Suchergebnisse

23 Pags.- 8 Tabls.- 2 Figs. © 2021 Jebari et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. ; Temperate grassland soils store significant amounts of carbon (C). Estimating how much livestock grazing and manuring can influence grassland soil organic carbon (SOC) is key to improve greenhouse gas grassland budgets. The Rothamsted Carbon (RothC) model, although originally developed and parameterized to model the turnover of organic C in arable topsoil, has been widely used, with varied success, to estimate SOC changes in grassland under different climates, soils, and management conditions. In this paper, we hypothesise that RothC-based SOC predictions in managed grasslands under temperate moist climatic conditions can be improved by incorporating small modifications to the model based on existing field data from diverse experimental locations in Europe. For this, we described and evaluated changes at the level of: (1) the soil water function of RothC, (2) entry pools accounting for the degradability of the exogenous organic matter (EOM) applied (e.g., ruminant excreta), (3) the month-on-month change in the quality of C inputs coming from plant residues (i.e above-, below-ground plant residue and rhizodeposits), and (4) the livestock trampling effect (i.e., poaching damage) as a common problem in areas with higher annual precipitation. In order to evaluate the potential utility of these changes, we performed a simple sensitivity analysis and tested the model predictions against averaged data from four grassland experiments in Europe. Our evaluation showed that the default model's performance was 78% and whereas some of the modifications seemed to improve RothC SOC predictions (model performance of 95% and 86% for soil water function and plant residues, respectively), others did not lead to any/or almost any improvement (model performance of 80 and 46% for the change in the C input quality and livestock trampling, respectively). We concluded that, whereas adding more complexity to the RothC model by adding the livestock trampling would actually not improve the model, adding the modified soil water function and plant residue components, and at a lesser extent residues quality, could improve predictability of the RothC in managed grasslands under temperate moist climatic conditions. ; We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Fundación Cándido de Iturriaga y Maria del Dañobeitia, Juan de la Cierva and the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action (RIA) through the project "Innovation for sustainable sheep and Goat production in Europe (iSAGE)" undergrant agreement No 679302. BC3 is supported by the Basque Government through the BERC 2018-2021 program and by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MINECO through BC3 María de Maeztu excellence accreditation MDM-2017-0714. Agustin del Prado is financed by the programme Ramon y Cajal from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (RYC2017-22143). María Almagro was supported by the Juan de la Cierva Program (grant IJCI-2015- 23500). F ; Peer reviewed

14 Pags.- 4 Figs.- 1 Tabl. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022. ; Predicting the regional net greenhouse gas emissions (Net GHG) of grasslands is increasingly important, as these are one of the most globally widespread vegetation types, providing several ecosystem services. In this study, we assessed the regional soil organic carbon (SOC) change over a 30-year period (1981–2010), and the annual GHG balance for 405,000 ha of moist temperate Spanish grassland associated with dairy cow production. To do this we used the following: (i) an integrated modelling framework comprising geographic information systems (GIS); (ii) the RothC model to simulate SOC changes in managed grasslands under moist temperate conditions; and (iii) Tier 2 recent IPCC methods to estimate emissions. The results showed an average regional SOC change rate of 0.16 Mg C ha−1 year−1, associated with the initial SOC and livestock density. The annual GHG balance was positive, contributing to global warming by 5.6 Mg CO2-e ha−1 year−1. Livestock density was the main factor affecting net GHG emissions in the grasslands associated with dairy production in northern Spain. We determined a livestock density threshold of 0.95 LU ha−1, below which there is no SOC accumulation, and a threshold of approximately 0.4 LU ha−1, above which net GHG per livestock unit (LU) are reduced. In conclusion, our study confirms the importance of dairy cow grazing systems in preserving and/or enhancing SOC stocks in the grasslands of northern Spain. It is therefore crucial to optimise the livestock density considering large variety of feed intake and alternative manure management mitigation options to reduce the net GHG emissions. ; The study received financial support from the Fundación Cándido de Iturriaga y Maria del Dañobeitia. The BC3 is supported by the Basque Government through the Basque Excellence Research Centres (BERC) 2018–2021 programme, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness ...

This work was supported by the Horizon 2020 SFS-01c-2015 project entitled "Innovation of sustainable sheep and goat production in Europe (iSAGE)" [grant number 679302]; and the Rural & Environment Science & Analytical Services Division of the Scottish Government. BC3 is supported by the Basque Government through the BERC 2018–2021 program and by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MINECO through BC3 María de Maeztu excellence accreditation MDM-2017-0714. Agustin del Prado is supported by the Ramon y Cajal Programme. We would like to thank all the people who provided the data which made this work possible. In particular, Professor Wolfgang Schmidt, for data from the Experimental Botanical Garden of Göttingen University. Also the Lawes Agricultural Trust and Rothamsted Research for data from the e-RA database. The Rothamsted Long-term Experiments National Capability (LTE-NCG) is supported by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Lawes Agricultural Trust. ; Peer reviewed ; Publisher PDF

Altres ajuts: Basque Government to E.G (IT1022-16), A.A (IT1365-19), and L.J.R.B. (IT944-16) ; Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M ; Pastoral systems face increasing pressure from competing global markets, food sector industrialization, and new policies such as Europe's post-2020 Common Agriculture Policy. This pressure threatens the use of extensive sheep-grazing systems in mountain areas of low productivity but high natural value. Using information gathered at a long-term research setting in a mountainous area of the Basque Country (northern Spain), we assessed the multiple benefits of extensive dairy sheep grazing systems from multiple perspectives using indicators pertaining to ecological, socio-economic, and food quality domains. In this way, we address the benefits that would be lost if sheep grazing abandonment persists in mountain regions. Our results show that the benefits of extensive dairy sheep grazing in the research area include the production of healthy and high-quality foods and multiple ecological benefits including biodiversity conservation. Extensive dairy sheep grazing also contributes to rural development by generating employment and income in marginal, low-productivity lands that can support few economic alternatives. In particular, we found that sheep farmers who produce high-value products, such as cheese, have enhanced their economic profitability and are less dependent on public subsidies. However, careful attention to sustainable practices, support for new generations of farmers, and streamlined supply chains are required. These would contribute to ensure socio-economic benefits for farmers, avoid the ecological costs associated with grazing abandonment, and enhance ecosystem services for the whole society.