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\begin{document}

\title{Livestock grazing-induced large-scale biotic homogenization in arid
Mediterranean steppe rangelands}



\author[1]{Merdas Saifi}%
\author[2]{Yacine  Kouba}%
\author[1]{Tewfik  Mostephaoui}%
\author[1]{Yassine  Farhi}%
\author[2,3]{Haroun Chenchouni}%
\affil[1]{Centre of scientific and technical research on arid regions}%
\affil[2]{University of Oum-El-Bouaghi}%
\affil[3]{University of Tebessa}%


\vspace{-1em}



  
  \date{May 04, 2024}


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\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{abstract}
Despite many studies explored the effect of livestock grazing on plant
communities, the response of species composition and diversity to
livestock grazing in arid rangelands remain ambiguous. This study
examined the effects of livestock grazing on plant communities in arid
steppe rangelands of North Africa. Plant diversity of annual species,
perennial species and all species combined was measured and compared
between grazed and grazing-excluded areas. We also examined the relative
importance of species turnover and community nestedness. Moreover, the
effects of livestock grazing on beta diversity at local among transects
and landscape among sites scales were examined using the multiplicative
diversity partitioning. Results revealed that livestock grazing
significantly decreased the alpha diversity of all species combined and
the diversity of annual plants. Livestock grazing induced a shift in
plant community composition where most of species composition variation
(\textasciitilde{}74\%) was due to infrequent species replacement
`turnover' between the two management types rather than nestedness
(\textasciitilde{}26\%). Results revealed also that among transects,
beta diversity was higher in grazed steppes than in grazing-excluded
steppes. Whereas, among sites, beta diversity was lower in grazed
steppes compared to grazing-excluded steppes. These findings suggest
that livestock grazing in arid steppe rangelands increases the variation
in {plant species} composition at a local spatial scale and engenders
vegetation homogeneity at landscape spatial scale. Therefore, the
implementation of appropriate management practices such as short-term
grazing exclusion is mandatory to prevent these ecosystems from large
scale biotic homogenization.%
\end{abstract}%



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\textbf{FIGURE 1.} Location of the study area in the central steppe
rangelands of Algeria. Orange solid points (*) indicate locations of
sampled sites in grazed steppes and green solid points (*) represent
grazing-excluded sites\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[H]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/Figure-2/Fig2-R2}

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\textbf{FIGURE 2.} Plant relative abundance (in\%) and species richness
for perennials and annuals in grazed and grazing-excluded steppe
rangelands of arid lands of Algeria.\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[H]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/Figure-3/Figure-3}

\end{center}
\end{figure}

\textbf{FIGURE 3.} Comparing alpha diversities for all plant species
combined, perennials and annuals, between grazed and grazing-excluded
``ungrazed'' areas of the steppe rangelands of Algeria. Results of GLMMs
tests are included in the figure as an asterisk (*) indicating
significant differences (\emph{P} \textgreater{} 0.05), and (ns) no
significant differences\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[H]
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\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/Figure-4/Figure-4}

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\end{figure}

\textbf{FIGURE 4.} Non-metrical multidimensional scaling (NMDS)
ordination based on Bray-Curtis similarities using 4th-root
transformation. Each symbol-point represents a 200-m transect used in
plant sampling.\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[H]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/Figure-5/Figure-5}
\caption{{{\label{831993}}
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{\label{831993}}%
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\end{figure}

\textbf{FIGURE 5.} Comparing beta diversities between grazed and
grazing-excluded in the arid steppes rangelands of Algeria. Diversity
was quantified using the Hill numbers, with \emph{q} = 0 (all species
are given equal weight), \emph{q} = 1 (greater weight is given to common
species), or \emph{q} = 2 (greater weight is given to dominant species).
``Beta transects GS'' and ``Beta transects GES'' refer to among
transects beta diversity (grain = transect and extent = site) in grazed
and grazing-excluded steppes, respectively; ``Beta sites GS'' and ``Beta
sites GES'' refer to among sites beta diversity (grain = site and extent
= management type) in grazed and grazing-excluded steppes, respectively.

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