Herbivore regulation of eutrophication-driven plant diversity decline varies with aridity and over time in global grasslands

Using data from a standardized, long-term experiment across 70 grasslands on six continents, we addressed three questions: 1) How do nutrient-induced declines in plant diversity accumulate over time, and do these losses eventually slow or cease? 2) Does herbivory modify the temporal decline rate of plant diversity, and which environmental conditions determine the magnitude of this decline? 3) Are these plant diversity responses associated with nutrient-induced changes in plant dominance and light availability, and how do the strength of these relationships change over time?</p>