Essential Site Maintenance: Authorea-powered sites will be updated circa 15:00-17:00 Eastern on Tuesday 5 November.
There should be no interruption to normal services, but please contact us at [email protected] in case you face any issues.

loading page

Multi-diversity strengthens multifunctionality in grasslands with intensive grazing pressure
  • +5
  • Ruiyang Zhang,
  • Dashuan Tian,
  • Han Chen,
  • Eric Seabloom,
  • Guodong Han,
  • Shaopeng Wang,
  • Guirui Yu,
  • Shuli Niu
Ruiyang Zhang
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research Chinese Academy of Sciences

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

Author Profile
Dashuan Tian
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS
Author Profile
Han Chen
Lakehead University Faculty of Law, Lakehead University
Author Profile
Eric Seabloom
University of Minnesota
Author Profile
Guodong Han
Inner Mongolia Agricultural University
Author Profile
Shaopeng Wang
Peking University
Author Profile
Guirui Yu
Information Management Group for the Synthesis Center of Chinese Ecosystem Research Network (CERN)
Author Profile
Shuli Niu
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research Chinese Academy of Sciences
Author Profile

Abstract

Livestock grazing strongly affects biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in grasslands. However, it remains unclear how different grazing impact multiple biodiversity, ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF), and their relationship with the interactions of grazing duration, livestock type and climatic factors. Here, we conducted a global synthesis from 104 published studies. Our results showed that light and moderate grazing improved multi-diversity, but heavy grazing significantly decreased multi-diversity and EMF. The grazing-induced decrease of EMF intensified with grazing duration, and the reduction of multi-diversity and EMF under intensive grazing was stronger in more arid climates. The response of EMF increased linearly with that of multi-diversity under all grazing intensities. Moreover, grazing intensity reduced EMF largely via decreasing multi-diversity, whereas a shift of livestock type from small to large size promoted EMF by increasing multi-diversity. This study provides first empirical evidence and new insights into the relationship between multi-diversity and EMF under grazing in global grasslands.