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Consequences of Grazing Cessation for Soil Environment and Vegetation in a Subalpine Grassland Ecosystem
Areas covered by seminatural grasslands have been in constant decline for decades in Europe. This trend is particularly strong for mountain territories, where such traditional agricultural practices as cattle grazing are no longer economically feasible. This study was conducted in the subalpine past...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9416782/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36015424 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants11162121 |
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author | Gavrichkova, Olga Pretto, Gaia Brugnoli, Enrico Chiti, Tommaso Ivashchenko, Kristina V. Mattioni, Michele Moscatelli, Maria Cristina Scartazza, Andrea Calfapietra, Carlo |
author_facet | Gavrichkova, Olga Pretto, Gaia Brugnoli, Enrico Chiti, Tommaso Ivashchenko, Kristina V. Mattioni, Michele Moscatelli, Maria Cristina Scartazza, Andrea Calfapietra, Carlo |
author_sort | Gavrichkova, Olga |
collection | PubMed |
description | Areas covered by seminatural grasslands have been in constant decline for decades in Europe. This trend is particularly strong for mountain territories, where such traditional agricultural practices as cattle grazing are no longer economically feasible. This study was conducted in the subalpine pasture of Cinte Tesino (TN, Italy), where local farmers have applied the following different management strategies: shorter and longer grazing durations during the season and a complete abandonment for the last 15 years. We aimed to study how these different management strategies impact the functioning and diversity of vegetation and the chemical and biological characteristics of the soil. Species richness was higher in plots subjected to longer grazing with a prevalence of D. caespitosa in terms of biomass share. A decline in species richness in abandoned plots was accompanied by an increase in the share of other graminoids in collected biomass. A concomitant increase in leaf N concentration and light availability in grazed plots resulted in higher photosynthetic efficiency in some species, as revealed by the δ(13)C of plant tissues. Soils under grazing were characterised by a higher concentration of total and extractable N, almost doubled microbial biomass C and increased extracellular enzymes activity, evidencing nutrient cycling mobilization. While the microbial pool was characterised by lower mineralization rates, C was lost from the soil with 15 years of abandonment. The longer grazing season demonstrated to be the most beneficial, promoting species richness, C accumulation and better soil microbial functioning. A change in soil pH from strongly acidic to moderately acidic with longer grazing is likely one of the important factors adding to the success in the functioning of primary producers and decomposers in this site. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9416782 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-94167822022-08-27 Consequences of Grazing Cessation for Soil Environment and Vegetation in a Subalpine Grassland Ecosystem Gavrichkova, Olga Pretto, Gaia Brugnoli, Enrico Chiti, Tommaso Ivashchenko, Kristina V. Mattioni, Michele Moscatelli, Maria Cristina Scartazza, Andrea Calfapietra, Carlo Plants (Basel) Article Areas covered by seminatural grasslands have been in constant decline for decades in Europe. This trend is particularly strong for mountain territories, where such traditional agricultural practices as cattle grazing are no longer economically feasible. This study was conducted in the subalpine pasture of Cinte Tesino (TN, Italy), where local farmers have applied the following different management strategies: shorter and longer grazing durations during the season and a complete abandonment for the last 15 years. We aimed to study how these different management strategies impact the functioning and diversity of vegetation and the chemical and biological characteristics of the soil. Species richness was higher in plots subjected to longer grazing with a prevalence of D. caespitosa in terms of biomass share. A decline in species richness in abandoned plots was accompanied by an increase in the share of other graminoids in collected biomass. A concomitant increase in leaf N concentration and light availability in grazed plots resulted in higher photosynthetic efficiency in some species, as revealed by the δ(13)C of plant tissues. Soils under grazing were characterised by a higher concentration of total and extractable N, almost doubled microbial biomass C and increased extracellular enzymes activity, evidencing nutrient cycling mobilization. While the microbial pool was characterised by lower mineralization rates, C was lost from the soil with 15 years of abandonment. The longer grazing season demonstrated to be the most beneficial, promoting species richness, C accumulation and better soil microbial functioning. A change in soil pH from strongly acidic to moderately acidic with longer grazing is likely one of the important factors adding to the success in the functioning of primary producers and decomposers in this site. MDPI 2022-08-15 /pmc/articles/PMC9416782/ /pubmed/36015424 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants11162121 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Gavrichkova, Olga Pretto, Gaia Brugnoli, Enrico Chiti, Tommaso Ivashchenko, Kristina V. Mattioni, Michele Moscatelli, Maria Cristina Scartazza, Andrea Calfapietra, Carlo Consequences of Grazing Cessation for Soil Environment and Vegetation in a Subalpine Grassland Ecosystem |
title | Consequences of Grazing Cessation for Soil Environment and Vegetation in a Subalpine Grassland Ecosystem |
title_full | Consequences of Grazing Cessation for Soil Environment and Vegetation in a Subalpine Grassland Ecosystem |
title_fullStr | Consequences of Grazing Cessation for Soil Environment and Vegetation in a Subalpine Grassland Ecosystem |
title_full_unstemmed | Consequences of Grazing Cessation for Soil Environment and Vegetation in a Subalpine Grassland Ecosystem |
title_short | Consequences of Grazing Cessation for Soil Environment and Vegetation in a Subalpine Grassland Ecosystem |
title_sort | consequences of grazing cessation for soil environment and vegetation in a subalpine grassland ecosystem |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9416782/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36015424 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants11162121 |
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