Plant diversity enhances ecosystem resistance to increasing grazing pressure in global drylands

Biancari, Lucio ; Oñatibia, Gastón R. ; Le Bagousse-Pinguet, Yoann ; Gross, Nicolas ; Yahdjian, Laura ; Aguiar, Martín R. ; Saiz, Hugo (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Eldridge, David J. ; Valencia, Enrique ; Moreira, Xoaquín ; Ochoa, Victoria ; Gozalo, Beatriz ; Asensio, Sergio ; Plaza, César ; Guirado, Emilio ; García-Gómez, Miguel ; Gaitán, Juan J. ; Martínez-Valderrama, Jaime ; Mendoza, Betty J. ; Maestre, Fernando T.

Resumen: Understanding the mechanisms that shape ecosystem resistance to increasing livestock grazing pressure, a major driver of land degradation, is essential for predicting its impacts and informing sustainable land management strategies. This issue is particularly relevant in drylands, which host half of the world’s livestock production and are highly vulnerable to desertification caused by overgrazing. Here we conduct a standardized field survey across 73 dryland sites in 25 countries to simultaneously evaluate how climatic, edaphic, vegetation and grazing-related factors influence ecosystem resistance—defined here as the capacity to maintain vegetation cover under increasing grazing pressure. We found that increasing grazing pressure reduced vegetation cover in 80% of sites, with an average decline of 35%. Plant species richness emerged as the strongest predictor of ecosystem resistance, with higher richness associated with lower vegetation cover loss. Functional trait data indicated that this positive effect was mainly explained by complementarity in trait values among plants, rather than by functional redundancy. Our results indicate that conserving plant diversity is key to strengthening ecosystem resistance and sustaining dryland functioning under intensifying grazing pressure.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1038/s41559-025-02952-9

Año: 2026

Publicado en: Nature Ecology and Evolution 10 (2026), 258-266
ISSN: 2397-334X

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/AEI/CNS2024-154579
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/AEI/PID2022-140398NA-I00
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/647038/EU/Biological feedbacks and ecosystem resilience under global change: a new perspective on dryland desertification/BIODESERT

Tipo y forma: Artículo (PostPrint)

Área (Departamento): Área Ecología (Dpto. CC.Agrar.y Medio Natural)