Ecology Letters,
Journal Year:
2024,
Volume and Issue:
27(6)
Published: June 1, 2024
Fire
and
herbivory
interact
to
alter
ecosystems
carbon
cycling.
In
savannas,
herbivores
can
reduce
fire
activity
by
removing
grass
biomass,
but
the
size
of
these
effects
what
regulates
them
remain
uncertain.
To
examine
grazing
on
fuels
regimes
across
African
we
combined
data
from
herbivore
exclosure
experiments
with
remotely
sensed
density.
We
show
that,
broadly
substantially
both
herbaceous
biomass
activity.
The
was
strongly
associated
densities,
surprisingly,
mostly
consistent
different
environments.
A
one-zebra
increase
in
density
(~100
kg/km2
metabolic
biomass)
resulted
a
~53
kg/ha
reduction
standing
~0.43
percentage
point
burned
area.
Our
results
indicate
that
models
be
improved
incorporating
biomass.
Science,
Journal Year:
2020,
Volume and Issue:
370(6519)
Published: Nov. 20, 2020
Fire's
growing
impacts
on
ecosystems
Fire
has
played
a
prominent
role
in
the
evolution
of
biodiversity
and
is
natural
factor
shaping
many
ecological
communities.
However,
incidence
fire
been
exacerbated
by
human
activity,
this
now
affecting
habitats
that
have
never
prone
or
adapted.
Kelly
et
al.
review
how
such
changes
are
already
threatening
species
with
extinction
transforming
terrestrial
discuss
trends
causing
regimes.
They
also
consider
actions
could
be
taken
conservationists
policy-makers
to
help
sustain
time
changing
activity.
Science
,
issue
p.
eabb0355
New Phytologist,
Journal Year:
2019,
Volume and Issue:
224(4), P. 1490 - 1503
Published: June 9, 2019
Fire
and
herbivory
both
remove
aboveground
biomass.
Environmental
factors
determine
the
type
intensity
of
these
consumers
globally,
but
traits
plants
can
also
alter
their
propensity
to
burn
degree
which
they
are
eaten.
To
understand
plant
life-history
strategies
associated
with
fire
we
need
describe
response
effect
functional
traits,
how
sort
within
communities,
along
resource
gradients,
across
evolutionary
timescales.
herbivore
generally
considered
separately,
there
advances
made
in
understanding
that
relate
herbivory,
vice
versa.
Moreover,
interact:
presence
one
consumer
affects
other.
Here,
present
a
unifying
conceptual
framework
enable
tolerance
persistence
herbivory.
Using
grasses
as
an
example,
discuss
flammability
tolerance,
palatability,
grazing
might
organize
themselves
ecosystems
exposed
consumers,
have
evolved
reference
other
strong
selective
processes,
like
aridity.
Our
be
used
predict
diversity
species
under
different
regimes.
Oikos,
Journal Year:
2025,
Volume and Issue:
unknown
Published: Feb. 5, 2025
The
extensive,
prehistoric
loss
of
megafauna
during
the
last
50
000
years
led
early
naturalists
to
build
founding
theories
ecology
based
on
already‐degraded
ecosystems.
In
this
article,
we
outline
how
large
herbivores
affect
community
ecology,
with
a
special
focus
plants,
through
changes
selection,
speciation,
drift,
and
dispersal,
thereby
directly
impacting
ecosystem
diversity
functionality.
However,
attempts
quantify
effects
processes
are
markedly
scarce
in
past
contemporary
studies.
We
expect
is
due
shifting
baseline
syndrome,
where
ecologists
omit
now‐missing
extinct,
when
designing
experiments
theoretical
models,
despite
evidence
that
shaped
physical
structure,
biogeochemistry,
species
richness
studied
systems.
Here,
can
be
incorporated
into
central
models
integrate
megaherbivore
theory
ecology.
As
anthropogenic
impacts
climate
nutrient
levels
continue,
further
warping
ecological
disconnecting
distributions
from
optimal
conditions,
importance
quantifying
herbivore
functionality,
such
as
facilitation
dispersal
coexistence,
increases.
Our
findings
indicate
current
scientific
attention
disproportionate
their
habitat
structure
evolutionary
trajectories,
well
role
play
restoring
diverse
resilient
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
Journal Year:
2020,
Volume and Issue:
117(14), P. 7871 - 7878
Published: March 23, 2020
Large-bodied
mammalian
herbivores
dominated
Earth's
terrestrial
ecosystems
for
several
million
years
before
undergoing
substantial
extinctions
and
declines
during
the
Late
Pleistocene
(LP)
due
to
prehistoric
human
impacts.
The
decline
of
large
led
widespread
ecological
changes
loss
their
functions,
as
driven
by
unique
combinations
traits.
However,
recently,
humans
have
significantly
increased
herbivore
species
richness
through
introductions
in
many
parts
world,
potentially
counteracting
LP
losses.
Here,
we
assessed
extent
which
introduced
restore
lost-or
contribute
novel-functions
relative
preextinction
assemblages.
We
constructed
multidimensional
trait
spaces
using
a
database
all
extant
extinct
≥10
kg
known
from
earliest
(∼130,000
ybp)
present
day.
Extinction-driven
contractions
space
been
offset
∼39%
globally.
Analysis
overlap
reveals
that
assemblages
with
are
overall
more
similar
those
than
native-only
This
is
because
64%
rather
within
respective
continents.
Many
capacity
influence
ecosystem
processes,
such
wildfire
shrub
expansion
drylands.
Although
long
source
contention,
our
findings
indicate
they
may,
part,
functions
reflective
past
human-driven
extinctions.
