Strands of connection: unraveling livestock grazing effects on orb-weaver spiders

Studies on the effects of grazing disturbances in grasslands have shown mixed results for spider diversity, mainly regarding their guilds. While ungrazing, low, and moderate grazing potentially enhance the diversity of orb-weavers in spider communities, heavy grazing seems to reduce species’ richness. On the population level though, studies of orb-weavers are scarce, and the effects of grazing in natural grasslands are unknown. In this way, we investigated the effects of different grazing levels on population persistence of orb-weaver spiders, hypothesizing that low to intermediate disturbances benefit populations. We predict that high grazing, due to the removal of vegetation structure, will negatively affect the occupancy and abundance of orb-weavers. For that, we experimentally controlled grazing pressure and obtained population occurrence and counts of two orb-weaver spider species, Argiope argentata and Alpaida quadrilorata. We found that A. argentata was negatively affected by grazing, as it relies on higher vegetation for web-building. In contrast, A. quadrilorata, which occurs in cattle-resistant rosette plants, showed no effects of grazing. Implications for insect conservation: Our study emphasizes the need for balanced grazing practices and habitat conservation to protect orb-weaver spiders and other arthropods, as well as species-specific effects for species from the same guild, underscoring their ecological significance in maintaining ecosystem stability.