Grazing by domestic livestock is both the main land use across drylands worldwide and a major desertification and global change driver. The ecological consequences of this key human activity have been studied for decades, and there is a wealth of information on its impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem processes. However, most field assessments of the ecological impacts of grazing on drylands conducted to date have been carried out at local or regional scales and have focused on single ecosystem attributes (e.g., plant productivity) or particular taxa (mainly aboveground, e.g., plants). Here we introduce the BIODESERT survey, the first systematic field survey devoted to evaluating the joint impacts of grazing by domestic livestock and climate on the structure and functioning of dryland ecosystems worldwide. This collaborative global survey was carried out between 2016 and 2019 and has involved the collection of field data and plant, biocrust, and soil samples from a total of 326 45 m × 45 m plots from 98 sites located in 25 countries from 6 continents. Here we describe the major characteristics and the field protocols used in this survey. We also introduce the organizational aspects followed, as these can be helpful to everyone wishing to establish a global collaborative network of researchers. The BIODESERT survey provides baseline data to assess the current status of dryland rangelands worldwide and the impacts of grazing on these key ecosystems, and it constitutes a good example of the power of collaborative research networks to study the ecology of our planet using much-needed field data.

中文翻译：

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BIODESERT 调查：评估放牧对全球旱地结构和功能的影响

家畜放牧既是全球旱地的主要土地利用，也是荒漠化和全球变化的主要驱动因素。几十年来，人们一直在研究这一关键人类活动的生态后果，并且有大量关于其对生物多样性和生态系统过程影响的信息。然而，迄今为止，大多数关于放牧对旱地生态影响的实地评估都是在地方或区域范围内进行的，并且侧重于单一的生态系统属性（例如，植物生产力）或特定的分类群（主要是地上，例如植物）。在这里，我们介绍 BIODESERT 调查，这是第一个系统的实地调查，专门用于评估家畜放牧和气候对全球旱地生态系统结构和功能的联合影响。 ×  45 m 地块，来自 6 大洲 25 个国家/地区的 98 个站点。在这里，我们描述了本次调查中使用的主要特征和现场协议。我们还介绍了随后的组织方面，因为这些对希望建立全球研究人员协作网络的每个人都有帮助。BIODESERT 调查提供了基线数据来评估全球旱地牧场的现状以及放牧对这些关键生态系统的影响，它构成了合作研究网络利用急需的领域研究地球生态的力量的一个很好的例子数据。