Large herbivores increase the proportion of palatable species rather than unpalatable species in the plant community

doi:10.1016/j.jia.2024.08.004

Journal of Integrative Agriculture

2025, Vol. 24

Issue (3): 859-870 DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2024.08.004

Section 2: Drivers of grassland ecosystem changes

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Large herbivores increase the proportion of palatable species rather than unpalatable species in the plant community

Yu Li¹, Shikui Dong^{2, 3#}, Qingzhu Gao^4#, Yong Zhang⁵, Hasbagan Ganjurjav⁴, Guozheng Hu⁴, Xuexia Wang⁶, Yulong Yan⁷, Fengcai He², Fangyan Cheng⁸

¹School of Public Administration, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing 400067, China

²School of Grassland Science, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China

³Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-3001, USA

⁴Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China

⁵National Plateau Wetlands Research Center, College of Wetlands, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, China

⁶Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China

⁷China New Era Group Corporation, Beijing 100082, China

⁸State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China

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摘要

研究普遍认为当植物群落中的优势物种适口时，大型食草动物可以减少优势物种，并提高先前被抑制物种的比例。然而，这种观点可能并不总是成立的。我们在青藏高原开展了一项为期4年的牦牛放牧试验，追踪记录了期间轮牧和禁牧草地的植物群落组成。结果表明，在没有牦牛的情况下，植物群落由两个适口物种，即高山嵩草和针茅所主导，这与它们的小叶面积和快速生长策略有关。牦牛的出现显著抑制了针茅和超过一半的杂草，而高山嵩草的比例增加，成为绝对优势物种，这与大型食草动物抑制适口物种比例的观点相矛盾。年际间，轮牧草地的高山嵩草在干旱年份优势度下降，导致其他8个物种的优势度上升；禁牧草地高山嵩草的优势度在干旱年份显著下降，针茅和其他7种杂草的优势度显著增加。这些结果表明高山嵩草是耐牧的，但不耐旱，而其他8个物种是耐干旱的，但并不耐牧。群落水平，禁牧后演替引起的群落组成变化超过了干旱引起的变化，干旱倾向于导致群落物种更替，而放牧倾向于导致物种丰度变化。这些结论提醒牧场管理者，在衡量牲畜对植物群落组成的影响时，他们应该考虑当地的条件和气候变化，而不能简单地认为牲畜会抑制适口物种。

Abstract

When the dominant species in a plant community are palatable, many believe that large herbivores will reduce the dominant species and promote the proportion of previously suppressed species. However, this view may not always hold true. We conducted a 4-year yak grazing experiment on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and tracked the plant compositions of the rotational grazing (RG) and grazing exclusion (GE) grasslands during the four years. The results showed that in the absence of yaks under GE, the plant community was dominated by two palatable species, Kobresia pygmaea and Stipa capillata, due to their small leaf area and rapid growth strategy. The presence of yaks under RG significantly inhibited S. capillata and over half of the forbs, while the proportion of K. pygmaea increased and it became the absolute dominant species, contradicting the view that large herbivores inhibit palatable species. Interannually, the dominance of K. pygmaea under RG decreased in the dry year, leading to an increase in the dominance of the other eight species. Under GE, the dominance of K. pygmaea declined notably in the dry year, while S. capillata and seven other forbs increased substantially. Overall, these results suggest that K. pygmaea is grazing-tolerant but not drought-tolerant, whereas the other eight species are drought-tolerant but not grazing-tolerant. At the community level, community composition shifts resulting from succession after grazing exclusion exceeded those caused by drought, drought tends to induce community species turnover while grazing tends to induce species abundance variations. In summary, our conclusions remind ranch managers that when considering the impact of livestock on plant community composition, they should factor in local conditions and climate change rather than simply assuming that livestock will suppress the palatable species.

Keywords: grazing drought community composition succession Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Received: 28 March 2024 Accepted: 24 June 2024

Fund:

This work was financially supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32101315 and 32101326), the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFE0112400), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program, China (2019QZKK0307), the High-Level Talent Research Start-Up Project of Chongqing Technology and Business University, China (950319097), and the Scientific and Technological Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission, China (KJQN202100827).

About author: Yu Li, E-mail: 2019262@ctbu.edu.cn; #Correspondence Shikui Dong, Mobile: +86-13811445835, E-mail: dongshikui@bjfu.edu.cn; Qingzhu Gao, Tel: +86-10-82109346, E-mail: gaoqingzhu@caas.cn

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Yu Li, Shikui Dong, Qingzhu Gao, Yong Zhang, Hasbagan Ganjurjav, Guozheng Hu, Xuexia Wang, Yulong Yan, Fengcai He, Fangyan Cheng. 2025. Large herbivores increase the proportion of palatable species rather than unpalatable species in the plant community. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 24(3): 859-870.

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