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Research Article

Diversifying livestock promotes multidiversity and multifunctionality in managed grasslands

View ORCID ProfileLing Wang, View ORCID ProfileManuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Deli Wang, Forest Isbell, Jun Liu, Chao Feng, Jushan Liu, Zhiwei Zhong, Hui Zhu, Xia Yuan, Qing Chang, and Chen Liu
PNAS March 26, 2019 116 (13) 6187-6192; first published March 8, 2019; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1807354116
Ling Wang
aKey Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Grassland Science, School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024 Jilin, China;
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  • ORCID record for Ling Wang
Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo
bCooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309;
cDepartamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933 Móstoles, Spain;
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  • ORCID record for Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo
Deli Wang
aKey Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Grassland Science, School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024 Jilin, China;
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  • For correspondence: wangd@nenu.edu.cn
Forest Isbell
dDepartment of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN 55108
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Jun Liu
aKey Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Grassland Science, School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024 Jilin, China;
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Chao Feng
aKey Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Grassland Science, School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024 Jilin, China;
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Jushan Liu
aKey Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Grassland Science, School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024 Jilin, China;
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Zhiwei Zhong
aKey Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Grassland Science, School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024 Jilin, China;
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Hui Zhu
aKey Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Grassland Science, School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024 Jilin, China;
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Xia Yuan
aKey Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Grassland Science, School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024 Jilin, China;
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Qing Chang
aKey Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Grassland Science, School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024 Jilin, China;
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Chen Liu
aKey Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Grassland Science, School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024 Jilin, China;
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  1. Edited by Robin S. Reid, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, and accepted by Editorial Board Member Ruth S. DeFries January 26, 2019 (received for review April 27, 2018)

This article has Letters. Please see:

  • Effects of grazing livestock on grassland functioning may depend more on grazing intensity than livestock diversity - August 23, 2019
  • Rainfall regulation of grazed grasslands - October 29, 2019

See related content:

  • Reply to Hu et al.: Whether grazer diversity or grazing intensity really accounts for grassland functioning
    - Aug 23, 2019
  • Reply to Liang and Gornish: Climate and livestock grazing jointly regulate grassland ecosystem multifunctionality
    - Oct 29, 2019
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Significance

The potential importance of herbivore diversity in maintaining ecosystem functioning remains unclear in terrestrial ecosystems. This is a critical knowledge gap because the global human population increasingly relies on grasslands to supply meat and dairy products. As the global human population continues to grow, and as per capita consumption of meat and dairy products continues to increase, livestock grazing will place unprecedented pressures on grasslands worldwide. We show that diversifying livestock could promote grassland biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality in an increasingly managed world, and also provide insights into the importance of multitrophic diversity to maintain ecosystem multifunctionality in managed ecosystems. Grassland grazing management by livestock diversification increases nature’s benefits to people, partly by maintaining a diverse array of grassland species.

Abstract

Increasing plant diversity can increase ecosystem functioning, stability, and services in both natural and managed grasslands, but the effects of herbivore diversity, and especially of livestock diversity, remain underexplored. Given that managed grazing is the most extensive land use worldwide, and that land managers can readily change livestock diversity, we experimentally tested how livestock diversification (sheep, cattle, or both) influenced multidiversity (the diversity of plants, insects, soil microbes, and nematodes) and ecosystem multifunctionality (including plant biomass production, plant leaf N and P, above-ground insect abundance, nutrient cycling, soil C stocks, water regulation, and plant–microbe symbiosis) in the world’s largest remaining grassland. We also considered the potential dependence of ecosystem multifunctionality on multidiversity. We found that livestock diversification substantially increased ecosystem multifunctionality by increasing multidiversity. The link between multidiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality was always stronger than the link between single diversity components and functions. Our work provides insights into the importance of multitrophic diversity to maintain multifunctionality in managed ecosystems and suggests that diversifying livestock could promote both multidiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality in an increasingly managed world.

  • multiple trophic diversity
  • ecosystem multifunctionality
  • grassland grazing management
  • livestock diversity
  • mixed grazing

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: wangd{at}nenu.edu.cn.
  • Author contributions: L.W. and D.W. designed research; Jun Liu, C.F., Jushan Liu, Z.Z., H.Z., X.Y., Q.C., and C.L. performed research; M.D.-B. and F.I. analyzed data; and L.W., M.D.-B., D.W., and F.I. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. R.S.R. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.

  • Data deposition: Data reported in this paper have been deposited in the Dryad Digital Repository database, datadryad.org/ (doi: 10.5061/dryad.dv44mg0).

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1807354116/-/DCSupplemental.

  • Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).

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Diversifying livestock promotes multidiversity and multifunctionality in managed grasslands
Ling Wang, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Deli Wang, Forest Isbell, Jun Liu, Chao Feng, Jushan Liu, Zhiwei Zhong, Hui Zhu, Xia Yuan, Qing Chang, Chen Liu
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Mar 2019, 116 (13) 6187-6192; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1807354116

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Diversifying livestock promotes multidiversity and multifunctionality in managed grasslands
Ling Wang, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Deli Wang, Forest Isbell, Jun Liu, Chao Feng, Jushan Liu, Zhiwei Zhong, Hui Zhu, Xia Yuan, Qing Chang, Chen Liu
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Mar 2019, 116 (13) 6187-6192; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1807354116
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