10.5061/DRYAD.2FQZ612K0
Wang, Chao
0000-0002-8916-4735
Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences
Tang, Yujia
Capital Normal University
Data from: A global meta-analyses of the response of multi-taxa diversity
to grazing intensity in grasslands
Dryad
dataset
2019
livestock grazing
Shannon-Wiener index
2019-10-21T00:00:00Z
2019-10-21T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab4932
6072 bytes
5
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Livestock grazing is an important component and driver of biodiversity in
grassland ecosystems. While numerous studies and a few meta-analyses had
been conducted on the response of single taxon diversity to grazing in
grasslands, a synthesis of how multi-taxa diversity is affected has been
largely missing, especially reflecting its changes along a grazing
intensity gradient. We performed a comprehensive meta-analyses of 116
published studies on the species richness (SR) and Shannon-Wiener index
(H’) of plants, arthropods, and microbes to examine the response of
biodiversity to grazing intensity in temperate grasslands globally. This
quantitative assessment showed that the response of SR and H’ to grazing
intensity agreed with the intermediate disturbance hypothesis in
grasslands; SR and H’ increased with light and moderate grazing
intensities, while they decreased at heavy intensity. In addition, plant
SR increased markedly with light and moderate grazing and declined with
heavy grazing intensity; however, H’ increased at light intensity and
declined at moderate and heavy intensities. Moreover, the SR and H’ of
microbes were enhanced at light and moderate grazing and were
significantly reduced with heavy intensity. The SR and H’ of arthropods
monotonously declined with increasing grazing intensity. Importantly,
structural equation modelling showed that grazing resulted in enhanced
plant SR mainly through its negative effects on plant biomass. Grazing had
negative effects on plant coverage and arthropod abundance so that
arthropod SR declined with increased grazing intensity. Moreover,
increased grazing intensity caused an increase in soil pH, decrease in
soil moisture, and then a decrease in microbe SR. Our findings confirm
that different taxa exhibit diverse responses to changes in grazing
intensity, and the way that grazing intensity affects diversity also
varied with different taxa. We strongly recommend considering the
requirements of multi-taxa diversity when applying grazing management and
including arthropods and microbes in monitoring schemes.