Vegetation,land use and management of the inner-dune zone in the North-Holland Dune Reserve,The Netherlands

The inner-dune zone between the villages of Bakkum and Egmond in the North-Holland Dune Reserve is one of the few remaining examples of the semi-natural boundary between the dunes and the polders. For several centuries this area has been used for various purposes, in particular for grazing. Large-scale excavating, especially after about 1900, has encroached upon the dunes. Vegetation and land-use history were studied and a provisional scheme on the vegetation development is presented. Management policies discussed are non-intervention, mowing in order to start natural processes such as rabbit grazing, and the continuation of traditional livestock grazing. Proposals for external management policies were made in order to maintain or enhance the original transition zone, based on comprehensive physical-geographical studies of the whole inner-dune zone.     

Factors influencing seasonal and monthly changes in the group size of chital or axis deer in southern India

Chital or axis deer (Axis axis) form fluid groups that change in size temporally and in relation to habitat. Predictions of hypotheses relating animal density, rainfall, habitat structure, and breeding seasonality, to changes in chital group size were assessed simultaneously using multiple regression models of monthly data collected over a 2 yr period in Guindy National Park, in southern India. Over 2,700 detections of chital groups were made during four seasons in three habitats (forest, scrubland and grassland). In scrubland and grassland, chital group size was positively related to animal density, which increased with rainfall. This suggests that in these habitats, chital density increases in relation to food availability, and group sizes increase due to higher encounter rate and fusion of groups. The density of chital in forest was inversely related to rainfall, but positively to the number of fruiting tree species and availability of fallen litter, their forage in this habitat. There was little change in mean group size in the forest, although chital density more than doubled during the dry season and summer. Dispersion of food items or the closed nature of the forest may preclude formation of larger groups. At low densities, group sizes in all three habitats were similar. Group sizes increased with chital density in scrubland and grassland, but more rapidly in the latter—leading to a positive relationship between openness and mean group size at higher densities. It is not clear, however, that this relationship is solely because of the influence of habitat structure. The rutting index (monthly percentage of adult males in hard antler) was positively related to mean group size in forest and scrubland, probably reflecting the increase in group size due to solitary males joining with females during the rut. The fission-fusion system of group formation in chital is thus interactively influenced by several factors. Aspects that need further study, such as interannual variability, are highlighted.     

Frequent mowing is better than grazing for the conservation value of lowland tussock grasssland at Pontville,Tasmania

Abstract The effects of an unusual high frequency mowing regime, which involved the removal of slash, were compared to moderate grazing through the method of paired quadrats across a fenceline, which was orthogonal to a weak environmental gradient. The mown plots proved superior in their conservation characteristics to the moderately grazed plots. The mowing regime produced greater cover of rare or threatened species, greater native cover and lesser exotic grass cover. It thus presents an opportunity for maintaining or improving the condition of previously grazed remnants in reserves without resorting to the use of stock or fire for biomass reduction.     

Are Sulfurous Soil Amendments (S0, Fe(II)SO4, Fe(III)SO4) an Effective Tool in the Restoration of Heathland and Acidic Grassland after Four Decades of Rock Phosphate Fertilization?

This paper deals with the complex issue of reversing long‐term improvements of fertility in soils derived from heathlands and acidic grasslands using sulfur‐based amendments. The experiment was conducted on a former heathland and acid grassland in the U.K. that was heavily fertilized and limed with rock phosphate, chalk, and marl. The experimental work had three aims. First, to determine whether sulfurous soil amendments are able to lower pH to a level suitable for heathland and acidic grassland re‐creation (approximately 3 pH units). Second, to determine what effect the soil amendments have on the available pool of some basic cations and some potentially toxic acidic cations that may affect the plant community. Third, to determine whether the addition of Fe to the soil system would sequester PO₄^? ions that might be liberated from rock phosphate by the experimental treatments. The application of S⁰ and Fe^(II)SO₄^? to the soil was able to reduce pH. However, only the highest S⁰ treatment (2,000 kg/ha S) lowered pH sufficiently for heathland restoration purposes but effectively so. Where pH was lowered, basic cations were lost from the exchangeable pool and replaced by acidic cations. Where Fe was added to the soil, there was no evidence of PO₄^? sequestration from soil test data (Olsen P), but sequestration was apparent because of lower foliar P in the grass sward. The ability of the forb Rumex acetosella to apparently detoxify Al³⁺, prevalent in acidified soils, appeared to give it a competitive advantage over other less tolerant species. We would anticipate further changes in plant community structure through time, driven by Al³⁺ toxicity, leading to the competitive exclusion of less tolerant species. This, we suggest, is a key abiotic driver in the restoration of biotic (acidic plant) communities.     

The trophic impact of small mammals in successional grasslands

The habitat use and diets of small mammals inhabiting grassland plots of different successional ages were investigated by live-trapping and faecal analysis over a period of 16 months. The contribution of the major plant life forms and the structural profile of the vegetation of each plot and the availability of insect prey were assessed. The dominant species of small mammal found on each plot were Sorex araneus, S. minutus, Apodemus sylvaticus and Microtus agrestis . Small mammals were most commonly found in the late and mid-successional stages, reflecting the habitat structure and food availability. A wide range of insects and other invertebrates were eaten by all four species and insects formed 50–62% of the animal prey taken. The incidence of certain prey in the diets differed between plots. The daily consumption rate of invertebrates by shrews and mice was estimated at some 6800 prey per ha. The greatest predatory impact came from shews but A. sylvaticus showed increased consumption of invertebrates in spring. The combined predatory impact of the grassland small mammal community on insect populations alone was estimated to average 0.01% per day and is predicted to be greatest in the mid-successional stages.     

Relationships between the effects of insect herbivory and sheep grazing on seasonal changes in an early successional plant community

Summary The effects of spring grazing by sheep and of natural levels of insect herbivory were studied in 1985 on a limestone field abandoned from arable land for four years. A split-plot design was adopted in which paddocks, arranged in Latin squares, were either left ungrazed or heavily grazed by sheep for ten days in April. Within each paddock plots were either sprayed regularly with Malathion-60 or untreated.Natural levels of insect herbivory, compared to the reduced levels in insecticide-treated plots, had effects of similar magnitude to those from the short burst of spring grazing. Many attributes of the grazed/insecticide-treated sward were either increased or decreased by a factor of two within a season. Both types of herbivore caused changes in the direction of plant succession as well as in its rate. Effects on early successional species were large and similar when caused by either type of herbivore. Effects on later successional species were often smaller, but also showed differences in the action of the two herbivore types, as did effects on sward height, species richness and total cover. The effects of sheep and insect herbivory were not always additive or in the same direction.The results suggest that manipulations of both mammal and insect herbivores may be powerful tools for directing changes in plant community composition.     

Tasmania revisited: rotifer communities and habitat heterogeneity

The results of four field surveys for Rotifera in Tasmania are summarized. Most new species and records in a 1987 survey were from acid waters (pH < 4.0) of dune lakes on the west coast (42° S). Marked intra- and interhabitat differences in rotifer communities of lakes and ponds were demonstrated by cluster analysis and related to habitat heterogeneity.     

Limnology of naturally acidic,oligotrophic dune lakes in subtropical Australia,including chlorophyll — phosphorus relationships

This study provides the most comprehensive physico-chemical and phytoplankton data yet available for Australian dune lakes, which are among the world's most naturally acidic and oligotrophic freshwaters. Seasonal and spatial variations were examined in Blue Lagoon and Lake Freshwater, two ‘water-table window’ lakes in south-east Queensland. Like other dune lakes, they are acidic (minimum pH 4.20 and 4.55, respectively), polymictic water bodies with low concentrations of marine-derived major ions and almost undetectable levels of trace metals. While linmologically similar in winter, during spring-summer Lake Freshwater has significantly higher levels of chlorophyll-a, total phosphorus (TP) and turbidity than Blue Lagoon and other dune lakes, indicating seasonal mesotrophy. The key nutrient is TP, which has recently increased to a maximum of 17 μ· l⁻¹, due either to inputs from recreational sources, or to the death and decomposition of littoral vegetation resulting from falling water levels over the last decade. Inorganic nitrogen, though present only in small amounts, does not appear to limit the eutrophication process because of a shift in phytoplankton dominance from the usual desmids and dinoflagellates to N₂-fixing blue-green algae. A chlorophyll - TP linear regression derived for dune lakes indicates that at TP < 20 μg · l⁻¹ chlorophyll ‘yield’ is higher than in other lake types represented by regressions from the literature. This may be due to a more efficient utilization of the limited available phosphorus by dune lake algae which have adapted to the naturally oligotrophic environment. The implications of these findings for lake management are discussed.