Ecosystem service research in grasslands at 31 experimental farms, networks and demonstration platforms across Europe

Klaus V.H.¹, Newell Price J.P.², Bufe C.³, Caraes C.⁴, Chodkiewicz A.⁵, Feigenwinter I.¹, Hejduk S.⁶, Klopčič M.⁷, Báldi A.⁸, Lellei-Kovács E.⁸, Lively F.⁹, Lombardi G.¹⁰, Markovic M.¹¹, Milazzo F.¹², Oenema J.³, Rankin J.¹³, Ravetto Enri S.¹⁰, Rhymer C.M.¹⁴, Schils R.L.M.³, Stypiński P.⁵, Tonn B.¹⁵, Vanwalleghem T.¹², Whittingham M.J.¹⁴ and Buchmann N.¹

¹Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zürich, Switzerland; ²ADAS, UK; ³Agrosystems Research, Wageningen Plant Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands; ⁴Chambre Régionale d’Agriculture de Normandie, France; ⁵Warsaw University of Life Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Ecology, Poland; ⁶Faculty of AgriSciences, Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic; ⁷Department of Animal Science, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; ⁸Institute of Ecology and Botany, Centre for Ecological Research, Hungary; ⁹Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), Northern Ireland, UK; ¹⁰Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Torino, Italy; ¹¹University of Montenegro, Department of Livestock Science, Montenegro; ¹²Department of Agronomy, ETSIAM, University of Córdoba, Spain; ¹³Agrisearch, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom; ¹⁴School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, United Kingdom; ¹⁵University of Göttingen, Department of Crop Sciences, Germany

Abstract

Grassland research stations and experimental farms are essential for applied grassland science and related outreach activities. A large proportion of the experiments conducted at these stations aims to test methods to optimize the ecosystem services (ES) delivered by permanent grasslands. We used the framework of the multi-actor research project SUPER-G to assess a selection of experiments recently conducted, completed (since 2011), and planned at 31 European experimental research stations, farms, or networks. We further provide an overview of the ES measured at these experiments. Results show that on average two ES were assessed per experiment. The most frequent ES measured were production (87% of all experiments), followed by the supporting ES biodiversity (59%) and climate regulation (33%). Our overview on ES research at European research stations highlights that permanent grassland is a multifunctional ecosystem that provides many benefits to society. Yet, research considering more than two ES is still relatively rare and should thus be strengthened in the future.

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