Modeling the effects of grassland management intensity on biodiversity

AbstractWe compared arthropod taxon richness, diversity and community structure of two replicated grassland husbandry experiments to investigate effects of reduced management intensity, as measured by nutrient input levels (390, 224 and 0 kg/ha per year N in one experiment, and 225 and 88 kg/ha per year N in another). Suction sampling was used to collect Araneae, Coleoptera, Hemiptera and Hymenoptera, with Araneae and Coleoptera also sampled with pitfall trapping. Univariate analyses found no significant differences in abundance and species density between treatments. However, with multivariate analysis, there were significant differences in arthropod community structure between treatments in both experiments.Reducing N input and associated stocking rates, as targeted by agri-environment schemes, can significantly alter arthropod communities but without increasing the number of species present. Other approaches that may be necessary to achieve substantial enhancement of sward arthropod biodiversity are suggested.

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Combining satellite data and agricultural statistics to map grassland management intensity in Europe

Environmental Research Letters ◽

10.1088/1748-9326/aacc7a ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 (7) ◽

pp. 074020 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Stephan Estel ◽

Sebastian Mader ◽

Christian Levers ◽

Peter H Verburg ◽

Matthias Baumann ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Satellite Data ◽

Grassland Management ◽

Management Intensity

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Combining livestock production information in a process-based vegetation model to reconstruct the history of grassland management

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-13-3757-2016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 3757-3776 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Jinfeng Chang ◽

Philippe Ciais ◽

Mario Herrero ◽

Petr Havlik ◽

Matteo Campioli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Primary Productivity ◽

Net Primary Productivity ◽

Biomass Productivity ◽

Grassland Management ◽

Global Scale ◽

Surface Energy Budget ◽

Greenhouse Gas Balance ◽

Large Spatial Scale ◽

Management Intensity ◽

Grass Biomass

Abstract. Grassland management type (grazed or mown) and intensity (intensive or extensive) play a crucial role in the greenhouse gas balance and surface energy budget of this biome, both at field scale and at large spatial scale. However, global gridded historical information on grassland management intensity is not available. Combining modelled grass-biomass productivity with statistics of the grass-biomass demand by livestock, we reconstruct gridded maps of grassland management intensity from 1901 to 2012. These maps include the minimum area of managed vs. maximum area of unmanaged grasslands and the fraction of mown vs. grazed area at a resolution of 0.5° by 0.5°. The grass-biomass demand is derived from a livestock dataset for 2000, extended to cover the period 1901–2012. The grass-biomass supply (i.e. forage grass from mown grassland and biomass grazed) is simulated by the process-based model ORCHIDEE-GM driven by historical climate change, rising CO2 concentration, and changes in nitrogen fertilization. The global area of managed grassland obtained in this study increases from 6.1  ×  106 km2 in 1901 to 12.3  ×  106 km2 in 2000, although the expansion pathway varies between different regions. ORCHIDEE-GM also simulated augmentation in global mean productivity and herbage-use efficiency over managed grassland during the 20th century, indicating a general intensification of grassland management at global scale but with regional differences. The gridded grassland management intensity maps are model dependent because they depend on modelled productivity. Thus specific attention was given to the evaluation of modelled productivity against a series of observations from site-level net primary productivity (NPP) measurements to two global satellite products of gross primary productivity (GPP) (MODIS-GPP and SIF data). Generally, ORCHIDEE-GM captures the spatial pattern, seasonal cycle, and interannual variability of grassland productivity at global scale well and thus is appropriate for global applications presented here.

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Mapping Grassland Management Intensity Using Sentinel-2 Satellite Data

GI_Forum ◽

10.1553/giscience2018_01_s194 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 194-213 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Marijke Elisabeth Bekkema ◽

Marieke Eleveld

Keyword(s):

Satellite Data ◽

Grassland Management ◽

Management Intensity ◽

Sentinel 2

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Herbivore and pollinator responses to grassland management intensity along experimental changes in plant species richness

Biological Conservation ◽

10.1016/j.biocon.2012.02.024 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 150 (1) ◽

pp. 42-52 ◽

Cited By ~ 46

Author(s):

Anika Hudewenz ◽

Alexandra-Maria Klein ◽

Christoph Scherber ◽

Lea Stanke ◽

Teja Tscharntke ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Plant Species ◽

Grassland Management ◽

Plant Species Richness ◽

Management Intensity

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The rolling dung master: An ecosystem engineer beetle mobilizing soil nutrients to enhance plant growth across a grassland management intensity gradient in drylands

Journal of Arid Environments ◽

10.1016/j.jaridenv.2021.104673 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 197 ◽

pp. 104673

Author(s):

Felipe Barragán ◽

David Douterlungne ◽

Alfredo Ramírez-Hernández ◽

Sandra Milena Gelviz-Gelvez ◽

Andrea Valeria Guzmán Miranda ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Plant Growth ◽

Soil Nutrients ◽

Ecosystem Engineer ◽

Grassland Management ◽

Intensity Gradient ◽

Management Intensity

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Effects of Non-Fertilised Grassland Management Intensity on Herbage Quality and Quantity

Agriculture (Pol nohospodárstvo) ◽

10.2478/v10207-012-0005-8 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 58 (2) ◽

pp. 41-49 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Zuzana Kováčiková ◽

Vladimíra Vargová ◽

Milan Michalec

Keyword(s):

Crude Protein ◽

Dry Matter ◽

Nutritive Value ◽

Growing Season ◽

Grassland Management ◽

Herbage Quality ◽

Management Intensity ◽

Herbage Yield ◽

Optimum Cutting ◽

Cutting Frequency

Effects of Non-Fertilised Grassland Management Intensity on Herbage Quality and Quantity Over 2006-2009, an optimum cutting frequency was investigated at non-fertilised grassland. The research was carried out at the Suchý vrch site (near Banská Bystrica), altitude 460 m. The research sward was utilised by cutting with different intensity: high (4 cuts), medium (3 cuts), low (2 cuts) and by 1 cut under extensive exploitation. Herbage yield, organic and mineral substances and nutritive value were determined. The intensity of sward exploitation influenced the dry matter (DM) production which was higher when utilised by two cuts than by four and three cuts, respectively. The research parameters showed the best DM quality at the highest cutting frequency (the high and the medium intensity). Crude protein (CP) content increased at higher cutting frequency, but dropped at extensive utilisation. The content of fibre was higher at less intensive cutting. The highest content of phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) was found under more intensive cutting. Towards the end of growing season, calcium (Ca) content was rising while that of K was decreasing. The sodium (Na) content was low at all the research treatments.

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Combining livestock production information in a process based vegetation model to reconstruct the history of grassland management

10.5194/bg-2016-8 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jinfeng Chang ◽

Philippe Ciais ◽

Mario Herrero ◽

Petr Havlik ◽

Matteo Campioli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Primary Productivity ◽

Net Primary Productivity ◽

Biomass Productivity ◽

Co2 Concentration ◽

Grassland Management ◽

Surface Energy Budget ◽

Large Spatial Scale ◽

Spatial And Temporal Scales ◽

Management Intensity ◽

Grass Biomass

Abstract. Grassland management type (grazed or mown) and intensity (intensive or extensive) play a crucial role in the GHG balance and surface energy budget of this biome, both at field scale and at large spatial scale. Yet, global gridded historical information on grassland management intensity is not available. Combining modelled grass biomass productivity with statistics of the grass-biomass demand by livestock, we reconstruct gridded maps of grassland management intensity from 1901 to 2012. These maps include the minimum area of managed vs. maximum area of un-managed grasslands, and the fraction of mown versus grazed area at a resolution of 0.5° by 0.5°. The grass-biomass demand is derived from a livestock dataset for 2000, extended to cover the period 1901–2012. The nature of grass-biomass supply (i.e., forage grass from mown grassland and biomass grazed) is simulated by the process based model ORCHIDEE-GM driven by historical climate change, rising CO2 concentration, and changes in nitrogen fertilization. The global area of managed grassland obtained in this study is simulated to increase from 5.1 × 106 km2 in 1901 to 11 × 106 km2 in 2000, although the expansion pathway varies between different regions. The gridded grassland management intensity maps are model-dependent because they depend on Net Primary Productivity (NPP), which is the reason why specific attention is given to the evaluation of NPP. Namely, ORCHIDEE-GM is calibrated for C3 and C4 grass functional traits, and then evaluated against a series of observations from site-level NPP measurements to two global satellite products of Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) (MODIS-GPP and SIF data). The distribution of GPP and NPP with and without management, are evaluated against observations at different spatial and temporal scales. Generally, ORCHIDEE-GM captures the spatial pattern, seasonal cycle and interannual variability of grassland productivity at global scale well, and thus appears to be appropriate for global applications.

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Effect of grassland cutting frequency on soil carbon storage – A case study on public lawns in three Swedish cities

10.5194/soil-2015-78 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

C. Poeplau ◽

H. Marstorp ◽

K. Thored ◽

T. Kätterer

Keyword(s):

Soil Carbon ◽

Root Biomass ◽

Net Primary Production ◽

C:N Ratio ◽

Grassland Management ◽

Wide Range ◽

Management Intensity ◽

Cutting Frequency ◽

Family Housing

Abstract. Soils contain the largest terrestrial carbon pool and thus play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle. Grassland soils have particularly high soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. In Europe (EU 25), grasslands cover 22% of the land area. It is therefore important to understand the effects of grassland management and management intensity on SOC storage. City lawns constitute a unique study system in this context, since they provide a high diversity and wide range of functionalities and thus management intensity per unit area. In this study we investigated frequently mown (on average 8 times per season) utility lawns and rarely mown (once per season) meadow-like lawns at three multi-family housing locations in each of three Swedish cities, Uppsala, Malmö and Gothenburg. The two different lawn types were compared regarding their aboveground net primary production (NPP) and SOC storage. In addition, root biomass was determined in Uppsala. We found significantly higher aboveground NPP and SOC concentrations and significantly lower soil C:N ratio for the utility lawns compared with the meadow-like lawns. On average, aboveground NPP was 24% or 0.7 Mg C ha−1 yr−1 higher and SOC was 12% or 7.8 Mg ha−1 higher. Differences in SOC were well explained by differences in aboveground NPP (R2=0.39), which indicates that the increase in productivity due to more optimum CO2-assimilating leaf area, leading to higher carbon input to the soil, was the major driver for soil carbon sequestration. Differences in soil C:N ratio indicated a more closed N cycle in utility lawns, which might have additionally affected SOC dynamics. We did not find any difference in root biomass between the two management regimes, and concluded that cutting frequency most likely only exerts an effect on SOC when cuttings are left on the surface.

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Plant diversity and species richness of Ljubljana marsh grasslands under the influence of different cutting and fertilizing regimes

Acta Agronomica Hungarica ◽

10.1556/aagr.57.2009.2.11 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 57 (2) ◽

pp. 197-203 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

T. Sinkovč

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Plant Diversity ◽

Grassland Management ◽

Botanical Composition ◽

Significant Negative Effect ◽

Negative Effect ◽

Cutting Regimes ◽

N Rates ◽

Exploitation Intensity ◽

Plot Design

The botanical composition of grasslands determines the agronomic and natural values of swards. Good grassland management usually improves herbage value, but on the other hand it frequently decreases the plant diversity and species richness in the swards. In 1999 a field trial in a split-plot design with four replicates was therefore established on the Arrhenatherion type of vegetation in Ljubljana marsh meadows in order to investigate this relationship. Cutting regimes (2 cuts — with normal and delayed first cut, 3 cuts and 4 cuts per year) were allocated to the main plots and fertiliser treatments (zero fertiliser — control, PK and NPK with 2 or 3 N rates) were allocated to the sub-plots. The results at the 1 st cutting in the 5 th trial year were as follows: Fertilising either with PK or NPK had no significant negative effect on plant diversity in any of the cutting regimes. In most treatments the plant number even increased slightly compared to the control. On average, 20 species were listed on both unfertilised and fertilised swards. At this low to moderate level of exploitation intensity, the increased number of cuts had no significant negative effect on plant diversity either (19 species at 2 cuts vs. 20 species at 3 or 4 cuts). PK fertilisation increased the proportion of legumes in the herbage in the case of 2 or 3 cuts. The proportion of grasses in the herbage increased in all the fertilisation treatments with an increased numbers of cuts. Fertiliser treatment considerably reduced the proportion of marsh horsetail ( Equisetum palustre ) in the herbage of the meadows. This effect was even more pronounced at higher cut numbers. The proportion of Equisetum palustre in the herbage was the highest in the unfertilised sward with 2 cuts (26.4 %) and the lowest in the NPK-fertilised sward with 4 cuts (1.4%).

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