Abstact

Two of the most pervasive human impacts on ecosystems are alteration of global nutrient budgets and changes in the abundance and identity of consumers. Fossil fuel combustion and agricultural fertilization have doubled and quintupled, respectively, global pools of nitrogen and phosphorus relative to pre-industrial levels. Concurrently, habitat loss and degradation and selective hunting and fishing disproportionately remove consumers from food webs. At the same time, humans are adding consumers to food webs for endpoints such as conservation, recreation, and agriculture, as well as accidental introductions of invasive consumer species. In spite of the global impacts of these human activities, there have been no globally coordinated experiments to quantify the general impacts on ecological systems. The Nutrient Network (NutNet) is a grassroots research effort to address these questions within a coordinated research network comprised of more than 200 grassland sites worldwide.

Main Publications from this project

• Yahdjian L., Campana S., Tognetti P., Alberti J., Graff P., Molina C., Borer E., Seabloom E., Prober S., Mac Dougall A., Risch A.C., Power S. ….NutNet CONSORTIUM. 2025. Insights on global rangeland ecosystem services shaped by grazing and fertilization. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (in press).
• Fay P.A#., Gherardi L.A. #, Yahdjian L. #, Adler P., Bakker J.D., Bharath S., Borer E.T., Harpole S.W., Hersch‐Green E., Huxman T.E., MacDougall A.S., Risch A.C., Seabloom E.W., NutNet consortium. 2025. Interactions among nutrients govern the global grassland biomass – precipitation relationship. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122 (15) e2410748122 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2410748122. #Corresponding authors.
• Carroll O., Borer E., Seabloom E., Harpole S.W., NutNet consortium, Yahdjian L,MacDougall A.S. Frequent failure of nutrients to increase plant biomass supports the need for precision fertilization in agriculture. 2025. Scientific Reports (2025) 15:14564. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-99071-z.
• Spohn M. Bagchi S, Bakker J, Borer E, Carbutt, Jane A. Catford, Christopher R. Dickman, Nico Eisenhauer, Anu Eskelinen, Nicole Hagenah, Yann Hautier, Sally E. Koerner, Kimberly J. Komatsu, Laanisto L., Lekberg Y., Martina J.P., Martinson H., Pärtel M., Peri P.L., Risch A.C., Smith N.G., Stevens C., Veen C.G.F., Virtanen R., Yahdjian L., Young A.L., Young H.S., Seabloom E. 2025. Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands. Communications Biology 8, 97. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07518-w.
• Campana S*., Tognetti P., Alberti J., Graff P., Molina C., Silvoso M. C., Yahdjian L. 2024. The temporal and spatial stability of plant diversity are disconnected from biomass stability in response to human activities in a South American temperate grassland. Science of the Total Environment 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.177031.
• Ciavattini M.*, Tognetti P.M., Campana S., Yahdjian L. 2023. Livestock grazing promotes legume abundance under increased nutrient loads: Mechanistic evidence from a temperate grassland. Applied Vegetation Science 26:4, e12751. https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12751.
• Price J., Sitters J. Ohlert T., Brown C.S., Tognetti P., Seabloom E.W., Borer E.T., Prober S., MacDougall A.S., Yahdjian L., Bakker E., Gruner D.S., Venterink H.O., Barrio I., Graff P., Bagchi S., Arnillas C.A., Bakker J.D., Blumenthal D.M., Boughton E.H., Brudvig L.A., Bugalho M.N., Cadotte M.W., Caldeira M.C., Dickman C.R., Donohue I., Grégory S., Hautier Y., Jónsdóttir I.S., Lannes L.S., McCulley R.L., Moore J.L., Power S.A., Risch A.C., Schütz M., Standish R., Stevens C.J.,  Veen C., Virtanen R., Wardle G.M.. 2022. Evolutionary history of grazing and resources determine herbivore exclusion effects on plant diversity. Nature, Ecology and Evolution 6(9), 1290-1298. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01809-9.
• Campana M.S.*, Tognetti P., Yahdjian L. 2022. Livestock exclusion reduces the temporal stability of grassland productivity regardless of eutrophication. Science of the Total environment 817 (2022) 152707, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152707.
• Carroll1 O., Batzer E., Bharath S., Borer E., Campana M.S., Esch E., Hautier Y., Ohlert T., Seabloom E.W., Adler P.B., Bakker J.D., Biederman L., Bugalho M.N., Caldeira M., Chen Q., Davies K., Fay P., Knops J.M.H., Komatsu K., Martina J., McCann K.S., Moore J.L., Morgan J.W., Muraina T.O., Osborne B., Risch A.C., Stevens C., Wilfhart P.A., Yahdjian L., MacDougall A.S. 2021. Nutrient identity modifies the destabilizing effects of eutrophication in grasslands. Ecology Letters 25:754 –765; http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.13946.
• Tognetti P., Prober S., Baez S., Chaneton E., Firn J., Risch A., Schuetz M., Simonsen A., Yahdjian L., Borer E., Seabloom E., Arnillas C.A., Bakker J.D., Brown C., Cadotte M., Caldeira M., Daleo P., Dwyer J., Fay P., Gherardi L., Hagenah N., Hautier Y., Komatsu K., McCulley R., Price J., Standish R., Stevens C., Wragg P., Sankaran M. 2021. Negative effects of nitrogen override positive effects of phosphorus on grassland legumes worldwide. PNAS 118 (28) e2023718118; doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2023718118. (Science Editors’ Choice; Science 2021: V. 373 (6556), pp. 755).
• Campana M.S.*, Yahdjian L. 2021. Light limitation and plant quality modulate plant biomass responses to grazing and fertilization in a mesic grassland. Applied Vegetation Science 24(2), e12588. doi:10.1111/avsc.12588. JVS/AVS Editors’ Awards for 2021 (https://vegsciblog.org/ 2022/01/06/jvs-avs-editors-awards-for-2021/).