Herbivores disrupt the flow of food resources to termites in dryland ecosystems

Wijas, Baptiste; Cornwell, William K.; Letnic, Mike

doi:10.1002/ecy.4035

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Similarly, the species diversity of coprophages may increase with increased grazing intensity as higher livestock can produce more dung resources [ 37 ]. It is, therefore, possible that both saprophages and coprophages occur with an intermediate level of species richness and diversity at moderate grazing intensity, likely leading to a higher species diversity of detritivores [ 38 ]. Thus, we hypothesize that moderate grazing would promote the species diversity of detritivores, including saprophages and coprophages.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moderate Grazing Promotes Arthropod Species Diversity in an Alpine Meadow

Guan

Zhang

Huangpu

et al. 2023

Biology

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Livestock grazing is an important tool used in grassland land management practices. Studies have substantially addressed the effect of grazing on plant species diversity, revealing that moderate grazing increases plant species diversity. However, few studies have dealt with the relationship between grazing and arthropod species diversity, which remains unclear. Here, we hypothesize that moderate grazing promotes arthropod species diversity because arthropods are directly or indirectly dependent on plant diversity. In this study, we conducted a two-year plant and arthropod survey from 2020 to 2021 at four levels of grazing intensity, i.e., nongrazing (as a control), light grazing, moderate grazing, and heavy grazing, of the long-term grazing experiment starting in 2016. The data show that plant species diversity peaked in the moderate grazing treatment, and herbivore species diversity was positively correlated with plant species diversity (and hence peaked in the moderate grazing treatment). Moderate grazing promoted parasitoid species diversity, which was positively correlated with herbivore species diversity. However, predator species diversity did not significantly differ among the four treatments. In addition, saprophage species diversity decreased, whereas coprophages increased with increasing grazing levels, such that species richness (but not species diversity of detritivores statistically) was highest in the moderate grazing treatment. Consequently, the species diversity of arthropods as a whole peaked at the moderate grazing level, a phenomenology that is consistent with the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. Considering that moderate grazing has been found to increase plant species diversity, facilitate soil carbon accumulation, and prevent soil erosion, we suggest that moderate grazing would maximize multi-functional ecosystem services.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moderate Grazing Promotes Arthropod Species Diversity in an Alpine Meadow

Guan

Zhang

Huangpu

et al. 2023

Biology

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Herbivores disrupt the flow of food resources to termites in dryland ecosystems

Wijas

Cornwell

Letnic

2023

Ecology

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Irruption of herbivore populations due to the extirpation of predators has led to dramatic changes in ecosystem functioning worldwide. Herbivores compete with other species for their primary source of nutrition, plant biomass. Such competition is typically considered to occur between species in closely related clades and functional groups but could also occur with detritivores that consume senescent plant biomass. In this study, we tested predictions that in ecosystems where herbivores are not regulated by predators, their indirect impacts on dead vegetation increase with primary productivity and extend to termites that feed on senescent vegetation. We compared dead vegetation cover and termite activity in herbivore exclosures and associated grazed plots at three locations situated along a rainfall gradient in arid Australia where kangaroo populations have irrupted. Dead vegetation cover and termite activity increased with rainfall in ungrazed plots but showed a negligible response to rainfall in grazed plots. Our results suggest that grazing can disrupt the flow of energy to detritivores and decouple the relationship between termite activity and primary productivity. Such disruption could have far‐reaching impacts on arid ecosystems because many organisms sit within “brown food webs” that are sustained by energy derived from the decomposition of senescent plant tissues.

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Impacts of wild herbivores on soil seed banks are explained by precipitation conditions in protected areas across semi‐arid to arid regions

Xu,

Cornwell,

Wang

et al. 2024

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Protected areas form the backbone of global conservation efforts. Vegetation is the primary foundation for achieving conservation goals, and soil seed banks is a cryptic biodiversity reservoir for recruiting species that may not be represented in above‐ground vegetation. Unfortunately, unmanaged grazing by wild herbivores has led to vegetation degradation in semi‐arid to arid regions. However, experimental evidence on the long‐term impacts of wild herbivores on soil seed banks is largely lacking. Here, with the aim of examining how wild herbivores impact soil seed banks, we investigated the composition of the germinable seed banks in three protected areas (Yathong, Mungo and Boolcoomatta) along a semi‐arid to arid precipitation gradient in south‐eastern Australia. The density and species richness of the soil seed banks increased with increasing aridity, which indicated that the soil seed banks in arid regions is an important biodiversity reservoir. The effects of wild herbivores on soil seed density were strongly dependent on precipitation. Wild herbivores disrupted the soil seed banks at the most arid site but promoted the accumulation of seeds in the soil at the least arid site. Grazing was linked to an increase in the frequency of the seeds of introduced species and decrease in the frequency of the seeds of perennials. Synthesis and applications: Disruption of the soil seed banks by the grazing of wild herbivores could lead to the failure of post‐rain pulses of vegetation growth and hamper efforts to restore vegetation in protected areas. Therefore, suppressing wild herbivore numbers is a strategy that could enhance soil seed bank reserves and revegetation efforts in arid protected areas.

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Herbivores disrupt the flow of food resources to termites in dryland ecosystems

Cited by 4 publications

References 77 publications

Moderate Grazing Promotes Arthropod Species Diversity in an Alpine Meadow

Moderate Grazing Promotes Arthropod Species Diversity in an Alpine Meadow

Herbivores disrupt the flow of food resources to termites in dryland ecosystems

Impacts of wild herbivores on soil seed banks are explained by precipitation conditions in protected areas across semi‐arid to arid regions

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