Cattle grazing and fire are common types of management on natural ecosystems, generating several threats to the conservation of native vegetation (e.g., changes in species richness, cover, and abundance, mainly of bovine-palatable species).
Alpine pastures and meadows are agroecosystems of biological, cultural-historical, and economic importance that are undergoing profound imbalances and which are in a rapid decline due to changes in management and/or abandonment. The European Union is making efforts to protect this heritage and resource.
The Living Planet Report 2020 shows that there is an opportunity to heal our relationship with nature and mitigate risks of future pandemics but this better future starts with the decisions that governments, companies and people around the world take today. World leaders must take urgent action to protect and restore nature as the foundation for a healthy society and a thriving economy.
Agricultural intensification is considered essential for meeting growing demand for food and biomass for energy purposes. Intensifying grasslands is under-represented, although it is a promising option given their large land area and relatively low management levels.
Development has fragmented urban nature, and target sites for conservation strategies need to be those that have long maintained their original land cover in a clustered area. Additionally, continuously grasping changes from rural to urban as well as changes over decades after urbanization is essential.
Grasslands are among the most endangered ecosystems in the world. They supply vital resources for society, support an abundance of wildlife species, and store rich carbon reserves beneath their surfaces. Despite this, only a fraction of original grasslands in the United States now remains, and their rate of conversion to cropland has recently reaccelerated.
The aim of this research was to assess differences in the quantity and quality of herbage and invertebrate generalist predator abundance among permanent and temporary pastures. Two permanent pastures and four temporary ley pastures (either one year or two years since being sown) were monitored weekly for 10 weeks in the spring.
Monitoring of soil moisture dynamics provides valuable information about grassland degradation, since soil moisture directly affects vegetation cover. While the Mongolian soil moisture monitoring network is limited to the urban and protected natural areas, remote sensing data can be used to determine the soil moisture status elsewhere.
Most current research on land-use intensification addresses its potential to either threaten biodiversity or to boost agricultural production. However, little is known about the simultaneous effects of intensification on biodiversity and yield.
A field characterization of the grassland vegetation structure, represented by the coverage of grass canopy (CGC) and the grass height, was carried out during three years (2009–2011) in a priority area for the conservation of grasslands of North America.
