Currently, an estimated 1-1.5 billion people across the Earth’s continents directly rely on grasslands for their livelihoods; yet, human activities are altering the Earth’s climate, global cycles of elements such as nitrogen and phosphorus, and influencing grassland biodiversity by causing extinctions and invasions of plant and animal species. Sustainable management of grasslands relies on understanding how ongoing changes will amplify or mitigate impacts on the biodiversity and functioning of grassland ecosystems. Tackling this challenge involves recognizing that, although the multitude of environmental changes is global in extent, experiments and sampling to measure their impact on community composition and function must be conducted at local scales. The effects of ongoing global changes are likely to vary among regions. I will synthesize results arising from a globally distributed, collaborative network of identically replicated grassland experiments, the Nutrient Network, and will present a cross-section of the network’s insights into the role of global change in shaping how mammalian herbivores and nutrients control plant and animal biodiversity and ecosystem processes in the world’s grassland ecosystems.

Elizabeth Borer is a Regents Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota. Her research quantifies how global changes, including land clearing, atmospheric pollution, and species invasions and extinctions, change the composition and function of the world's ecosystems. Most of her work is in grasslands where she studies the effects of a changing environment on plant and animal biodiversity, disease transmission, and the identity and function of microbes inhabiting individuals (the "microbiome"). She sometimes strays into other ecosystems via collaborations and meta-analysis. Borer is co-founder and co-lead of the Nutrient Network (“NutNet”) and DRAGNet, two global scientific cooperatives studying the effects of global changes on critical processes and functions in the world’s grasslands. The Nutrient Network, begun in 2007, now includes over 300 scientists performing identically replicated experiments and observations at nearly 180 sites in 29 countries spanning 6 continents. DRAGNet, extends this scientific cooperation to 36 countries, adding studies of disturbance and cessation at 60 additional sites.

Notre Dame Seminars on Sustainability Series is a signature lecture series organized by the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative that brings global sustainability leaders and world-class scholars to campus for knowledge sharing and engagement with the Notre Dame community.

About Just Transformations to Sustainability

As sustainability challenges intensify, their cascading effects on food, energy, water, and infrastructure increasingly threaten the well-being and dignity of people worldwide. Notre Dame’s Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative is the University’s far-reaching response to these urgent threats. Inspired by Pope Francis’s landmark encyclical Laudato si’ (On Care for Our Common Home), the Initiative brings together interdisciplinary scholars, dedicated students, and action partners from around the world to advance transformative solutions for a more just and sustainable future.

Originally published at strategicframework.nd.edu.