How Biodiversity-Friendly Is Regenerative Grazing?

Regenerative grazing management (ReGM) seeks to mimic natural grazing dynamics to restore degraded soils and the ecological processes underpinning sustainable livestock production while enhancing biodiversity. Regenerative grazing, including holistic planned grazing and related methods, is an adaptive, rotational stocking approach in which dense livestock herds are rotated rapidly through multiple paddocks in short bouts of grazing to defoliate plants evenly and infrequently, interspersed with long recovery periods to boost regrowth. The concentrated “hoof action” of herds in ReGM is regarded vital for regenerating soils and ecosystem services. Evidence (from 58 studies) that ReGM benefits biodiversity is reviewed. Soils enriched by ReGM have increased microbial bioactivity, higher fungal:bacteria biomass, greater functional diversity, and richer microarthropods and macrofauna communities. Vegetation responds inconsistently, with increased, neutral, or decreased total plant diversity, richness of forage grasses and invasive species under ReGM: grasses tend to be favored but shrubs and forbs can be depleted by the mechanical action of hooves. Trampling also reduces numerous arthropods by altering vegetation structure, but creates favorable habitat and food for a few taxa, such as dung beetles. Similarly, grazing-induced structural changes benefit some birds (for foraging, nest sites) while heavy stocking during winter and droughts reduces food for seedeaters and songbirds. With herding and no fences, wildlife (herbivores and predators) thrives on nutritious regrowth while having access to large undisturbed areas. It is concluded that ReGM does not universally promote biodiversity but can be adapted to provide greater landscape habitat heterogeneity suitable to a wider range of biota.

Macrofauna communities across a seascape of seagrass meadows: environmental drivers, biodiversity patterns and conservation implications

Similar to other coastal biogenic habitats (e.g. tidal marshes, kelp forests, mangroves and coral reefs), a key function of seagrass meadows is the enhancement of biodiversity. Variability at multiple spatial scales is a driver of biodiversity, but our understanding of the response of macrofauna communities to variability of seagrass meadows is limited. We examined the macrofauna community structure (abundance and biomass) and diversity patterns (α- and β-diversity) across a seascape gradient of eleven seagrass meadows differing in the number, composition and density of plant species. The variability of the macrobenthic communities was regulated by a combination of sedimentary (mainly for the infauna) and macrophyte (mainly for the epifauna) predictors. We demonstrate that the natural occurrence of drifting algae trapped in the aboveground complexity of the meadows benefits seagrass macrofauna. Seagrass-associated macrofauna showed a clear increase in abundance and α-diversity metrics with increasing habitat complexity attributes (i.e. shoot density, plant biomass and canopy height). Furthermore, partitioning of β-diversity (i.e. the variation of species composition between sites) implied the replacement of some species by others between sites (i.e. spatial turnover) instead of a process of species loss (or gain) from site to site (i.e. nestedness). Therefore, the enhancement of macrofauna diversity across an increasing gradient of seagrass complexity, and the dominance of the turnover component suggest that devoting conservation efforts on many different types of meadows, including the less diverse, should be a priority for coastal habitat-management.

Spatial Patterns of Macrozoobenthos Assemblages in a Sentinel Coastal Lagoon: Biodiversity and Environmental Drivers

This study presents an assessment of the diversity and spatial distribution of benthic macrofauna communities along the Moulay Bousselham lagoon and discusses the environmental factors contributing to observed patterns. In the autumn of 2018, 68 stations were sampled with three replicates per station in subtidal and intertidal areas. Environmental conditions showed that the range of water temperature was from 25.0 °C to 12.3 °C, the salinity varied between 38.7 and 3.7, while the average of pH values fluctuated between 7.3 and 8.0. In vegetated habitats, biomass values of the seagrass Zostera noltei Hornemann ranged between 31.7 gDW/m² and 170.2 gDW/m² while the biomass of the seagrass Ruppia cirrhosa (Petagna) Grande between 54.2 gDW/m² and 84.7 gDW/m². Sediment analyses showed that the lagoon is mainly composed of sandy and silty sediments. We recorded 37,165 individuals of macrofauna distributed in 63 taxa belonging to 50 families, with a mean abundance value of 4582.8 ind/m² and biomass average of 22.2 g/m². Distance-based linear modeling analysis (DISTLM) identified sediment characteristics, water parameters and habitat type (biomass of Z. noltei) as the major environmental drivers influencing macrozoobenthos patterns. Our results clearly revealed that the hydrographic regime (marine and terrestrial freshwater), sediment distribution and characteristics and the type of habitat (vegetated vs unvegetated substrate) are the key factors determining the species composition and patterns of macrozoobenthos assemblages.

An ecomorphic approach to assessing the biodiversity of soil macrofauna communities in urban parks

An ecomorph reveals the relationship between organisms and the environment and reflects the level of their adaptation to the most important elements of the biogeocenosis. The eco-morphic approach to the analysis of ecological systems is a component of the concept of ecomorphic matrices. The ecomorphic matrices consist of blocks comprising the synecological properties of the soil animal community, each reflecting a particular aspect of its ecological features. The systemic combination of these characteristics is able to provide a comprehensive reflection of the diversity and functional state of the community. As a result of research on the territory of green areas in the city of Dnieper and Melitopol revealed 53 species or taxon species level representatives of soil macrofauna of the 48 genera and 32 families, 13 orders, 7 classes and 3 types. The article presents the biological and ecological characteristics of macrofauna species. Analysis of the ecomorphic structure of communities of soil macrofauna showed that in the cenomorphic structure prevail syl-vants, which represent 44.2% of the species richness of the community. Differences between com-munities Melitopol and Dnieper on cenomorphic structure statistically not reliable. Saprophages and predators prevail in trophic structure of soil macrofauna communities. Topomorphic structure of communities is dominated by epigeic forms (65.4%) and considerably exceeded by endogean forms (32.7%) Only one species represents burrowing soil animals – D. nassonovi. The community is dominated by mesophiles, which is typical for forest cenoses. Megatrophocenomorphs predomi-nate in the trophocenomorphic structure of the community. Aerophiles (48.1%) and subaerophiles (34.6%) predominate in the communities. The dominance of aeromorphs sensitive to the provision of air for breathing, indicates a satisfactory air regime in the soil green areas of public use. Carbon-atophiles are most represented in the community. Communities of soil macrofauna of public green spaces has features of amphicenosis, in which steppe and meadow components are significantly represented against the background of predominance of forest component. Tree plantations in a city park form a common forest environment, although they do not form a stable forest monocenosis. Recreation and other forms of anthropogenic influence do not allow the formation of a forest mono-cenosis or pseudomonocenosis. The trophic aspect of the structure deciphers the importance in the community of the cenotic components. The trophic structure of sylvants repeats the trophic structure of the community as a whole and this allows us to consider sylvants as the functional basis of the soil fauna community. Phytophages prevail among sylvanians, which fully corresponds to typical trophic structure of steppe zonal communities. This peculiarity taking into account proportional representation of zoophages and saprophages allows to estimate as functionally stable structure of the steppe community.

Macrofauna Communities In The Marine Section Of Ba Lai Estuary, Ben Tre Province

Macrofauna communities in Ba Lai estuary, Ben Tre province were investigated in three transects from the river mouth to the dam construction, in the order from the right, middle to the left bank. The community characteristics such as the composition, density, biodiversity, and the distribution pattern were recorded and analyzed. The results showed that the macrofauna communities in the marine section part of Ba Lai river consisted of 76 species belonging to 3 phyla: Mollusca, Arthropoda, and Annelida. In this study, it was notable that a high economic value of Ben Tre Clam (Meretrix lyrata) presented in the Ba Lai estuary with a density of 3160 ind /m2 on the right bank. The highest density was recorded in the mid transect of the river, followed by the right and the left (2907 +/- 4298, 1813 +/- 2056; 1730 +/- 1590 ind /m2, respectively). The biodiversity of macrofauna communities was measured by the species richness, Shannon – Wiener index, and Pielou's evenness. Diversity indices illustrated that the middle bank had the highest biodiversity. However, the statistical analysis results showed that the density and biodiversity indices in these transects were not significantly different. The main reason might be due to Ba Lai dam impact, which has been accreting alluvial, causing these locations gradually being similar in the environmental conditions. The distribution pattern of benthic macrofauna communities in this study should be considered as a typical distribution of benthos in rivers affected by dams. Macrofauna communities which gave rapid responses to environmental changes should be used as a bioindicator.