Effects of Climate Change on Grassland Biodiversity and Productivity: The Need for a Diversity of Models
1
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Bush Estate, Penicuik EH26 0QB, UK
2
Grassland Ecosystem Research Unit (UREP), National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA), 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France
3
Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, 4353 Klepp Stasjon, Norway
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Agronomy 2018, 8(2), 14; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy8020014
Received: 14 December 2017 / Revised: 29 January 2018 / Accepted: 31 January 2018 / Published: 2 February 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change in Agriculture: Impacts and Adaptations)
There is increasing evidence that the impact of climate change on the productivity of grasslands will at least partly depend on their biodiversity. A high level of biodiversity may confer stability to grassland ecosystems against environmental change, but there are also direct effects of biodiversity on the quantity and quality of grassland productivity. To explain the manifold interactions, and to predict future climatic responses, models may be used. However, models designed for studying the interaction between biodiversity and productivity tend to be structurally different from models for studying the effects of climatic impacts. Here we review the literature on the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and productivity of grasslands. We first discuss the availability of data for model development. Then we analyse strengths and weaknesses of three types of model: ecological, process-based and integrated. We discuss the merits of this model diversity and the scope for merging different model types.
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Keywords:
data needs; empirical models; integrated models; process-based models; review
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Van Oijen, M.; Bellocchi, G.; Höglind, M. Effects of Climate Change on Grassland Biodiversity and Productivity: The Need for a Diversity of Models. Agronomy 2018, 8, 14.
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