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大部分地区，支持着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，在那里，本土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。在这项提案中，中亚(印度北部)的跨喜马拉雅被确定为这些影响可以得到经验检验的模式生态系统。在这里，重复的草食动物排斥实验将探索在本地草食动物被牲畜取代后，植被群落的任何变化以及由此对生态系统过程的影响。这是评估本土食草动物从自然生态系统中消失的后果的首批尝试之一。它将提供对人-自然耦合系统功能的生态洞察，并成为在12个中亚国家以人类为主的景观中保护生物多样性的典范。

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.