Abstract
Grazing plays an important role in shaping ecological communities in human-related ecosystems. Although myriad studies have explored the joint effect of grazing and climate on plant communities, this interactive effect has rarely been studied in animals. We hypothesized that the effect of grazing on the reptile community varies along a climatic gradient in relation to the effect of grazing on habitat characteristics, and that grazing differentially affects reptiles of different biogeographic regions. We tested our hypotheses by collecting data on environmental characteristics and by trapping reptiles in four heterogeneous landscapes experiencing differing grazing intensities and distributed along a sharp climatic gradient. We found that while reptile diversity increased with grazing intensity at the mesic end of the gradient, it decreased with grazing intensity at the arid end. Moreover, the proportion of reptile species of differing biogeographic origins varied with the interactive effect of climate and grazing. The representation of species originating in arid biogeographic zones was highest at the arid end of the climatic gradient, and representation increased with grazing intensity within this area. Regardless of the climatic context, increased grazing pressure results in a reduction in vegetation cover and thus in changes in habitat characteristics. By reducing vegetation cover, grazing increased habitat heterogeneity in the dense mesic sites and decreased habitat heterogeneity in the arid sites. Thus, our results suggest that the same direction of habitat alteration caused by grazing may have opposite effects on biodiversity and community composition in different climatic contexts.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adler PB, Raff DA, Lauenroth WK (2001) The effect of grazing on the spatial heterogeneity of vegetation. Oecologia 128:465–479
Adler PB, Milchunas DG, Sala OE, Burke IC, Lauenroth WK (2005) Plant traits and ecosystem grazing effects: comparison of US sagebrush steppe and Patagonian steppe. Ecol Appl 15:774–792
Attum O, Eason P, Cobbs G, El Din SMB (2006) Response of a desert lizard community to habitat degradation: do ideas about habitat specialists/generalists hold? Biol Conserv 133:52–62
Bar Massada A, Gabay O, Perevolotsky A, Carmel Y (2008) Quantifying the effect of grazing and shrub-clearing on small scale spatial pattern of vegetation. Landsc Ecol 23:327–339. doi:10.1007/s10980-007-9189-0
Barton PS, Manning AD, Gibb H, Wood JT, Lindenmayer DB, Cunningham SA (2011) Experimental reduction of native vertebrate grazing and addition of logs benefit beetle diversity at multiple scales. J Appl Ecol 48:943–951. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2664.2011.01994.x
Beever EA, Brussard PF (2004) Community- and landscape-level responses of reptiles and small mammals to feral-horse grazing in the Great Basin. J Arid Environ 59:271–297
Ben-Yosef S (1980) Israel guide (vol. Judea). Keter, Jerusalem (in Hebrew)
Bestelmeyer BT, Wiens JA (2001) Ant biodiversity in semiarid landscape mosaics: the consequences of grazing vs. natural heterogeneity. Ecol Appl 11:1123–1140
Bouskila A (2002) Reptiles. In: Dolev A, Perevolotsky A (eds) The Red book: vertebrates in Israel. Israel Nature and Parks Authority/Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Jerusalem/Tel Aviv, pp 71–121
Bouskila A, Amitai P (2001) Handbook of amphibians and reptiles of Israel. Keter, Jerusalem
Bronstein AM, Bronstein MM, Kimmel R (2006) Generalized multidimensional scaling: a framework for isometry-invariant partial surface matching. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103:1168–1172. doi:10.1073/pnas.0508601103
Brown GW, Dorrough JW, Ramsey DSL (2011) Landscape and local influences on patterns of reptile occurrence in grazed temperate woodlands of southern Australia. Landsc Urban Plan 103:277–288. doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2011.08.002
Cano PD, Leynaud GC (2010) Effects of fire and cattle grazing on amphibians and lizards in northeastern Argentina (Humid Chaco). Eur J Wildl Res 56:411–420
Clarke KR (1993) Non-parametric multivariate analyses of changes in community structure. Aust J Ecol 18:117–143
Diaz S et al (2007) Plant trait responses to grazing––a global synthesis. Glob Change Biol 13:313–341. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2006.01288.x
Dorrough J, McIntyre S, Brown G, Stol J, Barrett G, Brown A (2012) Differential responses of plants, reptiles and birds to grazing management, fertilizer and tree clearing. Austral Ecol 37:569–582
Fischer J, Lindenmayer DB, Cowling A (2004) The challenge of managing multiple species at multiple scales: reptiles in an Australian grazing landscape. J Appl Ecol 41:32–44
Fisher RA, Corbet AS, Williams CB (1943) The relation between the number of species and the number of individuals in a random sample of an animal population. J Anim Ecol 12:42–58
Fisher R, Stokes D, Rochester C, Brehme C, Hathaway S, Case T (2008) Herpetological monitoring using a pitfall trapping design in Southern California. Techniques and Methods vol. 2-A5. US Geological Survey, Reston, p 44
Frank AS, Dickman CR, Wardle GM, Greenville AC (2013) Interactions of grazing history, cattle removal and time since rain drive divergent short-term responses by desert biota. PLoS One 8:1–13
Frank AS, Wardle GM, Dickman CR, Greenville AC (2014) Habitat-and rainfall-dependent biodiversity responses to cattle removal in an arid woodland-grassland environment. Ecol Appl 24:2013–2028
Gabbay S (ed)(2000) Israel’s First National Communication on Climate Change. Ministry of the Environment, Jerusalem
Gavish Y, Ziv Y, Rosenzweig ML (2012) Decoupling fragmentation from habitat loss for spiders in patchy agricultural landscapes. Conserv Biol 26:150–159. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2011.01799.x
Gvirtzman H (2002) Israel water resources. Yad Ben-Zvi, Jerusalem. (in Hebrew)
James C (2003) Response of vertebrates to fenceline contrasts in grazing intensity in semi-arid woodlands of eastern Australia. Austral Ecol 28:137–151. doi:10.1046/j.1442-9993.2003.01259.x
Loe LE, Mysterud A, Stien A, Steen H, Evans DM, Austrheim G (2007) Positive short-term effects of sheep grazing on the alpine avifauna. Biol Lett 3:110–112
Marion B, Bonis A, Bouzillé J-B (2010) How much does grazing-induced heterogeneity impact plant diversity in wet grasslands? Ecoscience 17:229–239
Michael DR, Cunningham RB, Lindenmayer DB (2008) A forgotten habitat? Granit inselbergs conserve reptile diversity in fragmented agricultural landscapes. J Appl Ecol 45:1742–1752
Milchunas DG, Lauenroth WK (1993) Quantitative effects of grazing on vegetation and soils over a global range of environments. Ecol Monogr 63:327–366
Milchunas DG, Sala OE, Lauenroth WK (1988) A generalized-model of the effects of grazing by large herbivores on grassland community structure. Am Nat 132:87–106
Milchunas D, Lauenroth W, Burke I (1998) Livestock grazing: animal and plant biodiversity of shortgrass steppe and the relationship to ecosystem function. Oikos: 65–74
Olff H, Ritchie ME (1998) Effects of herbivores on grassland plant diversity. Trends Ecol Evol 13:261–265
Osem Y, Perevolotsky A, Kigel J (2002) Grazing effect on diversity of annual plant communities in a semi-arid rangeland: interactions with small-scale spatial and temporal variation in primary productivity. J Ecol 90:936–946. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2745.2002.00730.x
Pakeman RJ (2004) Consistency of plant species and trait responses to grazing along a productivity gradient: a multi-site analysis. J Ecol 92:893–905. doi:10.1111/j.0022-0477.2004.00928.x
Perevolotsky A, Seligman NG (1998) Role of grazing in Mediterranean rangeland ecosystems––inversion of a paradigm. Bioscience 48:1007–1017. doi:10.2307/1313457
Pettigrew M, Bull CM (2011) The impact of heavy grazing on burrow choice in the pygmy bluetongue lizard, Tiliqua adelaidensis. Wildl Res 38:299–306
Price B, Kutt AS, McAlpine CA (2010) The importance of fine-scale savanna heterogeneity for reptiles and small mammals. Biol Conserv 143:2504–2513
R Development Core Team (2013) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-900051-07-0. http://www.R-project.org
Read JL (2002) Experimental trial of Australian arid zone reptiles as early warning indicators of overgrazing by cattle. Austral Ecol 27:55–66. doi:10.1046/j.1442-9993.2002.01159.x
Read JL, Cunningham R (2010) Relative impacts of cattle grazing and feral animals on an Australian arid zone reptile and small mammal assemblage. Austral Ecol 35:314–324
Ruskey F, Weston M (1997) A survey of venn diagrams. Electron J Comb 4
Steinfeld H, Gerber P, Wassenaar T, Castel V, Rosales M, De Hann C (2006) Livestock’s long shadow environmental issues and options. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome
Vogel JA, Debinski DM, Koford RR, Miller JR (2007) Butterfly, responses to prairie restoration through fire and grazing. Biol Conserv 140:78–90
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF grant 751/09) to Y.Z. We thank our assistants for their help in the field and the farmers of Kibutz Bet-Nir for their cooperation. This study was conducted under Israel National Parks Authority permit number 2011/38096.
Author contribution statement
GR, YZ, YG, and IG conceived and designed the experiments. GR and BS performed the experiments. GR analyzed the data. GR, YZ, YG, and IG wrote the manuscript; other authors provided editorial advice.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by Raoul Van Damme.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rotem, G., Gavish, Y., Shacham, B. et al. Combined effects of climatic gradient and domestic livestock grazing on reptile community structure in a heterogeneous agroecosystem. Oecologia 180, 231–242 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3435-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3435-y