Nutrients cause grassland biomass to outpace herbivory

• Autores: Borer, Elizabeth T.; Harpole, W. Stanley; Adler, Peter B.; Arnillas, C. A.; Bugalho, M. N.; Cadotte, Marc William; Caldeira, M. C.; Campana, María Sofía
• Año de publicación: 2020
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Fuente: Nature Communications; Vol.11; art.6036; http://www.nature.com/index.html
• Materia: NUTRIENTS; GRASSLAND BIOMASS; HERBIVORY
• Institución: Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía

Fil: Borer, Elizabeth T. University of Minnesota. Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. St. Paul, MN, USA.
Fil: Harpole, W. Stanley. Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research. Department of Physiological Diversity. Leipzig, Germany.
Fil: Harpole, W. Stanley. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv). Leipzig, Germany.
Fil: Harpole, W. Stanley. Martin Luther University Halle - Wittenberg. Saale, Germany.
Fil: Adler, Peter B. Utah State University. Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center. Logan, UT, USA.
Fil: Arnillas, C. A. University of Toronto - Scarborough. Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences. Toronto, ON, Canada.
Fil: Bugalho, M. N. University of Lisbon. School of Agriculture. Centre for Applied Ecology (CEABN-InBIO).Tapada da Ajuda, Lisbon, Portugal.
Fil: Cadotte, Marc William. University of Toronto - Scarborough. Department of Biological Sciences. Toronto, ON, Canada.
Fil: Caldeira, M. C. University of Lisbon. School of Agriculture. Forest Research Center. Tapada da Ajuda, Lisbon, Portugal.
Fil: Campana, María Sofía. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA). Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Fil: Campana, María Sofía. CONICET – Universidad de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA). Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Human activities are transforming grassland biomass via changing climate, elemental nutrients, and herbivory. Theory predicts that food-limited herbivores will consume any additional biomass stimulated by nutrient inputs (‘consumer-controlled’). Alternatively, nutrient supply is predicted to increase biomass here herbivores alter community composition or are limited by factors other than food (‘resource-controlled’). Using an experiment replicated in 58 grasslands spanning six continents, we show that nutrient addition and vertebrate herbivore exclusion each caused sustained increases in aboveground live biomass over a decade, but consumer control was weak. However, at sites with high vertebrate grazing intensity or domestic livestock, herbivores consumed the additional fertilizationinduced biomass, supporting the consumer-controlled prediction. Herbivores most effectively reduced the additional live biomass at sites with low precipitation or high ambient soil nitrogen. Overall, these experimental results suggest that grassland biomass will outstrip wild herbivore control as human activities increase elemental nutrient supply, with widespread consequences for grazing and fire risk.
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