Sustainable grassland grazing is important for the livelihood of many herders, yet few studies have examined the effect of grazing under different climatic conditions on a large scale. To fill this gap, a meta-analysis was employed using data from published studies on livestock grazing grasslands in China. China has many types of grasslands with a wide range of climatic conditions and, therefore, the results are applicable for grasslands worldwide. Different climatic areas were identified in which arid and humid grasslands were based on K & ouml;ppen-Geiger climate classifications of biomes. It emerged that the effects of grazing on plant diversity and soil organic carbon (SOC) differed between arid and humid grasslands. Light and severe grazing had negative effects while moderate grazing had no effect on the plant Shannon diversity index in arid areas. In humid areas, light and heavy grazing intensities had no effect on plant diversity, while moderate grazing increased plant species richness and the Shannon-Wiener diversity index. In humid areas, light and moderate grazing did not affect SOC, while severe grazing decreased SOC. We concluded that moderate grazing could maintain and improve plant diversity in both arid and humid grasslands. (c) 2025 The Society for Range Management. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.