Grassland Protection Research Articles

Eliciting Herders’ Willingness to Accept Grassland Conservation: A Choice Experiment Design in Pastoral Regions of China

Top-down grassland conservation policies are widely used to protect grassland ecosystems from degradation in developing counties. However, an inability to meet local herders’ preferences when implementing such ecological policies may weaken their outcomes. Using a choice experiment design, this paper evaluated herders’ willingness to accept (WTA) different possible implementations of a grazing ban policy, which is an ongoing but inflexible grassland protection policy in China. The results showed that herders were more likely to accept a grazing ban policy that targets private benefits rather than public benefits. In particular, herder’s WTA decreased when the policy objective changed from improving private grassland productivity to protecting grassland wildlife (or preventing sandstorms). Additionally, broader coverage and a longer duration also increased herders’ WTA a grazing ban policy; i.e., herders preferred a grazing ban policy with less coverage and a shorter duration. Our heterogeneity analysis showed that herder’s WTA is not only associated with their socioeconomic characteristics, but also with their altruism. Herders with higher altruistic tendencies were more willing to engage in a gazing ban policy targeting public benefits. These findings offer valuable insight into potential methods of redesigning top-down grassland protection policies and incentivizing small herders to adapt to environmentally friendly practices in China or other countries with similar backgrounds.

Variation trends and attribution analysis of lakes in the Qiangtang Plateau, the Endorheic Basin of the Tibetan Plateau.

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is the area with most high-altitude lakes in the world, of which most are in the Qiangtang Plateau (QP), the endorheic basin of the TP. Since the 1990s, abundant studies have reported the accelerated expansion of lakes in the QP. However, the dominant factors affecting lakes expansion or shrinkage are still controversial. Here we extract six periods of 300 lakes according to the satellite image. It indicates that 90% of the lakes in the QP were expanding, mainly located in the middle of the plateau; 10% of the lakes tended to shrink, mainly located in the areas surrounding the plateau and near the Tanggula Mountain and Nyainqentanglha Mountain, with an altitude over 4500 m. Meanwhile, we explored the influence factors for lake area changes by analyzing the variations in precipitation and glacier. Seven different driving models leading to the lake changes are proposed. Lake expansion was mainly caused by the increase of precipitation and glacier melting, while the causes of lake shrinkage are quite different, such as the change of precipitation and evaporation, the geological structure of lake outlet, the increase of outflow caused by the more transformation of lake water from solid to liquid, etc. This study can provide some support for plateau grassland protection and ice lake outburst prevention.

Seasonal grazing alters nutrient resorption and conservation, and affects spring growth ofStipa grandis

AbstractNutrient resorption in autumn is a key mechanism of perennial plants for nutrient conservation and efficient use in grassland. Grazing effects on plant nutrient resorption may alter root nutrient conservation and affect plant growth in the subsequent spring. There are many studies on nutrient resorption and conservation of plants in grazing grassland, but few studies have investigated the effect of grazing on plant growth in subsequent spring. Taking Stipa grandis, a dominant perennial grass in a semi-arid steppe as a model plant, we examined plant nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) resorption traits (resorption efficiency, proficiency and flux) and root nutrient conservation traits (root biomass and nutrient pool) in autumn, and plant growth traits (height, biomass and nutrient pool) in the subsequent spring, in an experimental grassland under four grazing season treatments (i.e. grazing in spring, summer or autumn or no grazing). We found that (i) 51%–66% of N and 58%–80% of P in S. grandis shoots were resorbed in autumn, and the resorption flux was the lowest under autumn grazing, and highest under spring grazing. (ii) Root nutrient conservation traits were significantly reduced by summer grazing, slightly decreased by spring grazing, but not affected by autumn grazing. (iii) Plant growth in next spring was the best under early spring grazing and the worst under autumn grazing, which was mainly affected by soil moisture rather than root nutrient storage. Our study provides insights into the process of plant nutrient cycling and a theoretical basis for establishing grazing system for grassland protection and rational utilization.

Effectiveness of Grassland Protection and Pastoral Area Development under the Grassland Ecological Conservation Subsidy and Reward Policy

In 2011, the Grassland Ecological Conservation Subsidy and Reward Policy (GECSRP) was implemented in China. The purpose of implementing the policy was to protect grassland ecosystems, secure the supply of livestock products, and increase the income of herders. Through quantitative research data collection methods, based on analysis and comparison of the effects of the GECSRP before and after its implementation in 2011 on grassland ecology, livestock production, and herder incomes on a national scale, this study summarized the effectiveness of the policy and main problems encountered during the policy implementation period and offered suggestions for optimizing the GECSRP. The results show that the GECSRP has been significantly effective in protecting grassland ecology, regulating livestock production, and safeguarding the livelihoods of pastoralists. Under the existing policies, low subsidy and reward standards caused an increase in the overgrazing rate, livestock production remained the main income source for herders, and a lack of technical support reduced forage and livestock quality, which subsequently reduced the income of herders. In conclusion, the existing policies can be improved by gradually enhancing evaluation standards, considering the balance between livestock grazing and grassland ecology, promoting industrialization of livestock products, and valuing the production skills of herders.

Appropriated protection time and region for Qinghai–Tibet Plateau grassland

Abstract Grassland accounts for 67% of the land area in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) to sensitive to climate. This article carried out extensive temporal–spatial variations of grassland water deficit/surplus (GWDS) and net primary productivity (NPP) of QTP grassland using meteorological data of 1981–2018. The results indicate that precipitation’s temporal variations are not related to potential evapotranspiration (PET). The maximum monthly precipitation occurs in July, while the maximum monthly PET appears in June. Precipitation is the second highest in spring when PET is the highest. The water deficit (PET-precipitation) from March to June takes up 51.4% of the total year. Therefore, droughts are more likely to happen in spring and June. This is the most important period for grassland protection. Water deficit is higher in the central and west and the highest in the northwest of QTP grasslands. This indicates the place where the droughts are more likely to occur. The grassland’s annual NPP is high in the southeastern part of QTP and low in the west. This shows the central and western parts of QTP grassland should receive more attention. The specific time and region obtained in this study are important for environmental protection policy-making and reducing grassland degradation in QTP.

Characteristics of soil C:N:P stoichiometry and enzyme activities in different grassland types in Qilian Mountain nature reserve-Tibetan Plateau.

This research was designed to explore the variation characteristics of soil C:N:P stoichiometry and enzyme activity in the Qilian Mountains different grassland types. Thus, 7 grassland types (Upland meadow: UM, Alpine meadow: AM, Temperate steppe: ST, Alpine steppe: AS, Temperate Desert Steppe: TDS, Temperate Desert: TD, Alpine desert: AD) of Qilian Natural Reserve were selected to analyze the variation characteristics of soil enzyme activities and stoichiometry of different grassland types and its relationship with environmental factors. The study indicated that the C/N, C/P, and N/P of different grasslands ranged from 5.08 to 17.35, 2.50 to 72.29, and 0.53 to 4.02.The ranking of different types grassland for the C/N was TS ≥ AM ≥ UM ≥ AS ≥ TDS > AD > TD, and the changing pattern of C/P and N/P is similar to that of C/N. The ranking of different types grassland for the urease enzyme activity was UM ≈AS > AD ≈TDS ≈TS ≈AM > TD, and TS ≈AM ≈UM ≈AS ≈AD > TDS > TD for alkaline phosphatase enzyme activity, and AS ≈AM ≈TS ≈TDS≥UM ≥TD ≈AD for catalase enzyme activity. Based on N/P ratio and RDA analysis, nitrogen was the main factor limiting the grassland productivity, and pH, TN, SOC, Richness index and Simpson diversity index were the main environmental factors affecting the soil C:N:P stoichiometry and enzyme activities. Cluster analysis showed that 7 grassland types were clustered into three categories. In conclusion, the stoichiometric characteristics and soil enzyme activities of different grasslands vary with grassland types. Nitrogen was the main factor limiting the grasslands productivity, and pH, TN, SOC, Richness index and Simpson diversity index were the main environmental factors affecting the soil C:N:P stoichiometry and enzyme activities, and the grassland Qilian Mountain can be managed in the ecological district according to the clustering results. The results of this study can provide data support and theoretical guidance for the scientific management and ecological protection of grassland in Qilian Mountains Reserve.

Sales Scale, Non-Pastoral Employment and Herders’ Technology Adoption: Evidence from Pastoral China

The adoption of livestock husbandry technologies has been an important factor affecting the welfare of herders and the efficiency of grazing-based livestock production and grassland protection in China’s pastoral areas. The small-scale herder is the main body of grassland-based grazing husbandry, and so technology adoption is particularly important, though it is currently scarce. To identify the factors influencing technology adoption behavior by Chinese herders, especially its effect on the scale of livestock sales and non-pastoral employment (NPE), we conducted a survey in the Gansu and Qinghai provinces of China with a sample of 296 herder households. The results show that the scale of livestock sale promotes the adoption of technology, while non-pastoral employment has a generally negative effect. In detail, the substitution effect of NPE is positive, but the wealth effect is negative. In addition, NPE and its wealth effect have moderating effects that can enhance the effect of the sales scale on the adoption of herders’ technology. After distinguishing the technologies into profit-seeking technology and pro-environmental technology, we found that NPE and its substitution effect have a significant influence on pro-environmental technology, while the wealth effect has a significant impact on both profit-seeking and pro-environmental technology. Environmental awareness and altruism also have significant positive impacts on pro-environmental technology. These findings are relevant to policy implications dealing with technology adoption in pastoral areas.

Organic Carbon Stored in the Aerial Phytomass of Fire-threatened Andean Grassland Species

The practice of burning Andean grasslands in uncontrolled conditions and dry seasonal periods affects the sustainability of the ecosystem with the loss of native grasslands species with superficial roots, the volatilization of organic matter and superficial soil nitrogen, and greater susceptibility to wind and rain erosion, which affects the forage supply of grazing areas that affect the economy of the cattle rancher in addition to emitting abundant CO₂ into the atmosphere. The objective was to quantify the loss of organic carbon contained in the aerial phytomass of burned grasslands and the dynamics of recovery of their shoots, for which seven grasslands with different dominant species and the exclusion of grazing were chosen from five plots of 900 m² with five subplots of 64 m², whose aerial phytomass was harvested, and the shoots were measured in their leaf height for nine months. As a result, variable amounts of carbon were obtained according to dominant grassland species for p: 0.001 from 5.02±1.05 to 20.02±0.95 t/ha, equivalent from 22.09 to 73.47 t.CO₂/ha. The recovery of shoot phytomass barely reached 37.32% to 55.94% concerning the initial amount obtained in the mother plants. It was concluded that each grassland has its performance of storage and recovery of stored carbon and the findings should be cause for reflection and be the basis for public policies to promote the protection of grasslands.

Extraction of Intangible Cultural Heritage Visual Elements by Deep Learning and Its Application in Grassland Tourism of the Silk Road Culture.

Inner Mongolia is rich in grassland tourism resources, and the development of grassland tourism is of great significance to Inner Mongolia tourism and promotion of grassland protection. To better promote the grassland tourism of the Silk Road culture, the Conditional Global Area Network (CGAN) and Morphology Connected Component Chan-Vase (MCC-CV) algorithm are used to enhance and segment the traditional embroidery patterns in Inner Mongolia. Firstly, the generative adversarial network (GAN) is optimized, and a new GAN is proposed with the feature vector extracted from the convolutional neural network (CNN) as the constraint condition. Secondly, the automatic segmentation algorithm of embroidery based on the MCC-CV model is proposed, and finally, the proposed algorithm is tested. The test results demonstrate that after 8000 iterations of the proposed image-enhancement algorithm, its personalized features are enhanced, and the segmentation accuracy of the proposed image segmentation algorithm is 60%. The proposed algorithm provides some ideas for the application of deep learning (DL) technology in the grassland tourism of the Silk Road culture and also helps operators to accurately grasp the market and make tourists more comfortable and pleasant.

Effects of land-use and climate change on grasshopper assemblages differ between protected and unprotected grasslands

Land-use and climate change are considered the major drivers of recent insect loss. Orthoptera (hereinafter termed ‘grasshoppers’) are the main arthropod consumers in grasslands and, hence, are important elements for supporting ecosystem services. However, for intensively-used agricultural landscapes, it is largely unknown to what extent both factors have affected grasshopper assemblages in protected (nature reserves) and unprotected grasslands.Here, we analysed species richness of grasshopper assemblages in protected (n = 14) and unprotected grasslands (n = 49) by comparing two surveys—one in 1995 and one in 2012—of a landscape with intensive agriculture in the NW-German Lowland. The observed changes were associated with the Community Farmland Index (CFI) and the Community Temperature Index (CTI) in order to disentangle possible effects of land-use and climate change on assemblage shifts.Between the two surveys, environmental conditions substantially changed. Summer temperatures increased by 1.1°C, and grasslands suffered from a severe loss of patches. However, the latter only occurred in unprotected grasslands. Here, 35% of the patches were converted to other biotope types, in particular maize fields as a result of the expansion of bioenergy-crop cultivation. In the grasslands still existing in 2012, irrespective of its protection status, species richness usually increased, except for species with low dispersal ability in unprotected grasslands. By contrast, the development of the CFI and CTI clearly varied between the two grassland types. In protected grasslands, neither the CFI nor the CTI changed. However, in unprotected grasslands, the CFI decreased but the CTI increased.Land-use change has led to a biotic homogenisation at the landscape level and within unprotected grassland patches. Additionally, our study highlights that the legal designation of grasslands as a nature reserve successfully prevents the conversion of grasslands. Overall, well-managed grasslands in nature reserves play a vital role for the conservation of grasshopper biodiversity.

Research Progress on the Theory and Practice of Grassland Eco-Compensation in China

In order to curb the phenomenon of grassland degradation caused by human activity, China has begun the exploration of grassland eco-compensation, setting an example for the ecological protection of grasslands and sustainable use of resources around the world. At this stage, China has invested more than 170 billion yuan in grassland eco-compensation, benefiting 12 million farmer and herder households. The related research involves various perspectives, scopes, and methods, but lacks systematic reviewing. This study reviews the relevant theoretical and practical research and explores the connotations and effects of grassland eco-compensation in China. In general, the current grassland eco-compensation in China is a large-scale ecological-economic institutional arrangement with the following five characteristics: (1) the goals are to maintain the grassland ecosystem services and increase the income of herder households; (2) the main bodies are governments and herder households; (3) the main method is financial transfer payments; (4) the compensation standards are based on the opportunity costs of the herder households’ responses as the lower limits and the grassland ecosystem service values as the upper limits; and (5) it is a comprehensive compensation system that requires legal, regulatory, technological support and long-term mechanisms. Since 2011, driven by the grassland eco-compensation policy, the income levels of herder households in each pilot area have generally increased, and the overall ecology of grasslands has slightly improved. However, there are still some areas where overload is common. Additionally, there are regional differences in the satisfaction degree of herder households, which is mainly affected by factors such as family income, compensation cognition and family holding grassland scale. Our analysis shows that the shortcomings of current theoretical research are mainly reflected in the low precision of scientific compensation standards, the lack of a basis for differentiated standards, and the single compensation method. The shortcoming of practical research is that most effect evaluations cannot reflect the role of eco-compensation in it. This study suggests that future work should focus on the response mechanism of herder households and the improvement of the compensation measures. At the same time, the scope of research should be expanded, and we should learn from advanced compensation experience in other fields.

Flying insect biomass is negatively associated with urban cover in surrounding landscapes

AbstractAimIn this study, we assessed the importance of local‐ to landscape‐scale effects of land cover and land use on flying insect biomass.LocationDenmark and parts of Germany.MethodsWe used rooftop‐mounted car nets in a citizen science project (“InsectMobile”) to allow for large‐scale geographic sampling of flying insects. Volunteers sampled insects along 278 five‐km routes in urban, farmland, grassland, wetland and forest landscapes in the summer of 2018. The bulk insect samples were dried overnight to obtain the sample biomass. We extracted proportional land use variables in buffers between 50 and 1,000 m along the routes and compiled them into land cover categories to examine the effect of each land cover, and specific land use types, on insect biomass.ResultsWe found a negative association between urban cover and flying insect biomass (1% increase in urban cover = 1% [95% CI: −3.0 to 0.0] decrease in biomass in Denmark, and a 3% [95% CI: −3.0 to 0.0] decrease in Germany) at a landscape scale (1,000‐m buffer). In Denmark, we also found positive effects of semi‐natural land cover types, that is protected grassland (largest at the landscape scale, 1000 m) and forests (largest at intermediate scales, 250 m). Protected grassland cover had a stronger positive effect on insect biomass than forest cover did. For farmland cover, the positive association with insect biomass was not clearly modified by any variable associated with farmland use intensity. The negative association between insect biomass and urban land cover appeared to be reduced by increased urban green space.Main conclusionsOur results show that land cover has an impact on flying insect biomass with the magnitude of this effect varying across spatial scales. However, the vast expanse of grey space in urbanized areas has a direct negative impact on flying insect biomass across all spatial scales examined.

Quantifying the Ecosystem Services of Soda Saline-Alkali Grasslands in Western Jilin Province, NE China.

This study aimed to quantitatively describe the ecosystem services of soda saline-alkali grasslands based on literature research, the InVEST model, a transition matrix, and Spearman’s correlation analysis. The chosen methodology could provide insight into the relationships between different services to provide empirical evidence for decision-making concerning the protection and restoration of saline-alkali grasslands. The research provided several insights into the ecological situation in western Jilin Province. First, the area of saline-alkali grassland in western Jilin Province had noticeably decreased from 1990 to 2018. Moreover, the threat of grassland degradation in western Jilin Province has increased year by year, and has become the main problem facing the ecological environment of this region. Second, the results demonstrated how the amount of grassland area, and coverage, are intricately linked to the provided ecosystem services, and maintaining the stability of ecosystem services is the basis for future efforts to increase grassland area and coverage. A trade-off relationship exists between water supply services and other ecosystem services, which indirectly confirms a climatic cause for grassland salinization in western Jilin Province. The analyses identified various types of grassland ecosystem service hotspots, but the share of hotspots representing all four assessed ecosystem services was small; this indicates that the grassland ecosystem of western Jilin Province is of generally poor quality. In conclusion, increasing grassland salinization has reduced vegetation coverage, which leads to the degradation of the grassland ecosystem and, in turn, affects the relationships between various ecosystem services.

Decline in biological soil crust N-fixing lichens linked to increasing summertime temperatures

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts), comprised of mosses, lichens, and cyanobacteria, are key components to many dryland communities. Climate change and other anthropogenic disturbances are thought to cause a decline in mosses and lichens, yet few long-term studies exist to track potential shifts in these sensitive soil-surface communities. Using a unique long-term observational dataset from a temperate dryland with initial observations dating back to 1967, we examine the effects of 53 y of observed environmental variation and Bromus tectorum invasion on biocrust communities in a grassland never grazed by domestic livestock. Annual observations show a steep decline in N-fixing lichen cover (dominated by Collema species) from 1996 to 2002, coinciding with a period of extended drought, with Collema communities never able to recover. Declines in other lichen species were also observed, both in number of species present and by total cover, which were attributed to increasing summertime temperatures. Conversely, moss species gradually gained in cover over the survey years, especially following a large Bromus tectorum invasion at the study onset (ca. 1996 to 2001). These results support a growing body of studies that suggests climate change is a key driver in changes to certain components of late-successional biocrust communities. Results here suggest that warming may partially negate decades of protection from disturbance, with biocrust communities reaching a vital tipping point. The accelerated rate of ongoing warming observed in this study may have resulted in the loss of lichen cover and diversity, which could have long-term implications for global temperate dryland ecosystems.

Utilization of Biomasses from Landscape Conservation Growths Dominated by Common Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris Gaertn.) for Biomethanization.

The highly toxic species common ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris Gaertn.) prefers to migrate into protected dry grassland biotopes and limits the use of the resulting biomass as animal feed. There is an urgent need for a safe alternative use of the contaminated biomass apart from landfill disposal. We investigated the optional utilization of biomethanization of fresh and ensiled common ragwort biomasses and evaluated their energetic potentials by estimation models based on biochemical characteristics and by standardized batch experiments. The fresh and ensiled substrates yielded 174 LN∙kg−1 oDM methane and 185 LN∙kg−1 oDM, respectively. Ensiling reduced the toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloid content by 76.6%; a subsequent wet fermentation for an additional reduction is recommended. In comparison with other biomasses from landscape cultivation, ragwort biomass can be ensiled readily but has a limited energy potential if harvested at its peak flowering stage. Considering these properties and limitations, the energetic utilization is a promising option for a sustainable handling of Senecio-contaminated biomasses in landscape conservation practice and represents a safe alternative for reducing pyrrolizidine alkaloid entry into the agri-food sector.

Intraspecific more than interspecific diversity plays an important role on Inner Mongolia grassland ecosystem functions: A microcosm experiment

Biodiversity changes in terrestrial communities continue in the context of global changes. However, the interactive effects of the changes in diversity at inter- and intraspecific levels as well as cascading effects from plant to soil microorganisms on ecosystem functioning under climate changes remains largely unexplored. Using grassland species in the semi-arid Inner Mongolia Steppe, we conducted a microcosm experiment to assess how drought treatment (non-drought and drought conditions), species diversity (2, 4, and 7 species) and genotypic diversity of the dominant species Leymus chinensis (1, 3, and 6 genotypes) affected ecosystem functions directly or indirectly via regulating plant community functional structure [community-weighted mean (CWM) and functional dispersion (FDis)] and soil microbial diversity (Shannon–Wiener index). Drought treatment, species and genotypic diversity significantly and interactively affected soil N, P cycle and soil multifunctionality as well as soil microbial diversity. Drought treatment significantly affected biomass, soil C cycle, CWM and soil microbial diversity. Species diversity significantly affected soil N cycle, CWM and FDis, and genotypic diversity significantly affected all soil functions and soil microbial diversity. CWM regulated the responses of all ecosystem functions except soil N cycle to the changes in soil moisture and species diversity, which supports the mass ratio hypothesis. The cascading effect from genotypic diversity to soil microbial diversity was significant on belowground biomass but not on any of the other ecosystem functions observed in this study. These findings highlight the importance of genotypic diversity of the dominant species L. chinensis in affecting belowground ecosystem functioning as well as soil microbial diversity, which should not be ignored for grassland protection and management. This study provides further insights into biodiversity and ecosystem functioning mechanisms in semi-arid grasslands in the context of global climate changes.

Using various artificial soil mixtures to restore dry grasslands in quarries

Quarry restoration is difficult to implement due to the scarcity of the original soil. The restoration of Mediterranean dry grasslands to mitigate similar ecosystem/habitat loss is thus still a developing process. So far, very few studies have created artificial substrates to address the lack of soil. In the La Crau plain (Southeastern France), quarries were established in an ancient Mediterranean steppe‐like dry grassland. Once the remaining grassland zones were protected in 2001, quarries were extended over former intensive orchards established on the grassland in the 1990s before it was protected. Now, restoration has to be done without the unaltered protected grassland soil but with the soil from orchards, which contains fertilizers spread during the orchard exploitation. To recreate a more suitable substrate, the orchard topsoil was mixed with poor substrate materials directly extracted from the quarry (0–30 mm pebbles with sandy matrix). Different substrate mixtures were tested with or without sowing the dominant species of the grassland, a perennial grass: Brachypodium retusum (and an annual grass B. hybridum). After 5 years of monitoring, our results show that raw substrate materials (100%) limit the establishment of all species, and that, at the opposite, orchard topsoil (100%) favors a significantly higher species richness of target and non‐target species. The recommended substrate mixture to reach a compromise between high target species cover and low non‐target species cover is composed of 50% raw quarry material and 50% arable soil. Sowing Brachypodium not only limits non‐target species richness and cover but also reduces target species richness establishment.

Permanent grasslands in Europe: Land use change and intensification decrease their multifunctionality

Permanent grasslands cover 34% of the European Union’s agricultural area and are vital for a wide variety of ecosystem services essential for our society. Over recent decades, the permanent grassland area has declined and land use change continues to threaten its extent. Simultaneously, the management intensity of permanent grasslands increased. We performed a systematic literature review on the multifunctionality of permanent grasslands in Europe, examining the effects of land use and management on 19 grassland ecosystem service indicators. Based on the evidence in 696 out of 70,456 screened papers, published since 1980, we found that both land use change and intensification of management decreased multifunctionality. In particular, preventing conversion of permanent grasslands to croplands secured the delivery of multiple ecosystem services. A lower management intensity was associated with benefits for biodiversity, climate regulation and water purification, but impacted the provision of high-quality animal feed. Increasing the number of species in the sward enhanced multifunctionality of permanent grassland without significant trade-offs such as losses in production. Our review covered many aspects of land use, management and ecosystem services, but we also identified areas with no or only few studies. The most prominent gaps were related to comparisons between permanent and temporary grasslands, and effects of management practices on the provision of cultural values, and on erosion and flood control. We suggest that, despite apparent changes in human dietary preferences, the protection of permanent grasslands in Europe must be prioritised. At the same time, considering the need to reduce ruminant livestock’s contribution to climate change, the time seems ripe to increase support for low-intensity grassland management to optimise the provision of essential ecosystem services from Europe’s permanent grasslands.

Assessment of Grassland Ecosystem Services and Analysis on Its Driving Factors: A Case Study in Hulunbuir Grassland

Grassland is the largest terrestrial ecosystem in China, and its ecological environment is currently facing several challenges. The service assessment of scientific and effective grassland ecosystem and in-depth analysis of its change mechanism is of great significance to clarify its protection demand and spatial optimization layout. This study used a set of quantitative surrogate biophysical indicators to evaluate the capability of grassland ecosystem services (i.e., carbon fixation, soil protection, water purification and provision, and biodiversity conservation) in the Hulunbuir grassland from 2000 to 2015 and use econometric models to explore their dynamic change mechanism. The results showed that from 2009 to 2012, the grassland ecosystem service value significantly declined, and from 2013 to 2015, its value significantly improved, but the overall level was still lower than that of 2000. The factor that has the highest degree of impact on grassland ecosystem services is the soil potassium content, and there is a significant positive correlation. This is mainly due to the important role of potassium in the photosynthesis of grassland plants; the least influential factors are social economic factors such as population and gross domestic product (GDP). It shows that the sparsely populated grassland ecosystem is not sensitive to these factors. In addition, climate, topography, and grassland management policies all have a significant impact on grassland ecosystem services. Against the backdrop of intensified pressure on ecological grassland protection and surging market demand for livestock products based on grassland resource input, the sustainable development of grassland areas needs to improve the supply capacity of grassland while ensuring its ecological security, so as to realize a win-win situation for its ecological and production functions.

Migration of vegetation boundary between alpine steppe and meadow on a century-scale across the Tibetan Plateau

The distribution of alpine vegetation is highly sensitive to climate change, which attracted the attention of climate scientists as well as ecologists. However, the dominant factors of vegetation distribution showed greatly spatiotemporal variation, especially the alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau, which is known as an amplifier of climate warming. In this study, to identify the dominant factors of vegetation distribution, we verified the reliability and accuracy of the classification of alpine steppe and alpine meadow by Random Forest and tried to provide a new reference for the classification schemes. Dataset collected from the field investigations (200 sites) and previous publications(200 sites) were used in this study for model calibration and validation. Then climate models of CMIP6 were used to forecast the underlying transfers and changes of vegetation boundary in the future. Our results revealed that precipitation may be the dominant driver in the alpine grassland distribution, with the highest relative importance of 41.26%. Through different climate scenarios from 2000 to 2100, the vegetation boundary showed a shift from northeast to southwest. Within the SSP5-8.5 scenario it moves from 94.50° to 93.49° and shifted from north to south by 0.34°. Our results demonstrated the significant role of precipitation in the alpine grassland distribution and revealed the migration of the alpine grassland ecosystem under different climate change scenarios. Our work may be useful to deal with global climate change, early warning, and grassland protection, as well as adaptive management of grassland.