Abstract

Work on the impacts of herbivores on ecosystems has traditionally focused on aboveground effects, but a growing number of ecologists are beginning to consider how herbivores affect belowground organisms and processes. Human activity has caused considerable changes in densities of mammalian herbivores throughout the world, through the introduction of herbivores to new regions, the creation of conditions that promote high herbivore densities, and the reduction of their population sizes, sometimes to the point of extinction. These human influences on high mammal densities can have major effects on the decomposer subsystem. Whether these effects are positive or negative depends on the mechanisms involved: for example, whether the changes are in the quantity or quality of the decomposers' resources or in the pathway of vegetation succession. In turn, these belowground effects may influence aboveground biota by altering the supply of available nutrients from the soil. Changes in large mammal densities through human activity may represent an important, though frequently underappreciated, element of global change

Published in

Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
2004, Volume: 2, number: 3, pages: 145-153
Publisher: ECOLOGICAL SOC AMER

SLU Authors

• Wardle, David

  • Department of Forest Vegetation Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science


Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/3287