Long-term response of an herbaceous sward to reduced grazing pressure and rainfall variability in a semi-arid South African savanna

Reduced grazing pressure is expected to promote recovery of degraded semi-arid savanna. Transformation of degraded livestock ranches to a wildlife reserve in 1982 created a system with about one-third of the grazing pressure, which was maintained until 2011. Herbaceous composition and condition were monitored on four occasions between 1982 and 2011. Baseline measurements were taken following eight years of above-average rainfall conditions. Palatable perennial grasses and sward condition deteriorated markedly in response to severe, sustained drought during the early 1990s. Perennial grasses did not respond to a single record high rainfall season (2000) but recovered following a sequence of four above-average years (2008-2011). This monitoring study illustrated that recovery of a degraded semi-arid savanna may require decades of reduced grazing pressure for some degree of recovery in the absence of intervention. An appropriate time frame for management of these systems is in the order of a century.