Soil and Vegetation Responses to Simulated Trampling

Abstract

An artificial hoof was used to simulate trampling effects on native shortgrass sods in a greenhouse experiment. Severe to moderate trampling was applied to sods maintained under 3 soil water regimes. Trampling was done either throughout a 32-day period to represent a continuous grazing system, or only during the last 4 of the 32 days to simulate a short-duration grazing system. Soil bulk density increased 3%, and infiltration rate declined 57% under severe trampling. Trampling throughout the 32-day period resulted in 4% higher bulk density than did a similar level of trampling that was applied only during the last 4 days of the trial. Dead vegetation was more easily removed by hoof action than was living vegetation, and severe water stress made plant material more brittle. Aboveground biomass production was 7% greater under trampling that simulated short-duration grazing, and 17% more forage remained in the standing crop under this treatment. About 38% more vegetation was detached by hoof action under simulated continuous grazing as compared with the short-duration grazing treatment.