Diversifying livestock promotes multidiversity and multifunctionality in managed grasslands.

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Ecosystem Science
• Conservation Biology

Background:

• Plant diversity enhances grassland ecosystem functioning, stability, and services.
• The impact of herbivore diversity, particularly livestock diversity, on ecosystem multifunctionality is underexplored.
• Managed grazing is a widespread land use, offering opportunities to manipulate livestock diversity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally investigate how livestock diversification (sheep, cattle, or both) affects multidiversity (plants, insects, soil microbes, nematodes).
• To assess the influence of livestock diversification on ecosystem multifunctionality in a large grassland ecosystem.
• To determine the relationship between multidiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality under different livestock management scenarios.

Main Methods:

• Experimental manipulation of livestock diversity (monoculture vs. mixed species) in a grassland setting.
• Measurement of multidiversity across trophic levels: plants, insects, soil microbes, and nematodes.
• Quantification of ecosystem multifunctionality indicators, including biomass production, nutrient cycling, carbon storage, and water regulation.

Main Results:

• Livestock diversification significantly increased overall ecosystem multifunctionality.
• The increase in multifunctionality was driven by enhanced multidiversity across various trophic levels.
• The positive effects of multidiversity on ecosystem functions were stronger than those of individual diversity components.

Conclusions:

• Diversifying livestock is a viable strategy to enhance both multidiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality in managed grasslands.
• Multitrophic diversity plays a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem health and services.
• Findings have implications for sustainable land management and conservation in global grassland ecosystems.