RT journal article
T1 Abandonment of traditional livestock grazing reduces soil fertility and enzyme activity, alters soil microbial communities, and decouples microbial networks, with consequences for forage quality in Mediterranean grasslands
A1 Requena Serrano, Antonio
A1 Peco, Begoña
A1 Morillo, Jose Antonio
A1 Ochoa Hueso, Raúl
A2 Biología
K1 Enzyme activity
K1 Land use changes
K1 Nutrient cycling
K1 Shrub encroachment
AB Extensive livestock grazing is a global human activity. In the Iberian Peninsula, extensive grazing and seminatural grasslands and open woodlands such as dehesas have co-evolved with human use for millennia. However,social, demographic, and economic factors are now pushing this traditional activity towards both conventionalintensification and land abandonment, with consequences for the biodiversity and functioning of these seminatural ecosystems. Soils can be particularly affected by grazing abandonment due to the cessation of inputs ofpre-processed organic matter (dungs and urine) and of trampling, with still poorly understood consequences forthe composition, network configuration, and activity of soil microbial communities and the capacity of soils tostore C. In this work, we used 20 pairs of adjacent plots (40 plots in total) located in seminatural grasslands fromcentral Spain. For each pair, one plot was extensively grazed by livestock and the other one was abandoned. Weevaluated the effects of extensive grazing abandonment on soil fertility (C and N contents, and P and Kbioavailability), forage quality (fibre and protein content), and soil microbial community composition (ampliconsequencing of 16 S [bacteria] and ITS [fungi]), network coupling, and activity (extracellular hydrolytic enzymeslinked to the biogeochemical cycling of C, N, P, and S). Grazing resulted in higher soil fertility in terms of C, N,and P, and grassland forage quality (lower fibre). Grazing also affected soil microbial community composition,but not richness or diversity. These effects occurred primarily through changes in nutrients and soil wateravailability. Actinobacteria significantly increased in abandoned plots, while Acidobacteria, Verrucomicrobia,and Planctomycetes decreased. Bacterial and, particularly, fungal networks were generally less coupled inabandoned plots. Furthermore, grazing resulted in greater soil enzyme activity via direct effects. These resultssupport the notion that extensive grazing with intermediate stocking rates provides a positive effect on grassquality, soil fertility, nutrient cycling, and microbial network configuration, and thus warn about the potentialnegative effects of land abandonment.
PB Elservier
SN 0167-8809
YR 2024
FD 2024-02-22
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/32738
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/32738
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 08-nov-2026