The effects of cattle on the development of plant communities in rehabilitating coastal dune forests at Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Abstract

The effects of cattle on the herbaceous layer of coastal dune forest plant communities were investigated from May 1994 to March 1996 using an experimental application of three levels of grazing in a 16-year old stand of rehabilitating coastal dune forest north-east of Richards Bay. Rainfall had a dominant effect on all variables, but it was the same over all treatment levels. Treatment level did not affect species composition. Most of the univariate variables measured showed an interaction between time and level of treatment, with very few significant treatment effects. Significant effects were generally independent of the level of treatment. However, the presence of cattle caused a consistent treatment-dependent increase in coefficient of variation in almost all measured univariate variables. This probably has long term implications for the development of the plant community. It is concluded that cattle do have significant effects on some measures of species richness and vegetation cover of the herb layer, but it is not possible to state without any doubt that cattle will affect the process of succession significantly.