It is currently clear that both soil nutrient availability and consumers influence plant communities and that these factors may interact in interesting ways. However, the relative strengths of these factors and their interactions in terrestrial systems are still unclear. My goal is to generalize the relative impacts of nutrient availability and consumer control and their interactive effects on grassland communities across the precipitation gradient of the Great Plains, from shortgrass steppe through tallgrass prairie. After one season of treatments, nitrogen and phosphorous additions significantly increased primary productivity across the precipitation gradient and had a significant negative effect on light availability in tallgrass prairie. In addition, herbivore removals had a significant positive effect on total biomass and a significant negative effect of light availability across the precipitation gradient. These effects varied by plant form and the effect increased in strength with increasing precipitation. The effects of nutrient additions and herbivore removals on diversity were not significant, however these effects may emerge over time.