Disentangling forest effects on grassland biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes
Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Policy, Agricultural Sociology
Final Report Abstract
Agricultural landscapes throughout central Europe are characterized by patches of semi-natural habitats embedded in intensively managed farmland. These land-use systems do not function in isolation, but interact with neighboring ones. The areas where land-use systems interact, can be referred to as transition zones. Forest-grassland interfaces are common transition zones in European agricultural landscapes, and may affect grasslands. Grasslands are European priority areas for conservation as they sustain a diverse number of endemic plant and animal species, both above and below ground, which contribute to supporting and provisioning ecosystem services (ES). Grassland management effects on biodiversity-ES patterns are well studied, but the effect of landscape-scale factors, like the effect of neighboring land-use systems, are less clear. Focusing on forest-grassland transition zones in north-eastern Brandenburg, Germany, this study aimed to provide insight to the role of transition zones in agricultural landscapes for supporting biodiversity-yield relationships using a social-ecological approach. Specifically, the goals were to: i) identify how biodiversity (i.e. plant, earthworm, and soil fungal:bacteria ratio) in grasslands is affected by the distance to the forest edge; ii) quantify and compare ES associated with plant and earthworm communities at different distances from forest edge; iii) assess how current and past grassland management affect biodiversity and ES patterns, and iv) integrate land users’ knowledge about forestgrassland transition zones for understanding management-biodiversity-ES relationships. Farmers perceive negative ecological spill-overs from forests into grassland fields as related to higher biodiversity but lower forage biomass yields – largely because the biodiversity most frequently addressed was wildlife using forest edges. Farmers stated that there could be improvements if the forest edge had a successional gradient within the forest boundary, and if grazing animals could use the transition zone across the forest-grassland boundary. Field-level management of forest edges, for example, can support landscape complexity, which is one way to support both biodiversity and yields. Current regulations such as the institutional separation of grassland and forest, and grassland area-dependent direct payments prevent farmers from acting according to their local knowledge or also negotiating transition zone use and management with forest owners or managers. Insights from forest managers would have strengthened our findings on how to best manage transition zones for both biodiversity and yield production. While farmers predominantly focused on larger mammals and wildlife in discussing the effect of forestgrassland transition zones on biodiversity and yields, this project focused on plants and soils. Although plant diversity and productivity were lower at the forest edge, quality was higher at the forest edge than further into the field. Plant communities drive these relationships, which are affected by distance to forest in the study region. Moreover, the timing of mowing or grazing can influence these quality-quantity outcomes. Forage quality can be associated to better quality dairy and meat products, while simultaneously contributing to biodiversity conservation goals. As researchers, we could improve our impact by the way we frame conservation and deepening our investigation into diversity-quantity-quality. How the distance to forest edge or management differences (e.g. cuts per season) affect the processes linking plant or earthworm diversity with forage yield parameters will be explored using structural equation modeling. Moreover, the way in which dairies’ and slaughterhouses’ availability affect overall grassland area and management intensity will be studied. Final results will provide a holistic picture of the context in which social-ecological patterns and processes related to grasslands and forests occur.
Publications
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Avert collapse of research co-production systems. Nature, 573(7775), 495-495.
Kernecker, Maria; Busse, Maria & Zscheischler, Jana
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Farmer-centered ecological intensification: Using innovation characteristics to identify barriers and opportunities for a transition of agroecosystems towards sustainability. Agricultural Systems, 191, 103142.
Kernecker, Maria; Seufert, Verena & Chapman, Mollie
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Transition zones across agricultural field boundaries for integrated landscape research and management of biodiversity and yields. Ecological Solutions and Evidence, 3(1).
Kernecker, Maria; Fienitz, Meike; Nendel, Claas; Pätzig, Marlene; Pirhofer, Walzl Karin; Raatz, Larissa; Schmidt, Martin; Wulf, Monika & Zscheischler, Jana
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Working with or against multifunctional landscapes? A case study of land users’ local knowledge of grassland–forest transition zones in northeastern Germany. Ecology and Society, 27(1).
Schümann, Henrike; Knierim, Andrea; Bellingrath-Kimura, Sonoko D. & Kernecker, Maria
