Advances in Grassland Productivity and Sustainability — Volume II

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Grassland and Pasture Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 April 2024) | Viewed by 1191

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, 23 St. Machar Drive, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, UK
Interests: agricultural sustainability; carbon sequestration in soils; greenhouse gas emissions from soils; climate change mitigation and adaptation; simulation modelling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Following the success of our first Special Issue in Agronomy, "Advances in Grassland Productivity and Sustainability", the Editorial Office is willing to launch a second volume of the Special Issue. The topic, the editorial team, and the submission process will remain the same. 

Grassland is an important ecosystem that covers approximately 40% of the global land surface and 70% of agricultural area. It produces about 10% of terrestrial plant biomass and 20–30% of soil organic carbon (SOC). Grassland delivers vital multiple ecosystem services, including food production, biodiversity, climate regulation, water quality, mediation of water flows, erosion control and landscape, and recreation; however, grassland is threatened by many factors, such as overgrazing, drought, and unsustainable agricultural practices. Increasing grassland productivity and sustainability requires a more widespread application of efficient and cost-effective management as well as polices. Strategies with which to improve grassland productivity, such as optimizing N fertilizer rates, stocking rates, legumes and supplements, grazing management, the manipulation of daily herbage allowance, the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, carbon sequestration, and improving the biodiversity as well as the proper use of grass byproducts. This Special Issue focuses on all strategies that improve the productivity and sustainability of grasslands. Research articles, review articles, and short communications are invited.

Dr. Mohamed Abdalla
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • grassland
  • production
  • grazing
  • degradation
  • GHG emissions
  • climate change
  • biodiversity
  • modeling

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 5056 KiB  
Article
Agriculturally Improved and Semi-Natural Permanent Grasslands Provide Complementary Ecosystem Services in Swedish Boreal Landscapes
by Guillermo Aguilera Nuñez, Anders Glimskär, Giulia Zacchello, Richard M. Francksen, Mark J. Whittingham and Matthew Hiron
Agronomy 2024, 14(3), 567; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14030567 - 12 Mar 2024
Viewed by 798
Abstract
Permanent grasslands cover more than a third of European agricultural land and are important for a number of ecosystem services. Permanent grasslands used for agriculture are broadly separated into agriculturally improved and semi-natural grasslands. High cultural and natural values linked to semi-natural grasslands [...] Read more.
Permanent grasslands cover more than a third of European agricultural land and are important for a number of ecosystem services. Permanent grasslands used for agriculture are broadly separated into agriculturally improved and semi-natural grasslands. High cultural and natural values linked to semi-natural grasslands are well documented. However, in boreal and hemi-boreal agricultural landscapes, less information is available about the areal coverage of improved permanent grasslands and their role for ecosystem service provision and biodiversity. In Sweden, grasslands are administratively separated into semi-natural (i.e., land that cannot be ploughed) or arable (i.e., improved temporary or permanent grassland on land that can be ploughed). We used data from a large-scale environmental monitoring program to show that improved permanent grassland (i.e., permanent grasslands on arable fields) may be a previously unrecognised large area of the agricultural land use in Sweden. We show that improved permanent grasslands together with semi-natural grasslands are both comparable but also complementary providers of a range of ecosystem services (plant species richness, plant resources for pollinators and forage amount for livestock production). However, as expected, semi-natural grasslands with the highest-level AESs (special values) show high species richness values for vascular plants, plants indicating traditional semi-natural management conditions and red-listed species. Improved permanent grasslands on arable fields are likely an underestimated but integral part of the agricultural economy and ecological function in boreal landscapes that together with high nature value semi-natural grasslands provide a broad range of ecosystem services. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Grassland Productivity and Sustainability — Volume II)
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