The Complementary Relationship of Bison Grazing and Arthropod Herbivory in Structuring a Tallgrass Prairie Community

摘要: Abstract Large mammal grazing is considered an important biological process that structures many grassland plant communities. While herbivorous arthropods are also consumers in terrestrial systems, their interaction with large poorly studied. We performed a field experiment tallgrass prairie manipulating arthropod abundance both bison-grazed and ungrazed areas following prescribed burn monitored the community for 15 mo. Total biomass was unchanged by end of experiment, but individual forbs grasses altered our manipulations. Forb bison-grazed/arthropod-reduced plots two to three times higher than other treatments, while grass where were unmanipulated. Grass forb richness showed smaller responses, significant difference only areas. Our results suggest bison herbivory work complementary way; reduce biomass, allowing increase, increase. study removing may have lengthened transition from dominance, therefore delaying return conditions conducive future disturbance fire. Therefore, we argue herbivory, interacting grazing, additional affecting composition patterns prairies should be investigated further systems.