What is it about?
Savannas often comprise a heterogeneous grass layer with short grazing lawns interspersed with tall tufted bunch grasses. This difference in height can either result from a higher productivity of tall grasses, or from a higher consumption of short grasses by large herbivores. We show that short grasses are mainly short because of their low productivity.
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Why is it important?
Grazing lawns are preferred by wild and domestic herbivores and it is often suggested that this is due to their high productivity. We have shown that these short grasses are not more productive, so that it is more likely that their attractiveness is explained by their higher nutritional value.
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This page is a summary of: Grassland structural heterogeneity in a savanna is driven more by productivity differences than by consumption differences between lawn and bunch grasses, Oecologia, August 2016, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/s00442-016-3698-y.
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