Strategic trampling to conserve soil moisture in a Namibian rangeland
There is still a lot of controversy around trampling as a rangeland management tool.Savory (1999) promotes animal impact for a variety of benefits including removal of old plant material,invigoration of existing plants,mulching the soil surface with trampled vegetation,favouring establishment of new plants,returning nutrients to the soil surface and breaking soil crusts that interfere with seed germination and rainfall absorption.On the other hand,Miller (2005) points out that an extensive amount of hydrologic research has failed to support the hypothesis that trampling by large herbivores has beneficial impacts on infiltration,indicating instead that trampling tends to result in lower infiltration rates where it destroys stable soil aggregates.Those who promote trampling all agree that it must be followed by sufficient rest to allow recovery after trampling.This study,falling under the Biodiversity Transect Analysis in Africa (BIOTA) program,investigates trampling applied by three farmers on their low rainfall rangelands.
animal impact BIOTA rest soil moisture trampling
I.Zimmermann J.Labuschagne V.K.Namupala
Polytechnic of Namibia,P/Bag 13388,Windhoek,Namibia Farm Weiveld,P.O.Box 53,Gobabis,Namibia
国际会议
呼和浩特
英文
2008-06-29（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）