Livestock grazing is a major driver of land-use change, causing significant biodiversity loss globally. Although the short-term effects of livestock grazing on individual species are well studied, a mechanistic understanding of the long-term, cascading impacts is lacking. We manipulated livestock densities using a unique, replicated upland experiment over a 10-year period and found significant effects of grazing treatment on plant and arthropod biomass; the number of Anthus pratensis breeding bird territories; the amplitude of Microtus agrestis population cycles and the activity of a top predator, Vulpes vulpes. Lower plant biomass as a result of higher stocking densities led to cascades across trophic levels, with fewer arthropods and small mammals, the latter affecting predator activity. Breeding bird territories were a function of arthropod abundance and vegetation structure heterogeneity. Our results provide a novel food-web analysis in a grazing experiment to provide a mechanistic understanding of how foodwebs in upland ecosystems respond to long-term livestock grazing pressure, with consequences for management.
CITATION STYLE
Evans, D. M., Villar, N., Littlewood, N. A., Pakeman, R. J., Evans, S. A., Dennis, P., … Redpath, S. M. (2015). The cascading impacts of livestock grazing in upland ecosystems: A 10-year experiment. Ecosphere, 6(3). https://doi.org/10.1890/ES14-00316.1
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