About the Project:
Project Aim
SUSALPS aims to provide a holistic, evidence-based and process-focused understanding of the responses of key pre-alpine and alpine grassland soil functions to present day and future climate and land management changes, thereby considering specific socio-economic conditions in given regions. Based on this, we want to develop and implement sustainable climate smart management practices for pre-alpine and alpine grassland ecosystems
Motivation
Alpine and pre-alpine grasslands of S-Germany cover an area > 1 Mio ha and provide important economic value via fodder used for milk and meat production. Grassland soils also support environmental key functions such as carbon and nitrogen storage, water retention, erosion control and biodiversity. At present, these soils functions are jeopardized by climate change and moreover rapid land use and management changes, which both are likely to be accelerated in coming decades.
Expected Results
SUSALPS experimental work quantifies impacts of climate and land management changes on plant and microbial diversity, nutrient use efficiencies, biomass production and quality, soil carbon and nitrogen storage and turnover, greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient leaching at several sites covering different elevations and thus, climatic conditions. Results will be used to 1. develop early warning systems (agri-ecological indicators) indicating potential negative impacts on grassland ecosystems and 2. inform and validate biogeochemical models which will be used in scenario studies to evaluate best management options for sustainable use of grassland ecosystems. To allow the assessment of joint socio-economic impacts of current and climate smart grassland management practices the biogeochemical model will be coupled to a socio-economic model. This decision support system will represent a practical tool which will help stakeholders and farmers to understand consequences of grassland management on soil functions and other ecosystem services.
Contact
News
- Soil Detectives - The mystery of biodiversity
- BonaRes/Rhizo4Bio Status Seminar on 14/15 March 2022
- Franzi Fella (SUSALPS) is Technician of the Month
- Soil book competition
- Predicting forage quality of species-rich pasture grasslands using vis-NIRS to reveal effects of management intensity and climate change
Publications
- Rapid loss of organic carbon and soil structure in mountainous grassland topsoils induced by simulated climate change
- Recreation and its synergies and trade-offs with other ecosystem services of Alpine and pre-Alpine grasslands
- Drought erodes mountain plant community resistance to novel species under a warming climate
- Stable plant community biomass production despite species richness collapse under simulated extreme climate in the European Alps
- Interspecific trait variability and local soil conditions modulate grassland model community responses to climate (Dataset)