Ground flora trampling studies: Five years after closure |
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Authors: | Fred R Kuss Christine N Hall |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Recreation, University of Maryland, 20742 College Park, Maryland, USA;(2) The Nature Conservancy, P.O. Box 4943, 93405 San Luis Obispo, California, USA |
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Abstract: | Trampling as an ecological factor is a major concern of the management of park, forest, nature preserves, and wilderness areas
as recreational resources. Of particular importance to the management concept of carrying capacity is the relative resistance
of native plant communities, to trampling and the resilience or the capacity of impacted communities to recover. This information
can be used by management to establish seasonal use limits to prevent irreversible degradation of these resources. The purpose
of this study was to follow the recolonizaton of experimental trail surfaces barren of vegetative cover and hiked at three
levels of use intensity. Results of this study indicate that soil compaction as measured by soil penetration resistance increased
progressively with use level while the total number of species, species diversity, and dominant index scores declined. A major
finding was that the greatest degree of change occurred at the first level of hiking, indicating that major floristic measures
were most affected by the least amount of hiking. Recolonization of impacted areas that received 100 trampling passes as measured
by plant cover, dominant indices, floristic dissimilarity, and species diversity was similar to areas receiving four and eight
times more trampling, despite major differences in soil penetration resistance. These data suggest limited use delivered at
one time can be as damaging as increasing levels of use delivered at over time. |
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Keywords: | Carrying capacity Trampling Resistance Resiliency Herb layer Soil compaction |
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