Herbivore exclusion stabilizes alpine grassland biomass production across spatial scales
Data files
Nov 07, 2024 version files 13.02 KB
Abstract
There is growing evidence that land-use management practices such as livestock grazing can strongly impact the local diversity, functioning and stability of grassland communities. However, whether these impacts depend on environmental condition and propagate to larger spatial scales remains unclear. Using an 8-yr grassland exclosure experiment conducted at nine sites in the Tibetan Plateau covering a large precipitation gradient, we found that herbivore exclusion increased the temporal stability of alpine grassland biomass production at both the local and larger (site) spatial scales. Higher local community stability was attributed to greater stability of dominant species, whereas higher stability at the larger scale was linked to higher spatial asynchrony of productivity among local communities. Additionally, sites with higher mean annual precipitation had lower dominant species stability and lower grassland stability at both spatial scales considered. Our study provides novel evidence that livestock grazing can impair grassland stability across spatial scales and climatic gradients.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8sf7m0cwp
Herbivore_exclusion_stabilizes_alpine_grassland_biomass_production_across_spatial_scales.xlsx
Nine paired observation sites (fenced and grazed) in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, seven variables utilized in the article and four climatic factors, including annual precipitation, annual precipitation variability, annual mean temperature, and annual mean temperature variability.
Description of the data and file structure
Seven variables, including species richness, species asynchrony, dominant species Stability, alpha Diversity, bray Curtis dissimilarity, spatial Asynchrony, and gamma stability were caculated by a 8- year observed data in 9 sites.
Column names:
F —Fencing; 0—no, 1—yes
SR —Species Richness (Unit: number of species m-2)
BRAY—Bray Curtis dissimilarity (No unit)
SY— Species Asynchrony (No unit)
AS —Alpha Stability (No unit)
SPA —Spatial Asynchrony (No unit)
GS—Gamma Stability (No unit)
DS—Dominant species Stability (No unit)
RAIN—Mean Annual Precipitation (Unit: mm)
RSD—SD of Mean Annual Precipitation (Unit: mm)
TEM—Mean Annual Temperature (Unit: ℃)
TEMSD—SD of Mean Annual Temperature (Unit: ℃)
Sharing/Access information
This is a section for linking to other ways to access the data, and for linking to sources the data is derived from, if any.
Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data:
-
This is a section for linking to other ways to access the data, and for linking to sources the data is derived from, if any.
Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data: