Search Results (142)

Semi-natural grasslands are some of the most species-rich habitats in Europe and provide important ecosystem services such as biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration and soil fertility maintenance. This study investigates how different intensities of grassland management affect the composition of functional groups and soil chemical properties. Five grassland management systems were analyzed: Cut3—three cuts per year; LGI—low grazing intensity; CG—combined cutting and grazing; Cut4—four cuts per year; and HGI—high grazing intensity. The functional groups assessed were grasses, legumes and forbs, while soil samples from three depths (0–10, 10–20 and 20–30 cm) were analyzed for their chemical properties (soil organic carbon—SOC; soil total nitrogen—STN; inorganic soil carbon—SIC; soil organic matter—SOM; potassium oxide—K₂O; phosphorus pentoxide—P₂O₅; C/N ratio; and pH) and physical properties (volumetric soil water content—VWC; bulk density—BD; and porosity—POR). The results showed that less intensive systems had a higher proportion of legumes, while species diversity, as measured via the Shannon index, was the highest in the Cut4 system. The CG system tended to have the highest SOC and STN at a 0–10 cm depth, with a similar trend observed for SOC_stock at a 0–30 cm depth. The Cut4, HGI and CG systems also had an increased STN_stock. Both grazing systems had the highest P₂O₅ content. A tendency towards a higher BD was observed in the top 10 cm of soil in the more intensive systems. Choosing a management strategy that is tailored to local climate and site conditions is crucial for maintaining grassland stability, enhancing carbon sequestration and promoting long-term sustainability in the context of climate change. Full article

The coastal region of Klaipėda (Lithuania) has experienced major political, economic, social, and cultural transformations since the 20th century. Landscapes as evolving expressions of land use and land cover patterns offer a valuable lens to analyse these changes. This study examines the evolution of physical landscape structures across the pre-Soviet, Soviet, and post-Soviet periods, using historical maps and open-access geospatial data. An ontological approach, combined with morphological and configurational metrics, reveals four major and relatively persistent landscape structures: hydrological systems (sea, lagoon, rivers), forest cover, farming intensity (from extensive grassland use to intensive arable farming), and semi-natural environments. Their structural evolution reflects broader cultural factors, such as contrasting land use traditions between former Prussian and Russian territories. The study also highlights the impact of Soviet collectivisation, marked by irrigation networks, agricultural intensification, and forest expansion. The post-Soviet period is characterised by widespread farmland abandonment and fragmentation, revealing new spatial dynamics and challenges in land reappropriation. Landscape transformations are predominantly structured around agricultural dynamics. Although the analysis was limited by the incomplete availability of data for this specific land use class, the centrality of agriculture in shaping territorial organisation is evident and reinforces the strong rural identity associated with the landscape. Full article

High-latitude regions store substantial amounts of soil organic matter (SOM). Icelandic volcanic soils have exceptional capabilities for SOM accumulation, but recent changes in land use can significantly impact it. Water-extractable organic matter (WEOM) represents a labile SOM pool and serves as a reliable index of SOM dynamics. We assessed the stable carbon (C), stable nitrogen (N), and WEOC (water-extractable organic carbon), as well as WETN (water-extractable total nitrogen), concentrations in soils under different land uses—semi-natural habitats (tundra and wetland) and human-managed areas (intensively and extensively grazed pasturelands and formerly and presently fertilized meadows)—in southeastern Iceland. The results suggest that human-managed sites contain more total C and N but less WEOM per unit of total C or N than semi-natural habitats, except for wetlands. Wetlands exhibited the highest WEOM content. Extensive pasturelands and fertilized meadows are becoming more common in local ecosystems, highlighting the direction of changes in Icelandic grasslands management. Full article

A semi-empirical method for estimating actual evapotranspiration (ETa) based on ancillary and NDVI data, named NDVI-Cws, is currently being refined for improved applicability to wetlands. The investigation, in particular, addresses the case of semi-natural ecosystems where the impact of meteorological water stress (WS) is limited by groundwater resources. To adapt to this situation, the application of the NDVI-Cws method is preceded by a calibration phase based on spatially enhanced Land Surface Analysis Satellite Application Facility (LSA SAF) evapotranspiration products. This calibration is currently performed in the main wetlands of Tuscany (Central Italy) identified in the Ramsar Convention. The calibrated NDVI-Cws version is then applied to all regional Ramsar areas, yielding outputs that are first examined all over Tuscany. Next, the model estimates are quantitatively assessed versus ETa observations taken in a forest and a grassland Ramsar site. The results of these independent tests show the improvement achieved by the calibration phase with respect to the original model version. This supports the potential of the refined NDVI-Cws method to yield reasonably accurate daily ETa estimates for wetlands at a spatial resolution that is mainly dependent on the NDVI data used. Full article

Habitat suitability assessment for forest and grassland ecosystems is a critical component of ecological restoration and land use planning in the Loess Plateau, aiming to advance soil and water conservation and foster sustainable ecological environment development. Despite progress in vegetation restoration, systematic evaluations of habitat suitability in complex geomorphic regions like the Loess Plateau remain scarce, particularly in balancing hydrological and ecological trade-offs. The Yanhe River Basin (7725 km²), a sediment-prone tributary of the Yellow River, exemplifies the challenges of soil erosion and semi-arid climatic constraints, making it a critical case for evaluating restoration strategies. This study employed a comprehensive approach utilizing Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Geographic Detector, mathematical statistics, and other methods. An evaluation indicator system and methodology were established to assess the suitability of forest and grassland habitats in the Yanhe River Basin, evaluating the suitability and quality improvement potential under the current land use conditions. The results indicate: (1) The dominant factors influencing the suitable distribution of forests include photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), soil total phosphorus content, annual precipitation, and elevation. For grasslands, the dominant factors include photosynthetically active radiation, annual average temperature, elevation, and annual precipitation. (2) In the watershed, forestland and grassland areas classified as moderately suitable or higher cover 1064.9 km² and 4196.9 km², accounting for 91.9% and 94.7% of their total respective areas, indicating a generally rational spatial allocation of forest and grassland ecosystems. (3) The improvable area for forests measures 366 km² (34.4% of moderately or higher suitability zones), with most already meeting coverage thresholds. In contrast, grasslands have an improvable area of 2491.6 km² (59.4% of moderately or higher suitability zones), where over half of the area remains below coverage thresholds corresponding to their habitat conditions. (4) Forests can adopt natural restoration-focused low-intensity interventions through strengthened closure management, while grasslands require spatially tailored measures—such as precipitation interception and enhanced stewardship—targeting suitability-based potential grades, collectively achieving overall improvement in grassland vegetation coverage. This study represents the first systematic evaluation of forest–grassland habitat suitability in the Yanhe River Basin, elucidating its spatial distribution patterns and providing critical insights for watershed-scale ecological restoration. Full article

Maintaining or improving habitat quality is essential for conserving biodiversity and ensuring the long-term survival of species. Nevertheless, increasing global warming and intensifying human activities have led to varying degrees of habitat degradation and biodiversity loss, especially in semi-arid regions. Focusing on China’s West Songnen Plain—the nation’s largest saline-alkali region confronting acute environmental challenges—this study introduced the soil salinization level and mean NDVI of farmland during the growing season as dynamic threat factors and systematically explored the spatiotemporal dynamic characteristics of habitat quality in the semiarid area of the West Songnen Plain from 1990 to 2020. The results showed the following: (1) Habitat quality exhibited a continuous decline during the study period, following a “degradation–recovery” trajectory with deterioration peaking in 2010; the low- and poor-quality habitats predominantly distributed in the central areas characterized by severe salinization, interspersed with patches of good-quality habitat. (2) The degradation of habitat quality was mainly concentrated in natural land cover types, whereas improvements were observed locally in farmland and bare land. However, slight opposite trends were detected between the mean habitat quality values and the habitat change areas in forests, waters, and bare land. As the elevation continuously increased, the habitat quality grade shifted towards better conditions. (3) A spatial autocorrelation analysis revealed a significant clustering of habitat quality, but the extent of hot spots and cold spots gradually shrank as grassland degradation and saline land management progressed. By incorporating dynamic threat factors and integrating multi-source data, this study improved the habitat quality assessment framework for semi-arid regions and provided scientific support for spatially stratified conservation strategies. Full article

Fairy ring fungi are considered keystone species in grasslands due to their strong impact on soil physicochemical properties, but their effect on the associated bacterial community is poorly understood. Here, we analyze shifts in soil bacterial diversity and community composition across fairy rings using Illumina metabarcoding. A total of 254,135 MiSeq reads and between 405 and 1444 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) per soil sample were observed in a montane grassland in the Eastern Pyrenees. We found a strong reduction in all bacterial diversity indices inside the ring-affected zones compared to the outside grassland, especially in the stimulation (current ring) zone. The exception were Firmicutes, the dominant taxa in the grassland, which increased their relative abundance further in fairy ring-affected zones. The recovery of bacterial populations after the fungal front passage highlights the strong resilience of the bacterial communities to this biotic disturbance. Full article

The implementation of grassland strips and maintenance of permanent semi-natural grassland are intended to promote insects on arable land to mitigate the consequences of habitat loss. While effects of grassland restoration on arable land in terms of improving overall insect diversity is well documented, knowledge on the effects on common arable species is deficient. We assessed the abundance of seven epigean carabids and five spiders in newly established grassland strips, adjacent permanent semi-natural grassland and arable crops nearby and further away from grassland strips over six years. Abundance was investigated using pitfall traps. Most carabids showed the highest abundance in arable crops and grassland strips, while permanent semi-natural grassland tended to be avoided. Epigean spiders showed similar patterns, however, some species were also associated with permanent semi-natural grassland. Pardosa palustris showed a distribution pattern with the highest individual numbers in OG and decreasing numbers toward the adjacent habitat’s grassland strips and cereals, most likely indicating spillover. The number of Brachinus crepitans/explodens was significantly higher in the first compared to the last sampling year in grassland strips due to changing habitat conditions with increasing habitat age. In conclusion, grassland strips provide an additional habitat for most of the studied species. Full article

To explore the spatiotemporal niche characteristics and changing regularities of insect communities under lamps in a semi-arid region, this paper analyzed Levins’ niche breadth index and the Pianka niche overlap index of 10 orders and 19 selected common families or superfamilies of insect communities under lamps from April to September 2018 at six vegetation sites in the Habahu National Nature Reserve, a rare desert grassland–wetland reserve in China. The results indicated the following: (1) Different taxa possess varying spatiotemporal, temporal, and spatial niche breadths, suggesting that insects effectively utilized resources in the Habahu Nature Reserve. (2) Among these groups, in terms of the orders aspect, Lepidoptera had the largest temporal niche breadth, the Hemiptera had the largest spatial niche breadth, and Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, and Hemiptera had relatively large spatiotemporal niche breadths, while Odonata had the smallest niche breadth in all three aspects. The orders of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera had the largest spatiotemporal niche overlap value, while Odonata and Diptera had the smallest. (3) In terms of the common families (superfamilies) aspect, Noctuidae had the largest temporal niche breadth and spatiotemporal niche breadth, while Hydrophilidae had the smallest. The spatial niche breadth of Sphingidae was the largest, while Corixidae was the smallest. Noctuidae and Pyraloidea had the largest spatiotemporal niche overlap value among these herbivore groups, Miridae and Chrysopidae, among the herbivore to predatory groups, and Noctuidae and Braconidae, among the herbivore to parasitic groups. This lays a theoretical foundation for developing Chrysopidae and Braconidae as biological control taxa in the Habahu Nature Reserve. Full article

To safeguard an agricultural landscape with high biodiversity, livestock grazing on semi-natural pastures is crucial, and steers are well suited to such production systems. This study compared meat quality, including technological traits, sensory attributes, and fatty acid composition, of purebred dairy steers (D) and dairy × beef crossbreed steers (C), reared in two distinct production systems. Sixty-four steers (thirty-two per breed type) were included. Half were kept in a production system that had relatively high feed intensity (H), with one grazing summer on semi-natural pastures and slaughtered at 21 months of age. The other half were kept in a production system that had low feed intensity (L), with two grazing summers on semi-natural pastures and slaughtered at 28 months. Colour, water holding capacity, Warner–Bratzler shear force, sensory attributes, and fatty acid profiles were measured on the Musculus longissimus lumborum. Meat from L steers with two grazing seasons was darker (p = 0.003) and contained a higher proportion of unsaturated fatty acids (p = 0.006) than meat from more intensively reared H steers. Meat from C steers was perceived as having a coarser fibre structure (p = 0.022) with an acidic odour (p = 0.040) compared to D steers. Additionally, cooked meat from L steers was evaluated as having a pinker appearance by an analytical sensory panel (p = 0.008). In summary, breed type and production system had no major effect on technological and sensory attributes for forage and pasture-fed steers, but fatty acid composition was improved with more unsaturated lipids in meat from L steers. Full article

The decline of pollinators in agricultural environments poses a significant threat to pollination ecosystem services. Wildflower strips are proposed as a strategy to support pollinator populations and enhance their species richness and diversity. We investigated the efficacy of flowering plant mixture in maintaining aculeate pollinator diversity (wild bees, predatory wasps, and their kleptoparasites) within intensively managed agricultural environments where rapeseed is a common rotational crop. Over four years, pollinators were counted five times per season using 250 m transect walks. Our results demonstrated that the diversity and the evenness of species abundance distribution of aculeate pollinators were higher in the sown wildflower strips, whereas mean abundance per transect was greater in the remnants of semi-natural grassland. The low diversity and evenness within the aculeate pollinator assemblage of the semi-natural habitat were attributed to the dominance of the sweat bee Lasioglossum pauxillum, which thrived on mass-flowering rapeseed and concentrated in the flowering grassland fragments after the rapeseed harvest. We conclude that wildflower strips enriched with sown flowering plant mixtures effectively enhance pollinator diversity. Furthermore, both wildflower strips and preserved patches of unmanaged or minimally managed semi-natural grassland habitats can essentially contribute to maintaining pollination ecosystem services within intensive agricultural environments. Full article

In Europe, intensive agriculture threatens species-rich semi-natural communities that have emerged from traditional agricultural activities. To protect these communities, subsidies are given to farmers through agri-environmental schemes (AESs). However, after nearly twenty years in operation, the uniform support system for farmers has not produced the expected results. Therefore, we conducted 15 semi-structured, in-depth qualitative interviews with beef cattle farmers in Estonia and identified the socio-ecological aspects of their activities. We found that small-scale farmers cannot compete with intensive farmers in the meat market because many breeds with slower weight gain and smaller body weights are grazed in semi-natural grasslands. Although two food quality schemes have been created in Estonia to value extensively grown meat, the permanent agricultural grasslands are under-supported, and the family farmers managing these areas feel the unfair distribution of subsidies. Moreover, family farms cannot compete with large farms, as the availability of pastures on family farms limits the number of livestock, and European Union animal welfare requirements and extreme weather conditions in 2023 have limited the number of herds. Since AESs have a large impact on farmers, we recommend that they be more flexible and consider the socio-cultural background of farmers and their impact on local communities when defining support. Full article

Urban growth is crucial for economic advancement, but it results in the fragmentation and depletion of natural and semi-natural ecosystems, which are often replaced by built-up areas. The balance between urban green spaces (UGSs) and impervious surfaces (ISs) is a key factor in urban areas for evaluating the environmental quality of cities and addressing the challenges associated with global environmental changes. This study analyzed African urban expansion dynamics from 2000 to 2020, which resulted in changes in the proportion of green spaces and built-up areas. Urban areas in Africa grew significantly, expanding by 207% from 28,461.7 km² in 2000 to 87,337.2 km² in 2020. The period from 2010 to 2020 was crucial, witnessing a substantial urban expansion of 33,676 km². The urban expansion in this period was found to be positively correlated with the population growth. Most urban areas in Africa are small, with about 86% being less than 10 km² in size. Initially, urban growth led to more impervious surfaces and less green spaces, but the following decade showed a shift towards greener urban areas. There was a 20% increase in the share of urban green spaces (UGSs) and a decrease in impervious surfaces, enhancing urban greenery. Green spaces increased by 225.2%, reaching around 47% of urban areas by 2020. Forested areas expanded, grasslands declined slightly, and croplands increased marginally, indicating a trend towards greener urban regions in Africa. Full article

This study investigates grassland-based farming systems within the framework of agroecology (AE), focusing on the identification of relevant indicators for on-farm assessment. The purpose of this research is to test indicator compliance with AE at the farming system level in grassland farms, particularly in High-Nature-Value (HNV) areas. Seventeen farms in France and Italy were selected for this study, and data were collected through semi-structured interviews. These interviews explored various indicators across environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was employed to analyze the quantitative indicators, while qualitative data offered insights into farm management and learning practices. The results highlighted the importance of forage self-sufficiency (livestock production dimension) and revenue (economic dimension) as key indicators of successful agroecological management. The study also found that increasing forage self-sufficiency was linked to higher farmer satisfaction, an indicator related to the social dimension. Additionally, qualitative data underscored the significance of self-sufficiency, workload management, and social interaction and continuous learning as critical elements in grassland-based farming. In conclusion, this research proposes self-sufficiency as an indicator that can facilitate the assessment of grassland-based systems, aiding in the broader adoption of agroecological practices in compliance with European policies. Full article

Land-use changes in meadow grasslands in semi-arid areas usually significantly affect soil environment and microbiota. However, studies on the response of soil P-cycle-related microbial communities to land-use conversions are still limited. In this study, a series of land-use types including upland field, paddy field, poplar plantation, and their adjacent natural meadow grassland in the Horqin Sandy Land of Northeast China were selected, and the diversities and structures of soil microbial communities involved in organic P mineralization (phoD-harboring community) and inorganic phosphate solubilization (gcd-harboring community) were investigated by the high-throughput sequencing technique. Land-use type had significant influences on soil physicochemical properties, enzymatic activities, and P conversion rates, thereby altering the structures of soil gcd and phoD communities. Soil phoD microbes are more abundant and have more contributions to available P than gcd microbes. The responses of gcd or phoD communities to land-use type were characterized as the quantitative shift in the relative abundance of dominant taxa; however, the basic compositions of the two communities were slightly affected. Soil pH, EC, and nutrient contents (including organic matter and total and available N, P, and K) all significantly affected soil gcd and phoD microbial communities. The abundance of phoD and gcd genes varied with land-use type and could be used as indicators for estimating the bioavailability of soil P. Full article