Increased grazing drives homogenisation but reduced grazing increases turnover in upland habitat mosaics

• DOI: 10.1007/s10531-021-02305-5
• Publication Date: 2021-10-18T22:54:07Z
• Authors: Robin J. Pakeman; Debbie A. Fielding
• Keywords: Conservation grazing; Grazing pressure

Abstract Many ecosystems are grazed by livestock or large, wild herbivores and exist as mosaics of different vegetation communities. Changing grazing could have an impact on heterogeneity well composition. A long-term, large-scale experiment that maintained existing low-intensity sheep grazing, tripled it, removed it partially substituted cattle was set up a mosaic upland types. The changing regimes assessed in terms changes temporal spatial species functional beta diversity. Removal had the highest replacement, whilst increased closest to maintaining original complement. Wet heath Molina mire lowest turnover, but wet showed unidirectional abundance contained capable increasing response intensity. Agrostis-Festuca Nardus grasslands displayed level balanced replacement reflecting their more dynamic vegetation. In terms, there no clear separation communities based preference, all were relatively resistant change grassland most removal grazing. offtake associated with led degree homogenisation tolerant preferred unpreferred ones. Decisions about management uplands involve many trade-offs, this study identified potential trade-offs between stability add ones biodiversity groups ecosystem services.