10.57647/jrs-2026-1601.02

Cutting Date Impact on the Herbaceous Layer in Sahelian Rangeland During the Wet Season

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  • Simon Taugourdeau*1,2,
  • Ousmane Diatta3,
  • Ousmane Ndiaye3,
  • Sekouna Diatta4,
  • Abdoul Aziz Diouf5,
  • Mohammed Habibou Assouma1,2,
  • Paulo Salgado1,2,
  • Denis Bastianelli1,2,
  1. CIRAD UMR SELMET, Dakar, Senegal
  2. UMR SELMET, University Montpellier, INRAE, Institute Agro, CIRAD, Montpellier, France
  3. ISRA CRZ, Dahra Djoloff, Senegal
  4. Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Science and Technology, UCAD, Dakar, Senegal
  5. CSE - PPZS, Dakar, Senegal

Received: 2025-02-07

Revised: 2025-04-23

Accepted: 2025-05-03

Published in Issue 2026-03-31

Copyright (c) 2025 Simon Taugourdeau, Ousmane Diatta, Ousmane Ndiaye, Sekouna Diatta, Abdoul Aziz Diouf, Mohammed Habibou Assouma, Paulo Salgado, Denis Bastianelli (Author)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Taugourdeau, S., Diatta, O., Ndiaye, O., Diatta, S., Diouf, A. A., Habibou Assouma, M., Salgado, P., & Bastianelli, D. (2026). Cutting Date Impact on the Herbaceous Layer in Sahelian Rangeland During the Wet Season. Journal of Rangeland Science, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.57647/jrs-2026-1601.02
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Abstract

Annual herbaceous vegetation is a crucial source of forage for pastoral livestock in the Sahel region. These species grow during the wet season, which coincides with the peak grazing period. Understanding the impact of disturbances on annual herbaceous vegetation is then essential. This study focuses on the temporal aspects of disturbance. In northern Senegal, we established nine different plots and cut them weekly during the wet season and returned to each plot at the end of the season to create a gradient of cutting dates. We measured the plant’s phenology, height, dry biomass, and fodder quality. Our results indicated that vegetation growth occurs in three phases: establishment, growth, and flowering. The impact of cutting varied across these phases. Plots cut during the establishment phase exhibited vegetation characteristics similar to those of uncut plots. Plots cut during the growth phase had reduced vegetation height but all individuals completed their growth cycle. Plots cut during the flowering phase had significantly lower biomass at the end of the season and experienced a slight delay in phenological development and increase the quality of the fodder at the end of the season. These findings highlight the importance of cutting timing on vegetation dynamics.

Keywords

  • Phenology,
  • Dry mass,
  • Fodder quality,
  • Seasonality
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