Habitat and avifaunal recovery from livestock grazing in a riparian meadow system of the Northwestern Great Basin

Riparian habitats are centers of biological diversity in arid and semiarid portions of western North America, but despite widespread loss and degradation of these habitats there is little quantitative information concerning restoration of native riparian biota. We examined the recovery of a riparian meadow system in the context of long-term versus short-term release from livestock grazing. We compared the structure and dynamics of plant and avian communities on 1.5-ha plots inside a long-term (>30 years) livestock exclosure ("exclosure plots"), with adjacent plots outside the exclosure ("open plots") for 4 years following removal of livestock from open plots. Throughout the study, sedge cover, forb cover, and foliage height diversity of herbs were greater on exclosure plots; bare ground, litter cover, shrub cover, and shrub foliage height diversity were greater on open plots. Forb, rush, and cryptogamic cover increased on open plots but not on exclosure plots. Grass cover increased, whereas litter and bare ground decreased on all plots in conjunction with increased availability of moisture. Sedge cover did not change. Avian species richness and relative abundances were greater on exclosure plots; species composition differed markedly between exclosure and open plots (Jaccard Coefficient = 0.23 - 0.46), with exclosure plots dominated by wetland and riparian birds and open plots dominated by upland species. The appearance of key species of wet-meadow birds on open plots in the third and fourth years following livestock removal signaled the beginning of restoration of the riparian avifauna. We interpret the recovery of riparian vegetation and avifaunal composition inside the exclosure as a consequence of livestock removal, which led to a rise in the water table and an expansion of the hyporheic zone laterally from the stream channel. The lack of change in sedge and shrub cover on open plots suggests that restoration to a sedge-dominated meadow will not happen quickly.