Climate-Smart Management in Grassland Ecosystems

Grasslands cover ~1/3 of the world’s land area and ~1 billion people depend on them for income and food security, highlighting their importance for livestock-based food production and agricultural policies. Characterised by high levels of biomass production and biodiversity, as well as high carbon sequestration potential and limited nitrogen losses, grasslands are emerging as a sustainable land-use option, as they use limited water, can reduce soil erosion and maintain soil carbon over time. However, land abandonment and poor management can degrade grasslands, leading to low vegetation cover, soil erosion and carbon release, as well as deterioration of ecological and productive functions, reducing their adaptive capacity in the face of a changing climate. Ensuring that grasslands continue to provide ecosystem services is thus paramount in a changing world where adverse factors related to demography, low profitability, drought, heatwaves, desertification, wildfires and the return of large predators can jeopardise human well-being.

With proper management and informed decision-making, a deliberate transformation to more resilient grasslands that provide critical ecosystem services is possible. Sensors, information and communication technology systems, GPS, the internet of things, management information systems and cloud computing hold promise for a technology push to make grassland resources more resilient, farmers more able to regulate grassland ecology (e.g. by promoting biodiversity) and ultimately less dependent on external pressures (climate, market and policy decisions). However, the potential and robustness of such integrated smart farming technologies in complex systems (with contrasting environments, animal breeds and socio-economic assets) subject to global challenges needs to be further explored.

This Research Topic calls for climate-smart management practices that are expected to increase (i) grassland productivity and livestock production efficiency, (ii) farmers’ ability to better adapt to changing conditions, and (iii) soil carbon stocks.

Contributions submitted for the Research Topic (both research and review manuscripts) include, among others:

1) Solutions to counteract the effects of perturbations (e.g. compound weather extremes) on ecosystem services;

2) Practices that promote healthy soils, vegetation and grazing animals;

3) Sources for socio-ecological resilience (predictive, adaptive and buffering mechanisms);

4) Use of information and software (apps) by farmers;

5) Uptake of innovations: usefulness and (dis)advantages of applying technologies;

6) Economic benefits of improved health and ecology (e.g. through bio-economic modelling);

7) Support to policy development.

Methodological frameworks, case studies and modelling advances that underpin the development of tangible solutions in response to critical situations (and attempts to reverse them), covering a wide range of temporal and spatial scales, are welcome. Communicating participatory processes on farmers’ agro-ecological transition towards a paradigm shift in their activities is desirable to raise awareness and promote the acceptance of solutions for sustainable grassland management.