Forb diversity globally is harmed by nutrient enrichment but can be rescued by large mammalian herbivory
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Forbs (“wildflowers”) are important contributors to grassland biodiversity but are vulnerable to environmental changes. In a factorial experiment at 94 sites on 6 continents, we test the global generality of several broad predictions: (1) Forb cover and richness decline under nutrient enrichment, particularly nitrogen enrichment. (2) Forb cover and richness increase under herbivory by large mammals. (3) Forb richness and cover are less affected by nutrient enrichment and herbivory in more arid climates, because water limitation reduces the impacts of competition with grasses. (4) Forb families will respond differently to nutrient enrichment and mammalian herbivory due to differences in nutrient requirements. We find strong evidence for the first, partial support for the second, no support for the third, and support for the fourth prediction. Our results underscore that anthropogenic nitrogen addition is a major threat to grassland forbs, but grazing under high herbivore intensity can offset these nutrient effects.
Date Issued
2025-03-15
Date Acceptance
2025-03-04
Citation
Communications Biology, 2025, 8 (1)
ISSN
2399-3642
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Start Page
444
Journal / Book Title
Communications Biology
Volume
8
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/40089613
PII: 10.1038/s42003-025-07882-7
Subjects
Herbivory
Animals
Biodiversity
Mammals
Grassland
Nutrients
Nitrogen
Poaceae
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
444
Date Publish Online
2025-03-15