Grazing systems select leaf number as an indicator of ecosystem responses to climatic variability in salinized meadows
- 1School of Agriculture and Environment, College of Science, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Abstract
The degradation of salinized meadows under environmental change calls for reliable functional indicators to support adaptive grazing management. However, while plant functional traits mediate grazing effects, identifying those that can robustly indicate the coupling between environmental factors and productivity across different grazing systems remains unresolved. Through a four-year controlled grazing experiment in a salinized meadow, we evaluated whether grazing systems select leaf number (LN) as a functional indicator of environment-productivity linkages. By integrating structural equation modeling and random forest analysis, we disentangled the cascading network connecting climate, grazing, traits, diversity, and ecosystem functioning. Our results showed that rotational grazing enhanced community productivity through increased LN, whereas continuous grazing shifted the system toward a height-avoidance strategy. Air temperature emerged as the dominant climatic driver, promoting LN and productivity under rotational grazing, while precipitation played a secondary role. Across all grazing systems, LN was the most important predictor of aboveground biomass (relative importance: 18.4%), surpassing plant height and stem length. LN also showed a synergistic relationship with the Shannon-Wiener index ( P < 0.01). These results demonstrate that grazing acts as a selector of ecological pathways rather than merely an intensity gradient. We therefore propose LN as a practical indicator linking grazing management to ecosystem responses under the interannual climatic variability, providing a trait-based tool for forecasting salinized meadow functioning.
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BibTeX
@article{sang2026grazing,
title = {{Grazing systems select leaf number as an indicator of ecosystem responses to climatic variability in salinized meadows}},
author = {Yazhuan Sang and Lingxin Yi and Yang You and Xiongzhao He and Fujiang Hou},
journal = {Ecological Indicators},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.ecolind.2026.115495},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2026.115495},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Grazing systems select leaf number as an indicator of ecosystem responses to climatic variability in salinized meadows
AU - Yazhuan Sang
AU - Lingxin Yi
AU - Yang You
AU - Xiongzhao He
AU - Fujiang Hou
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/23
JO - Ecological Indicators
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2026.115495
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2026.115495
AB - The degradation of salinized meadows under environmental change calls for reliable functional indicators to support adaptive grazing management. However, while plant functional traits mediate grazing effects, identifying those that can robustly indicate the coupling between environmental factors and productivity across different grazing systems remains unresolved. Through a four-year controlled grazing experiment in a salinized meadow, we evaluated whether grazing systems select leaf number (LN) as a functional indicator of environment-productivity linkages. By integrating structural equation modeling and random forest analysis, we disentangled the cascading network connecting climate, grazing, traits, diversity, and ecosystem functioning. Our results showed that rotational grazing enhanced community productivity through increased LN, whereas continuous grazing shifted the system toward a height-avoidance strategy. Air temperature emerged as the dominant climatic driver, promoting LN and productivity under rotational grazing, while precipitation played a secondary role. Across all grazing systems, LN was the most important predictor of aboveground biomass (relative importance: 18.4%), surpassing plant height and stem length. LN also showed a synergistic relationship with the Shannon-Wiener index ( P < 0.01). These results demonstrate that grazing acts as a selector of ecological pathways rather than merely an intensity gradient. We therefore propose LN as a practical indicator linking grazing management to ecosystem responses under the interannual climatic variability, providing a trait-based tool for forecasting salinized meadow functioning.
SN - 1470-160X
SN - 1872-7034
ER -