Rangelands provide ecosystem services that are economically and ecologically critical for humans. Globally, invasion of exotic grasses drives loss of biodiversity and resilience of rangelands. In South Texas, buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris syn. Pennisetum ciliare [L.] Link), a C4 perennial grass, was brought from Africa for range improvement as early as the 1930s. Buffelgrass generally increases forage biomass for livestock yet reduces habitat suitability for wildlife. Interest in controlling buffelgrass has increased due to its negative impacts on iconic wildlife, such as whitetailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus, Zimmermann 1780) and northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus, Linnaeus 1758). The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a targeted grazing strategy that used buffelgrass and plant community phenology as indicators to determine the timing of cattle movement. On two private ranches in different ecoregions, we tracked targeted grazing versus light grazing in native-dominated and buffelgrass-dominated plant communities across variable precipitation through five growing seasons. We measured the effects of grazing type, plant community type, and precipitation on buffelgrass cover, native plant species richness, foliar cover, and Shannon diversity. Targeted grazing had a strong impact on diversity, increasing 0.37 ± 0.07 from a mean of H = 1.29 under the targeted grazing management. Conversely, buffelgrass cover was negatively correlated with Shannon diversity, decreasing it by 0.075 ± 0.03 for every 10% increase in buffelgrass cover from a mean of H = 1.29. Despite a variability in precipitation across seasons and years (93−455 mm), targeted grazing improved species richness and cover of native plants throughout the study. Our findings suggest that targeted grazing shows promise as an adaptive grazing strategy that reduces the impact of buffelgrass across highly variable precipitation. In unpredictable environments, management techniques that improve the resilience of plant communities through preserving biodiversity are critical.

牧场提供的生态系统服务对人类在经济和生态上至关重要。在全球范围内，外来草的入侵导致生物多样性的丧失和牧场的复原力。在南得克萨斯州，早在1930年代就从非洲引进了C4多年生草本植物水牛草（Cenchrus ciliaris syn。Pennisetum ciliare [L.] Link）。水牛草通常会增加牲畜的饲料生物量，但会降低其对野生动植物的栖息地适应性。由于其对标志性野生生物的负面影响，例如白尾鹿（Odocoileus virginianus，Zimmermann 1780）和北方鲍勃怀特（Colinus virginianus，林奈（1758）。这项研究的目的是评估以放牧和植物群落物候学为指标来确定牛迁徙时机的有针对性的放牧策略的效果。在不同生态区域的两个私人牧场上，我们在五个生长季节的不同降水过程中，追踪了以本地为主导和以水牛草为主导的植物群落的目标放牧与轻度放牧。我们测量了放牧类型，植物群落类型和降水对水牛草覆盖，原生植物物种丰富度，叶面覆盖和香农多样性的影响。有针对性的放牧对多样性有很大影响，在有针对性的放牧管理下，目标放牧从H = 1.29的平均值增加0.37±0.07。相反，水牛草覆盖率与香农多样性呈负相关，降低了0.075±0。水牛草覆盖率每增加10％，则H平均值为1.29，则为03。尽管整个季节和年份（93-455毫米）的降水量都有变化，但在整个研究过程中，有针对性的放牧提高了物种的丰富性和原生植物的覆盖率。我们的研究结果表明，有针对性的放牧显示出有望作为一种适应性放牧策略，从而减少水牛草在高度变化的降水中的影响。在不可预测的环境中，通过保护生物多样性来提高植物群落适应力的管理技术至关重要。我们的研究结果表明，有针对性的放牧显示出有望作为一种适应性放牧策略，从而减少水牛草在高度变化的降水中的影响。在不可预测的环境中，通过保护生物多样性来提高植物群落适应力的管理技术至关重要。我们的研究结果表明，有针对性的放牧显示出有望作为一种适应性放牧策略，从而减少水牛草在高度变化的降水中的影响。在不可预测的环境中，通过保护生物多样性来提高植物群落适应力的管理技术至关重要。