DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Loss of Native Mammalian Herbivores and Ecosystem Function in the Himalayas

放牧生态系统覆盖了地球的主要部分，并支持各种大型哺乳动物食草动物。世界各地的人类干预正在改变放牧生态系统，本地大型哺乳动物食草动物正在被外来牲畜取代。鉴于目前全球生物多样性下降的趋势，了解这种变化对生态系统功能的影响至关重要。在这项建议中，跨喜马拉雅在中亚（北方印度）被确定为一个模式的生态系统，这些影响可以进行实证检验。在这里，重复的食草动物排除实验将探讨植被群落的任何变化和由此产生的生态系统过程的影响，本地食草动物被牲畜取代。这是评估自然生态系统中本地食草动物损失后果的首次尝试之一。它将提供对人类-自然耦合系统运作的生态见解，并作为在12个中亚国家以人为主导的景观中保护生物多样性的模式。

Grazing ecosystems cover a major portion of the earth and support a variety of large mammalian herbivores. Human interventions around the world are changing grazing ecosystems where native large mammalian herbivores are being replaced by exotic livestock. Given current trends of global biodiversity decline, understanding the implications of such changes for ecosystem functioning is critical. In this proposal, Trans-Himalaya in Central-Asia (northern India) is identified as a model ecosystem where these effects can be empirically tested. Here, replicated herbivore-exclusion experiments will explore any shifts in vegetation communities and resultant effects on ecosystem processes following the replacement of native herbivores by livestock. This is one of the first attempts to assess the consequences of loss of native herbivores from natural ecosystems. It will provide ecological insights into the functioning of a coupled human-natural system and serve as a model for conserving biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes of 12 central-Asian countries.