magazine_ Feature
Let’s take a field trip
Grasslands are complex and productive ecosystems as diverse as they are endangered.
An alpine meadow in bloom.
Credit: Eurac Research | Annelie Bortolotti
Grasslands, depending on how they are defined, account for between 20 and 40 percent of the world’s land area, they account for 70 percent of agricultural land and as such, are the globe’s most agriculturally useful habitats. However, modern systems of agriculture are endangering these once abundant terrestrial oceans of biodiversity.
Today, in many grasslands, native species, including numerous grassland birds, butterflies, wild bees, and grasshoppers have been diminished, largely by farming and livestock grazing. Yet agriculture and livestock husbandry contribute to the livelihoods of more than 800 million people. How can we feed ourselves and protect these important ecosystems?
Grasslands 101
Grasslands are areas dominated by a single class of plant: grass. A highly successful and evolved species with a bladed leaf for photosynthesis and a single seed head for reproduction, which according to the appearance of grass pollen in the fossil record, can be dated back to the Paleocene period around 60 million years ago. Grass can colonize poor soils, survive wildfires and displace competitive species. As such, grasslands have spread to most corners of Earth, comprise of about 12,000 species and are host to a huge range of plants, fungi and animals. From savannas, to prairies, steppes to pampas and tundra, grasslands are iconic and vast. There are two main types of grassland: tropical and temperate. Temperate grasslands can be found in Europe and particularly the alpine zone. The steppe plains of Eurasia are the largest of this type of biome in the world, covering an area of more than 8,000 km from Hungary in the west through Ukraine and Central Asia to Northeast China/Mongolia in the east and are characterized by high levels of plant biodiversity at multiple scales. So, if they are that hardy, why are we worried about them?
Grasslands are important
Wheat, oat, millet corn, rice, barley, sugarcane, wheat, and maize: all grasses.
Plant cultivation and animal husbandry stimulated social and cultural advancement. Both needed grasslands to happen. Since humans moved from being hunter gatherers to farmers about 10,000 years ago, cultures developed alongside the grains that these communities produced. From corn dollies to the petroglyphs of Tamgaly in Kazakhstan to representations of Demeter or Chicomecóatl the Aztec maize goddess, these are just a few of the testimonies to the husbandry, social organization and rituals of pastoral peoples. In Eurasia it’s wheat, barley, oats and rye, rice in Asia and the Middle East, sorghum in Africa and maize in Latin America. Over 50 percent of our calories come from grasses, predominantly in the form of cereals. Livestock are raised on diets based partly or entirely on grasses. Hundreds of millions of people depend on an agriculture derived income.
Credit: Eurac Research | Annelie BortolottiApart from food and economies, grasslands also provide humans with areas of beauty and make up much of the urban and suburban landscape. When meadows burst into buzzing carpets of color in spring, pollinators such as wild bees, wasps, beetles, grasshoppers and butterflies are attracted to them. Meadows are alive with biodiversity. Aphids, thrips, grasshoppers, beetles, and other species that live on the plant matter are powerhouses of soil regeneration and seed dispersal. Ants, termites, worms and moles aerate the soil and provide food for amongst others, grassland birds, lizards, shrews, slow worms and snake species.
When it comes to grazed meadows, livestock that are free to forage on a variety of meadow plants and grasses ingest more plant proteins and certain “natural medicines” such as birds foot trefoil – an antiparasitic species. In fact, now that society has largely moved away from grazing its livestock to feeding it grain, the motivation to manage these habitats has partly been lost.
Grasslands are also sink houses for carbon. They sequester carbon and at present, grasslands hold about a third of the Earth’s terrestrial carbon, which means they could be an immensely powerful player in the fight against climate change. More grassland, and especially more biodiverse grassland, means more natural carbon storage.
The fight to restore them
Patterns of biodiversity are strongly shaped by increasing levels of human influence and area loss and fragmentation of grassland biodiversity is alarming. Nuanced and specific management is needed to maintain and restore the biodiversity of these ecosystems. A First Nation’s proverb says “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” Can we make sure that what we have borrowed can be returned? Eurac Research is investigating an array of mitigation and monitoring solutions. Let’s meet some of the faces who are working on solutions to the challenges grasslands are facing.
Meet the researchers
Credit: Eurac Research | Annelie Bortolotti“Today, species-rich grasslands are among the most endangered habitats in South Tyrol's valleys. Steps must be taken to improve the situation in the future.”
Erich Tasser, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Alpine Environment
Erich Tasser: With the “Green Deal”, the European Union wants to promote biodiversity and intact ecosystems. Widespread grassland plays a central role in this. Depending on management and location, they can be biodiversity hotspots or very species-poor. However, there is still insufficient research into which form of use on which sites leads to the most biodiversity-friendly use possible while at the same time being economically viable. The G4B research project (Grasslands for biodiversity: supporting the protection of the biodiversity-rich grasslands and related management practices in the Alps and Carpathians) aims to help safeguard grassland biodiversity in Europe’s two largest mountain ranges, the Alps and Carpathians. Together with 13 partners from 8 European countries, we are researching how sustainable management in the Alps and Carpathians can be guaranteed in the future. First and foremost, we want to understand which grassland management is required for this. In addition, a network of grassland areas is being developed to preserve valuable grassland areas in the long term through management.
Credit: Eurac Research | Marina Baldo“Grasslands are among the ecosystems most sensitive to climate change and one of the most important biodiversity hotspots on our planet: we must observe, learn how they respond to different conditions so we can protect them.”
Silvia Lembo, PhD Student at the Institute for Alpine Environment
Silvia Lembo: Climate change is affecting the composition and functioning of ecosystems across the globe and plants, animals and microbial species are trying to respond by either adapting their life cycle to novel environmental conditions and their ranges to track ecological niches. When plants move upward, they face new atmospheric conditions characterized by lower atmospheric pressure. Using Ecotron chambers at the terraXcube, I’m analyzing the responses of three alpine plant species when they are confronted with lower air pressure in a project called UPSHIFT in collaboration with the University of Innsbruck.
“By leveraging hyperspectral data, I aim to enhance the accuracy of our remote sensing analyses and contribute to the development of more effective remote sensing techniques for grassland research.”
Emilio Dorrigati, junior researcher at the Institute for Earth Observation
Emilio Dorigatti: Grasslands are a key landscape component in the Alpine region, with natural and semi-natural grasslands ranking among the most biodiverse habitats here. I work in a group which focuses on mapping and monitoring grassland habitat types using Earth Observation Data. Our objective is to explore the potential of the hyperspectral data from the PRISMA satellite for mapping grassland habitats, both on its own and in combination with other Earth Observation Data. The results will offer valuable insights into the strengths and weaknesses of this new data source when used to analyze grassland habitats.
Credit: www.inaturalist.org | Aurelie Laurent | All rights reservedLisa Obwegs: Grasslands are vital ecosystems that support the entire food chain and provide a wide array of ecosystem services. I’m focusing on understanding the ecological significance and the critical role grasslands play in supporting wild bee populations. To gain deeper insights, I’m examining the effects of elevational gradients in terms of altitude, which provide a unique opportunity to study the impacts of land-use intensity to understand how these factors influence wild bee communities, including their functional and taxonomic diversity. This knowledge is crucial for developing effective conservation strategies for these important pollinators.
“Grassland birds are a highly threatened group, I monitor these birds to increase knowledge on their distribution, improve conservation and propose management strategies.”
Matteo Anderle, post-Doc researcher at the Institute for Alpine Environment
Matteo Anderle: I monitor grassland bird populations at various sites around South Tyrol. In particular, I have created a standardized protocol which counts target species in the day, in the night and compares this with an existing survey for the most abundant areas, where this species are still “well” present.
Roberto Dellavedova: For over 20 years I have been studying mown meadows in the Western Alps. Every single meadow is a consequence of many ecological factors such as: substrate, altitude, exposure, level of precipitation and humidity as well as how it is managed. Over the last 70 years the type of manure and the mechanization of mowing have completely changed, and this is reflected in the composition and abundance of flowers.
“If well managed, mowed meadows are attributed high biological value, they host a considerable number of invertebrate and plant species. The survival of the latter depends exclusively on us.”
Roberto Dellavedova, researcher at the Institute for Alpine Environment
Traditional agricultural cutting interventions carried out for centuries favored the species that populate grasslands. I manage a 3000 m2 lawn without any machines. I fertilize with mature cattle manure in November; in February I manually disperse the remaining fertilizer with a wooden rake, and I mow by hand with an Austrian scythe twice in the summer. In this meadow, after a few years, I now count more than sixty different species and can observe an increase in flowers. Another interesting thing is that without the presence of machines the soil is not pressed and therefore is more aerated thanks to the incessant activity of earthworms.
Credit: Eurac Research | Marina BaldoHarald Crepaz: Grasslands offer a variety of ecological services, including water regulation, food and cultural resources, and recreational spaces: their conservation is important for both the environment and human well-being. With a long-term socio-ecological research site and project, I as an ecologist, am studying how changes in snowmelt and temperature, affect the growth and the timing of life cycle events (phenology) of alpine plants, like sprouting leaves or flowering. I hope to find out more about the mechanisms behind the responses of alpine plants to warmer temperatures and earlier snowmelt, to understand how alpine vegetation communities will change in the future under climate change.
“Grasslands are hotspots for soil fauna diversity and can harbor unique and specialized species.”
Michael Steinwandter, entomologist, soil ecologist and zoologist
Michael Steinwandter: As a soil ecologist, I mainly investigate the soil fauna living on and in mountain grassland soils, how many of a particular species live there and their diversity: how many species or taxa can be found. I do this by taking soil core samples or by installing pitfall traps for a certain period of time. The soil fauna is then counted and identified in our labs, which gives us information on the composition of the communities and what function these can potentially fulfil. We often compare different type of grasslands such as meadows, pastures and different management intensities: extensively managed meadows and pastures harbor more diverse and specialized soil fauna communities and management intensification leads to more homogeneous and general communities. Furthermore, dry grasslands – like those we are investigating in our outdoor-lab, the LT(S)ER area of the Matsch/Mazia valley are really interesting and harbor some soil fauna treasures like the tiny 3mm long beetle we found called Ocetiopalpus sabulosus, a checkered beetle never before sighted in the European Alps, and several spiders new to Italy and South Tyrol like Eresus sandaliatus – a picturesque velvet spider.
Credit: Eurac Research | Michael SteinwandterEurasian Grassland Conference 2024 - Eurac Research
The 19th Eurasian Grassland Conference will be held in Bolzano/Bozen in South Tyrol, Italy from 26th August until the 1st September 2024. The theme of this year’s EGC is ‘Grasslands as biodiversity hotspots’.
