Recovery of tall cotton-grass following real and simulated feeding by snowgeese

Lesser snow geese Anser caerulescens caerulescens from the western Canadian Arctic feed on underground parts of tall cotton-grass Eriophorum angustifo lium during autumn staging on the coastal plain of the Beaufort Sea in Cana da and Alaska. We studied revegetation of sites where cotton-grass had been removed either by human-imprinted snow geese or by hand to simulate snow g oose feeding. Aerial cover of cotton-grass at sites (n = 4) exploited by hu man-imprinted snow geese averaged 60 and 39% lower than in undisturbed cont rol plots during the first and second year after feeding, respectively. Und erground biomass of cotton-grass stembases and rhizomes in hand-treated plo ts was 80 and 62% less than in control plots 2 and 4 yr after removal, resp ectively (n = 10 yr(-1)). Aerial cover and biomass of common non-forage spe cies such as Carex aquatilis did not increase on treated areas. Removal of cotton-grass by geese likely reduces forage availability at exploited sites for at least 2-4 yr after feeding but probably does not affect long-term c ommunity composition. Temporal heterogeneity in forage abundance likely con tributes to the large spatial requirement of snow geese during staging.