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The most striking change in the vegetation produced by the cattle grazing has been the reduction
in the cover of Purple Moor-grass and the disintegration of many of its large tussocks. This is
shown in the results for both plots with a reduction in cover from 82% to 59% in the northern
plot (see Table 4a below), which was dominated by the grass, and from 87% to 42% in the
southern plot (sec Tabic 3a below) where Bracken is co-dominant. This is further emphasised by
the numbers of living tussocks greater than 5cm high within each quadrat. The average per
quadrat fell from 3.6 to 1.0 in the northern plot (Table 4b below) and from 2.4 to 0.8 tussocks in
the southern plot (Table 3b below).
Wavy Hair-grass
In response to the decline in Purple Moor-grass other grasses have increased and. in particular,
Wavy Hair-grass. In the northern plot its frequency has risen significantly from 60% to 100% of
quadrats (Table 4a) whilst in the Bracken-dominated southern plot the increase has been less
dramatic from 57% to 70% (Table 3a).
Table 3a Changes in the frequency of occurrence of plant species as a
result of grazing in the Bracken-dominated Southern Grid.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 16 (1999)