Plagioclimax Maintenance

Plagioclimax Maintenance

1. Grazing

   • Prevents the establishment of taller plants and maintains a grassland plagioclimax (eg. chalk grasland or meadows).
   • Trampling by livestock also produces bare ground for wildflower seed germination and to produce warm clearings for invertebrates and reptiles.
   • Animal dung provides nutrients for plants and invertebrates.
   • Different grazing species are used to maintain different plagioclimax habitats.
     • Sheep eat shorter grasses and bushes to control invasive scrub.
     • Ponies selectively eat grass and invasive bracken but will avoid flowering plants.
     • Cattle effectively remove long, rough grass.

2. Mowing

   • Removes the same vegetation that would be removed by grazing herbivores as well as removing thorny, stinging or bad-tasting plants.

3. Burning

   • Used to remove vegetation that would not be eaten by grazing animals (eg. mature heather bushes or young trees).
   • Creates open, unshaded areas needed for the growth of young heather plants to re-establish heathland.
   • Stimulates the germination of particular seeds (eg. heather seeds).

4. Coppicing

   • Trees are cut to ground level every 3-30 years depending on the intended use of the harvested branches.
   • Areas are often coppiced on a rotational cycle.
     • So, a coppiced woodland would be a patchwork of areas of woodland of different areas, each being suitable for its own community of wildlife species.

5. Pollarding

   • Similar to coppicing.
   • Branches cut above the height at which deer or livestock could eat the re-growing branches.