Overview

• A peer‑reviewed Science paper published August 28, 2025 finds free‑moving herds create short, dense grazing lawns with far higher crude protein than ungrazed areas.
• Researchers used 2015–2021 exclosure trials, soil and plant chemistry, microbial assays, GPS collars and satellite imagery to document effects from plots to the full migratory landscape.
• The identified mechanism shows grazing prompts root carbon exudation that stimulates microbes, increasing plant‑available ammonium and nitrate for rapid, nutrient‑rich regrowth.
• When scaled across the bison migration corridor, the nutritional uplift amounts to more than three million kilograms of additional crude protein on the landscape.
• Productivity remained stable and plant diversity increased across grazed corridors, supporting calls to restore large, free‑moving bison herds and informing regenerative grazing practices.