Abstract

VACCARO, Anahí Sofía et al. ¿CÓMO CONTRIBUYE LA ALIANZA DEL PASTIZAL A LA CONSERVACIÓN DE LAS AVES EN LA PAMPA DEPRIMIDA?. Hornero [online]. 2020, vol.35, n.2, pp.95-110. ISSN 0073-3407.

Natural grasslands, and many of their specialist birds, are severely threatened worldwi- de due to their replacement by agriculture, forestation, and the conventional livestock industry. Continuous grazing systems negatively affect bird populations through the homogenization of grassland. Conversely, envi- ronmentally controlled management and rotational grazing maintain the heterogeneity of grasslands and their biodiversity. The Alianza del Pastizal was created to promote these means of production, being an initiative that proposes the conservation of the biodiversity of natural grasslands by means of livestock farming under environmentally controlled rotational grazing. We evaluated the effect of the Alianza del Pastizal practices in the Argentinian Flooding Pampas by comparing the maximum height and the variation in height of grasslands, the richness and composition of bird communities between five livestock establishments that are members of the Alianza del Pastizal, subject to rotational grazing (EMRG), and five establishments which are not members and perform continuous grazing (EMCG). Using generalized linear models, we compared maximum height and variation in height of grassland and species richness. Moreover, we studied the difference in species compo sition with an ordination analysis and a similarity percentage analysis. The EMRGs showed greater maximum height and variation in height of grassland and greater bird richness. This heterogeneity allowed us to detect some migratory shorebird species that use short grasses as well as grassland specialists, some of which are globally threatened, that use tall grasses to nest in. Our results show that management proposals such as those promoted by the Alianza del Pastizal contribute to the conservation of native bird communities.

Keywords : Argentina; birds; continuous grazing; diversity; endangered species; rotational grazing.

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