The study looked at how different types of plants change in degraded grasslands. They found that moderately degraded areas had the most plant variety, while heavily degraded areas had the least. Surprisingly, slightly degraded areas had the most plant productivity. As the grasslands got worse, the amount of certain plant groups changed - forbs increased, leguminosae and sedges decreased, and grasses varied. The amount of these plant groups didn't seem to be related to how many different types of plants were there.