Grasslands are the most threatened terrestrial ecosystem in the world, and as they decline the species that depend on them also decline. Variable stocking rates and resting rangeland could be used by range managers to manipulate plant cover and create wildlife habitat. I used generalized linear mixed-models to evaluate how effects of rest on vegetation and songbirds varied based stocking rates previously applied from 2006-2014 in Grasslands National Park, Canada. My results indicate, in the mixed-grass prairie, succession is retrogressive following rest, and both vegetation and songbirds are resilient to grazing. Recovery of songbirds was linked to the recovery of habitat structure. Songbirds with flexible habitat requirements, such as Savannah and grasshopper sparrows, responded rapidly to livestock exclusion. The retrogressive nature of succession in mixed-grass prairie offers managers an opportunity to take chances when attempting to create wildlife habitat with livestock grazing, as risk of irreversible change is relatively low. / October 2016
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MANITOBA/oai:mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca:1993/31835 |
| Date | 20 September 2016 |
| Creators | Fischer, Samantha |
| Contributors | Koper, Nicola (Natural Resources Institute), Cattani, Douglas (Plant Science) Henderson, Darcy (Canadian Wildlife Service) |
| Source Sets | University of Manitoba Canada |
| Detected Language | English |
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