Contrasting effects of sheep and cattle grazing on foliar fungal diseases by changing plant community characteristics

Pathogens are ubiquitous in ecosystems and play a key role in affecting host community structure. In grasslands large grazing animals such as cattle and sheep have been shown to affect foliar fungal pathogens. However, theory and empirical studies have come to conflicting conclusions because grazers can directly and indirectly impact pathogens through a wide variety of mechanisms and various grazers may impact pathogens in different ways. A better understanding of the mechanisms by which grazers impact pathogens is important for a fundamental understanding of herbivore pathogen interactions and also to optimize grazing managements to reduce pathogen outbreaks.
Here, we investigate multiple mechanisms by which livestock grazing impacts foliar fungal pathogens in grasslands. We integrate a large-scale grazing experiment, with a removal experiment manipulating plant density and litter biomass, to identify direct and indirect effects of two herbivores on pathogens with different life histor..., , , | VARIABLES USED IN ANALYIS OF CHINESE GRAZING EXPERIMENT | |
| ------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| | |
| GRAZING EXPERIMENT | |
| YEAR | YEAR OF DATA COLLECTION |
| CATTLE | CATTLE GRAZING TREATMENT |
| SHEEP | SHEEP GRAZING TREATMENT |
| BLOCK ...