Livestock grazing regulates ecosystem multifunctionality in semi‐arid grassland

Abstract

Livestock grazing has been shown to alter the structure and functions of grassland ecosystems. It is well acknowledged that grazing pressure is one of the strongest drivers of ecosystem‐level effects of grazing, but few studies have assessed how grazing pressure impacts grassland biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF). Here, we assessed how different metrics of biodiversity (i.e., plants and soil microbes) and EMF responded to seven different grazing treatments based on an 11‐year field experiment in semi‐arid Inner Mongolian steppe. We found that soil organic carbon, plant‐available nitrogen and plant functional diversity all decreased even at low grazing pressure, while above‐ground primary production and bacterial abundance decreased only at high levels of grazing pressure. Structural equation models revealed that EMF was driven by direct effects of grazing, rather than the effects of grazing on plant or microbial community composition. Grazing effects on plant functional diversity and soil microbial abundance did have moderate effects on EMF, while plant richness did not. Synthesis. Our results showed ecosystem functions differ in their sensitivity to grazing pressure, requiring a low grazing threshold to achieve multiple goals in the Eurasian steppe. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13215/suppinfo is available for this article.

Light grazing facilitates carbon accumulation in subsoil in Chinese grasslands: A meta‐analysis

“…The vertical line means RR ++ = 0. HG, heavy grazing; LG, light grazing; MG, moderate grazing [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] (Figure 3), a finding that contradicts several earlier reports (Hao & He, 2019;Ren et al, 2018;Zhou et al, 2017). We believe that the difference is due to the fact that the present study also took into account the differences in grazing intensities, whereas many earlier studies had focused only on HG.…”

Relationships between the distribution of wildlife and livestock diversity

“…In human‐modified ecosystems, herbivory has largely been driven by the locally adapted diversity of domesticated animals. Because of this, livestock diversity has helped shaping plan structure and composition, which in turn influences the diversity of animals in a bottom‐up process (Arcoverde, Andersen, & Setterfield, 2017; Gómez‐Sal, 2017; Ren et al, 2018; Török et al, 2016). In addition, livestock diversity acts as a driver and provider of ecosystem services—for example, food and resource provision, shelter and habitat maintenance for wild species—which depend on different productive systems and practices (Leroy et al, 2018).…”

A dataset of plant and microbial community structure after long-term grazing and mowing in a semiarid steppe

“…The study area included two blocks (i.e., flat and sloped blocks), with each block further divided into seven plots. We included flat and sloped blocks because our project was designed to assess the impacts of grazing at spatial scales that are both relevant to land management and that can capture ecosystem and landscape-scale effects of grazing 24 . It is unrealistic to conduct such a study in an area with no variation in topography.…”