sabattini, rafael alberto national university of entre rios - faculty of agricultural sciences, Entre Ríos, Argentina , sabattini, julián alberto national university of entre rios - faculty of agricultural sciences, Entre Ríos, Argentina , cian, juan carlos national university of entre rios - faculty of agricultural sciences, Entre Ríos, Argentina , lindt, mauro national university of entre rios - faculty of agricultural sciences, Entre Ríos, Argentina

Mechanical recovery of a native forest with shrubs of the Espinal Ecoregion (Argentina)

18638

The invasion of woody plants in various parts of the world has been a longstanding concern in livestock production due to the expected negative impact on secondary production. Native forests cover 30% of the earth’s land surface. A great part of the livestock production of Entre Ríos is developed in these ecosystems, which have been highly degraded due to inadequate cattle management, and the invasion of shrub species. The aim of this study was to evaluate the natural pasture recovery in a degraded native forest, subjected to a mechanical intervention with a frontal roller-chopping, in order to increase the grazing area and improve secondary productivity. The study was carried out in Paraná Department (Entre Ríos, Argentina). On 15/12/2014 a mechanical intervention was carried out with a frontal roller-chopping designed by the Chair Ecology of Agricultural Systems. To evaluate the dynamics of the recovery of the natural grassland of the native forest, seven measurements were made on the following dates: 15/05, 12/06, 28/07, 11/09, 27/10 and 21/12/2015, and 22/02/2016. The vegetation cover was measured with the line intercept method and phytomass production. In each of the evaluations, forage species cover was higher in the mechanically intervened area, presenting significant differences with respect to the control and registering an average relative increase of 47% at the end of the trial. In the section where mechanical intervention had been made, the coverage of Baccharis punctulata showed a marked decrease during all the measurements with respect to the control, obtaining an average decrease of 91.8% at the end of the sampling. Mechanical intervention enables the cover of shrubs that compete with natural grassland in a degraded native forest to be reduced, while also recovering forage vegetable species and thus improving primary production, due to a raise in the forage availability because of increased grazing area.

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Roller , chopping , Baccharis spp. , shrub control , shrublands , secondary productivity

Forestist

86