Evaluating Riparian Plant Communities After Restoration of Plains Bison in the Northern Great Plains of Montana☆
Restoration of plains bison (Bison bison bison) in the northern Great Plains has been controversial for a variety of reasons, including the public concern that bison will supplant cattle on public rangelands. Riparian zones are among the most biologically rich areas within rangelands, but they are h...
Published in: | Rangeland Ecology & Management |
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Society for Range Management
2023
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2023.06.007 |
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ftbioone:10.1016/j.rama.2023.06.007 2024-06-02T08:15:58+00:00 Evaluating Riparian Plant Communities After Restoration of Plains Bison in the Northern Great Plains of Montana☆ Sze Wing Yu Kyran E. Kunkel Donald L. Hagan David S. Jachowski Sze Wing Yu Kyran E. Kunkel Donald L. Hagan David S. Jachowski world 2023-09-14 text/HTML https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2023.06.007 en eng Society for Range Management doi:10.1016/j.rama.2023.06.007 All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2023.06.007 Text 2023 ftbioone https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2023.06.007 2024-05-07T00:47:45Z Restoration of plains bison (Bison bison bison) in the northern Great Plains has been controversial for a variety of reasons, including the public concern that bison will supplant cattle on public rangelands. Riparian zones are among the most biologically rich areas within rangelands, but they are highly sensitive to disturbances such as grazing, leading to the public perception that riparian vegetation communities will be negatively impacted by year-round bison grazing compared with the norm of seasonal cattle grazing. Our objective was to evaluate the vegetation community and soil compaction conditions of areas in the northern Great Plains of Montana, where bison have been restored 5–10 yr as year-round grazers, compared with adjacent sites where cattle have been retained as seasonal grazers. Out of the 24 variables we assessed, only 2 significantly differed between the grazer treatments within our study's time frame and stocking rates. Native species diversity was significantly higher in the bison-grazed treatment (F[1,1,5.98] = 8.16, P = 0.03), and woody height heterogeneity was twice as high in the bison-grazed treatment than the cattle-grazed treatment (F[1,5.97] = 5.81, P = 0.05). Although longer-term studies are required, our findings indicate that year-round bison grazing under the current stocking rates did not degrade riparian vegetation communities compared with seasonal cattle grazing and rather benefitted some aspects of the plant community. Text Bison bison bison Plains Bison BioOne Online Journals Rangeland Ecology & Management 90 186 194 |
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ftbioone |
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description |
Restoration of plains bison (Bison bison bison) in the northern Great Plains has been controversial for a variety of reasons, including the public concern that bison will supplant cattle on public rangelands. Riparian zones are among the most biologically rich areas within rangelands, but they are highly sensitive to disturbances such as grazing, leading to the public perception that riparian vegetation communities will be negatively impacted by year-round bison grazing compared with the norm of seasonal cattle grazing. Our objective was to evaluate the vegetation community and soil compaction conditions of areas in the northern Great Plains of Montana, where bison have been restored 5–10 yr as year-round grazers, compared with adjacent sites where cattle have been retained as seasonal grazers. Out of the 24 variables we assessed, only 2 significantly differed between the grazer treatments within our study's time frame and stocking rates. Native species diversity was significantly higher in the bison-grazed treatment (F[1,1,5.98] = 8.16, P = 0.03), and woody height heterogeneity was twice as high in the bison-grazed treatment than the cattle-grazed treatment (F[1,5.97] = 5.81, P = 0.05). Although longer-term studies are required, our findings indicate that year-round bison grazing under the current stocking rates did not degrade riparian vegetation communities compared with seasonal cattle grazing and rather benefitted some aspects of the plant community. |
author2 |
Sze Wing Yu Kyran E. Kunkel Donald L. Hagan David S. Jachowski |
format |
Text |
author |
Sze Wing Yu Kyran E. Kunkel Donald L. Hagan David S. Jachowski |
spellingShingle |
Sze Wing Yu Kyran E. Kunkel Donald L. Hagan David S. Jachowski Evaluating Riparian Plant Communities After Restoration of Plains Bison in the Northern Great Plains of Montana☆ |
author_facet |
Sze Wing Yu Kyran E. Kunkel Donald L. Hagan David S. Jachowski |
author_sort |
Sze Wing Yu |
title |
Evaluating Riparian Plant Communities After Restoration of Plains Bison in the Northern Great Plains of Montana☆ |
title_short |
Evaluating Riparian Plant Communities After Restoration of Plains Bison in the Northern Great Plains of Montana☆ |
title_full |
Evaluating Riparian Plant Communities After Restoration of Plains Bison in the Northern Great Plains of Montana☆ |
title_fullStr |
Evaluating Riparian Plant Communities After Restoration of Plains Bison in the Northern Great Plains of Montana☆ |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evaluating Riparian Plant Communities After Restoration of Plains Bison in the Northern Great Plains of Montana☆ |
title_sort |
evaluating riparian plant communities after restoration of plains bison in the northern great plains of montana☆ |
publisher |
Society for Range Management |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2023.06.007 |
op_coverage |
world |
genre |
Bison bison bison Plains Bison |
genre_facet |
Bison bison bison Plains Bison |
op_source |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2023.06.007 |
op_relation |
doi:10.1016/j.rama.2023.06.007 |
op_rights |
All rights reserved. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2023.06.007 |
container_title |
Rangeland Ecology & Management |
container_volume |
90 |
container_start_page |
186 |
op_container_end_page |
194 |
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1800740300632621056 |