Vegetation recovery after 11 years of wild boar exclusion in the Monte Desert, Argentina

CUEVAS MARÍA F.; CAMPOS, CLAUDIA MÓNICA; R. A. OJEDA; FABIÁN M. JAKSIC

BIOLOGICAL INVASIONS

SPRINGER

Año: 2020

1387-3547

The wild boar (Sus scrofa) is consideredan ecosystem engineer. It roots up the ground lookingfor forage, generating patches of different sizes andwithout vegetation. Studies of wild boar?s impact onvegetation can be addressed in two contrasting ways:short-term effects (immediately after boar?s disturbance) and long-term effects. Short-term studies in theMonte Desert of Argentina showed that wild boarrooting modifies soil properties, reduces plant cover,and decreases plant richness and diversity. Theobjective of this study was to analyse the vegetationresponse in a desert ecosystem after 11 yr of wildboar disturbance establishing a replicated experimentof medium and large-sized animal?s exclusion. In thislong-span study, time was the most important variableto predict the cover of different plant life forms andrichness in disturbed soils. Herb cover was higher indisturbed soils, with grasses and woody speciesshowing the opposite. Over the long-term, wild boarpositively affect alpha diversity and richness, whilethe species turnover (rate of species replacement) wasonly influenced by the replacement of herbs. Disturbedsoils were mainly dominated by annual species with arelatively high (60%) extent of species turnover. Thesevegetation changes throughout time are influenced bythe occurrence of unexpectedly high rainy episodes,and probably by the system?s own fragility of MonteDesert