Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment最新文献

{"title":"Balancing grazing and biodiversity: Arthropod responses to modern cattle farming practices","authors":"Sanna Mäkeläinen ,&nbsp;Torgny Backman ,&nbsp;Laura Bosco ,&nbsp;Andrea Santangeli ,&nbsp;Aleksi Lehikoinen ,&nbsp;Venla Saaristo ,&nbsp;Johan Ekroos ,&nbsp;Helena Wirta ,&nbsp;Iryna Herzon","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109942","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109942","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ruminant production exerts severe pressure on ecosystems through land use change for pasture and fodder production, contributing to biodiversity loss, disruption of natural biogeochemical fluxes, and climate change. Whereas ruminant production can support biodiversity that has co-evolved with grasslands and grazing animals, the values of temporary grasslands are poorly understood. In this study, we assessed the effects of grazing regimes practised on modern cattle farms, including no grazing, on the abundance, biomass, and taxonomic richness of aerial and ground-dwelling arthropods. We assessed the potential value of organic management compared to grazing on conventional farms, and the role of vegetation structure on the pastures. We sampled arthropods in temporary pastures and silage grasslands, spring cereal fields, and in farmyards on 43 dairy and suckler cow farms in Finland. We show that grazing benefits the richness of ground-dwelling arthropods in fields, and the benefits were most evident at extensive levels of grazing at the farm scale. Grazing had no significant benefits for the biomass of ground-dwelling arthropods or relative abundance of aerial arthropods over field vegetation. Grazed rotational grasslands had similar levels of arthropods as mown grasslands or cereal crops, except for a higher richness of ground-dwelling arthropods. Taxonomic richness of ground-dwelling arthropods was higher on organic farms than conventional, but only at low grazing intensities. Although our study suggests several ways in which livestock farmers can maintain and increase arthropod populations on their farms, these may be associated with some reduction in production output on modern farms oriented towards high yields.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 109942"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144996958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Grassland phases as ecological buffers: Reducing invasive weeds even under drought-induced stress in cropping systems","authors":"Mauricio Z. Schuster ,&nbsp;Arthur A.M. Barroso ,&nbsp;François Gastal","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109939","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109939","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Agricultural systems are increasingly vulnerable to biological invasions and climate extremes, particularly drought, which can disrupt competitive balances and favor invasive weed establishment. Ecological strategies such as integrating temporary grassland phases into crop rotations offer potential to enhance system resilience, yet their long-term effectiveness under drought stress remains poorly quantified. A 12-year field experiment in western France was used to evaluated five rotational systems differing in the duration (3 or 6 years) and nitrogen fertilization of grassland phases within annual crop rotations. Weed invasion patterns were assessed using hierarchical statistical models, and an integrative drought stress index was developed to capture both the intensity and duration of water deficits over time. The influence of grassland management on invasive weed richness, temporal dynamics, drought sensitivity, and weed carryover between phases was examined. Invasive weed richness increased linearly with the proportion of annual crops, while systems with prolonged, well-fertilized grasslands exhibited significantly reduced invasion pressure—even under drought. Grassland phases buffered the effects of climate stress and minimized weed persistence across years, particularly when nitrogen inputs were adequate. Conceptualizing the system as a dynamic source–sink model revealed that crops serve as invasion sources, while well-managed grasslands act as ecological sinks that suppress invaders over time. These findings highlight the value of spatial–temporal diversification as a nature-based solution to reduce weed invasion in a changing climate. Incorporating extended grassland phases into rotations can strengthen agroecosystem resistance to invasive species and reduce dependency on chemical control strategies, contributing to the design of more sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural landscapes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 109939"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144924978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Soil texture governs the decoupling of diversity and productivity recovery in restored desert steppe grasslands","authors":"Xing Wang ,&nbsp;Lei Wang ,&nbsp;Nai-ping Song ,&nbsp;Wen-jie Qu ,&nbsp;Xin-guo Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109947","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109947","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Vegetation structure and ecosystem function in the desert steppe of northern China show high spatial heterogeneity during restoration. Understanding how species dominance and soil environmental variation influence the recovery of diversity, productivity, and their interrelationship is critical for sustainable restoration and adaptive management in this region. To address this, we investigated native grasslands (reference systems) and restored grasslands following degradation in the Ningxia desert steppe. We assessed the recovery of diversity (quantified by effective species number), productivity, and their linkage across dominant, common, and rare species groups, and examined the regulatory role of soil properties in these processes. Compared to native grasslands, restored grasslands showed: (1) a significant 12.2 % increase in species richness, mainly driven by rare species; however, the diversity of dominant and common groups decreased significantly by 25.6 and 12.0 %, respectively; (2) a significant reduction in community productivity, with native grassland specialists declining by nearly 80 %, while weed productivity increased by 87.5 %. Across both systems, common ecological mechanisms were observed: (3) productivity was primarily driven by a few dominant and common species with high relative abundance (i.e., lower effective numbers of species), indicating a typical selection effect; (4) Soils with higher clay and silt contents enhanced moisture retention, thereby promoting diversity recovery (greater effective numbers of species) but suppressing productivity. This regulatory pathway was weaker in restored grasslands (R² = 0.126) than in native systems (R² = 0.719). Our findings reveal trade-offs between structural and functional recovery in restored grasslands. Enhancing rare species conservation and increasing the abundance and functional dominance of native species under specific soil conditions may improve restoration outcomes. These insights provide a scientific basis for ecosystem management in dryland grasslands.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 109947"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144924975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Semi-natural grasslands as a nature-based solution for climate change mitigation: An assessment of carbon and plant communities across age gradients","authors":"Tamsin Lockwood ,&nbsp;Jessica L. Elias ,&nbsp;Melanie Stone ,&nbsp;Hannah R. Kemp ,&nbsp;Melanie Spiers ,&nbsp;Becky Davess ,&nbsp;Nicholas Izard ,&nbsp;Emily Mason ,&nbsp;Jodie Hartill ,&nbsp;Mike D. Morecroft","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109887","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109887","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Semi-natural grasslands have the potential to sequester carbon and enhance biodiversity and therefore offer opportunities as nature-based solutions for climate change. However, our understanding of how their potential for carbon storage might work alongside their diversity benefits is based on a small quantity of variable evidence. Here, we use a chronosequence approach to investigate soil carbon and plant diversity in semi-natural grasslands across 5 regions in England, ranging from fields that have been newly established to fields over 150 years old. Our results show that soil organic carbon (SOC) stock was up to 104 % higher in older (25 + years), compared to younger (0–24 years) fields in the top 30 cm. Environmental metrics specific to each site, in particular soil clay content and mean annual rainfall, were among the strongest predictors of SOC stock. Plant diversity was not found to increase consistently with age, but plant species community composition shifted from a high proportion of ruderal species to stress tolerant species. These results highlight the potential opportunity that established, undisturbed semi-natural grasslands present in tackling the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Further investigation on the legacy effects of past management and land use is needed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 109887"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144933192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Biodiversity gains importance in sustaining ecosystem multifunctionality when beyond aridity thresholds in temperate grasslands","authors":"Yu Yang ,&nbsp;Changchao Zhang ,&nbsp;Mingxing Tian ,&nbsp;Binwei Ci ,&nbsp;Cong Liu ,&nbsp;Yunxiang Cheng ,&nbsp;Pujin Zhang ,&nbsp;Hongtao Luo ,&nbsp;Liqing Zhao ,&nbsp;Yonghui Wang ,&nbsp;Wenhong Ma","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109946","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109946","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF), integrating the multifaceted nature of ecosystem functioning, is increasingly used as a key indicator for assessing grassland health and guiding restoration strategies. It remains unclear whether biodiversity consistently enhances EMF across aridity gradients in water-limited ecosystems. Based on a 445-site survey spanning a broad aridity gradient in the temperate grasslands of northern China, we revealed threshold-type responses of EMF to aridity, with a critical value of 0.565. Below this threshold, EMF was strongly driven by water availability and declined sharply with increasing aridity. Above the threshold, intensified environmental filtering for drought-tolerant species weakened the influence of aridity but amplified the role of plant species diversity, likely due to their unique and irreplaceable contributions to EMF. Grazing exerted relatively weak direct effects on EMF compared with aridity. However, greater grazing intensity reduced plant species diversity, thus reducing EMF below the threshold, while above the threshold, it increased soil pH, reducing both plant diversity and EMF. These findings reveal the vulnerability of dryland ecosystem functioning to ongoing climatic drying and the strengthening influence of biodiversity in sustaining it, underscoring the necessity of conserving biodiversity to maintain ecosystem multifunctionality and resilience in arid regions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 109946"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144924976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Coffee berry borer infestations and natural enemy communities shaped by altitude, shade, and management practices","authors":"Natalia Moreno-Ramírez ,&nbsp;Felix J.J.A. Bianchi ,&nbsp;Maria R. Manzano ,&nbsp;Fiona Martinez-Hofmans ,&nbsp;Marcel Dicke","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109944","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109944","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The coffee berry borer (<em>Hypothenemus hampei</em> Ferrari, CBB) is the most damaging pest of coffee worldwide, and challenging to control due to its cryptic life cycle inside the coffee berries. Conservation biological control offers a sustainable alternative by enhancing natural enemies through habitat management. However, its potential to control CBB remains unclear. Here we studied the impact of chemical control, shade trees, crop characteristics, farm management, and arthropod natural-enemy populations on CBB infestations across 24 coffee farms in Colombia in two consecutive years. We visually assessed infestation levels, berry damage, and predator and parasitoid abundance and diversity using sweep netting (flying insects), beat-sheet sampling (tree-dwelling species), and tuna baits (predatory ants). Farm characteristics and management practices were documented through interviews with farmers. CBB infestations averaged 4.5 % (2022) and 14.6 % (2023), and we identified ten ant and two beetle species as potential CBB predators inside infested berries. Chemical control of CBB was ineffective, and infestation levels were not associated with the presence of shade trees, but were negatively correlated with altitude. Natural enemy diversity was positively associated with shade-coffee systems and tree density, and negatively associated with weed mowing frequency. Our findings highlight the complex interactions between environmental factors, management practices, and coffee crop characteristics in shaping CBB infestations and natural enemy communities. Weeding negatively impacted natural enemies, whereas shade and higher crop density enhanced predator and parasitoid diversity, reinforcing the value of structural vegetation complexity. Enhancing natural enemy populations through vegetation diversification, reduced weed mowing, and maintaining shade trees may offer scope for CBB suppression.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 109944"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144924974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Achieving synergistic high yield and methane mitigation in rice under co-application of biochar and mild alternate wetting and drying via enhancing root-produced brassinosteroids","authors":"Wei Cai ,&nbsp;Meijie Jia ,&nbsp;Ying Liu ,&nbsp;Haotian Chen ,&nbsp;Yue Ma ,&nbsp;Kuanyu Zhu ,&nbsp;Hao Zhang ,&nbsp;Junfei Gu ,&nbsp;Zhiqin Wang ,&nbsp;Zujian Zhang ,&nbsp;Lijun Liu ,&nbsp;Jianhua Zhang ,&nbsp;Xiaoyuan Yan ,&nbsp;Weiyang Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109940","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109940","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study aimed to examine whether the co-application of biochar and mild alternate wetting and drying (Mild AWD) could synergistically achieve high rice yields and mitigate methane (CH₄) emissions by optimizing brassinosteroid (BRs)-driven root functions. In a two-year field trial, two rice cultivars were cultivated under continuous flooding (CF) and Mild AWD, with paired treatments of applying or not applying biochar made from wheat straw. Results showed that the co-application of biochar and Mild AWD significantly increased grain yield (14.1 % in 2023 and 15.0 % in 2024) and reduced CH₄ emissions (64.2 % in 2023 and 67.1 % in 2024), although N₂O emissions increased. However, the increase in N₂O emissions did not offset the overall benefits of reduced global warming potential (GWP) and greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) resulting from CH₄ emission reduction. The co-application of biochar and Mild AWD enhanced grain yield by promoting carbon assimilate accumulation and efficient transport from vegetative organs to grains, supported by improved root activity. Moreover, elevated BRs levels in rice roots strengthened the ascorbate-glutathione cycle, rapidly scavenging excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS), maintaining cellular antioxidant capacity and root activity, and inhibiting ROS-induced aerenchyma formation. This, in turn, elevated the levels of specific organic acids (malic acid, citric acid, and succinic acid) in root exudates, enhancing soil CH₄ oxidation activity and ultimately reducing CH₄ emissions, GHGI, and GWP in the paddy ecosystem. Overall, this study highlights a synergistic strategy for high-yield rice production and CH₄ mitigation through the co-application of biochar and Mild AWD, facilitated by enhanced root-produced BRs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 109940"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144924979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Disentangling biodiversity and temperature effects on bees and pollination services in mountain agroecosystems","authors":"Sebastiano Zanini ,&nbsp;Matteo Dainese ,&nbsp;Lisa Obwegs ,&nbsp;Elia Guariento ,&nbsp;Timo Kopf ,&nbsp;Matteo Anderle ,&nbsp;Georg Leitinger ,&nbsp;Ulrike Tappeiner","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109945","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109945","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Pollinating insects are declining globally due to habitat loss, agricultural intensification, and climate change. Wild bee loss threatens the delivery of pollination services essential for agriculture and ecosystem stability. Our study examined how multidiversity, reflecting the richness of four functional groups and indirectly indicating land-use intensity, together with temperature as a climatic proxy, shapes wild bee diversity and pollination services in mountainous agroecosystems. We selected 24 farmland sites in South Tyrol (NE Italy) spanning independent gradients of multidiversity and temperature. We used pan traps to quantify wild bee species richness and abundance of wild and managed bees. Additionally, we performed a phytometer experiment using radish and strawberry model plants to assess wild bee visitation and the resulting seed and fruit production. Our results showed that wild bee diversity and visitation rates increased with multidiversity, reflecting the strong influence of land-use intensity. In contrast, temperature had limited direct effect on wild bee diversity, partly because floral resources were not a limiting factor. Visitation rates varied with multidiversity: honeybee visitation rates dominated in low-diversity landscapes, while wild bee visitations peaked in more diversified landscapes. The pollinator exclusion experiment on strawberries revealed that higher temperatures reduced fruit weight more in the absence of insect pollination, suggesting an interaction between climate and pollination provision. Overall, our results findings highlight the complex interplay betweenbiotic and abiotic factors shaping wild bee communities and pollination. They also suggest that preserving biodiversity in agricultural landscapes could help buffer climate change impacts and support more resilient agroecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 109945"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144920008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Spillover from flower plantings benefits apple pollination on a small scale","authors":"Estelle Bridoux ,&nbsp;James Desaegher ,&nbsp;Fabrice Allier ,&nbsp;Axel Decourtye ,&nbsp;Rose Leilde ,&nbsp;Emeline Guigne ,&nbsp;Fabrice Requier","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109927","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109927","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Animal-mediated pollination is critical to support crop yields but is threatened by the decline of pollinator populations. The establishment of flower plantings in agricultural landscapes is a conservation strategy that aims to provide diverse floral resources for pollinators. Despite several studies on the effect of flower plantings on pollination, their effects remain unclear. In particular, the influence of the distance has been studied through theoretical approaches but field studies are scarce. We conducted field experiments over two years, 2023 and 2024, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of France, to investigate how co-flowering plantings affect insect flower visitation and crop pollination in apple orchards. We found that the abundance of apple flower visitors, especially wild bees, decreased with the distance from flower plantings, thus suggesting a spillover of flower visitors from flower plantings into adjacent apple trees. Interestingly, we found a non-linear effect of the distance from flower planting on the initial fruit set, which suggests that flower plantings can improve apple pollination at close distances from the plantings (about 33 m). No effect of the distance from flower plantings was observed on the diversity of flower visitors, final apple fruit set or fruit quality. Overall, our results suggest that flower plantings are a promising strategy to support pollinators. Furthermore, as they can increase pollinator abundance in the adjacent apple flowers, flower plantings have the potential to enhance pollination and yield of the adjacent crops. Given the short distance of the observed facilitation effect, we recommend that flower plantings should be spread across farmland in order to promote crop pollination at farm level.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 109927"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144913087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How does low intensity grazing alter soil phosphorus biogeochemistry to sustain its availability in a semi-arid pastureland?","authors":"Avijit Ghosh,&nbsp;Srinivasan Ramakrishnan,&nbsp;Sultan Singh,&nbsp;Amit Kumar Singh,&nbsp;Arun Kumar Shukla,&nbsp;Shiv Nath Ram,&nbsp;Sunil Kumar,&nbsp;Ram Vinod Kumar","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109923","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109923","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although the phosphorus (P) pools and cycles in grassland ecosystems can be significantly impacted by livestock grazing, very few studies have looked at the effects of grazing intensity on the soil P pools. Grazing has been known to reduce soil P availability. However, the mechanisms behind this have been rarely studied. Here, a long-term trial in the Indian semi-arid pastureland was arranged to examine impact of different grazing pressures, i.e. heavy (HG), medium (MG), and low (LG) in pastureland on soil P fractions. Soil samples were taken from surface and sub-surface layers and analysed for soil P dynamics, microbial activity, and diversity. Total soil P increased significantly (P &lt; 0.05) under MG and HG by 18 and 39 % over control at the surface layer, respectively. Plant available P under LG and HG was significantly (P &lt; 0.05) higher (by ∼ 11 and 15 %) than control at the surface layer. In the grazed plots, plant available P at the surface soil layer was ∼10 % greater than subsurface soil layer. MG and HG significantly enhanced the iron, aluminium, and calcium bound P. The population of P solubilizing bacteria under LG was ∼48 and 75 % higher than MG and HG, respectively in surface layer. The P adsorption maxima and adsorption energy declined significantly (P &lt; 0.05) under LG, but increased under HG over control at both soil layers. Excessive grazing pressure on grasslands might detrimentally affect the sustainability of ecological functions. To rejuvenate damaged grasslands and manage P effectively in semiarid regions and elsewhere, it is urgently necessary to optimise grazing pressure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"395 ","pages":"Article 109923"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144907340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}