Vegetation responses to long-term grazing along a pasture digression gradient in the semi-dry grasslands of the Dniester Canyon, Ukraine
Keywords:
plant diversity, grazing, grassland digression, destruction coefficient, phytoindication, ecobiomorphs, Podilski Tovtry National Nature Park.Abstract
Understanding grazing effects on semi-dry grasslands is important for their conservation and management. We analysed vegetation change along a pasture-digression gradient in Podilski Tovtry National Nature Park, Ukraine, using 80 1 m² plots from three sites under long-term cattle grazing. Pasture digression was quantified by the destruction coefficient (Kd), based on the proportional cover of destructor species. Increasing Kd was associated with declining graminoid and hemicryptophyte dominance and increasing legumes and therophytes. Diversity and evenness showed non-linear responses, increasing towards intermediate Kd values and declining slightly at the upper end of the gradient, while dominance showed the opposite pattern. Phytoindication demonstrated shifts towards species associated with moister and more nitrogen-rich conditions and lower light and continentality values. Overall, pasture digression caused marked compositional restructuring rather than a simple decline in local diversity.
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