Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
6.2
3.3
Journals
Agronomy
Special Issues
Advances in Grassland Productivity and Sustainability — Volume II
share announcement

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: 20 November 2024 | Viewed by 2531

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Mohamed Abdalla

E-Mail Website
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 (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

18 pages, 4671 KiB  
Article
Geographical Environment and Plant Functional Group Shape the Spatial Variation Pattern of Plant Carbon Density in Subalpine-Alpine Grasslands of the Eastern Loess Plateau, China
by Manhou Xu, Jiaying Wang, Kunkun Wei, Jie Li and Xiuli Yu
Agronomy 2024, 14(7), 1420; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14071420 - 29 Jun 2024
Viewed by 380
Abstract
The carbon density of subalpine-alpine grasslands (SGs) is significantly vital to sustaining the carbon cycle in global terrestrial ecosystems. However, on the Loess Plateau of China, it remains unclear how the geographical environment and plant functional groups affect the spatial variation pattern of [...] Read more.
The carbon density of subalpine-alpine grasslands (SGs) is significantly vital to sustaining the carbon cycle in global terrestrial ecosystems. However, on the Loess Plateau of China, it remains unclear how the geographical environment and plant functional groups affect the spatial variation pattern of plant carbon density in these grasslands. Here, nine typical SGs distributed in the eastern Loess Plateau with elevations ranging from 1720 to 3045 m were investigated. The biomass indices from grassland plants of different functional groups were investigated using plot surveys. The Kriging interpolation method was used to explore the spatial variation pattern of plant carbon density along geographical gradients. We found that (1) the total plant carbon density of SGs was 2676.825 g C/m2 on the eastern plateau, with 37.07%, 37.50%, and 25.43% contributed by the northern, central, and southern areas, respectively. Above- (666.338 g C/m2) and belowground (2010.488 g C/m2) carbon density accounted for 24.9% and 75.11% of the total, respectively. (2) At the horizontal scale, the plant carbon density in the northern SGs was high in the northwest and low in the southeast; in the central SGs, it was low in the northwest and high in the southeast; and in the southern SGs, it was high in the southwest and low in the northeast. At the vertical scale, plant carbon density in all SGs decreased with increasing altitude. (3) The carbon density of grasses, forbs, and sedges was 247.419 g C/m2, 26.073 g C/m2, and 23.471 g C/m2, respectively. With increased latitude, the carbon density of all functional groups (grasses, forbs, and sedges) decreased; the carbon density of forbs and grasses increased with increased longitude, while that of sedges decreased; and with increased altitude, the carbon density of all functional groups increased. In conclusion, the spatial variation pattern of plant carbon density in the SGs was not only influenced by the geographical environment but also by the plant functional groups at the horizontal and vertical scales on the eastern Loess Plateau of China. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Grassland Productivity and Sustainability — Volume II)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

23 pages, 6314 KiB  
Article
Modeling Gross Primary Production (GPP) of a Mediterranean Grassland in Central Spain Using Sentinel-2 NDVI and Meteorological Field Information
by Víctor Cicuéndez, Rosa Inclán, Enrique P. Sánchez-Cañete, Carlos Román-Cascón, César Sáenz and Carlos Yagüe
Agronomy 2024, 14(6), 1243; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14061243 - 7 Jun 2024
Viewed by 373
Abstract
Mediterranean grasslands provide different ecosystems and social and economic services to the Mediterranean basin. Specifically, in Spain, pastures occupy more than 55% of the Spanish surface. Farmers and policymakers need to estimate the Gross Primary Production (GPP) to make sustainable management of these [...] Read more.
Mediterranean grasslands provide different ecosystems and social and economic services to the Mediterranean basin. Specifically, in Spain, pastures occupy more than 55% of the Spanish surface. Farmers and policymakers need to estimate the Gross Primary Production (GPP) to make sustainable management of these ecosystems and to study the role of grasslands acting as sinks or sources of Carbon in the context of climate change. High-frequency satellites, such as Sentinel-2, have opened the door to study GPP with a higher spatial and lower revisit time (10 m and 5 days). Therefore, the overall objective of this research is to estimate an ecosystem light use efficiency (eLUE) GPP model for a Mediterranean grassland in central Spain using Sentinel-2 NDVI Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), complemented with meteorological information at the field scale for a relatively long period (from January 2018 to July 2020). The GPP models studied in this research were the MODIS GPP product, as well as the four eLUE models built with MODIS or Sentinel-2 NDVI and complemented by the inclusion of minimum temperature (Tmin) and soil water content (SWC). The models were validated through the GPP obtained from an eddy-covariance flux tower located in the study site (GPP_T). Results showed that the MODIS GPP product underestimated the GPP_T of the grassland ecosystem. Besides this, the approach of the eLUE concept was valid for estimating GPP in this Mediterranean grassland ecosystem. In addition, the models showed an improvement using Sentinel-2 NDVI compared to MODIS GPP product and compared to the models that used MODIS NDVI due to its higher spatial and temporal resolution. The inclusion of Tmin and SWC was also a determinant in improving GPP models during winter and summer periods. This work also illustrates how the main wind directions of the study area must be considered to appropriately estimate the footprint of the eddy covariance flux tower. In conclusion, this study is the first step to efficiently estimating the GPP of Mediterranean grasslands using the Sentinel-2 NDVI with complementary meteorological field information to make the management of these ecosystems sustainable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Grassland Productivity and Sustainability — Volume II)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

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 1213
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)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3

Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: Feasibility of the 4 x 1000 target for soil carbon under grasslands worldwide
Authors: Marta Dondini
Affiliation: University of Aberdeen

Back to TopTop