TY - JOUR
T1 - An Overview of Permanent Grassland Grazing Management Practices and the Impacts on Principal Soil Quality Indicators
AU - Milazzo, Filippo
AU - Francksen, Richard M.
AU - Abdalla, Mohamed
AU - Ravetto Enri, Simone
AU - Zavattaro, Laura
AU - Pittarello, Marco
AU - Hejduk, Stanislav
AU - Newell-Price, Paul
AU - Schils, René L. M.
AU - Smith, Pete
AU - Vanwalleghem, Tom
N1 - Funding
This research is funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 projects “Developing SUstainable PERmanent Grassland systems and policies (Super-G)”, grant no. 774124 and “Transforming Unsustainable management of soils in key agricultural systems in EU and China. Developing an integrated platform of alternatives to reverse soil degradation” (TUdi), GA 101000224. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union (EU) or the European Research Council. Vanwalleghem and Milazzo also acknowledge additional financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Spanish State Research Agency, and through the Severo Ochoa and María de Maeztu Program for Centers and Units of Excellence in R&D (Ref. CEX2019-000968-M).
Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge Richard Smith for providing some important pictures.
PY - 2023/5/12
Y1 - 2023/5/12
N2 - Grasslands are at risk of degradation due to unsustainable management practices and climate change. Here, we review the principal soil quality indicators (SQIs) to evaluate the sustainability of different grassland management practices globally. We discuss the importance of SQI assessment and the Soil Quality Minimum Dataset (MDS) specifically in the context of grasslands. We then review two potential solutions, the first of which is adopting grazing management, whereby sustainable grazing management plans (GMPs) offer great potential. The other solution is the development and adoption of novel grassland species, which may improve either drought resistance or infiltration rates, erosion and flooding. Sustainable grassland soil management can promote ecosystem service delivery and improve the resilience of the entire grassland ecosystem to anthropogenic change.
AB - Grasslands are at risk of degradation due to unsustainable management practices and climate change. Here, we review the principal soil quality indicators (SQIs) to evaluate the sustainability of different grassland management practices globally. We discuss the importance of SQI assessment and the Soil Quality Minimum Dataset (MDS) specifically in the context of grasslands. We then review two potential solutions, the first of which is adopting grazing management, whereby sustainable grazing management plans (GMPs) offer great potential. The other solution is the development and adoption of novel grassland species, which may improve either drought resistance or infiltration rates, erosion and flooding. Sustainable grassland soil management can promote ecosystem service delivery and improve the resilience of the entire grassland ecosystem to anthropogenic change.
KW - soil quality indicators
KW - grazing management
KW - ecosystem services
KW - permanent grasslands
KW - management practices
U2 - 10.3390/agronomy13051366
DO - 10.3390/agronomy13051366
M3 - Article
VL - 13
JO - Agronomy
JF - Agronomy
SN - 2073-4395
IS - 5
M1 - 1366
ER -
