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December 14, 2025
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The Relationship Between Grazing Pressure and Environmental Factors Drives Vegetation Fragmentation Across Global Drylands

Publicated to: Global Ecology And Biogeography. 34 (8): e70098- - 2025-08-01 34(8), DOI: 10.1111/geb.70098

Authors:

Zhao, Yanchuang; Kefi, Sonia; Guirado, Emilio; Berdugo, Miguel; Eldridge, David J; Gross, Nicolas; Le Bagousse-Pinguet, Yoann; Saiz, Hugo; Asensio, Sergio; Ochoa, Victoria; Gozalo, Bea; Martinez-Valderrama, Jaime; Plaza, Cesar; Valencia, Enrique; Maestre, Fernando T
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Affiliations

Aix Marseille Univ, Avignon Univ, CNRS, IRD,IMBE, Aix En Provence, France - Author
CSIC, Estn Expt Zonas Aridas, Almeria, Spain - Author
CSIC, Inst Ciencias Agr ICA, Madrid, Spain - Author
Henan Univ Technol, Coll Informat Sci & Engn, Zhengzhou, Peoples R China - Author
King Abdullah Univ Sci & Technol, Biol & Environm Sci & Engn Div, Environm Sci & Engn, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia - Author
Santa Fe Inst, Santa Fe, NM USA - Author
Univ Alicante, Inst Multidisciplinar Estudio Medio Ramon Margalef, Alicante, Spain - Author
Univ Clermont Auvergne, Unite Mixte Rech Ecosyst Prairial, INRAE, VetAgro Sup, Clermont Ferrand, France - Author
Univ Complutense Madrid, Fac Biol Sci, Dept Biodivers Ecol & Evolut, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Jaen, Inst Univ Invest Olivar & Aceite Oliva, INUO, Jaen, Spain - Author
Univ Montpellier, ISEM, CNRS, IRD,EPHE, Montpellier, France - Author
Univ New South Wales, Ctr Ecosyst Sci, Sch Biol Earth & Environm Sci, Sydney, NSW, Australia - Author
Univ Vigo, GEA Grp Ecoloxia Anim, Vigo, Spain - Author
Univ Zaragoza, Escuela Politecn Super, Inst Univ Invest Ciencias Ambientales Aragon IUCA, Dept Ciencias Agr & Medio Nat, Huesca, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Aim: To evaluate how grazing pressure, a key land-use factor, interacts with climatic, vegetation, and soil variables to shape the fragmentation of perennial vegetation across drylands globally. Location: 171 plots across 25 countries on six continents. Time Period: Field data: 2016-2019. Major Taxa Studied: Perennial grasses, shrubs, and woody plants. Methods: We conducted a standardised field survey across 171 45 m x 45 m plots to assess grazing pressure, vegetation, and soil properties. Vegetation fragmentation was quantified using three patch-based metrics derived from high-resolution satellite images. Linear mixed-effects models were used to relate fragmentation to climatic, vegetation, and soil variables. Predictor importance was assessed through multi-model inference and validated using a random forest approach. Results: Vegetation fragmentation increased with aridity, and this effect was 4.7 times stronger under high grazing pressure than under low pressure. The most influential interactions involved grazing pressure with soil amelioration (49.7% importance) and with vegetation cover (44.6%). Soil amelioration-measured as the enrichment of soil organic carbon beneath vegetation-reduced fragmentation, especially under high grazing pressure. In contrast, the ability of vegetation cover to sustain large patches diminished as grazing intensity increased. Soil amelioration was strongly linked to the proportion of facilitated plant species (p < 0.01), whereas soil organic carbon alone-beneath vegetation (p = 0.37) or in bare areas (p = 0.94)-was not significantly related. Main Conclusions: Grazing pressure and aridity interact to intensify vegetation fragmentation, potentially accelerating land degradation in drylands under future climate and land-use scenarios. Mitigating this fragmentation requires not only enhancing vegetation cover but also promoting plant-soil facilitation processes, especially under high grazing pressure. These findings underscore the critical role of plant-driven soil amelioration in maintaining ecosystem structure and resilience across global drylands.
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Keywords

Climate-changeDesertificationDiversityDrylandsDynamicsFacilitationFeedbacksGrazing pressureInteraction effectsLand-usePatch-size distributionsPlant coverPlant-species richnessSoilSoil organic carbonThresholds

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2025, it was in position 6/67, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Geography, Physical. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-05:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 9.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 9 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 5.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 6 (Altmetric).
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Australia; China; France; Saudi Arabia; United States of America.

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Awards linked to the item

Y.Z. acknowledges support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFF0806600), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42307560), the Key Scientific Research Projects of Colleges and Universities in Henan Province (24A170014), the High-Level Foreign Expert Recruitment Program of Henan Province (HNGD2025025), the Key Projects of Science and Technology Research of Henan Province (232102320268), the International Science and Technology Collaboration Program of Henan Province (252102520050), and the Cultivation Programme for Young Backbone Teachers in Henan University of Technology (0008/21421292). F.T.M. acknowledges support by the European Research Council (BIODESERT project, Grant Agreement number 647038), the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the KAUST Climate and Livability Initiative. M.B. acknowledges funding from a Ramon y Cajal fellowship from Spanish Ministry of Science (RYC2021-031797-I). H.S. is supported by a Maria Zambrano fellowship funded by the Ministry of Universities and European Union-Next Generation plan. E.V. is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (PID2022-140398NA-I00 and CNS2024-154579).
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