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Impact of overgrazing on seed predation by rodents in the Thar desert, northwestern India
Author(s) -
Wada Naoya,
Narita Kenji,
Kumar Suresh,
Furukawa Akio
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
ecological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.628
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1440-1703
pISSN - 0912-3814
DOI - 10.1007/bf02347944
Subject(s) - overgrazing , predation , biology , perennial plant , habitat , ecology , rodent , grazing , vegetation (pathology) , seed predation , abundance (ecology) , agronomy , seed dispersal , population , biological dispersal , demography , sociology , medicine , pathology
We compared the vegetation structure, rodent density and seed loss rate between protected and disturbed sites affected from grazing by cattle, goats and sheep, in the Thar desert of India. A perennial tussocky grass Lasiurus sindicus Hent. was largely dominant in the protected site, while L. sindicus was rare and replaced by undershrub species Aerva pseudotomentosa Blatt. & Halb. and Crotalaria burbira Buch.‐Ham. in the overgrazed site. In the grazed site, plant coverage was low, but the density of rodent burrows and the frequency of rodent captures were significantly high as compared to the protected site. Corresponding with the density of desert rodents, seed predation was significantly higher in the grazed site than in the protected site. These results suggest that overgrazing by large mammals has strong effects on plant succession by altering not only the species composition and abundance of plant community, but also the habitat suitability for seed‐eating rodents.