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

This study investigates the long-term impacts of livestock grazing on grassland biodiversity and function across an aridity gradient. A network of 10 experimental sites with paired grazed and ungrazed grasslands revealed that aridity significantly influences the effects of grazing. Higher aridity led to greater reductions in biodiversity and multifunctionality under grazing, while lower aridity sites showed no significant impact. Long-term grazing altered the relationship between biodiversity and multifunctionality, with soil biodiversity becoming more important in grazed grasslands compared to plant diversity in ungrazed grasslands. The study highlights the vulnerability of arid grasslands to grazing and emphasizes the importance of conserving soil biodiversity for maintaining ecosystem multifunctionality in grazed grasslands.

Minna Zhang, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Guangyin Li, Forest Isbell, Yue Wang, Yann Hautier, Yao Wang, Yingli Xiao, Jinting Cai, Xiaobin Pan, Ling Wang