DOI: 10.5061/dryad.wh70rxwzz
title: Data from: Precipitation-dependent effects of fencing on foliar fungal diseases in grasslands

description: Plant diseases are ubiquitous in nature and influenced by large
 herbivores. Fencing is a widely used management strategy and is employed
 to exclude large herbivores in efforts to restore overgrazed grasslands.
 However, how fencing affects foliar fungal diseases and whether the effect
 is climate-dependent remains unclear. Here, we conducted a multi-site
 experiment across 19 grasslands in China under different climatic
 conditions to explore the effects of fencing on foliar fungal diseases
 (i.e., pathogen load) at the community level. We found that fencing
 increased pathogen load and that this effect was precipitation-dependent
 and more pronounced in humid areas. In areas with high precipitation,
 fencing promoted diseases through both pathogen (pathogen spillover) and
 plant (increased biomass) pathways. We provide empirical evidence of
 precipitation-dependent plant-pathogen-herbivore interactions at the
 interface of community and disease ecology. Our study has important
 application implications for grassland disease management, underscores the
 need for the development of sound livestock management guidelines from a
 geographic perspective, and suggests that moderate grazing in humid areas
 can reduce grassland disease.
description: # Precipitation-dependent effects of fencing on foliar fungal diseases in
 grasslands
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wh70rxwzz](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wh70rxwzz) ## Description of the data and file structure Data and Code for "**[Precipitation-dependent effects of fencing on foliar fungal diseases in grasslands](https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Data_and_code_for_b_Fencing_promotes_foliar_fungal_diseases_in_more_harsh_areas_via_dramatically_decreasing_plant_species_richness_b_/25041248)**" includes Supplementary Data1 (Supplementary_Data1.csv) and R code (Fencing_Increases_Foliar_Fungal_Diseases.R) **A description of each variable name in the Supplementary_Data1.csv** Treatment: Treatment (Unfenced vs Fenced) Site: Sampling site (19) Plot: Sampling plot (i.e. 4 duplication) Fenced: Whether fencing (0/1) fencedyear: the duration of fencing SR: Community species richness PL: Pathogen load CWM_fix_PL: Species turnover effect of pathogen load ITV_PL: Intraspecific variation of pathogen load Leaf_spotPL: Leaf spot pathogen load Leaf_blightPL: Leaf blight pathogen load Rust_PL: Rust pathogen load Powdery_mildew_PL: Powdery mildew pathogen load Plot_Biomass: Community aboveground biomass MAT: Mean annual temperature (℃) MAP: Mean annual precipitation (mm) scale_PL: Standardized pathogen load scale_MAT: Standardized MAT scale_MAP: Standardized MAP MAT_Fencing: Standardized MAT*Fenced MAP_Fencing Standardized MAP*Fenced scale_Biomass: Standardized Community aboveground biomass scale_SR: Standardized species richness scale_Fencing: Standardized Fenced scale_CWM_PL: Standardized species turnover effect of pathogen load scale_ITV: Standardized intraspecific variation of pathogen load **A description of Fencing_Increases_Foliar_Fungal_Diseases.R** This file contains the R code for calculating effect values and statistics of linear mixed-effects models and structural equation model in the paper. ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * [https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25041248](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25041248)