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The livestock sector supports billions of people worldwide, yet when poorly managed, can have substantial negative effects on soils and ecosystem functions. Despite numerous studies and reviews of the effects of livestock activity on hydrological functions, a global synthesis of their effects on different biotic (vegetation, herbivore type) and abiotic (climate, soil, spatial scales) factors remains elusive. This makes it difficult to provide ecologically based advice on how best to manage grazing to minimise environmental damage and maximise hydrological functions. We used a global meta-analysis to examine the effects of livestock activity on hydrological inflows (infiltration, soil moisture), and outflows (runoff, sediment) using a dataset compiled from 3044 contrasts of grazed and ungrazed data from 129 publications between 1935 and 2020. Overall, we found that livestock activity increased sediment production (+ 52 ± 19.8%; mean ± 95% CI), reduced infiltration (− 25 ± 5.2%), but had no significant effect on either runoff (+ 27 ± 29.6%) or soil moisture (− 5 ± 5.9%). These impacts varied markedly among herbivore types and intensity, with greatest reductions in infiltration at high and low grazing contrasts, and more pronounced negative effects of grazing when sheep and cattle grazed together than either alone. The impact of livestock activity also varied with climatic region, soil texture, and the interaction between aridity and plant cover. Our study demonstrates the nuanced effects of livestock activity, with herbivore type and intensity, and environmental context modifying the hydrological outcomes. Livestock grazing is unlikely to result in positive environmental outcomes for infiltration and sediment production.

A Global Synthesis of the Effects of Livestock Activity on Hydrological Processes