Morphological analysis of herbaceous communities under different grazing regimes.

DÍAZ, S; ACOSTA, A.; CABIDO, M

JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 1992 vol. 3 p. 689 - 696

1100-9233

A methodology for the morphological analysis of herbaceous communities is presented, together with an exam-ple of its application in montane grasslands in the province of C6rdoba (Argentina) subject to grazing and burning. The method,b ased on multivariateo rdinationa ndc lassifi-cation techniques, enabled the detection of morphological changes at three levels in response to disturbance:( a) charac-terization of the spatial structure of the vegetation; (b) identi-fication of morphological plant groups; and (c) quantification of morphological shifts among different individuals of a single species. The architectureo f the vegetation changed towarda pro-gressive miniaturizationo f photosynthetics tructuresa nd con-centration of biomass close to the ground, as disturbance intensity increased. Six morphological plant groups (modes of response) showing different behaviour in relation to competi-tion for light and pressure from large herbivores were identi-fied. Some species, highly preferred by ungulate grazers, showed high morphological variability among morphs grow-ing in different grazing situations, whereas some others were morphologically uniform. species. The architectureo f the vegetation changed towarda pro-gressive miniaturizationo f photosynthetics tructuresa nd con-centration of biomass close to the ground, as disturbance intensity increased. Six morphological plant groups (modes of response) showing different behaviour in relation to competi-tion for light and pressure from large herbivores were identi-fied. Some species, highly preferred by ungulate grazers, showed high morphological variability among morphs grow-ing in different grazing situations, whereas some others were morphologically uniform.