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Cattle in the Wetlands

Posted on: Thursday, 5 January 2006, 06:00 CST

By Wagner, Cynthia G

Cattle grazing may prove beneficial for maintaining the health of wetlands-or at least the health of some endangered wetlands species.

Cattle have been grazing in the Central Valley of California for 150 years and have become a part of the ecosystem; their presence influences rates of evaporation in the wetlands, affecting the level and length of floods. Since these wetlands are the habitats of endangered species such as fairy shrimps and tiger salamanders, the move to eliminate grazing from the habitat could be fatal to these species, according to ecologist Christopher R. Pyke.

Pyke led a study of the vernal pools in a 5,000-hectare ranch with different geological formations, simulating the effects both of grazing and of climate change. The researchers found that removing grazing reduced the duration of wetland flooding by an average of 50 days per year, depriving the shrimps and salamanders of precious time to mature before their homes disappear.

Further simulations showed that climate change would compound the effects of removing cattle grazing from these wetlands. Pyke concludes that "land managers can play an important role in climate change impacts-they can exacerbate or ameliorate the local impacts of global change." And conservationists may have to change their minds about grazing always being a negative factor in ecosystems, he suggests.

-Cynthia G. Wagner

Source: "Cattle Grazing Mediates Climate Change Impacts on Ephemeral Wetlands" by Christopher R. Pyke and Jaymee Marty, Conservation Biology (October 2005), Blackwell Publishing, www.blackwellpublishing.com.

Copyright World Future Society Jan/Feb 2006

Source: Futurist, The

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