Dataset Information

Experimental impacts of grazing on grassland biodiversity and function are explained by aridity.

ABSTRACT: Grazing by domestic herbivores is the most widespread land use on the planet, and also a major global change driver in grasslands. Yet, experimental evidence on the long-term impacts of livestock grazing on biodiversity and function is largely lacking. Here, we report results from a network of 10 experimental sites from paired grazed and ungrazed grasslands across an aridity gradient, including some of the largest remaining native grasslands on the planet. We show that aridity partly explains the responses of biodiversity and multifunctionality to long-term livestock grazing. Grazing greatly reduced biodiversity and multifunctionality in steppes with higher aridity, while had no effects in steppes with relatively lower aridity. Moreover, we found that long-term grazing further changed the capacity of above- and below-ground biodiversity to explain multifunctionality. Thus, while plant diversity was positively correlated with multifunctionality across grasslands with excluded livestock, soil biodiversity was positively correlated with multifunctionality across grazed grasslands. Together, our cross-site experiment reveals that the impacts of long-term grazing on biodiversity and function depend on aridity levels, with the more arid sites experiencing more negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality. We also highlight the fundamental importance of conserving soil biodiversity for protecting multifunctionality in widespread grazed grasslands.

SUBMITTER: Zhang M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10439935 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Experimental impacts of grazing on grassland biodiversity and function are explained by aridity.

Zhang Minna M Delgado-Baquerizo Manuel M Li Guangyin G Isbell Forest F Wang Yue Y Hautier Yann Y Wang Yao Y Xiao Yingli Y Cai Jinting J Pan Xiaobin X Wang Ling L

Nature communications 20230819 1

Grazing by domestic herbivores is the most widespread land use on the planet, and also a major global change driver in grasslands. Yet, experimental evidence on the long-term impacts of livestock grazing on biodiversity and function is largely lacking. Here, we report results from a network of 10 experimental sites from paired grazed and ungrazed grasslands across an aridity gradient, including some of the largest remaining native grasslands on the planet. We show that aridity partly explains th ...[more]

PMID: 37598205

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Project description:In the Palaearctic steppe zone, overgrazing was identified as one of the key drivers of declining grassland biodiversity, which underlines the necessity of the functional evaluation of increased grazing pressure on grassland vegetation. We tested the following hypotheses: (a) The effect of grazing intensity on species and functional diversity is strongly dependent on grassland type. (b) The magnitude of diet selectivity of grazers decreases with increasing grazing intensity. (c) Increasing grazing intensity increases evenness and functional evenness of the subjected grasslands. We analyzed vegetation patterns in four types of grasslands (Dry alkali short-grass steppes, Dry loess steppes, Non-alkali wet and Alkali wet grasslands) along an intensity gradient of beef cattle grazing at 73 sites in Hungary. Species richness, Shannon diversity, evenness, and four leaf traits were analyzed. We calculated community-weighted means for each single trait, and multi-trait functional richness, functional evenness, and divergence for all leaf traits. All species and functional diversity metrics were significantly affected by the grassland type, except leaf dry matter content. The effect of interaction between grazing intensity and grassland type was also significant for functional richness, functional evenness, community-weighted means of leaf area, and for species richness and evenness. An upward trend of specific leaf area was detected in all grasslands with the highest scores for the overgrazed sites, but the change was also grassland type dependent. The detected trend suggests that with increased intensity the overall selectivity of grazing decreased. We found that evenness was affected but functional evenness was not affected by grazing intensity. Functional evenness scores were more related to the grassland type than to changes in grazing intensity, and displayed a high variability. We stress that one-size-fits-all strategies cannot be recommended and actions should be fine-tuned at least at the level of grassland type.

Project description:Extensively managed pastures are of crucial importance in sustaining biodiversity both in local- and landscape-level. Thus, re-introduction of traditional grazing management is a crucial issue in grassland conservation actions worldwide. Traditional grazing with robust cattle breeds in low stocking rates is considered to be especially useful to mimic natural grazing regimes, but well documented case-studies are surprisingly rare on this topic. Our goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional Hungarian Grey cattle grazing as a conservation action in a mosaic alkali landscape. We asked the following questions: (i) How does cattle grazing affect species composition and diversity of the grasslands? (ii) What are the effects of grazing on short-lived and perennial noxious species? (iii) Are there distinct effects of grazing in dry-, mesophilous- and wet grassland types? Vegetation of fenced and grazed plots in a 200-ha sized habitat complex (secondary dry grasslands and pristine mesophilous- and wet alkali grasslands) was sampled from 2006-2009 in East-Hungary. We found higher diversity scores in grazed plots compared to fenced ones in mesophilous- and wet grasslands. Higher cover of noxious species was typical in fenced plots compared to their grazed counterparts in the last year in every studied grassland type. We found an increasing effect of grazing from the dry- towards the wet grassland types. The year-to-year differences also followed similar pattern: the site-dependent effects were the lowest in the dry grassland and an increasing effect was detected along the moisture gradient. We found that extensive Hungarian Grey cattle grazing is an effective tool to suppress noxious species and to create a mosaic vegetation structure, which enables to maintain high species richness in the landscape. Hungarian Grey cattle can feed in open habitats along long moisture gradient, thus in highly mosaic landscapes this breed can be the most suitable livestock type.

Dataset Information

Experimental impacts of grazing on grassland biodiversity and function are explained by aridity.

Publications

Experimental impacts of grazing on grassland biodiversity and function are explained by aridity.

Similar Datasets

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