Native grasses hold alpine meadows together when grazing and fertilizer collide
Li L, Xu M, Zhao He X, Sun Y, Xiao T
Native Plants
Meadow restoration projects that add fertilizer to boost grass yields may quietly undermine the native plant diversity that keeps those meadows stable through drought and heavy use years.
Researchers grazed and fertilized mountain meadows in Tibet at different intensities to see what keeps plant communities productive year after year. They found that adding nitrogen fertilizer made meadows less stable over time, mostly because it killed off native grasses and acidified the soil, even though it briefly boosted diversity in other ways. Moderate grazing actually helped stability by keeping native grass species in the mix, and the team pinpointed a specific ratio of native to non-native grasses below which the whole community becomes vulnerable.
Key Findings
Nitrogen addition reduced plant species richness and native herbage richness, producing a net negative effect on aboveground biomass stability despite increasing species asynchrony.
Grazing tended to improve community biomass stability by increasing native herbage richness and compositional stability, though the effect carried substantial uncertainty.
An ecological threshold of 0.86 for the native-to-traditional herbage biomass ratio was identified: below this value, stability declined as the ratio rose; above it, further increases in native herbage proportion yielded no additional stability benefit.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A field experiment on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau found that fertilizing grasslands with nitrogen destabilizes plant communities over time, mainly by reducing the richness of native fodder plants and lowering soil pH. Moderate grazing, by contrast, tended to support stability by preserving a diverse mix of functional native grasses, and the study identified a tipping-point ratio where native-to-traditional herbage balance either helps or stops helping community resilience.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
The role of functional native herbage in improving community stability: evidence from a grazing and nitrogen addition experiment in an alpine meadow of Qinghai-Xizang Plateau.
Human activities alter the drivers of plant diversity and ecosystem stability due to intensified grazing and nutrient enrichment. Nevertheless, the interactive impacts between herbivory pressure an...
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