Detecting trends in the quality and productivity of grasslands by analyzing the historical vegetation relevés: A case study from Southeastern Carpathians, Vlădeasa Mountains (Romania)

Abstract

Grassland ecosystems are essential for biomass production but are prone to degradation if management practices are inappropriate. Thus, it is necessary to optimize grazing management since the grazing practices and grassland status are interconnected. Herbage mass production and forage quality of the plant species are among the most important factors for grazing livestock performance, grassland carrying capacity, and their sustainable management. We employed optimized methods for the analysis of two historical vegetation datasets (from 1970 and 2008), along with the statistical data on livestock numbers and types from three administrative units within the Vlădeasa Mountains area, in the Romanian Carpathians. We looked for trends in grassland quality and productivity and explored their connections to grazing management descriptors and practices. We identified a small but statistically significant decreasing trend between the two periods in both pastoral value (from 63.80 to 61.43) and productivity (from 10.80 t ha-1 to 9.18 t ha-1). The decline in grassland quality and productivity may be associated with the sharp decrease in livestock numbers (from 9,688 LU to 5,085 LU) and the replacement of cattle by sheep as the dominant livestock type. The abandonment of grasslands and traditional practices also increased the deviation from the optimum of the actual stocking rate. This approach can be used as a model for other areas where time-series vegetation data are available from phytosociological literature and/or databases. These insights can be used to design adaptive grazing management plans to optimize grazing management according to the carrying capacity of the grassland ecosystems.

Impact of Grazing on Diversity of Semi-Arid Rangelands in Crete Island in the Context of Climatic Change

“…Despite their high importance, most of the non-marketed services of these rangelands and their economic value have often been neglected [ 8 , 9 ]. Moreover, they have faced increased risks resulting from overutilization and degradation [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. The estimated extent of rangeland degradation varies extensively, from as little as 10–20% to as much as 70–80% [ 3 ].…”

Productivity Evaluation of the Main Grassland Habitats, Natura 2000, From the Rarău Massive (Eastern Carpathians)

“…Recorded data on the types of grassland with vegetation cover, phytodiversity, species participation in floristic surveys continued to be used to calculate pastoral value, green mass production and grazing capacity according to the new method widely described in our annals [5] and other specialized publications [4,7], so I will not describe it again.…”

“…Knowledge of the productivity of permanent grasslands at the level of grassland habitats registered in Natura 2000 is an urgent need if we are to be able to compare and develop joint projects in this field with other countries in the European Union [2,6]. For this purpose, a method has been developed to evaluate the productivity of grasslands based on a floristic survey [4,5,7]. All productivity assessments so far have been carried out according to surveys drafted using the phytosociological method Braun -Blanquet, with the main purpose of classifying vegetation into associations, alliances, orders and classes [1].…”

Grazing hay meadows: History, distribution, and ecological context

“…Recently, a process of unification has been occurring, and current grassland types not only do not correspond to former grassland types, but also increasingly resemble each other (Diacon-Bolli et al, 2012;Jongman, 2020). One possible reason for the contemporary decline in the diversity and agricultural value of Carpathian hay meadows (Marușca et al, 2021) may be the absence of low-intensity grazing that has been applied there for centuries and could act as an important co-evolutionary factor in shaping the species pool of the hay meadows and influencing species interactions in the plant communities (Kapfer, 2010a(Kapfer, , 2010b. The role Other management practices that were once standard for grassland care, such as removing litter and moss, leveling mole and ant hills, regenerating with hayseed application, corralling, and manuring, are now rarely applied.…”