Main Description

Grassland ecosystems are deeply affected by human activities and need appropriate management to optimise trade-offs between ecosystem functions and services. Until now they have mainly been analysed as agro-ecosystems for animal production but this book looks beyond the role of grassland as a feeding ground, and evaluates other important processes such as carbon sequestration in soils, greenhouse gas regulation and biodiversity protection. This authoritative volume expertly highlights the need for an immediate balance between agriculture and ecological management for sustainability in the future.

Readership

Researchers and students in ecology and agriculture.

Main Contents

Introduction: Food security and environmental impacts; challenge for grassland sciences.

Chapter 1: Primary production of grasslands, herbage accumulation and use, and impacts of climate change.

Section 1: Productivity and Use of Grassland Resources

Chapter 2: Nutritional constraints for grazing animals and the importance of selective grazing behavior.

Chapter 3: The influence of vegetation characteristics on foraging strategies and ingestive behavior.

Chapter 4: Diversity, productivity and stability in grazing systems.

Chapter 5: Importance of scale in the management of grassland resources.

Chapter 6: Livestock production styles and managing grassland ecosystems.

Section 2: Grasslands as Regulating Biogeochemical Cycles and Environmental Fluxes to Hydrosphere and Atmosphere

Chapter 7: Carbon storage and organic matter dynamics in grassland soil.

Chapter 8: Managing C and N in grassland systems. The adaptive cycle theory perspective.

Chapter 9: Managing mineral N leaching in grassland systems.

Chapter 10: Greenhouse gas emission from grassland area and mitigation.

Chapter 11: Role and impacts of legumes in grasslands for high productivity and N gain from symbiotic N2 fixation.

Chapter 12: Efficiency of Phosphorus Cycling in Different Grassland Systems.

Section 3: Grasslands as Regulating Biodiversity Dynamics

Chapter 13: Predicting biodiversity dynamics of grasslands under global changes: the role of long-term manipulation of climates.

Chapter 14: Interactions between grassland management and species diversity.

Chapter 15: Assessing the functional role of plant diversity in grasslands: a trait-based approach.

Chapter 16: Exploiting genotypic and phenotypic plant diversity in grasslands.

Chapter 17: Microbial diversity of grasslands, its functional role.

Chapter 18: Soil fauna diversity and ecosystem functions in grasslands.

Section 4: Grasslands as Components of Sustainable Farming Systems

Chapter 19: Role of grasslands in intensive animal production in North-West Europe. Conditions for a more sustainable farming system.

Chapter 20: Management of grazing systems in New Zealand and environmental impacts.

Chapter 21: Rangeland management for sustainable conservation of natural resources.

Chapter 22: Opportunities and challenges for integrating North-American crop and livestock systems.

Chapter 23: Integration of grasslands within arable crop systems in South-America.

Section 5: Grasslands as Components of Landscape Ecology and Agricultural Systems at the Regional Level

Chapter 24: Temperate grasslands in catchment systems: the role of scale, connectivity and thresholds in the provision and regulation of water quality and quantity.

Chapter 25: Integration of grasslands with forests at regional level.

Chapter 26 : Role of grasslands area within arable cropping systems for conservation or enhancing biodiversity at regional level.

Chapter 27: Interactions between cereal cropping systems and pastoral areas as the base for a sustainable agriculture development in Mediterranean countries.

Chapter 28: A way for developing integrated system at landscape level in tropical areas.

Grassland ecosystems are deeply affected by human activities and need appropriate management to optimise trade-offs between ecosystem functions and services. Until now they have mainly been analysed as agro-ecosystems for animal production but this book looks beyond the role of grassland as a feeding ground, and evaluates other important...