Sweetwater Fishing Forums
General Category => News Views & Press Releases => Topic started by: Editor on December 14, 2011, 09:01:49 AM
-
Cows and creeks
Using macroinvertebrates as indicators, researchers looked at the impacts of livestock on creeks and what happens when stock are excluded.
They found bank angle, temperature, fine sediment cover and erosion were higher in grazed areas, while riparian cover was lower. The presence of grazing meant significantly fewer species of macroinvertebrates.
When they looked at the effects of excluding stock at small‐scales they found no improvements for in‐stream communities and only moderate positive effects on riparian vegetation, however the number of macroinvertebrate species increased significantly after a 4‐year period of no grazing.
For more details from this research by Herbst and others in Freshwater Biology:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2427.2011.02706.x (http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2427.2011.02706.x)
Source- Newstreams
Image - NSW DPI