Short-term Effects of Cattle Grazing on Nematode Communities in Florida Pastures

Authors

  • R. McSorley
  • J. J. Frederick

Keywords:

bioindicator, ecological indices, grazing intensity, nematode community, soil ecology, sustainable agriculture, trophic groups

Abstract

McSorley, R., and J. J. Frederick. 2000. Short-term effects of cattle grazing on nematode communities in Florida pastures. Nematropica 30:211-221. Effects of cattle population density on nematode community structure were evaluated in a rotational grazing study involving 16 experimental pastures (each 20-32 ha in size) at a cattle ranch in south-central Florida. Summer pastures were grazed from Apr./May to Oct./Nov. and winter pastures from Oct./Nov. to Apr./May. Experimental design was a split-plot, with two pasture locations (winter, summer) as main plots and four cattle densities (0, 15, 20, or 35 cow-calf pairs per pasture) as subplots. With a few exceptions, population densities of most nematode genera in winter and summer pastures were similar (P 0.10). Cattle density had relatively little effect on population levels of individual nematode genera or on indices of nematode community structure. Of the more than 50 nem- atode genera found at this site, Monhystera populations were

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Published

2000-12-01

Issue

Section

Articles