title: Assessing the Effects of Grassland Management on Forage Production and Environmental Quality to Identify Paths to Ecological Intensification in Mountain Grasslands.
abstract: Ecological intensification in grasslands can be regarded as a process for increasing forage production while maintaining high levels of ecosystem functions and biodiversity. In the mountain Vercors massif, where dairy cattle farming is the main component of agriculture, how to achieve forage autonomy at farm level while sustaining environmental quality for tourism and local dairy products has recently stimulated local debate. As specific management is one of the main drivers of ecosystem functioning, we assessed the response of forage production and environmental quality at grassland scale across a wide range of management practices. We aimed to determine which components of management can be harnessed to better match forage production and environmental quality. We sampled the vegetation of 51 grasslands stratified across 13 grassland types. We assessed each grassland for agronomic and environmental properties, measuring forage production, forage quality, and indices based on the abundance of particular plant species such as timing flexibility, apiarian potential, and aromatic plants. Our results revealed an expected trade-off between forage production and environmental quality, notably by stressing the contrasts between sown and permanent grasslands. However, strong within-type variability in both production and environmental quality as well as in flexibility of timing of use suggests possible ways to improve this trade-off at grassland and farm scales. As achieving forage autonomy relies on increasing both forage production and grassland resilience, our results highlight the critical role of the ratio between sown and permanent grasslands as a major path for ecological intensification in mountain grasslands.
authors.affiliation: IRSTEA, UR Mountain Ecosystems, Saint Martin d'Hères Cedex, France. gregory.loucougaray@irstea.fr.|Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France. gregory.loucougaray@irstea.fr.
authors.forename: Grégory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Loucougaray
authors.affiliation: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France.|IRSTEA, UR Mountain Territories Development, Saint Martin d'Hères Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dobremez
authors.affiliation: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France.|Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine, CNRS, Grenoble Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gos
authors.affiliation: CERAQ, Saint Badolph, France.
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pauthenet
authors.affiliation: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France.|IRSTEA, UR Mountain Territories Development, Saint Martin d'Hères Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Baptiste
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nettier
authors.affiliation: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France.|Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine, CNRS, Grenoble Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lavorel
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D002417:Cattle; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D005602:France; D065948:Grassland; D058751:Livestock; D006109:Poaceae / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Agricultural practices; Ecological intensification; Environmental properties; Livestock farming system; Mountain grassland management