Abstract. We studied the impact of livestock grazing on the distribution of Branta bernicla bernicla (Dark-bellied Brent goose) in the Dutch Wadden Sea during spring. It was hypoth-esized that livestock facilitate short-term (within-season) graz-ing for geese as well as long-term (over years). There...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.624.4486 http://www.maartenloonen.nl/literatuur/vdgraaf_etal_2002.pdf |
| Summary: | Abstract. We studied the impact of livestock grazing on the distribution of Branta bernicla bernicla (Dark-bellied Brent goose) in the Dutch Wadden Sea during spring. It was hypoth-esized that livestock facilitate short-term (within-season) graz-ing for geese as well as long-term (over years). Therefore we measured grazing pressure by geese in salt marsh and polder areas that were either grazed (spring-grazed) or ungrazed during spring (summer-grazed). Additionally, we carried out a preference experiment with captive geese to test the prefer-ence between spring-grazed and summer-grazed polder swards. We furthermore compared patterns of use by geese between long-term ungrazed and grazed salt marshes. In May, there is a difference in grazing pressure by geese between polder pastures that are grazed or ungrazed during spring. In this month, the ungrazed polder pastures are aban- |
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