ReviewAgriculture, ecosystems & environment2018
Critical review of the impacts of grazing intensity on soil organic carbon storage and other soil quality indicators in extensively managed grasslands.
Review in Agriculture, ecosystems & environment, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Innovation in the U.S. beef value chain: a sustainable beef research roadmap.Animal frontiers : the review magazine of animal agriculture · 2026Article
- Mountain Croplands as Biodiversity Refugia: External Ecotones in the Central Tian-Shan of Kyrgyzstan Warrant Conservation Priority.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Effects of organic amendments and crop cultivation on soil organic carbon storage, phosphorus components, and microbial respiration in stratified soils.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Effect of Management Strategies on Ecosystem C:N:P Stoichiometry and Stocks in the Semi-Arid Grasslands of Northern China.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Linking grassland yield and nitrogen nutrition status to management practices: Towards large-scale grassland use intensity assessment.Remote sensing applications : society and environment · 2025Article
- Impact of Grassland Management System Intensity on Composition of Functional Groups and Soil Chemical Properties in Semi-Natural Grasslands.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Seasonal Sheep Grazing Does Not Enhance Stable or Total Soil Carbon Stocks in a Long-Term Calcareous Grassland Experiment.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Yak (Bos grunniens) excreta further facilitate the positive effects of soil fauna on litter decomposition in alpine meadow ecosystems.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Productivity, carbon sequestration and species diversity in virgin and secondary meadow steppes of the Bashkir Cis-Urals.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Vegetation degradation dominates over elevation in structuring fungal communities in alpine meadows.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- The Fungal Community Structure Regulates Elevational Variations in Soil Organic Carbon Fractions in a Wugong Mountain Meadow.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Divergent responses of the native grassland soil microbiome to heavy grazing between spring and fall.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2024Article
- The impact of different grazing intensity and management measures on soil organic carbon density in Zhangye grassland.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Sustainable Grassland-Management Systems and Their Effects on the Physicochemical Properties of Soil.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The loss of plant functional groups increased arthropod diversity in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau.Frontiers in plant science · 2024Article
- Article
- Comparative analysis of soil organic matter fractions, lability, stability ratios, and carbon management index in various land use types within bharatpur catchment, Chitwan District, Nepal.Carbon balance and management · 2023Article
- Article
- Low-carbon diets can reduce global ecological and health costs.Nature food · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Livestock grazing intensity (GI) is thought to have a major impact on soil organic carbon (SOC) storage and soil quality indicators in grassland agroecosystems. To critically investigate this, we conducted a global review and meta-analysis of 83 studies of extensive grazing, covering 164 sites across different countries and climatic zones. Unlike previous published reviews we normalized the SOC and total nitrogen (TN) data to a 30 cm depth to be compatible with IPCC guidelines. We also calculated a normalized GI and divided the data into four main groups depending on the regional climate (dry warm, DW; dry cool, DC; moist warm, MW; moist cool, MC). Our results show that taken across all climatic zones and GIs, grazing (below the carrying capacity of the systems) results in a decrease in SOC storage, although its impact on SOC is climate-dependent. When assessed for different regional climates, all GI levels increased SOC stocks under the MW climate (+7.6%) whilst there were reductions under the MC climate (-19%). Under the DW and DC climates, only the low (+5.8%) and low to medium (+16.1%) grazing intensities, respectively, were associated with increased SOC stocks. High GI significantly increased SOC for C4-dominated grassland compared to C3-dominated grassland and C3-C4 mixed grasslands. It was also associated with significant increases in TN and bulk density but had no effect on soil pH. To protect grassland soils from degradation, we recommend that GI and management practices should be optimized according to climate region and grassland type (C3, C4 or C3-C4 mixed).
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