A global meta-analyses of the response of multi-taxa diversity to grazing intensity in grasslands

Livestock grazing is an important component and driver of biodiversity in grassland ecosystems. While numerous studies and a few meta-analyses had been conducted on the response of single taxon diversity to grazing in grasslands, a synthesis of how multi-taxa diversity is affected has been largely missing, especially reflecting its changes along a grazing intensity gradient. We performed a comprehensive meta-analyses of 116 published studies on the species richness (SR) and Shannon-Wiener index (H’) of plants, arthropods, and microbes to examine the response of biodiversity to grazing intensity in temperate grasslands globally. This quantitative assessment showed that the response of SR and H’ to grazing intensity agreed with the intermediate disturbance hypothesis in grasslands; SR and H’ increased with light and moderate grazing intensities, while they decreased at heavy intensity. In addition, plant SR increased markedly with light and moderate grazing and declined with heavy grazing...