Alternate Grassy Ecosystem States Are Determined by Palatability-Flammability Trade-Offs.

Fire and mammalian grazers both consume grasses, and feedbacks between grass species, their functional traits, and consumers have profound effects on grassy ecosystem structure worldwide, such that savanna and grassland states determined by fire or grazing can be considered alternate states. These parallel savanna-forest alternate states, which likewise have myriad cascading ecosystem impacts.