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Figure 5 in The effect of grazing by geese, goats, and fallow deer on soil mites (Acari)

Figure 5. Percentage ratio of adult and juvenile oribatids at goose pasture and corresponding meadow. Oribatida: A_ col – Achipteria coleoptrata, E_occ – Eupelops occultus, L_sim – Liebstadia similis, M_pul – Metabelba pulverosa, P_pel – Platynothrus peltifer, P_pun – Punctoribates punctum, S_lae – Scheloribates laevigatus, S_imm – Sellnickochthonius immaculatus, T_vel – Tectocepheus velatus, T_nov – Trichoribates novus.

Figure 3 in The effect of grazing by geese, goats, and fallow deer on soil mites (Acari)

Figure 3. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) for most abundant oribatid species with A> 0.5. Soil components and plant community, eigenvalues for axis 1 ʎ = 0.53 (72.0%), for axis 2 ʎ = 0.14 (19.2%), permutation test of first axis F = 0.7, p = 0.376. GM – goose meadow, GP – goose pasture, GoM – goat meadow, GoP – goat pasture, FM – fallow deer meadow, FP – fallow deer pasture, A_col – Achipteria coleoptrata, E_occ – Eupelops occultus, L_sim – Liebstadia similis, M_pul – Metabelba pulverosa, P_pel – Platynothrus peltifer, P_pun – Punctoribates punctum, S_lae – Scheloribates laevigatus, S_imm – Sellnickochthonius immaculatus, T_vel – Tectocepheus velatus, T_nov – Trichoribates novus.

Figure 1 in The effect of grazing by geese, goats, and fallow deer on soil mites (Acari)

Figure 1. Location of the study plots. Go – goat pasture and meadow, G – goose pasture and meadow, F – fallow deer pasture and meadow.

Figure 7 in The effect of grazing by geese, goats, and fallow deer on soil mites (Acari)

Figure 7. Percentage ratio of adult and juvenile oribatids at fallow deer pasture and corresponding meadow. Oribatida: A_col – Achipteria coleoptrata, E_occ – Eupelops occultus, L_sim – Liebstadia similis, M_pul – Metabelba pulverosa, P_pel – Platynothrus peltifer, P_pun – Punctoribates punctum, S_lae – Scheloribates laevigatus, S_imm – Sellnickochthonius immaculatus, T_vel – Tectocepheus velatus, T_nov – Trichoribates novus.

publicMar 2025View details →

dryad40/100

Effects of riparian grazing on distinct phosphorus sources

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edi40/100

Evolutionary history of grazing and resources determine herbivore exclusion effects on plant diversity

Ecological models predict that the effects of mammalian herbivore exclusion on plant diversity depend on resource availability and plant exposure to ungulate grazing over evolutionary time. Using an experiment replicated in 57 grasslands on six continents, with contrasting evolutionary history of grazing, we tested how resources (mean annual precipitation and soil nutrients) determine herbivore exclusion effects on plant diversity, richness, and evenness. Here we show that at sites with a long history of ungulate grazing, herbivore exclusion reduced plant diversity by reducing both richness and evenness, and the responses of richness and diversity to herbivore exclusion decreased with mean annual precipitation. At short with a short history of grazing, the effects of herbivore exclusion were not related to precipitation but differed for native and exotic plant richness. Thus, plant species’ evolutionary history of grazing continues to shape the response of the world’s grasslands to changing mammalian herbivory.

openCC (other)Apr 2022View details →

opencc-zeroAug 2020View details →

Livestock and kangaroo grazing have little effect on biomass and fuel hazard in semi-arid woodlands

<ol> <li>Using livestock grazing as a tool to manage biomass and reduce fuel hazard has gained widespread popularity, but examples from across the globe demonstrate that it often yields mixed, context-dependent results. Grazing has potential to deliver practical solutions in systems where grazing reduces not only biomass but also reduces fuel hazard by altering vegetation connectivity or composition.</li> <li>We assessed the extent to which recent rainfall, rabbit and kangaroo grazing and recent and historic livestock grazing alters and accounts for variation in above-ground biomass, biomass composition and fuel hazard ratings across three broad communities in eastern Australia. We used nested linear models to assess biomass in three vertical vegetation strata, that matched the strata assessed in the Overall Fuel Hazard Assessment guide (i.e. litter/surface fuel; groundstorey vegetation/near surface fuel; and midstorey vegetation/elevated fuel) and Ordinal Logistic Regression to assess categorical fuel hazard ratings.</li> <li>Only recent kangaroo grazing reduced groundstorey biomass across all communities. Kangaroo grazing altered litter mass and significantly reduced surface fuel hazard in one community. Recent livestock grazing did not reduce fuel hazard, and despite significantly reducing half of our measures of biomass, these were not practical reductions. For instance, livestock grazing significantly reduced litter mass, however our model predicts that doubling our assessment of livestock grazing intensity only reduces total litter mass by 0.8 %, or 8 kg per hectare in landscapes where average litter loads ranged from 3,600 to 12,600 kg per hectare. Furthermore, long-term livestock grazing increased shrub biomass and in one community this increased elevated fuel hazard. There were few effects of rabbits. The effects of rainfall on biomass were up to an order of magnitude greater than any effects due to grazing.</li> <li> Synthesis and applications: Our data suggest that management practices that seek to use livestock grazing to reduce biomass in these systems will not achieve practical reductions in biomass and or fuel hazard.</li> </ol>

opencc-zeroSep 2020View details →

Grazing and climate change have site-dependent interactive effects on vegetation in Asian montane rangelands

1. Climate over Asian montane rangelands is changing faster than the global average, posing serious threats to the future of the region's livestock-based economies and cultures. Effects of climate change on rangeland vegetation likely depend on grazing by herbivores but the potential responses of vegetation to such changes in climate and grazing regimes remains unclear. 2. We examined vegetation responses to experimentally simulated climate change (warming, drought and increased rainfall) and grazing (clipping vegetation) between 2015-2018 at two mountain rangeland sites: Spiti valley, in the Indian Trans-Himalaya and Tost, in the Gobi-Altai Mountains in Mongolia. 3. Clipping and climate change manipulations interactively reduced vegetation cover and biomass but did not affect species richness. Treatment effects and their interactions varied between sites. In ungrazed plots, vegetation cover and biomass declined sharply in response to warming (18-35%) and drought (20-50%) at the two sites, and, surprisingly also declined slightly in response to increased rainfall (20%) at Tost. While the effects of climate treatments were largely similar in the grazed and ungrazed plots in Tost, they were larger in the ungrazed plots in Spiti. The decline in vegetation cover was driven by a decline in the cover of both forbs and grasses. 4. In combination, grazing and warming (Tost) or drought (Spiti) had sub-additive effects, i.e., the decrease in vegetation cover in response to grazing and warming/drought was less than the sum of their independent effects but greater than the effect of either manipulation alone. Of the two, warming had a greater effect than drought at the more arid site (Tost), while drought had a larger effect at the more mesic site (Spiti). Synthesis and applications. Our findings show that future changes in climate, including just over 1oC of warming, could undermine the sustainability of pastoral economies and the persistence of wildlife across Asian montane rangelands. Further, grazing by herbivores will play an important role in mediating rangeland responses to climate change; thus, pasture management in concert with local pastoralists will be crucial in mitigating the adverse effects of climate change on rangelands, pastoral livelihoods and wildlife populations.

opencc-zeroDec 2020View details →

Shifts in plant composition mediate grazing effects on carbon cycling in grasslands

Carbon cycling in grasslands can be impacted by livestock grazing, partially as an indirect result of herbivory-induced compositional shifts in the plant community. However, the underlying mechanisms of how these shifts impact carbon cycling are not well documented. We conducted a long-term grazing experiment with four sheep stocking rates in the semi-arid grasslands of Inner Mongolia, China, to examine grazing effects on the ratio of C3 to C4 species (C3:C4), shoot biomass, root biomass, root:shoot, soil respiration, soil C, soil N, and soil C:N between 2014 and 2018. We explored the responses of these carbon metrics to C3:C4 under different grazing treatments and the mechanisms driving grazing-induced carbon loss using structural equation models. Livestock grazing directly shifted plant community composition (i.e., increasing C3:C4) and reduced vegetation carbon (i.e., shoot biomass), whereas grazing effects on belowground carbon were mediated by the interactions of the soil profile (i.e., depth-dependence) and year-to-year variation (e.g., rainfall regulation). Grazing-induced increases in C3:C4 suppressed soil carbon loss by inhibiting the rate of soil respiration. Furthermore, grazing intensity indirectly altered these relationships. Specifically, C3:C4 was positively related to shoot biomass and negatively associated with root:shoot, soil C, and soil N, whereas these relationships were only significant in no-grazed plots. Meanwhile, soil respiration was negatively associated with C3:C4, soil C, soil N, and soil C:N, but a positive relationship with shoot biomass; these relationships were significant only in grazed-plots. <a> Synthesis and applications.</a> Our findings emphasize the functional linkages between community characteristics and ecosystem processes, i.e. shifts in plant community composition play a key role in regulating grassland carbon cycling. These results provide a useful field-observed resource for model development and could improve the guidelines for livestock management and policies regarding climate <a>mitigation.</a>

opencc-zeroDec 2020View details →

Legacy effect of grazing intensity mediates the bottom-up controls of resource addition on soil food webs

1. Large-scale studies have demonstrated that nitrogen (N) and water (W) availability greatly affect terrestrial ecosystems worldwide, and this is especially true for the resource-poor semi-arid grasslands. Yet, experimental evidence is lacking for how N and W availability affect soil food webs across historical grazing intensity-altered environments at a local scale. 2. Here, we included N- and W-addition treatments in an 8-year grazing experiment (with four grazing intensities) to determine how the legacy effects of grazing intensity mediate the responses of key components of soil food webs (plants, microorganisms, and nematodes) to resource addition in a semi-arid grassland. 3. After 4 years of N- and W-addition treatments (with no grazing during that 4-year period), we found that a legacy of grazing, even light grazing, had significant negative effects on the components of plant community and soil food webs. Both N and W addition increased above- and below-ground plant biomass, especially under moderate and heavy grazing. N addition had negative effects on the biomass of bacteria under no grazing, while W addition increased the biomass of actinomycetes under light grazing. N addition decreased the abundance of omnivorous + carnivorous nematodes under light and heavy grazing, while W addition increased their abundance under heavy grazing. Overall, the effects of resource addition on soil food webs progressively decreased from the lowest trophic level (primary producers, i.e., plants), to intermediate tropic levels (microorganisms and root-feeding nematodes), to higher trophic levels (microbial-feeding nematodes and omnivorous + carnivorous nematodes). 4. Synthesis and applications. Our results, which are the first data concerning the effects of resource addition on key components of soil food webs across a historical grazing-induced environmental gradient, show that the strong bottom-up controls of resource addition on soil food webs are mediated by the legacy of grazing intensity. These finding should be useful for predicting the responses of grassland ecosystems to future climate change and suggest that the recovery of degraded grasslands will require more than restoration measure of resource inputs alone.

opencc-zeroNov 2023View details →

Data from: Cascading effects of earthworm invasion in tundra increase graminoid density and rodent grazing intensities

Earthworms are being introduced to numerous ecosystems through human activities. Some non-native earthworm species have the potential to 'geoengineer' soils and increase plant nitrogen (N) uptake, but if the increased plant N concentrations can cause increased rodent grazing is not well known. In this study, we present findings from a common garden experiment with two tundra communities, meadow (forb dominated) and heath (shrub dominated), half of them subjected to four years of earthworm presence (Lumbricus spp. and Aporrectodea spp.). Within four summers, our earthworm treatment changed plant community composition by increasing graminoid density by on average 94 % in the heath vegetation and by 49 % in the meadow. Rodent winter grazing were more intense on plants growing in soils with earthworms, an effect that coincided with higher nitrogen concentrations in plants indicating a higher palatability. Moreover, although the earthworms decreased soil moisture, our proxy for plant community photosynthesis (greenness) was not negatively affected. We conclude that earthworm-induced changes in plant composition and trophic interactions may radically alter the functioning of tundra ecosystems.

zenodo36/100

The Highs and Lows of Grazing: Effects of Ungulates and Elevation on Grassland and Sagebrush Steppe Vegetation Composition in Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park’s Northern Range is emblematic for the wolves, bison and elk that inhabit its grassland and sagebrush-steppe habitats.  Their interactions and populations have been the focus of considerable conservation debate. Recent changes in ungulate populations provide an opportunity to examine their influence on the vegetation communities. We conducted expansive vegetation surveys along an elevation gradient and at exclosure sites where ungulates were unable to graze. We collected a large database (n = 620 quadrats), which we analyzed using classic community ecology approaches. We found that non-native species have higher abundances at low elevations, and that grazing by ungulates reduces beta diversity and native cover, while promoting non-native cover. The magnitude of these changes are greater in bison-dominated than elk-dominated areas of Yellowstone, suggesting that bison may be overgrazing. These results provide valuable insights into major factors shaping vegetation communities, while also contextualizing management practices in a world-renowned ecosystem.   Please respect licensing, and contact the corresponding author for permission to use this dataset in any research or publications.

opencc-by-4.0Apr 2024View details →

opencc-zeroJan 2022View details →

Grazing changes the direction of direct effect of shrubs on nematode communities but suppresses indirect effects through microbial pathways

It is well established that dominant plants shape belowground communities, which in turn influence ecosystem functioning. Similarly, herbivores affect belowground communities through physical disturbance and redistribution of organic inputs, but also through their interactions with the plants themselves. However, we know little about how grazing moderates effects of dominant plants on belowground organisms. We established a three-year removal experiment in a grazed and an ungrazed alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau to explore how grazing mediates the effects of the dominant shrub, Dosiphora fruticosa, on nematode communities. We applied structural equation modelling to assess how grazing moderates the effects of D. fruticosa on nematode communities both directly and indirectly via changes in soil physicochemical properties, root biomass and microbial communities. We found that 1) grazing changed the direction of the direct effect of shrub on nematode communities as indicated by the shift from a negative to a positive path coefficient; 2) shrub affected nematode richness mainly through microbial richness. Accordingly, nematode community composition was more closely related to microbial community composition in the ungrazed alpine meadow, while edaphic properties were stronger predictors of nematode community composition responses to shrubs in the grazed meadow; and 3) grazing suppressed the indirect effects of shrub on nematode communities via microbial communities. Our study shows that grazing plays an important role in regulating dominant plant's effects on belowground community composition and interactions in alpine meadows.

opencc-zeroFeb 2022View details →

A meta-analysis of the effects of habitat aridity, evolutionary history of grazing, and grazing intensity on bee and butterfly communities worldwide

A variety of habitat-associated factors moderate effects of grazing on insect biodiversity. Here, we examine how aridity, evolutionary history of grazing, and grazing intensity individually and interactively mediate the effect of livestock grazing on pollinator diversity (native bees and butterflies). Using a meta-analysis of 59 studies published in the primary literature we characterized the response of pollinator communities to grazing across several continents. In very humid habitats high grazing intensities generally had negative impacts on pollinator abundance and richness, but these effects were not found in semi-arid habitats, where livestock grazing intensity did not interact with aridity to impact pollinator abundance or richness. However, within semi-arid habitats livestock grazing was associated with reduced pollinator richness in areas with short evolutionary histories grazing. Pollinator life history mediated effects of livestock grazing on pollinator communities: livestock grazing had negative impacts on richness of social bees and butterflies but not solitary bees, though abundances of all three pollinator categories were consistently reduced under livestock grazing. Our synthesis suggests that effects of cattle on pollinators may be driven by impacts on nesting habitats (e.g., soil compaction), rather than consumption or alteration of forb cover. Our collective findings have importance for coordinating grazing management and pollinator conservation efforts and help to distinguish how grazing practices could impact pollinator biodiversity across ecoclimatic regions.