The impact of grazing on woody vegetation characteristics in cub-zone of Ostryo – Carpinion

The present work deals with the impact of grazing in a disturbed Mediterranean ecosystem in Greece. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of grazing on silvicultural and vegetation characteristics of woody species. The study area was divided into two parts a protected and a grazed one, which were then separated into three belts of different latitude. The characteristics measured were total height, diameter for trees and root collar diameter for shrubs, crown length, richness, density and abundance cover in order to obtain a clear perspective of the vegetation and to estimate and compare the diversity between parts. In total, there were 822 individuals, 480 of which in the protected part. From the sixteen woody species identified 6 species were common in both parts, with Quercus coccifera as the dominant species. The results showed that grazing has a negative effect on the silvicultural characteristics of the woody species, mainly to their height growth, as is evident in the protected part where differentiation and discrimination of the vegetation storeys occurs. In addition , the number of tree storey species in the protected part was higher than in the grazed part and as herbivores prefer eating specific species the number of left over species was reduced leaving only these that exhibit tolerance to grazing leading thus, the grazed ecosystem to a regressive succession., The slope position is a factor that affects richness, density, abundance –cover and diversity as significant differences were found among the middle slope, upper and foot slope in both parts.