our main objective was to evaluate the effect of the abandonment of grazing onagroecosystem health through the study of sixteen grazed versus non-grazed areas in the Gorbeia Natural Park. In these areas,we carried out a thorough health diagnosis following the methodology described in the Agroecosystem Health Cards. Afteronly two years of exclusion, a decrease of the grazing produced by compaction was observed. Although the increasedemissions of CO2 under exclusion indicate greater loss of organic matter in the short term, the higher richness of fungi mightindicate the incipient development of a more stable ecosystem, so that the loss of organic matter may decrease over time.Finally, although the basic health diagnosis is an interesting tool for studies with low budget, the advanced analysis allows amore in-depth interpretation of the health status of an agroecosystem.