Data from: More than a decade of moderate grazing: No impact on soil organic carbon stocks and enhancement of mineral-associated organic carbon via livestock diversification

Managed grassland soils represent a large reservoir of soil organic carbon
(SOC), playing a crucial role in climate regulation. While optimal
herbivore grazing is presumed to be non-detrimental and may even increase
soil carbon sequestration, there is a limit of long-term experimental
studies to validate this effect, especially those that incorporate
multiple herbivore species and their combinations to assess impacts on SOC
stocks. Here, we conducted a 14-year controlled grazing experiment with
moderate intensity, incorporating common herbivore species (sheep, cattle,
or both) in a temperate grassland. The results showed that more than a
decade of moderate grazing did not alter total SOC stocks and also
particulate organic carbon (POC), regardless of livestock assemblages,
while diversified livestock grazing by cattle and sheep increased the
mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) content and its proportion of
bulk soil carbon. This effect of grazing on soil MAOC is primarily
attributed to an increase in soil microbial carbon inputs, driven directly
by diversified livestock grazing and indirectly by improved plant
diversity and soil conditions. Our study indicates that moderate grazing
had a strong effect on MAOC, a key indicator of long-term soil carbon
stability, but had little influence on total SOC. We further suggest that
improving grassland soil carbon sequestration requires not only optimizing
grazing intensity, but also incorporating diverse herbivore assemblages
that mimic natural grazing systems, with diversified moderate grazing
emerging as an effective management strategy for promoting carbon storage
and contributing to climate change mitigation.