We observed that the MRS was lower in wetlands in IMPs than in SNPs, but the rate of change was similar between pasture management intensities. Together, these results showed that wetlands in SNPs are characterized by greater turnover in the dominant species between years, but these changes are not directional. Previous work in these wetlands showed that regional factors related to propagule dispersal were more important in SNP wetlands than in IMP wetlands (Boughton et al., 2010; Medley et al., 2015). Effusus and to a lesser extent by Persicaria spp., and these species remained dominant throughout the years. This may suggest that higher‐intensity grazing in IMPs combined with nutrient runoff creates strong and highly selective filters.
- Frequent fires promote fire‐adapted species with high conservative value and have been shown to enhance wetland species diversity and reproductive output, at least in the short term (Main & Barry, 2002; Marty, 2015a).
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- In contrast, SNPs are never fertilized, include few drainage ditches, and are seldom planted with nonnative productive grasses.
- However, they are currently experiencing direct and indirect effects of agricultural management surrounding them.
- In comparison with cattle paddocks, sheep paddocks contained less ADF in the gd-swards and more ADF in div-swards.
- Grégory Sonnier contributed to data collection from 2016 to 2020 with help from Ruth Whittington, who also collected the plant trait data.
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
- Prescribed fire had little effect on plant diversity (native richness, total species richness, or mean coefficient of conservatism).
- Capilifolium increased considerably in frequency following cattle exclusion, but this increase was only temporary (in 2007–2008) as the species was observed inconsistently throughout the remaining years.
- Sward productivity parameters, forage quality and area-related livestock performance (area-ADG, kg ha−1 d−1 and total LW-gain, kg ha−1) were analyzed for effects of sward type and grazing system.
- Network research focusing on different wetland types across multiple land uses is critical to assess context dependent effects.
- Wetland communities are important because they provide multiple ecosystem services whose economic value is immense and they are sensitive to anthropogenic management and land‐use change (Costanza et al., 1997, 2014; de Groot et al., 2012).
- To do this, we used vegetation and trait data from a 14‐year‐old experiment on 40 seasonal wetlands located within seminatural and intensively managed pastures in Florida.
Therefore, final live weights of cattle refer to records after GC 1 plus GC 2. Moreover, individual ADGs of sheep were calculated exclusively for GC 1 due to the availability of precise scales during that GC. Consequently, data of 2007 plus 2008 and GonzaBet games 2010 plus 2011 are presented in this study as parameters for secondary productivity.
For animal-ADG (g d−1) of calves, a significant interaction between sward type × grazing system in 2007 (P ≤ 0.05) and an effect of sward type in 2010 (P ≤ 0.001) was found, with significantly greater animal-ADG on div-swards compared to gd-swards. Animal-ADGs of calves differed significantly among years (P ≤ 0.01) (Figure 3). Correlation analysis showed a positive relationship between species richness and CP concentration in both experimental years (Figure 2D). A trend for slightly negative effects of species richness on sward productivity and ADF was found, whereas ME remained unaffected (Figures 2A,G,J). There was no effect of evenness on productivity, CP, ADF or ME (Figures 2B,E,H,K).
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Calves are more selective and prefer forage of higher digestibility than mature cattle (Cazcarra and Petit, 1995). Consequently, calves may have a larger dietary overlap with sheep and show greater competition in mixed-grazing. ‘Conservation grazing’ is normally interpreted to mean livestock grazing for wildlife conservation purposes. Farm livestock grazing is essential for the management of many of the United Kingdom’s most important habitats. For example, permanent grassland, heathland, wood pasture, floodplain and coastal marshes all require some grazing to maintain the structure and composition upon which a wide variety of wild plants and animals depend for their survival.
We showed that past and present land use, more than cattle grazing, and prescribed fire had a strong legacy effect on wetland vegetation. Conversion to improved pastures led to a decrease of native plant diversity and increase in nonnative species diversity in embedded wetlands, highlighting the importance of not converting SNPs to IMPs. Despite 14 years of cattle exclusion combined with prescribed fires, wetlands in IMPs did not recover diversity levels and floristic quality observed in wetlands in SNPs. This suggests that additional steps, such as planting or seeding native plant species, might be required. However, it is unclear whether these species would establish or be outcompeted by species able to use nutrients more efficiently.
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Most studies that showed successful establishment of wetland species focused on dominant species that are good competitors (e.g., P. hemitomon) (De Steven & Sharitz, 2007), but mixed results were obtained with less dominant species (Buckallew, 2007). Therefore, more studies are needed to determine whether active planting of absent species would be successful. Evenness, as an index of phytodiversity, was used by Kirwan et al. (2007) to predict primary productivity and showed a positive relationship, which was not in line with the present results. Several studies deriving positive relationships between biodiversity indicators (e.g., evenness) and primary productivity, have investigated newly established swards with productive legumes under moderately high external input (Kirwan et al., 2007; Brophy et al., 2017). Legume proportions of only 5% were insufficient to improve the yield levels (Table 2). In the present study, the botanically simple sward treatment was achieved by using herbicides against dicotyledonous species.
We observed 215 plant species throughout the 14 years of experiments with 189 species occurring more than once throughout the experiment. Among these 189 observations, 18 were only identified to the genus level and some genera corresponded to groups of species that were lumped together because they were hard to separate from each other when found in vegetative form. Forbs represented ~50% of all recorded species, whereas grasses and sedges together represented ~39%. The most diverse families were Poaceae (38), Cyperaceae (32), and Asteraceae (19).
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Farming activities have played a significant role in shaping these habitats over time and the continuation of certain livestock husbandry practices is often crucial for their sustained existence. The key livestock species utilised for conservation grazing are cattle, equines (mainly ponies), sheep, goats and occasionally pigs. Wild herbivores (e.g. deer and rabbits) may also play a significant part in conservation grazing outcomes.
This is likely explained by the fact that this is a biennial species capable of dispersing to recently disturbed areas that were later fenced. In contrast to short‐term studies, our long‐term analysis of wetland plant communities allowed us to assess wetland plant community temporal dynamics. To do this, we used the MRS to measure the relative change in species rank abundances over time among species that occurred across the entire time series (Collins et al., 2008). The MRS is not directional and highlights turnover in dominant species between years. We also used the rate of community change, which indicates whether species reordering over time resulted in directional compositional change.
Stocking density in the mixed-grazing treatment was spread evenly between cattle and sheep. Each individual animal was consistently allocated within the same treatment group of individual animals during one year, and within a study year, each grazing treatment group stayed on the same sward type. During the interruption prior to GC 3, all individuals were kept within a large group grazing around the study plots. Before GC 3 animals were reallocated to the same treatment group as in GC 1 and GC 2; however, in a reduced number of animals per group. Blocks were grazed successively in a rotational system, beginning from the first block as exemplified in Figure 1.
As such, wetlands that receive nutrient runoff from fertilized pastures may respond differently to cattle grazing than wetlands that did not. Biodiversity has traditionally been seen as a response variable rather than as a predictor of productivity (Kahmen et al., 2005). This relationship has mainly been attributed to niche complementarity due to interspecific differences in resource use (Yachi and Loreau, 2007; Brophy et al., 2017).
