Grazing Effects on Pollinator Diversity and Ecosystem Services

Grazing by domestic and wild herbivores shapes the composition and structure of plant communities, with cascading consequences for pollinator assemblages and the ecosystem services they underpin. At moderate levels, grazing can maintain mosaic habitats, promote floral diversity and extend the flowering season, thereby supporting a rich array of bees, butterflies and other flower‐visitors. Excessive or poorly timed grazing often leads to reduced floral abundance, simplified plant communities and soil compaction, which in turn diminish pollinator abundance, richness and functional diversity. The impact of grazing varies with ecosystem type, climatic conditions, evolutionary history of herbivory and management practices, such as stocking rate, timing and pasture composition. By altering nesting substrates, floral resource availability and plant‐pollinator network structure, grazing regimes directly influence pollination services essential for wild plant reproduction, crop yield and broader biodiversity conservation. Integrating knowledge of pollinator responses into grazing management can optimise both agricultural productivity and the resilience of natural and semi‐natural ecosystems at regional and global scales.

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Grazing Effects on Pollinator Diversity and Ecosystem Services publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in grazing effects on pollinator diversity and ecosystem services across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Pollinator diversity: The variety and relative abundance of species that transfer pollen among flowering plants.

Ecosystem services: The benefits humans derive from ecosystems, including pollination, soil fertility, water regulation and cultural values.

Grazing intensity: The pressure exerted by herbivores on vegetation, often quantified by stocking rate, duration and frequency of grazing.

Plant–pollinator interaction network: A representation of the links between plant species and their pollinators, characterised by metrics such as modularity, connectance and interaction evenness.

References

1. Intensive grazing alters the diversity, composition and structure of plant-pollinator interaction networks in Central European grasslands. PLOS ONE (2022).
2. Designing Management Strategies for Sheep Production and Bees in Dryland Pastures. Agronomy (2023).
3. A meta‐analysis of the effects of habitat aridity, evolutionary history of grazing and grazing intensity on bee and butterfly communities worldwide. Ecological Solutions and Evidence (2022).