| Resumo: |
Grazing is a global, dominant land use affecting biodiversity and ecosystem processes. In Mediterranean ecosystems grazing is a major ecological and evolutionary driver but, surprisingly, there is little information on the use of grazing as a tool to manage biodiversity in these ecosystems. We conducted an experiment to assess if the coexistence of grazing and grazing-excluded patches would increase plant and invertebrate diversity in a Mediterranean evergreen oak woodland. Plant community traits were different between treatments. Plant and litter biomass was higher, and the proportion of bare ground was lower, in grazing-excluded plots. Grazing affected functional diversity with legumes, invertebrate detritivores and sup sucking insects being more abundant in ungrazed plots. There were no differences between treatments in the number of species but there were plant species and invertebrate taxa recorded in grazed or grazing excluded plots, only. Ant communities were functionally different between treatments. Honeydew ant eaters were associated with ungrazed and higher plant biomass plots, and seed-eater as well as aggressive predator ant species were associated with grazed, more open habitat, plots. Management practices aiming to maintain grazing and grazing-excluded patches can increase habitat heterogeneity and promote diversity at the estate level.
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