Climate Factors Contribute to Grassland Net Primary Productivity

Dear colleagues,

Grasslands represent the main agricultural land resource for animal feed and food for humankind. Climate scenarios for the future will exacerbate climatic pressure on net primary productivity (NPP), forecasting more areas turning too dry or too wet for production more frequently. Often, there is no alternative to grassland due to climatic conditions and soil hydrology.

This Special Issue is dedicated to the sustainable management of this agro-ecosystem, which is under increasing human and environmental pressure. Located between desert and forest, turned into arable or urban land, the value of this resource needs reassessment in the context of all ecosystem services and Sustainable Development Goals.

Considering the potential contribution to climate change of intensive grazing systems, NPP will affect the lockup of carbon in the soil, especially when re-introduced into arable rotation. We envision a series of articles dedicated to the challenges and opportunities that come with climate change, illustrating direct and indirect effects of the (pedo-)climatic factors on grassland NPP across scales.

We wish authors to cover the NPP-governing processes at the plant–soil interface, plant community, and farm to landscape level, proposing the following broader topics (tentative titles are a suggestion only):

• Plant and sward development—just a matter of temperature driven acceleration?
• Heat and drought stress—new insights into adaptation and breeding of grassland species;
• Breeding grasses and managing grass swards in the silvopastoral flood plains;
• Soil health—achieving a good balance of biophysical and geochemical processes in grassland;
• New modelling approaches to capture the dynamics of genotype x environment x management interaction;
• Knowledge transfer/exchange and Decision Support Tools—enabling the land manager.

Dr. Goetz M. Richter
Dr. Kairsty Topp
Guest Editors

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