Plant Ecol (2018) 219:913–925

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-018-0846-y

Impacts of domestic cattle on forest and woody ecosystems

in southern South America
F. Mazzini . M. A. Relva . L. R. Malizia

Received: 3 October 2017 / Accepted: 1 June 2018 / Published online: 5 June 2018
Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2018

Abstract There is a long lasting debate on the forest, Chaco and Monte) concentrated * 85% of the
effects of domestic cattle grazing on natural ecosys- reported study cases. The hierarchical cluster analysis
tems worldwide. Cattle are generally assumed to have to group cases based on cattle effects, ecological
negative effects on forest conservation; however, variables and ecosystems reported that negative
several studies also report positive and neutral effects. effects (* 66% of cases) were mostly informed for
We aimed to investigate the available evidence for vegetation variables and mainly occur in Patagonian
positive, negative and neutral effects of cattle grazing forest and Chaco; positive effects (* 16%) were
on forest and woody ecosystems of southern South mostly informed for Monte (no particular variable
America. We conducted a peer-review literature associated), while neutral effects (* 18%) were
search using the ISI Web of Knowledge and Scopus mostly informed for fauna-related variables and
databases to identify studies dealing with cattle Uruguayan savanna. Our study suggests that grazing
impacts for nature conservation. We compiled a effects by cattle on southern South America forests are
database of 211 cases from 126 original publications. not homogeneous and depend on the particular forest
A reduced number of forest ecosystems (Patagonian ecosystem considered as well as on the forest attribute
measured. Different cattle effects found can be
partially explained by differences in grazing history
Communicated by Martin Nunez.
and different ecosystems productivity. It is vital to
improve our understanding of cattle–forest interac-
Electronic supplementary material The online version of tions to guide synergies between sustainable manage-
this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-018-0846-y) con- ment and forest conservation.
tains supplementary material, which is available to authorized
users.
Keywords Bos taurus
Browsing
Domestic
F. Mazzini (&)
L. R. Malizia livestock effects
Forest structure composition and
Instituto de Ecorregiones Andinas, Centro de Estudios dynamics
Grazing
Native forests
Territoriales Ambientales y Sociales, Facultad de Ciencias
Agrarias-UNJu, CONICET-Universidad Nacional de
Jujuy (UNJu), 4600 S.S. de Jujuy, Jujuy, Argentina
e-mail: [email protected]

M. A. Relva
Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y
Medioambiente, CONICET-Universidad Nacional del
Comahue, 8400 S.C. de Bariloche, Rı́o Negro, Argentina

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914 Plant Ecol (2018) 219:913–925

Introduction In southern South America, domestic cattle were

introduced about 500 years ago, and stocking densi-
Human-induced changes on large herbivores’ distri- ties have increased substantially in many locations
bution and abundance are important factors in global since early European settlement (Novillo and Ojeda
environmental change (Wardle and Bardgett 2004). 2008; Merino et al. 2009; Ballari et al. 2016).
Large herbivores, when introduced to a new habitat, Extensive cattle ranching is the main economic
imposed a new herbivory regime, mainly due to their activity in most mountainous regions in developing
different feeding patterns and body size (Hobbs and countries in Latin America, where it is difficult to
Huenneke 1992). Through selective herbivory and cultivate (Steinfeld et al. 2006). In Argentina, domes-
associated activities (e.g., trampling, fraying, bedding, tic cattle have been historically most abundant in the
urination and defecation), large herbivores have the humid pampas and savannas. However, in the last
potential to drastically modify composition, structure three decades, due to crop expansion, ranching has
and dynamics of plant communities, facilitate plant been relocated towards marginal areas for agriculture,
invasions, alter water and nutrient cycles, and modify mostly forested areas in the central-eastern and
disturbance regimes, especially fire (Huntly 1991; northeastern parts of the country (Guevara et al.
Augustine et al. 1998; Hester et al. 2006; Hobbs 2006). 2009). In other forested areas, domestic cattle activity
Livestock grazing is currently the most extended apparently has not increased (e.g., temperate forests)
land use, occupying 25% of the global land surface or has even decreased (e.g., subtropical montane
(Asner et al. 2004). Livestock have been identified as forests, see Malizia et al. 2013). In Uruguay, livestock
one of the main causes of extinction of native plant and ranching is currently the main economic activity
animal species resulting from habitat degradation (Echávarri et al. 2014), while in Chile it constitutes
caused by grazing and trampling (Gurevitch and one of the main activities in central and southern
Padilla 2004). Livestock-associated impacts currently regions of the country. Besides its economic impor-
constitute the third cause of reduction in native tance, cattle contribute to food security (Steinfeld et al.
habitats and plant biomass after deforestation and fire 2006) and have an important social and cultural value
(Dı́az et al. 2006). However, there is opposite evidence for rural populations inhabiting forest areas. Thus, the
showing that browsing and grazing by large herbivores grazing landscape in southern South America is varied
can have positive or neutral effects (i.e., non-signif- and complex.
icant effects) on plant communities and ecosystems Forest impacts by domestic cattle have been
(Schieltz and Rubenstein 2016; Eldridge et al. 2016). recognized as a conservation and management chal-
For instance, it have been demonstrated that cattle, lenge, and several studies have been published on
especially in rangelands and savannas, can reduce fuel these topics in the region (Blackhall et al. 2008;
biomass and fire temperatures (Kimuyu et al. 2014), or Cingolani et al. 2008; Ballari et al. 2016). To promote
contribute to plant diversity conservation (Fensham compatible cattle management with forest conserva-
et al. 2014). Considering forest regeneration, several tion (i.e., damage limitation), it is necessary to have
studies indicate that livestock can facilitate native sound information on the main ecosystem processes
plant dispersal by seed transport, promote germination and functions affected by cattle activities. Most
by opening new microsites through trampling and knowledge of cattle effects comes from rangelands
browsing, and promote tree regeneration by reducing and temperate forests of the Northern Hemisphere, but
fire frequency (Hester et al. 1996; Relva and Veblen the knowledge from temperate and subtropical forests
1998; Gill and Beardall 2001). Moreover, there is a of the Southern Hemisphere studies are more recent
long lasting debate on cattle conservation effects in and relatively limited. To the best of our knowledge,
forests worldwide, especially in western North Amer- there are no syntheses that show the overall effects of
ica (Adams 1975; Belsky and Blumenthal 1997; Jones cattle grazing on the high diversity of forest ecosys-
2000; Wisdom et al. 2006; Foster et al. 2014; Pekin tems present in southern South America. In this
et al. 2015) and in African savannas (Goheen et al. review, we are interested on how cattle effects vary
2010; Young et al. 2013). However, in southern South across forest and woody ecosystems in southern South
America this debate has not been approached with the America, considering a large array of ecological
necessary deepness and extent. variables and their reported effects (positive, negative

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or neutral) in light of nature conservation and Paranaense Rainforest (i.e., subtropical rain forests),
sustainable forest management. Second, we discuss Patagonian Forests (i.e., temperate humid sub Antarc-
our results with available information from other tic forests), Uruguayan savanna (i.e., subtropical
regions of the world. Finally, we provide insights to savannas), and Yungas (i.e., subtropical montane
orient future research efforts. forests).
For each publication, we also identified ecological
response variables considered and we categorized
Methods them into seven broad categories of ecological vari-
ables: (i) conservation of vegetation structure, com-
Review protocol position and dynamics (includes canopy and
understory strata, regeneration and growth); (ii) con-
We conducted a peer-review literature search in servation of faunal diversity (i.e., abundance, compo-
November 2017 using the ISI Web of Knowledge sition and diversity of fauna inhabiting forests); (iii)
and Scopus databases to identify studies dealing with prevention of plant invasions (i.e., abundance and
cattle impacts in forest and woody ecosystems of composition of invasive plants); (iv) reduction of fire
southern South America (search and studies were frequency and probability; (v) conservation of soil
analyzed by one operator.). We used the following key features (i.e., water content, soil erosion and chemical
words: TS = (forest*) AND TS = (cattle OR live- properties); (vi) conservation of landscape features
stock) AND TS = (argentin* OR chile* OR urugua* (i.e., land use and net primary productivity); and (vii)
OR pradera OR matorral OR espinal OR calden OR maintenance of abiotic conditions (i.e., microclimatic
delta OR parana* OR monte OR misionera OR chaco air temperature and humidity) (for details see Table 1,
OR yungas OR andean OR tucuma* OR andino Online Appendix S1 and S2).
patagonico OR andino-patagonico OR patagoni* OR Since several studies reported multiple response
nothofagus OR valdivian* OR magallan*). We did not variables, each response variable was accounted as a
refine the search by language, or include any restrain- separate observation. Cattle effects were set as posi-
ing date. Only articles with original case studies were tive, negative or neutral whether the effect was
included (i.e., we did not consider reviews nor considered beneficial, detrimental or neutral, respec-
modeling studies). Studies that focused on cattle tively, to nature conservation and sustainability forest
management for production were not included, neither management, following the authors’ analyses and
were those that focused on human health. We interpretations.
employed a systematic review, a highly recommended
method to provide an overview of the literature for a Data analysis
topic (Pullin and Gavin 2006; Lortie 2014). The
inclusion criteria encompassed studies restricted to We performed a multiple correspondence analysis
forest and woody ecosystems in Argentina, Chile and (MCA) with R program (R Core Team 2018) using
Uruguay. We included studies only considering FactoMiner package (Lê et al. 2008) to determine
domestic cattle (Bos taurus), because it is the largest groups from variables association. Studies were
and most abundant grazing ungulate (native or intro- treated as individuals (rows) and variables (ecosys-
duced) in these ecosystems (Price 1986). tems, ecological response variables and cattle effects)
as columns. In MCA, Chi square is used as a distance
Database construction measure, which is a Euclidean distance among relative
frequencies weighted by the inverse of weight. In
Studies were categorized according to their location addition, categories with frequencies lower than 2%
into eight forest and woody ecosystems, following the were excluded from the analysis. Since the MCA
Mercosur classification (PNUMA and CLAES 2008): explained low data variability (* 18%), we applied
Chaco (i.e., tropical seasonal dry forests), Chilean Euclidean hierarchical cluster analyses based on the
Matorral (i.e., temperate hygrophilous and sclerophyl- main factorial axes produced by the MCA. Cluster
lous forests), Espinal (i.e., temperate shrublands and analyses were performed with R program (R Core
forests), Monte (i.e., temperate woodlands), Team 2018) using FactoMiner (Lê et al. 2008) and

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Table 1 Number of cases with negative, positive, and neutral effects of cattle on the main ecological response variables studied
along forest and woody ecosystems in southern South America
Ecosystem Variable Cattle effect
Positive Negative Neutral

Chaco Conservation of faunal diversity 1 11 8

Conservation of landscape features 2
Conservation of soil features 6
Conservation of vegetation structure, composition and dynamics 7 28 3
Prevention of plant invasions 1
Chilean Matorral Conservation of vegetation structure, composition and dynamics 1 2 1
Espinal Conservation of faunal diversity 1
Conservation of vegetation structure, composition and dynamics 1 4 1
Monte Conservation of faunal diversity 1 2 2
Conservation of soil features 5 2 1
Conservation of vegetation structure, composition and dynamics 3 9 2
Patagonian forest Conservation of faunal diversity 4 6 3
Conservation of landscape features 1 1
Conservation of soil features 5
Conservation of vegetation structure, composition and dynamics 6 45 10
Maintenance of abiotic conditions 1 1
Prevention of plant invasions 1
Reduction of fire frequency and probability 1 3 2
Uruguayan savanna Conservation of soil features 2
Conservation of vegetation structure, composition and dynamics 2 2
Paranaense rainforest Conservation of faunal diversity 1
Yungas Conservation of faunal diversity 2 2
Conservation of soil features 2
Conservation of vegetation structure, composition and dynamics 2
Reduction of fire frequency and probability 1

cluster (Maechler et al. 2018) packages. We used the studies (90 of 211) reported information for Patago-
Ward’s method to group cases by similarities of nian Forest (Fig. 2), * 31% (67) for Chaco, * 12%
ecosystems, ecological response variables and cattle (27) for Monte, and the remaining * 13% (27) for all
effects. Number of clusters or groups was defined other ecosystems: Yungas (9), Espinal (7), Chilean
considering the test-value scores of Ward’s method. Matorral (4), Uruguayan Savanna (6), and Paranaense
Rainforest (1).
Considering all ecosystems together, negative
Results effects were reported in * 65% of the studies (139
of 211), positive effects in * 16% (34) of the studies
We identified 120 publications that matched the and neutral effects in * 18% (38) of the studies
criteria for inclusion with 211 study cases that reported (Fig. 2).
cattle impacts on forests in southern South America Analyzing the ecological response variables con-
(Table 1, Table S1 in Online Appendix S2). Publica- sidered, conservation of vegetation structure, compo-
tions are not equally distributed across forest ecosys- sition and dynamics was by far the most studied
tems present in the region (Fig. 1). Around 42% of the response variable with * 61% of the reported cases

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Fig. 1 Map showing locations of publications obtained from study sites. Forest height (m) shape (modified from Simard et al.
literature search on effects of domestic cattle on forest and 2011) is included in the map to show the distribution of the main
woody ecosystems in southern South America (Argentina, Chile forest and woody ecosystems present in the region
y Uruguay) (for details see Table S1). Symbols correspond to

(129 of 211) (Table 1), followed by conservation of (4), prevention of plant invasion (2), and maintenance
fauna diversity * 20% (44), and conservation of of abiotic conditions (2).
soil * 10% (23). The remaining variables totalized
together * 7% of the reported cases: Reduction of
fire frequency (7), conservation of landscape features

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Fig. 2 Number of study

14% -68% -18%
cases evaluating effects
(positive, negative and 13% -70% -16%
neutral) of domestic cattle in
eight forest and woody 33% -48% -19%
ecosystems in southern
11% -67% -22%
South America (Argentina,
Chile and Uruguay). 14% -71% -14%
Numbers next to the bars
67% -33%
represent percentage for
positive, negative and 25% -50% -25%
neutral effects
100%

Classification of study cases Discussion

The MCA yielded 5 factorial axes that together Our results suggest that grazing effects by domestic
explain 69.9% of the total variance. Study cases cattle in southern South America forests are not
excluded from the analyses due to their low frequen- homogeneous, but depend on forest ecosystems and
cies were 13 in total (4 for Chilean matorral, 1 for forest attributes. However, there is a clear tendency
Paranaense forest, 4 for Conservation of landscape that cattle mainly have negative effects for nature
features, 2 for Maintenance of abiotic conditions and 2 conservation and sustainability forest management for
for Prevention of plant invasions). Cluster analysis most ecoregions and ecological variables considered.
separated study cases into five major groups (Fig. 3). Research efforts on cattle effects are concentrated in
The first group comprised seven cases dealing with two (Patagonian forests and Chaco) out of eight forest
Espinal ecosystem (test value (test v.) = 7.23; and woody ecoregions of southern South America.
P \ 0.001). The second group contained 101 cases
characterized by negative cattle effects (test Cattle effects across ecoregions and studies cases
v. = 11.15; P \ 0.001) related with Conservation of
vegetation structure, composition and dynamics (test As the effect of grazing is determined, among other
v. = 2.70; P = 0.001), predominantly located in factors, by plant productivity (Hester et al. 2000),
Patagonian Forest (test v. = 3.61; P \ 0.001) and there is an increasing body of evidence supporting the
Chaco (test v. = 3.75; P \ 0.001). The third group notion that low productivity (arid) sites will be more
comprised 15 cases mostly characterized by neutral sensitive to grazing (Proulx and Mazumder 1998;
cattle effects (test v. = 10.39; P \ 0.001) related with Cingolani et al. 2005); however, herbivory may also
Conservation of fauna diversity (test v. = 2.41; be influential in more productive systems (Milchunas
P = 0.01), manly located in Uruguayan Savanna (test and Lauenroth 1993). This is controversial, but can
v. = 4.30; P \ 0.001). The fourth group contain 15 describe the pattern we found in Chaco (arid ecosys-
cases related with Reduction of fire frequency (test tem) and Patagonian forest (humid) is where most
v. = 5.93; P \ 0.001) at Yungas forests (test negative effects were reported. Positive effects were
v. = 6.91; P \ 0.001). The fifth group was repre- associated with Monte, and neutral effects with
sented by 41 cases mostly having positive effects (test Uruguayan savanna (Table 1). Two forest ecosystems
v. = 9.12; P \ 0.001), mainly located in Monte (Espinal and Yungas) were not associated with any
ecosystem (test v. = 7.87; P \ 0.001). particular effect. It would be important to obtain
information on forest productivity (e.g., from rain-
forests to savannas) to be able to compare plant
responses to herbivory across a range of plant
productivity of forest ecosystems. We strongly rec-
ommend increasing the number of studies on the

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Fig. 3 Dendrogram Height

12
resulting from a cluster

8
analysis considering cattle 1
6
25
effects, ecological variables 36
37
8
112
and forest ecosystems. 113
114
119
Numbers indicate study case 173
2
11
12
(for details see Table S1) 13
16
22
26
28
29
57
3
115
140
142
146
168
169
7
10
14
17
18
19
24
31
32
34
35
38
39
40
41
42
43
45
48
49
50
51
52
55

Cluster # 2
56
59
60
64
99
103
111
116
117
118
122
124
126
128
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
143
147
149
150
152
153
154
155
156
157
159
162
165
166
170
171
172
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
4
20
21
23
27
30
33
63
5
46
53
130
145
167
76
Cluster # 3

87
95
96
102
104
105
106
121
123
139
141
151
158
184
188
185
189
186
187
9
44
47
54
58
61
62
15
85
97
129
144
160
161
72
74
75
77
79
Cluster # 5

80
81
82
86
120
125
127
148
163
164
73
78
90
98
83
84
89
88
91
92
93
94
65
Cluster # 1

67
68
69
70
66
71
100
108
101
107
110
109
Cluster # 4

191
190
192
195
196
194
198
193
197

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920 Plant Ecol (2018) 219:913–925

forest–livestock interaction in these sites of contrast- arthropods) under study. Cattle have been reported
ing productivity. as having neutral or positive effects on faunal abun-
The two other forest ecosystems present in southern dance or diversity, with a shift on species composition
South America (Chilean matorral and Paranaense towards more generalist species (Gill and Fuller 2007;
rainforest) report all the effect types (positive, nega- Foster et al. 2014). We found that livestock changed
tive and neutral), but as they resulted with very few vegetation structure and cover in ways that negatively
publications, it is not possible to conclude exhaus- affected small mammals, while ungulates were
tively about them. affected more by interference competition and
changes in fodder quantity and quality. In Peru, cattle
Cattle effects on main ecological response density positively affected raptor species richness that
variables searched for food in open habitats, while presence of
range restricted species that hunted from perches
Conservation of vegetation composition, structure (Piana and Marsden 2014). Some of the articles
and dynamics reported that cattle presence did not have an effect on
nest predation (De Santo et al. 2002; Mezquida et al.
Regarding vegetation attribute responses to cattle 2004).
grazing, such as seedling and sapling recruitment, Native species reduce habitat use when livestock
abundance and growth, they generally appeared as are present (Côté et al. 2004), in particular we find this
negatively affected by cattle grazing (e.g., Teich et al. effect in relation to other herbivores. We found that
2005; Blackhall et al. 2008; Aschero and Garcia 2012; cattle restrained habitat use as shown by native
Zamorano-Elgueta et al. 2014). Similar effects were herbivores in Patagonian forest and Espinal (Frid
reported for several areas in North America (Belsky 2001; Meier and Merino 2007; Vila et al. 2008; Soler
and Blumenthal 1997; Jones 2000; Kaufmann et al. Esteban et al. 2012). However, several native grazing
2014; Leopold and Hess 2017), and other places of species in Africa show positive responses to cattle
Central and South America (Griscom et al. 2009; presence, suggesting possible facilitation toward pos-
Marquardt et al. 2009). However, Vieira et al. (2006) itive habitat use (Schieltz and Rubenstein 2016). We
in Brazil, no effects from cattle grazing were detected did not find any work describing facilitation like
on seedling survival. In Buthan, the removal of interaction between cattle and other mammals.
herbaceous biomass by grazing enhanced regeneration Invertebrates also showed mostly negative
of conifer species and reduced damage done by small responses to grazing (Foster et al. 2014). However, it
rodents (Roder et al. 2002). Grazing, however, seems that ground beetles’ diversity and abundance is
diminished number and density of broadleaved species favored by cattle presence (Sasal et al. 2017), without
(Roder et al. 2002). Conversely, positive cattle effects any consequence seen from the disturbances’ history.
were reported favoring germination, seed dispersal,
and flower and fruit production (Fuentes et al. 1989; Conservation of soil features
Venier et al. 2012; de Paz and Raffaele 2013). Similar
positive results were found in others forest and woody Soil properties and functions were scarcely studied in
ecoregions worldwide, such as temperate broadleaf southern South America and response patterns were
forests in Denmark (Bruun and Fritzbøger 2002), variable (positive and negative effects). Stoking
temperate mixed conifer forests in Bhutan Himalayas density is variable among ecosystems, thus this
(Darabant et al. 2007) and African savannas (Goheen influences the effects. Light and moderate grazing
et al. 2010). have effects that are much less significant. Livestock is
considered as important direct and indirect regulators
Conservation of faunal diversity of nutrient cycling; however, idiosyncratic results
have been found in forests and other vegetation types
Conservation of faunal diversity, the second forest (Binkley et al. 2003; Meglioli et al. 2013). Livestock
response variable most studied in the region, report enhance local soil nutrient availability when they
mostly neutral effects. Cattle effects on fauna gather food over a wide area and concentrate it in
depended on the group (e.g., mammals, birds, small spots in dung, urine and carcasses (Pastor et al.

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2006). In riparian zones, grazing decreases resistance needed to elucidate the net effect of cattle as dispersers
to erosion by reducing vegetation and exposing more of native and introduced plants, especially because
vulnerable substrates. silvopastoral systems are encouraging as a forest
management practice in the region (Peri et al. 2016).
Reduction of fire frequency and probability
Maintenance of abiotic conditions
Surprisingly, few publications in southern South
America focused on the relationship between fire Changes in air abiotic conditions due to cattle
and cattle grazing. The relevant role played by large browsing were practically not reported according to
herbivores as regulators of spatial and temporal fire our literature review. The only publication we iden-
dynamics in forests, grasslands and savannas has been tified on this topic showed no effect on air humidity
widely recognized (Hobbs 1996). Basically, cattle and decrease in the air temperature due to cattle
browsing alters fuel quality and quantity. We found presence (Blackhall et al. 2015a). We did not find any
that cattle can modify fire regime, throw selective literature on this issue. This is important due to the
browsing, increasing flammability of forest–shrubland association of high temperatures and low humidity
systems (Blackhall et al. 2015b), mainly in Patagonian directly influences the conditions of the fuels present
forests. For other ecosystems it was slightly reported. in an environment and therefore fire probability
In USA, large herbivores have an important role in (ignition and propagation) (Blackhall et al.
maintaining fire regime and its plant diversity associ- 2012, 2015a).
ated in seasonally arid forest environment (Pekin et al.
2015). In north Australia, due to cattle impacts of fire Conservation of landscape features
regimes, savannas are being transformed into forests
(Sharp and Whittaker 2003; Tasker and Bradstock Changes in landscape structure due to cattle browsing
2006; Lehmann et al. 2014). We found that half of the were scarcely reported. Agricultural boundary is
studies analyzed reported negative effects. Further moving forward from productive areas to inferior
investigations are needed, considering native forests ones pushing livestock to more unfavorable zones, like
and the relation with other disturbances, such as fire, forests. Traditional models of vegetation transition in
with different cattle abundances. forested ecosystems have ignored the influences of
ungulate herbivory, while research on effects of
Prevention of plant invasions herbivory have typically excluded other disturbances
(Wisdom et al. 2006). We contend that useful land-
There is contradictory evidence whether cattle grazing scape research on herbivory must examine the inter-
can hinder or promote invasion of introduced flora actions of ungulate grazing with other disturbance
(Vavra et al. 2007). For our study region, evidence regimes at spatial extents of interest to forest and
available on plant invasion–cattle relationship is rangeland managers and under varying ungulate
scarce and limited to few ecosystems (Chaco, Chilean densities and species.
Matorral and Patagonian Forest). In Chaco, cattle
apparently contributed to control tree invasion through
browsing, relatively more intensively on exotic than Conclusion
on native trees (Capó et al. 2016), while in Patagonia
overgrazing seemed to promote introduced plant Most publications do not report data on cattle abun-
species (Vidal et al. 2011). Other mechanism that dance or density, but rather, when reported, it is
was globally identified to contribute to plant invasion inferred from indirect indexes such as feces and trail
is seed dispersal by animal feces (Gill and Beardall counts, estimation of degree of browsing or interviews
2001). In the only publication that we found reviewing with cattle owners. Future research should include
this topic, apparently cattle and goat disperse (by quantification of cattle stocking (i.e., rate and feeding
consumption) relatively more Acacia caven than behavior) associated with the effects found, to estab-
Prosopis chilensis, leading to a forest composition lish damage thresholds below which it is possible to
transformation (Fuentes et al. 1989). More studies are maintain the values of forest conservation desired and

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make sure it is compatible with the productive levels Belsky AJ, Blumenthal DM (1997) Effects of livestock grazing
of livestock. Different cattle effects found in this study on stand dynamics and soils in upland forests of the interior
west. Conserv Biol 11:315–327. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.
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tina. Biol Conserv 141:2251–2261. https://doi.org/10.
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variables. Although this may limit the generalizations Blackhall M, Raffaele E, Veblen TT (2012) Is foliar flamma-
we can make on cattle grazing effects in this region, bility of woody species related to time since fire and her-
clear patterns emerge from the information gathered bivory in northwest Patagonia, Argentina? J Veg Sci
23:931–941. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-1103.2012.
and analyzed here. We strongly recommend additional 01405.x
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standard experimental methods and metrics, con- nados del fuego y el ganado en matorrales y bosques del
trolled by cattle density. These will allow to substan- noroeste patagónico. Ecol Austral 25:1–10
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tially improve our understanding on the interactions cattle herbivory enhance plant-level fuel flammability in
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Acknowledgments We thank two anonymous reviewers for Capó EA, Aguilar R, Renison D (2016) Livestock reduces
their comments that significantly improved the manuscript. Dr. juvenile tree growth of alien invasive species with a min-
C. Tellaeche helped with the map and Dr. S. R. Moyano assisted imal effect on natives: a field experiment using exclosures.
with the cluster analysis figure. This study was supported by a Biol Invasions 18:2943–2950. https://doi.org/10.1007/
doctoral fellowship from Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones s10530-016-1185-3
Cientı́ficas y Técnicas de Argentina (CONICET) to F.M.; a Cingolani AM, Posse G, Collantes MB (2005) Plant functional
research grant from the Unit for Rural Change, Ministry of traits, herbivore selectivity and response to sheep grazing
Agroindustry (UCAR-PIA 14037-2015) to L.R.M. and F.M.; in Patagonian steppe grasslands. J Appl Ecol 42:50–59.
and a Rufford Small Grant from the Rufford Foundation to F.M. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2004.00978.x
Cingolani AM, Noy-Meir I, Renison DD, Cabido M (2008) La
ganaderı́a extensiva:> es compatible con la conservación de
la biodiversidad y de los suelos? Ecol Austral 18:253–271
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