Carrie Ruxton PhD writes on LinkedIn: How important is grazing for the UK’s soil health? If we take the calls for everyone to eat plant-based diets to the ultimate conclusion, this means fewer or no livestock on farms as we would need the land to produce food crops.

This unique study measured the effects of cessation of grazing across an 800km North/South gradient of the UK by looking at soil microbes and fauna.

The authors concluded that cessation of grazing had: “far-ranging negative consequences for diversity of below-ground food webs.

This underscores the importance of grazers for maintaining the diversity of below-ground communities, which play a central role in ecosystem functioning”. Free access to the paper here: https://lnkd.in/eQ63BK9j