Trait filtering effects
Effects of prairie dog disturbance were captured only by C4 cover and graminoid cover, whereby graminoid cover was mediated by an interaction with season and C4 differences were explained by grassland type and prairie dog disturbance but not by an interactive effect. Grassland type had an effect on almost all traits except for annual cover, forb cover and leaf area which were influenced mostly by season (Table 2).
There was strong evidence of higher perennial cover in mountain grasslands compared to arid and agricultural grassland types (Fig 3a). Erect and graminoid cover was higher in mountain grassland compared to all other grassland types (Fig 3b-c). There was weak evidence of prostate cover being higher in calcic grasslands compared to agricultural sites (Appendix S3, Table S2). Annual cover, forb cover and CWM leaf area revealed strong evidence of increasing during the wet season (Fig 3e-g). There was only weak evidence of C3 species cover having a higher response to the wet season (Appendix S3, Table S2). There was moderate evidence of C4 cover being higher in mountain grassland and compared to agricultural and arid grassland types which had a lower C4 cover (Fig 3d). There was also strong evidence of C4 cover being higher in WOP sites (Fig 3h). There was no evidence of graminoid cover having differences between seasons for WP sites. On the contrary, WOP sites showed contrasting effects between seasons, having almost double graminoid cover during the dry season, revaling moderate evidence of a positive effect compared to the WP sites (Fig 3i). There was no evidence of CWM vegetation height having an effect on any of the grassland types, sites or seasons conditions (Appendix S3, Table S2).