Long-term impacts of changed grazing regimes on the vegetation of heterogeneous upland grasslands

Marginal agricultural land, which in the UK refers particularly to upland grazings, will see changes in management driven by markets, subsidies, grants and environmental change with implications for biodiversity.
Using a large-scale, long-term grazing experiment in the UK uplands we assessed the impact of intensification (tripling sheep numbers), abandonment (removal of sheep) and grazer diversification (partial replacement of sheep by cattle) on vegetation composition in a heterogenous area of grassland.
Species benefiting from increased grazing included Anthoxanthum odoratum, Nardus stricta, and Trichophorum cespitosum. Species that benefitted from the removal of grazing included Narthecium ossifragum, Pteridium aquilinum, and Vaccinium myrtillus.
Responses differed between vegetation communities; the more productive acid grassland communities showed little change when grazing was removed, whilst the less productive mire communities contained species, capable of increasing after grazi...,
Pakeman_Data
Species hits from point quadrat. Also includes height of first hit.
 
Data from 2020 have been added to the dataset analysed in the 2019 paper.
 
2020 data is not complete due to the difficulties of sampling under Covid restrictions. The sampling effort per plot was the same, but points within plots were randomly sampled.
 
2023 data has been added to maintain the data in an up to date state.
, , # Data from: Long-term impacts of changed grazing regimes on the vegetation of heterogeneous upland grasslands

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dr554m2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dr554m2)

## Description of the data and file structure

Methods

1\. The study was undertaken on the Glen Finglas estate (56°16’N, 4°24’W), Southern Highlands of Scotland, UK. The experimental site was dominated by a patchwork of upland unimproved plant communities.

2\. The experiment was formed of six blocks. Each block contained four plots of 3.3 ha. Plots were fenced in the winter of 2002–2003 and one of four grazing treatments allocated randomly to the plots in each block in spring 2003. The treatments were:

(a) Continued—grazing at the same low intensity to previous management at three ewes per plot (0.9 ewe per hectare) to act as the control for the experiment,

(b) High—a tripling of sheep numbers to 2.7 ewe per hectare, similar to levels seen on farms focussing on profitability,

(c) Mixed—a parti...