Abstract
AbstractExtensively managed grasslands are recognized globally for their high biodiversity and their social and cultural values. However, their capacity to deliver multiple ecosystem services (ES) as parts of agricultural systems is surprisingly understudied compared to other production systems. We undertook a comprehensive overview of ES provided by natural and semi‐natural grasslands, using southern Africa (SA) and northwest Europe as case studies, respectively. We show that these grasslands can supply additional non‐agricultural services, such as water supply and flow regulation, carbon storage, erosion control, climate mitigation, pollination, and cultural ES. While demand for ecosystems services seems to balance supply in natural grasslands of SA, the smaller areas of semi‐natural grasslands in Europe appear to not meet the demand for many services. We identified three bundles of related ES from grasslands: water ES including fodder production, cultural ES connected to livestock production, and population‐based regulating services (e.g., pollination and biological control), which also linked to biodiversity. Greenhouse gas emission mitigation seemed unrelated to the three bundles. The similarities among the bundles in SA and northwestern Europe suggest that there are generalities in ES relations among natural and semi‐natural grassland areas. We assessed trade‐offs and synergies among services in relation to management practices and found that although some trade‐offs are inevitable, appropriate management may create synergies and avoid trade‐offs among many services. We argue that ecosystem service and food security research and policy should give higher priority to how grasslands can be managed for fodder and meat production alongside other ES. By integrating grasslands into agricultural production systems and land‐use decisions locally and regionally, their potential to contribute to functional landscapes and to food security and sustainable livelihoods can be greatly enhanced.
Highlights
Grasslands are one of the major ecosystems of the world, covering close to one-third of the Earth’s terrestrial surface (Suttie et al 2005, Lemaire et al 2011)
To provide a more detailed analysis of the ecosystem services (ES), grasslands provide as parts of agricultural production systems, and how these systems vary in ES delivery depending on the existence and management of grasslands, we focus on the natural and semi-natural grasslands in two contrasting regions as case studies: (1) the natural grassland biome of southern Africa (SA) and (2) the semi-natural grasslands in northwestern Europe (NE; Fig. 1)
Biodiversity and grassland ecosystem services Based on the literature, we find surprisingly little evidence that the high small-scale biodiversity found in natural and semi-natural grasslands is strongly related to the supply of ES (Appendix S2: Table S1)
Summary
Grasslands are one of the major ecosystems of the world, covering close to one-third of the Earth’s terrestrial surface (Suttie et al 2005, Lemaire et al 2011). They are usually artificially fertilized and maintained by intensive management (Suttie et al 2005, Pilgrim et al 2010) We focus on the former two types of grasslands, because of their importance for biodiversity, their decline in area worldwide, and the fact that their full capacity to deliver ecosystem services (ES) as part of agricultural production systems is not well appreciated. Competition for land and other resources for agriculture is predicted to increase considerably by 2050 (FAO 2009, Smith et al 2010), accentuated by ongoing climate change (Harvey and Pilgrim 2011, Ro€o€s et al 2017) This has led to an increased focus on food production and food security in science and policy (e.g., Godfray et al 2010, Foley et al 2011, SCAR 2011, Poppy et al 2014), often invoking the concept of sustainable intensification, in terms of the increase of food production on existing cropland (e.g., Godfray et al 2010, Garnett et al 2013). We examine the following: (1) the general demand for a selected number of ES that can be supplied from grassland, and the extent to which supply from grassland may meet societal demands (Table 1), (2) synergies and trade-offs among grassland ES, (3) the role of biodiversity in generating these ES, and (4) how to use this knowledge to improve land-use planning and enhance food security in the face of ongoing global change
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