Encroachment diminishes herbaceous plant diversity in grassy ecosystems worldwide.

ABSTRACT: Woody encroachment is ubiquitous in grassy ecosystems worldwide, but its global impacts on the diversity of herbaceous plants that characterise and define these ecosystems remain unquantified. The pervasiveness of encroachment is relatively easily observed via remote sensing, but its impacts on plant diversity and richness below the canopy can only be observed via field-based studies. Via a meta-analysis of 42 field studies across tropical to temperate grassy ecosystems, we quantified how encroachment altered herbaceous species richness, and the richness of forbs, C₃ graminoids and C₄ graminoids. Across studies, the natural logarithm of the response ratio (lnRR) of herbaceous species richness ranged from -3.33 to 0.34 with 87% of encroached ecosystems negatively impac

SUBMITTER: Wieczorkowski JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9544121 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature