Design and Analysis of Rangeland Experiments Along Continuous Gradients

Measuring the effects of grazing intensity on the structure, composition, and function of grassland ecosystems has been a perennial challenge. Space limits replication, few replicates limit statistical power, and categorical treatments limit interpretation of effects among treatment levels. Treating...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Rangeland ecology & management 2008-11, Vol.61 (6), p.605-613
Main Authors: Koper, Nicola, Henderson, Darcy C., Wilmshurst, John F., Fargey, Patrick J., Sissons, Robert A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
animal behavior
BACI
botanical composition
cattle
cattle grazing
Data collection
Design
Design analysis
ecological function
ecosystems
Equilibrium
Experiment design
experimental design
Experiments
Grasslands
Grazing
Grazing experiments
Grazing intensity
mixed-grass prairies
National grasslands
National parks
Pastures
population structure
power analysis
range management
Rangeland ecology
rangelands
Research Papers
Sample size
spatial variation
Statistical methods
Studies
Variables
Vegetation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Measuring the effects of grazing intensity on the structure, composition, and function of grassland ecosystems has been a perennial challenge. Space limits replication, few replicates limit statistical power, and categorical treatments limit interpretation of effects among treatment levels. Treating grazing as a continuous rather than categorical variable can permit large-scale experiments to be conducted with fewer constraints on treatment replication to maintain statistical power. Using power analysis on a grazing experiment recently initiated in Grasslands National Park of Canada, we demonstrate that the continuous approach permits the use of fewer pastures, while maintaining the large pasture size required to allow realistic grazing behavior by cattle and improving our ability to answer biologically relevant questions regarding grazing effects on grassland ecosystems. We contend that this approach, when applied to grazing experiments, will help test hypotheses related to how grassland ecosystems respond to a gradient of disturbance regimes.
ISSN:1550-7424
1551-5028
1551-5028
DOI:10.2111/08-046.1