Fabio Berzaghi

Feb 4, 2024 | besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com | Fabio Berzaghi |Dan Zhu |John Alroy |Philippe Ciais

1 INTRODUCTION Terrestrial mammalian herbivore species shape ecosystems, alter vegetation and soil functioning, change plant biodiversity, and affect carbon and nutrient turnovers (Bomske & Ahlers, 2021; Malhi et al., 2022; Poe et al., 2019; Schmitz et al., 2023). In particular, herbivores heavier than ~5–10 kg (also called ‘large’) influence carbon cycling and biosphere–atmosphere feedbacks (Berzaghi et al., 2018, 2023; Norris et al., 2020; Schmitz et al., 2023).

Oct 10, 2023 | biorxiv.org | Fabio Berzaghi |Dan Zhu |John Alroy |Philippe Ciais

AbstractMammalian herbivores strongly shape Earth system processes. A lack of global dynamic models of mammal populations limits our understanding of their ecological role at large scales and the consequences of their extinctions. We developed a mechanistic global model of terrestrial herbivore populations simulated with 37 functional groups defined by analyzing eco-physiological traits of all extant herbivores (n = 2599).