Abstract Grassland biodiversity and forage nutritive value are influenced by pedoclimatic conditions (e.g., soil nutrients, precipitation), management practices (e.g., mowing, grazing), and animal grazing behaviour shaping the sward botanical composition and structure. Horses, in particular, affect sward structure through selective foraging, short biting, trampling, and toileting, resulting in a patchy vegetation pattern on pastures. However, the relative importance of pedoclimatic and management factors across regions remains unclear. The effects of horse grazing and pasture heterogeneity versus management on grassland biodiversity and forage quality are also uncertain. To analyse these interactions, data were collected from 36 horse farms across two contrasting regions in Germany: an upland and a lowland area, differing in pedoclimatic conditions and farming intensity. On each farm, two of the studied grassland fields were exclusively grazed by horses, while two were either mown or both mown and grazed. A total of 148 grasslands were assessed for vegetation (species composition and proportion) and agronomic (forage nutritive value) target variables. Grazed pastures were generally more variable in terms of higher coefficients of variation of target variables than mown sites. The analysis further revealed a significant patch type × region interaction for species composition, with higher evenness in short patches – particularly in the more extensively managed upland region – indicating enhanced structural diversity under grazing. Agronomic traits were driven primarily by patch type and management, with minimal regional effects. In this study, patch type and therefore management strategies play a larger role for grassland biodiversity and forage nutritive value than regional context alone.
Clausecker et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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