Maintaining grasslands and meadows

What

Maintaining, and creating, grasslands and meadows is an important conservation measure for semi-natural and natural ecosystems in the landscape. There is a rather large difference between grazed grasslands and meadows. Grazed grasslands need animals that graze the grassland during the growing season. Meadows need to be mowed one or sometimes several times per season. Meadows and grazed grassland were a common feature in traditional agricultural landscapes and provided fodder for cows, sheep and horses, as well as biomass for fuel and construction material. However, with the increased industrialization of agriculture these lands have been pushed out to less productive soils. 

Where

This NbS is implemented in all ecosystems where grasslands and meadows can be established, which can be cultural, costal, mountains landscapes and even urban areas. 

Why

Grasslands are one of the most widely distributed vegetation types in the world, and they cover approximately 40% of the global terrestrial area and 69% of the world’s agricultural area. Ecosystems service linked to grasslands plays an important role in ecosystem conservation. For example, as one of the most important carbon sinks, grassland stores 50% more soil carbon than forest. However, grasslands have suffered widespread and severe degradation in many parts of the world, which has threatened ecosystem services and socioeconomic development. It is generally believed that, climate change and human activities are the two main drivers of grassland degradation.

Grazing and mowing grasslands and meadows have the potential to counteract several societal challenges mainly related to biodiversity enhancement, climate change mitigation, food security, disaster and risk preparedness and human health and wellbeing. This is done through the following pathways: 

  • Conservation of biodiversity rich habitats 

  • Sequestration of soil organic carbon 

  • Production of animal feed 

  • Maintenance of culturally important landscapes 

How

Conserving and maintaining existing grasslands and meadows is the best way to ensure biodiversity and other ecosystem benefits. This is because it can be difficult to restore or create a degraded habitat that provides the same ecosystem functions as an intact grassland or meadow. Today, it is unusual to have incorporated meadows and grazing land in agricultural landscapes, especially in areas with more productive land, as these are highly managed and disturbed areas. Therefore, it is important to continuously maintain these habitats. The maintenance needed depends on the type of grassland - some require yearly maintenance. Continuing with traditional farming practices, such as the use of grazing animals on semi-natural grasslands, is the most desirable option.  

Grazing can be done by one or more animals, such as cows, sheep and horses. The grassland flora and fauna will differ, sometimes significantly, depending on the grazer. The timing of grazing period can also influence outcomes, where some grasslands should be grazed later in the season. 

Meadows are mowed either by machine or by hand (e.g. with a scythe). The cut grass or stems of smaller bushes should be removed after the mowing.  

 

Potential outcomes

As grasslands and meadows are generally high in biodiversity, maintaining them is important for maintaining biodiversity in general. Many of the culturally important landscape features are connected to grasslands and meadows and thus are of importance from both an aesthetic and cultural perspective. 

ATTENTION

Maintenance of these habitats requires grazing animals or manual labour for mowing, alternatively light machinery, including specific management knowledge. In industrialized agriculture, there is increasingly less space for grazing land and meadows, which means these types of landscapes have been pushed towards less productive soils. 

How much do we know?

Grassland and meadow biodiversity and maintenance are well studied. There is substantial knowledge about the importance of grasslands and meadows for biodiversity in cultural landscapes. 

Costs

Costs for maintaining meadows and grasslands are related to manual labour, necessary machinery, and costs related to keeping grazing animals. 

References

R T Conant, 2010, Challenges and Opportunities for Carbon Sequestration in Grassland Systems, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy (2010), pp. 1-7 

J M Suttie, S G Reynolds, C Batello, 2005, Grasslands of the World, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome (2005), pp. 1-18 

Y Zhao, Z Liu, J Wu, 2020, Grassland ecosystem services: A systematic review of research advances and future directions, Landscape Ecology, 35 , pp. 793-814 

R D Bardgett, J M Bullock, S Lavorel, P Manning, U Schaffner, N Ostle, M Chomel, G L Durigan, E Fry, D Johnson, J M Lavallee, G Le Provost, S Luo, K Png,  M Sankaran,  X Hou, H Zhou, L Ma, W Ren, X Li, et al., 2021, Combatting global grassland degradation, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 2, pp. 720-735