• Energy Research

Alpine grasslands are essential for carbon sequestration and food supply for domestic and wild herbivores inhabiting mountainous areas worldwide. These biomes, however, are alternatively threatened by the abandonment of agricultural and livestock practices leading to a fast-growing shrubification process while other mountain grasslands are suffering from the impacts of overgrazing. The functioning of alpine meadow ecosystems is primarily driven by climatic conditions, land-use legacies and grazing. However, although it is critically important, the role of large herbivores on the aboveground biomass and protein content of palatable plants is poorly understood for most alpine meadows. In this work, we explore the effects of grazing on grassland vegetation at two different spatial and temporal scales in the Eastern Pyrenees, Spain. Remote sensing was used to assess the effect of high and moderate grazing (HG and MG respectively) on grass biomass using the leaf area index (LAI) at the meso-scale (patches between 2.3 and 38.7 ha). We also explored the impact of null (NG), overgrazing (MO, mimicked overgrazing) and high (HG) grazing intensities at local scale setting eighteen 1 m2 exclusion boxes in six meadows (three boxes each) commonly used by domestic and wild ungulates. Historical satellite data showed that LAI values are greater in high than in low grazed areas (HG, mean = 0.66, LG, mean = 0.55). Along the same lines, high and moderate grazing pressures improved biomass production at the local-scale (HG, mean = 590.3 g/m2, MO, mean = 389.3 g/m2 and NG, mean = 110.8 g/m2). Crude protein content reached higher values under MO pressure than under HG pressure. Our results confirm that grazing intensity exerts significant changes on the above-ground biomass production and the protein content of plants consumed by domestic (cattle and horses) and wild ungulates (Southern Chamois, Rupicapra pyrenaica). We can conclude that ungulates sustain biomass and nutritive values of grass exerting a negligible effect on biomass and protein content of woody vegetation. Our results will inform management guidelines to support profitable grazing activities and promote conservation of the open landscapes in the alpine ecosystems under the current global change scenario.

AbstractChanges in land‐use and climate affect the distribution and diversity of plant and animal species at different spatiotemporal scales. The extent to which species‐specific phenotypic plasticity and biotic interactions mediate organismal adaptation to changing environments, however, remains poorly understood. Woody plant expansion is threatening the extent of alpine grasslands worldwide, and evaluating and predicting its effects on herbivores is of crucial importance. Here, we explore the impact of shrubification on the feeding efficiency of Pyrenean chamois (Rupicapra p. pyrenaica), as well as on the three most abundant coexisting domestic ungulate species: cattle, sheep and horses. We use observational diet composition from May to October and model different scenarios of vegetation availability where shrubland and woodland proliferate at the expense of grassland. We then predicted if the four ungulate species could efficiently utilize their food landscapes with their current dietary specificities measuring their niche breath in each scenario. We observed that the wild counterpart, due to a higher trophic plasticity, is less disturbed by shrubification compared to livestock, which rely primarily on herbaceous plants and will be affected 3.6 times more. Our results suggest that mixed feeders, such as chamois, could benefit from fallow landscapes, and that mountain farmers are at a growing economic risk worldwide due to changing land‐use practices and climate conditions.