Goose Faeces: A Source of Nitrogen for Plant Growth in a Grazed Salt Marsh

(1) Effects of faeces of lesser snow geese on salt-marsh vegetation at La P6rouse Bay, Manitoba together with the processes of faecal decay, were studied in order to determine how goose grazing significantly increased the net above-ground primary production of forage species, Puccinellia phryganodes (Trin.) Scribn. little decomposition of organic nitrogen was detected. (4) Except for the period immediately after the hatch of goslings, much of the soluble nitrogen in faeces was ammonia. The nitrogen content of droppings (faeces) differed within and between droppings. (5) The role of lesser snow geese in accelerating the transfer of mobile nitrogen, which results in a higher production of the forage species, is discussed.