Drought neutralizes positive effects of long-term grazing on grassland productivity through altering plant-soil interactions

Livestock grazing is among the most intensive land-use activities in grasslands and can affect plant communities directly or indirectly via grazing-induced soil legacies. Under climate change, grasslands are threatened globally by recurrent drought. However, the extent to which drought influences grazing-induced soil legacy effects on plant biomass production and community composition remains largely unexplored.
We grew five naturally co-occurring plant species (three dominants and two subordinates) in mixed communities in a glasshouse experiment in live and sterilized soil that had or had not been subjected to 19 years of grazing; these plant communities were then exposed to a subsequent drought. We tested the treatment effects on plant community biomass, proportional aboveground biomass of individual species, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal root colonization, and soil nutrient availability.
Under drought-free conditions, soils from grazed plots produced significantly higher plant a..., , Please see the README document and the accompanying published article: Duan, DD., Tian, Z.,  Wu, NN., Feng, XX., Hou, FJ., Nan, ZB.,  Kardol, P.,  and  Chen, T. 2023. Drought neutralizes positive effects of long-term grazing on grassland productivity through altering plant-soil interactions. Functional Ecology.Â