In this article, Belsky states that if overcompensation in total productivity is ever found in natural communities, it will most probably be found in moderately grazed wetlands such as the ones described by Cargill and Jefferies (1984). As in cultivated fields and in controlled-environment chambers, species in these systems have plentiful water supplies, grow in monocultures where unpalatable species cannot gain a competitive advantage, receive even fertilization (by goose droppings), are grazed evenly so that individuals do not overtop one another, and grow in soils that are not compacted by large animals. Additionally, in the Arctic, nutrients may otherwise be bound up in dead biomass for long periods, plants have protected ground-level meristems, and most of the plant biomass is belowground, where it cannot be damaged by occasional overcropping. For ten years, several authors have speculated, suggested, and hypothesized that herbivory can increase the growth and fitness of grazed species. Until now, the evidence has been indirect, extrapolative, unconfirmed by further studies, or obtained from studies of inadequate design (Belsky 1986).
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