Vital: Ecosystem service provision from coupled plant and microbial functional diversity in managed grasslands

Coordinator: Dr. Sandra Lavorel

Participating countries: FR, UK, DE, ES, AT

Link to Presentation

VITAL aims to produce a conceptual model of relationships among plant and microbial functional diversity in grasslands, and multiple ecosystem service delivery.

1. Presentation
a. Context : Given increasing political and public concern for the environment, and resulting changes in legislation and policy, European agriculture is challenged to provide ecosystem services (ES) such as carbon storage and protection of water quality, along with biodiversity conservation and maintenance of economically viable production. Extensively managed or restored grasslands are key elements of European landscapes, and meet such multifunctional objectives. In spite of this, basic understanding of ecological constraints and opportunities for multifunctionality is missing. As a result, knowledge for non-experts, which is required in order to guide policy and management of these agroecosystems, is limited.

b. Objectives: VITAL explores the hypothesis that the delivery of multiple ecosystem services in semi-natural grasslands, and its vulnerability to changing management, can be explained by the coupling among plant and soil microbial functional diversity, and its impacts on carbon and nitrogen turnover. Our core objective is therefore to build a conceptual model of relationships among plant and microbial functional diversity, and multiple ecosystem service delivery.

c. Content: VITAL studies mountain grasslands where abandonment of manuring, mowing and grazing, or conversely management intensification, alter plant species and functional diversity, soil microbial activities, soil N availability and N transformation processes. These changes have the potential to fundamentally shift the ES that these agroecosystems can provide, and thereby the livelihood and development potential for local economies. Research is conducted at three sites in the French Alps, Austria, and the UK, providing a representative range of management and natural conditions.

VITAL addresses six specific objectives, which structure the project:

WP1 uses survey and participatory meeting techniques at the three sites to identify key ecosystem services associated with the maintenance of fertility in mountain grasslands, how these are perceived to be affected by management, and linkages among different services.

WP2 uses individual plants in controlled conditions to obtain functional indicators of plant strategies for nitrogen use and impacts on soil microbes, and of corresponding microbial genetic and functional diversity along management gradients.

WP3 aims to develop a conceptual model linking plant functional responses to management, their effects on microbial functional diversity, and their coupled effects on ecosystem services. This will be done using mesocosms of varying plant functional diversity at low / high fertility to quantify microbial genetic and functional diversity and critical components of the nitrogen cycle.

WP4 will repeat WP3’s measurements along management intensity gradients to validate the processes and linkages demonstrated in mesocosm conditions to natural systems across the three sites.

WP5 will develop land use scenarios using a participatory approach and understanding of feedbacks from ES to management decisions. The impacts of these scenarios on plant and microbial functional diversity and on ES will be modelled and landscape projection maps generated.

WP6 aims to identify and meet the needs of local stakeholders, land managers and policy makers. The stakeholder dialogue is built around a series of workshops at each site to raise awareness of biodiversity and ecological processes underlying ES, and of impacts of management change; and to enhance mutual learning between scientists and stakeholders.

Results will be published in the international refereed literature and presented at conferences. Team leaders’ involvement in international research networks will enhance the diffusion of results in the research arena. Open access to data will be provided within two years of the end of the project. With two work packages dedicated to interactions with stakeholders and end users (managers and policy makers) of project results (WP1&6), our strategy is to make VITAL’s ideas and results directly available to them throughout the project, as well as enhancing their relevance through interactive communication at workshops and informally at the sites. This will increase awareness of the relevance of plant and microbial diversity to ES, and of constraints on, and opportunities for multifunctionality. Communication to the general public will be through VITAL’s public web site and brochures distributed at the field sites.

VITAL will also produce a toolkit for training of students and managers. VITAL aims to provide new understanding of the ecological constraints and opportunities for multifunctionality in semi-natural grasslands in general, and in mountain grasslands in particular, and to translate this understanding into accessible knowledge for non-experts, which is required in order to guide policy and management. To achieve this ambitious goal, we will involve farmers and other local stakeholders at each site as well as supra-regional stakeholders dealing with mountain development and policy. A participatory approach which considers stakeholders attitudes and mindsets will lead not only to a better representation of local conditions, but will also help to prepare them for future changes and thereby contribute to adaptability by developing jointly their opportunities for future change.

VITAL’s stakeholder dialogue strategy aims at bridging the gap between scientific information, and knowledge required by decision makers. Continuous stakeholder consultation (WP6) will ensure that the requirements and interests of stakeholders are addressed by VITAL by refining research questions or defining additional deliverables. Involving stakeholders’ regional knowledge is essential for the identification of ES (WP1) and for projecting future delivery of ES by mountain grasslands with coherent scenarios (WP5). In WP6, a workshop will initialise a continuous dialogue by socialising contacts of stakeholders with the individual research groups; informing them about the project and its research questions; and engaging their knowledge about soil fertility and biodiversity dynamics, associated ES, future management trajectories, and related concerns.

VITAL’s integration of scientific results in the workshop framework will benefit the consciousness of farmers and stakeholders regarding potential management strategies for a better incorporation of biodiversity issues into grassland management. Field monitoring methods for assessing functional diversity and ES delivery will be demonstrated and options for appropriate policy measures for increasing the provision of ES, along with biodiversity conservation and maintenance of economically viable production will be outlined. However the workshops will not be restricted to knowledge transfer to stakeholders and farmers, but will also elicit their feedbacks and perception of actions that need to be taken in the future for sustainable rural development.

Thus, conversational interactions between stakeholders and scientists will provide the core information for the development of a toolkit for managers of mountain grasslands and students, which will consider the concept of ES, the current status of biodiversity, the interrelationships of fertility and ES, possible changes under plausible scenarios by 2030 as well as social, cultural and financial feasibility.

Our research will provide basic understanding of ecological constraints underpinning mechanisms and opportunities for multifunctionality in European grasslands, which in the long term will guide policy and management of these agroecosystems for future ES delivery. It will also contribute to raising the awareness of farmers, policy makers and the public about non-remarkable biodiversity, especially in soils. By providing training material (toolkit) adapted to the target group of grassland managers the sustainable delivery of ES will be enhanced.