Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Kuss, F.R. (University of Maryland, College Park, MD)
• Hall, C.N

Titel

Ground flora trampling studies: five years after closure

Ist Teil von

• Environmental management (New York), 1991-09, Vol.15 (5), p.715-727

Ort / Verlag

New York, NY: Springer

Erscheinungsjahr

1991

Quelle

SpringerLINK Contemporary (Konsortium Baden-Württemberg)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The purpose of this study was to follow the recolonization of experimental trail surfaces barren of vegetative cover and hiked at three levels of use intensity. Results of this study indicate that soil compaction as measured by soil penetration resistance increased progressively with use level while the total number of species, species diversity, and dominant index scores declined. A major finding was that the greatest degree of change occurred at the first level of hiking, indicating that major floristic measures were most affected by the least amount of hiking. Recolonization of impacted areas that received 100 trampling passes as measured by plant cover, dominant indices, floristic dissimilarity, and species diversity was similar to areas receiving four and eight times more trampling, despite major differences in soil penetration resistance. These data suggest limited use delivered at one time can be as damaging as increasing levels of use delivered over time.