ePrints@IIScePrints@IISc Home | About | Browse | Latest Additions | Advanced Search | Contact | Help

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

Price, JN and Sitters, J and Ohlert, T and Tognetti, PM and Brown, CS and Seabloom, EW and Borer, ET and Prober, SM and Bakker, ES and MacDougall, AS and Yahdjian, L and Gruner, DS and Olde Venterink, H and Barrio, IC and Graff, P and Bagchi, S and Arnillas, CA and Bakker, JD and Blumenthal, DM and Boughton, EH and Brudvig, LA and Bugalho, MN and Cadotte, MW and Caldeira, MC and Dickman, CR and Donohue, I and Grégory, S and Hautier, Y and Jónsdóttir, IS and Lannes, LS and McCulley, RL and Moore, JL and Power, SA and Risch, AC and Schütz, M and Standish, R and Stevens, CJ and Veen, GF and Virtanen, R and Wardle, GM (2022) Evolutionary history of grazing and resources determine herbivore exclusion effects on plant diversity. In: Nature Ecology and Evolution .

Full text not available from this repository.
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01809-9

Abstract

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 sites 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.

Item Type: Journal Article
Publication: Nature Ecology and Evolution
Publisher: Nature Research
Additional Information: The copyright for this article belongs to the Nature Research.
Department/Centre: Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited: 10 Aug 2022 06:30
Last Modified: 10 Aug 2022 06:30
URI: https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/75801

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item