Afforestation and abandonment of semi‐natural grasslands lead to biodiversity loss and a decline in ecosystem services and functions

Abstract

1. During the past century, semi-natural grasslands, once widespread throughout Europe, have largely been converted into intensively managed agricultural areas, abandoned or afforested. These large-scale land-use changes have already resulted in considerable biodiversity loss but can also lead to decline in ecosystem service provision and ecosystem multifunctionality.2. We assessed the impact of afforestation and abandonment of semi-natural grasslands on the supply of ecosystem services in Western Estonia. We compared a wide array of services provided by open grasslands, abandoned grasslands and afforested grasslands. Additionally, we analysed the impact of land-use change and species richness on ecosystem multifunctionality.3. Significant declines in the supply of pollination services, natural pest regulation, forage production, soil quality, wild food and cultural appreciation of landscape were detected as a result of overgrowing or afforestation.4. There was significant positive relationship between species richness and ecosystem multifunctionality, that is, more biodiverse grasslands were able to support more services at higher capacity. 5. Results show that both grassland degradation due to abandonment, as well as grassland afforestation, have significant negative impacts on biodiversity, on the supply of multiple important ecosystem services and on the ecosystem multifunctionality.6. Synthesis and applications. Temperate semi-natural grasslands have high biodiversity and capacity to deliver multiple important ecosystem services simultaneously.

Finding the Green Grass in the Haystack? Integrated National Assessment of Ecosystem Services and Condition in Hungary, in Support of Conservation and Planning

“…The results are in line with related findings from the literature. Communities with higher biodiversity have been shown to be able to deliver ecosystem functions and services at a higher level [25,60], while biotic homogenisation in forests may have substantial negative impacts on their ecosystem services [59]. The correlations between forest condition and multifunctionality are stronger than those with individual ecosystem services (see Tables S2-S4), which is also in accordance with earlier results [106].…”

“…Ecosystem condition can be described in many ways [57], and one of the most common is the use of biodiversity indicators [34,58]. Plant species richness and diversity are especially well-linked to the provision of multiple services and functions in forests and other ecosystems [25,46,59,60]. Forest structure and its connection to ecosystem services multifunctionality are less studied, especially on a large scale.…”

“…Grasslands and wetlands in Hungary show slightly lower multifunctionality values than native forests, although, in the scientific literature, they are also identified as potential multifunctionality hotspots [8,60]. The former, especially extensively managed near-natural grasslands, can support high levels of biodiversity [91] and a range of services, from supporting grazing livestock to storing and sequestering (soil) carbon, preventing erosion and filtering water-soluble pollutants [92,93].…”

Magnitude and drivers of plant diversity loss differ between spatial scales in Scania, Sweden 1957–2021

“…At the smallest spatial scale, we found losses in species richness much more drastic than suggested by previous studies based on relative changes and larger spatial scales. We found that species richness has decreased by almost 50% over the last 60 years at the plot level, a loss that has to be seen as alarming and may threaten fundamental ecosystem functions and services (Prangel et al, 2023). In contrast, species richness does not show significant changes at larger spatial scales, indicating that complete extinction of species at this scale has been relatively limited and/or effectively compensated for by the introduction of new, largely non-native, species and suggesting that it may still be possible to reverse the observed loss of biodiversity.…”

Ecosystem services provided by semi‐natural and intensified grasslands: Synergies, trade‐offs and linkages to plant traits and functional richness

“…The contribution of biodiversity to ES provision is multi‐layered and complex, and the specific links between species richness and ES provision are unclear (Mace et al, 2012; Lavorel, 2013). However, although the link between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has been debated, positive relations have been shown in a growing number of experiments and data syntheses (Hector & Bagchi, 2007; Tilman et al, 2006a, 2006b; Lefcheck et al, 2015; Prangel et al, 2023). For example, each individual service relies on several ecosystem functions and the degree of this dependency varies significantly among services (De Bello et al, 2010; Cardinale et al, 2012).…”