Bird and vegetation diversity in Chaco forests under different cattle management practices

Birds play key roles in forest dynamics, favoring the resilience of forests to cattle ranching. Generalist species may benefit from changes in the vegetation structure caused by cattle grazing while specialist species are usually negatively affected. Therefore, studying changes in taxonomic and functional bird diversity can provide valuable information in order to propose sustainable cattle management practices. Here, we study the influence of different cattle management practices (Cattle Exclusion: FCE; Continuous grazing: FCG; Rotational grazing: FRG; Seasonal grazing: FSG) on the understory vegetation structure, and the bird taxonomic and functional diversity in humid Chaco forests of Argentina. Forests under grazing had an open (FCG) or semi-open (FRG and FSG) understory, whereas FCE presented a closed understory with higher plant richness. Generalized linear models revealed a decrease in bird richness and abundance under most cattle management practices compared to FCE. However, FR..., Experimental design and surveys of birds and vegetation
We conducted surveys on ranches and at the INTA Experimental Station located in the Departamento Presidencia Plaza, Chaco province, Argentina (Figure 1). Crops and livestock, as well as livestock raising in a traditional continuous grazing regime, are the main activities in an extensive agricultural landscape composed of forest fragments. Sampling was conducted in forest patches under different cattle management practices:  (1) a control forest with cattle exclusion  (FCE) which consisted of a forest with 81-year old permanent exclosures located in four large paddocks (in total 200 ha) at the Estación Experimental INTA (26° 56′ S, 59° 45′ W); (2) forest with continuous grazing (FCG): cattle are left in five large paddocks, foraging in grassland and forest areas (in total 220 ha), which is the most widespread cattle management practice especially among small ranchers (Borrás et al. 2017); (3)  forest with annual rotational grazing (..., , # Biotropica OpenData Haene et al. 2024

This database contains information on bird diversity and vegetation structure in humid forests of the Chaco of Argentina. These data were used to study the influence of different cattle management practices (Cattle Exclusion: FCE; Continuous Grazing: FCG; Rotational Grazing: FRG; Seasonal Grazing: FSG) on understory vegetation structure and the taxonomic and functional diversity of birds.

Sampling was conducted in forest patches under different cattle management practices: (1) a control forest with cattle exclusion  (**FCE**) which consisted of a forest with 81-year old permanent exclosures located in four large paddocks (in total 200 ha) at the Estación Experimental INTA (26° 56′ S, 59° 45′ W); (2) forest with continuous grazing (**FCG**): cattle are left in five large paddocks, foraging in grassland and forest areas (in total 220 ha), which is the most widespread cattle management practice especially among small ranchers (Borrás et al. 2017)...