Implications of rodent and rabbit grazing in the Chihuahuan Desert

Title	Implications of rodent and rabbit grazing in the Chihuahuan Desert
Publication Type	Thesis
Year of Publication	1985
Authors	Matheys DG
Number of Pages	35
Date Published	1985
University	New Mexico State University
City	Las Cruces, New Mexico
Thesis Type	M.S. Thesispp
Accession Number	JRN00022
Call Number	00210
Keywords	dissertation, dissertations, grazing, nitrogen amendment, grazing, rabbit, grazing, rodent, rabbit,grazing, rodent,grazing, theses, thesis, transect, herbivory, transect, nitrogen amendment, transect, rabbit grazing, transect, rodent grazing, transect,rodent & rabbit grazing
Abstract	Effects of rodent and rabbit grazing on percent plant cover were examined using a series of 50 exclosed and 50 unexclosed 0.25-m2 plots along two parallel transects in southern New Mexico beginning in May 1984 and ending in March 1985. Excluding rodents and rabbits from experimental plots resulted in significantly more vegetative cover within exclosures. Plots located along a treatment transect which had been fertilized with ammonium nitrate in August 1983 and March 1985 had a greater percentage of vegetative cover than plots along a control transect, both inside and outside the exclosures. Acting as physical barriers, exclosures prevented mammals and ground-dwelling arthropods from consuming and trampling vegetation and from harvesting seeds. No utilization of the vegetation as forage, in addition to a possible seed reserve within exclosed plots, from which germinants could grow, explains the presence of more vegetation within exclosed plots. This study provides a quantitative measure of rodent- and rabbit-grazing effects on vegetative cover, which is a necessary step in the development of a predictive model of the dynamics of desert rodent populations.