Grasslands throughout the world including those in British Columbia have been severely
reduced and altered by agricultural production and inappropriate livestock grazing practices.
Ongoing degradation of rangelands is a worldwide problem, currently affecting about 680
million hectares of rangelands.
Studies on development and application of criteria and indicators for forests and
grasslands are often lacking, or have been done on a limited number of sites with relatively
narrow ranges of climate and soil type. This study aims to (i) quantify the relationships among
soil/vegetation properties known to be affected by grazing to easily-assessed indicators, used in
the existing health assessment systems, that do not require laboratory analyses or time
consuming measurement, and (ii) to evaluate impacts of grazing on soil aggregate stability on the
rough fescue grasslands of the southern interior of British Columbia. During the growing
seasons of 2006 and 2007, soil and vegetation properties were measured on nine open grassland
sites with a potential natural plant community dominated by rough fescue (Festuca campestris
Rydb.) in the southern interior of British Columbia. Each site had at least one area excluded
from grazing and all units were classified into different seral stages according to the amount of
rough fescue present on the land.
Rough fescue cover was found to be a useful indicator of the presence of functioning
recovery mechanisms. Percent exposed mineral soil was found to be a sensitive indicator of the
degree of soil stability and watershed function, as well as an indicator of the integrity of nutrient
cycles and energy flows in rough fescue grasslands. Percent Junegrass cover was not as sensitive
an indicator as percent exposed mineral soil, but has general overall strength with many health
measures.. Only the 1-2 mm aggregate size class was closely related to most soil and vegetation
properties, showing that it is more sensitive than the other aggregate stability parameters to soil
and vegetation properties.
The results from this study can help rangeland managers and ranchers in determining the
rangeland health in their area as well as help researchers understand that only a certain number of
parameters need to be assessed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/4129 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Lamagna, Sarah Frances |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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