Ungulate herbivores promote beta diversity and drive stochastic plant community assembly by selective defoliation and trampling: From a four‐year simulation experiment

• Published in: The Journal of ecology Vol. 112; no. 9; pp. 1992 - 2006
• Main Authors: Guo, Tongtian, Guo, Meiqi, Pang, Yue, Sun, Xiangyun, Ryo, Masahiro, Liu, Nan, Zhang, Yingjun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.09.2024
• Subjects: Assembly; Biodiversity; Biodiversity loss; China; Coexistence; community assembly; Defoliation; Density; Dominance; Ecological function; Excreta; excreta return; Feeding behavior; Feeding preferences; field experimentation; Foraging; Foraging behavior; grassland; Grassland management; Grasslands; Herbivores; homogenization; interspecific competition; Plant communities; Plants; plant–herbivore interactions; selective defoliation; Shape effects; soil; Soil properties; species; species diversity; stochastic and deterministic processes; Stochastic models; Stochastic processes; Stochasticity; Trampling; ungulate herbivores; Ungulates; China

Ungulate herbivores shape grassland plant communities at multiple scales, ultimately affecting ecosystem function. However, ungulates have complex effects on grasslands, including defoliation, trampling, excreta return and their interactions. Moreover, the effects of ungulate density on grasslands a...