As the Anthropocene advances, there are few parts of Earth that have not been impacted by human influence. Humans have had a long-sustained interaction with grassy ecosystems, but they are becoming severely impacted by direct and indirect impacts as the Anthropocene advances. Grassy ecosystems are easy to clear and cultivate, poorly protected, and poorly defined due to legacies of colonial narratives that can describe them as deforested, wastelands, or derived. Climate change, land conversion, and the erosion of the processes that have shaped grassy ecosystems for millennia have had cascading and cumulative impacts on grassy ecosystem extent and integrity. We examine how these changes are impacting grassy ecosystems, more specifically, those that fall into ecosystem uncertain space—a climate envelope where vegetation is not at equilibrium with climate and either grassy or forest ecosystems can occur. It is within this space that climate, CO2, and disturbances (fire, herbivores) interact to determine the presence of grassy ecosystems. Changes to any of these components reduce the integrity of grassyecosystems. The loss of these ancient biodiverse ecosystems means loss of an array of ecosystem services fundamental to the lives of more than 1 billion people alongside Earth-system impacts of altered albedo, carbon, and hydrological cycles.

中文翻译：

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人类世的草地生态系统

随着人类世的推进，地球上几乎没有哪个地区没有受到人类影响。人类与草地生态系统有着长期持续的相互作用，但随着人类世的进展，它们正受到直接和间接影响的严重影响。草地生态系统很容易被砍伐和耕种，但保护不力，而且由于殖民叙事的遗留影响，这些生态系统可以被描述为森林砍伐、荒地或衍生的。气候变化、土地转化以及数千年来塑造草地生态系统的过程的侵蚀，对草地生态系统的范围和完整性产生了连锁和累积的影响。我们研究这些变化如何影响草地生态系统，更具体地说，那些落入生态系统不确定空间的生态系统——一个气候包络线，其中植被与气候不平衡，草地或森林生态系统都可能发生。正是在这个空间内，气候、二氧化碳2和干扰（火、食草动物）相互作用，以确定草生态系统的存在。对任何这些组件的更改都会降低草生态系统的完整性。这些古老的生物多样性生态系统的丧失意味着对超过 10 亿人的生活至关重要的一系列生态系统服务的丧失，以及反照率、碳和水文循环变化对地球系统的影响。