期刊
AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT
卷 351, 期 -, 页码 -出版社
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2023.108477
关键词
Agroforestry system; Biomass; Carbon sequestration; Ecosystem service; Grazing; Herbage nutritive value; High nature and cultural value farming; Tree-grass interaction; Wood-pasture
Scattered trees in wood-pastures have a high conservation value and provide various ecosystem services. However, their decline in Europe is mainly due to a lack of appropriate legal protection. This study found that trees have a suppressive effect on herbage production in wood-pastures, but the overall loss is outweighed by the beneficial services of trees. It is recommended to promote tree planting campaigns and tree-based climate mitigation strategies to protect and establish trees in wood-pastures.
Scattered trees in wood-pastures represent outstanding conservation value by providing microhabitats for a variety of organisms. They also diversify ecosystem services by creating shade for livestock, and capturing and storing carbon. However, trees in wood-pastures are declining Europe-wide and an appropriate legal environ-ment to maintain them is mostly lacking. Here we looked beyond the well-documented beneficial effects of trees and assessed potential ecosystem disservices, which may drive the controversial appreciation of trees. In a grazing exclusion experiment, we assessed the effect of trees on herbage production in wood-pastures from semi-arid continental to humid montane areas in the temperate deciduous forest ecoregion, and found that trees have a suppressive effect throughout the year, although herbage nutritive value, as indicated by herbage nitrogen content, seems to be improved in spring. When we up-scaled the local ecosystem disservice on herbage yield to entire wood-pastures, the loss remained below 3%, which is lower than reported gains in livestock production due to free access to shade. Thus, the motivation for the under-appreciation of trees by land managers and decision makers may lie in that trees suppress herbage production, but the importance of this effects is offset by the magnitude of the beneficial services of trees. We recommend current wood-pasture stakeholders to revisit their attitude towards scattered trees and encourage tree planting campaigns and tree-based climate mitigation strategies to consider the protection of trees in wood-pastures and the establishment of young ones in currently open pastures up to traditionally low tree cover proportions, as livestock production is unlikely to be compro-mised by this action.
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