Effect of cattle grazing on soil salinity and vegetation composition along an elevation gradient in a temperate coastal salt marsh of Samborombón Bay (Argentina)

Published source details Di Bella C.E., Jacobo E., Golluscio R.A. & Rodríguez A.M. (2014) Effect of cattle grazing on soil salinity and vegetation composition along an elevation gradient in a temperate coastal salt marsh of Samborombón Bay (Argentina). Wetlands Ecology and Management, 22, 1-13.
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This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

	Action	Category
	Exclude or remove livestock from historically grazed brackish/salt marshes Action Link

Exclude or remove livestock from historically grazed brackish/salt marshes

A paired, site comparison study in 2010 in a salt marsh near Buenos Aires, Argentina (Di Bella et al. 2014) found that excluding livestock (along with legal protection) affected the plant community composition and species richness, with the effect depending on elevation, but did not significantly affect plant diversity. At high and medium (but not low) elevation, an exclusion area contained a significantly different plant community to a grazed area (data reported as a graphical analysis). This included greater relative cover of dominant denseflower cordgrass Spartina densiflora at the highest elevation (exclusion: 34%; grazed: 20%) and less relative cover of sea asparagus Sarcocornia perennis at the moderate elevation (exclusion: 9%; grazed: 29%). The exclusion area contained more plant species at the low and medium elevations (exclusion: 5–12; grazed: 3–9 species/transect) but fewer plant species at high elevation (exclusion: 28; grazed: 16 species/transect). At all elevations, plant diversity was statistically similar in exclusion and grazed areas (data reported as a diversity index). Methods: In spring 2010, vegetation was surveyed at six sites: three in a protected area from which cattle had been excluded for 30 years, and three in an adjacent grazed area (0.6 cattle/ha). Historically, all sites had been grazed at “very low” intensity. Note that this study evaluates the combined effect of excluding livestock and general legal protection. The sites were at high, medium or low elevation (i.e. flooded by tides twice yearly, twice monthly or twice daily). At each site, plant species and their cover were recorded along three 10-m-long transects.

(Summarised by: Nigel Taylor)