Microclimatic profile of herbaceous cover in a grazed Morus alba silvopastoral system

The research was conducted at Scholari village of Thessaloniki in Greece. The objective of the research was to study the change of microclimatic parameters of the herbaceous understory vegetation in a Morus alba silvopastoral system under moderate grazing. The experimental area was separated into six plots, which were fenced in order to exclude the uncontrolled grazing. Three of them were randomly assigned to be grazed while the other three remained ungrazed. In all plots the woody fodder species Morus alba were planted. Half of the plots were ploughed and seeded with Trifolium subterraneum cv. Mt Barker while the other half remained with natural herbaceous vegetation.Τhe microclimatic parameters measured were: the photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) (μmol/m2/sec) and the enthalpy (KJ/gr). The vapor pressure deficit (VPD) was calculated. The results show that moderate grazing did affect the microclimatic profile of herbaceous vegetation by increasing significantly the vapor pressure deficit, the photon flux density and the enthalpy of bioclimate.