| Semi-natural grasslands are some of the most biodiversity-rich habitats in Europe. However, over the last two Centuries, the areal cover of semi-natural grasslands in Sweden has declined, leading to biodiversity depletion. Currently, much of ecosystem restoration at both regional and national scales is therefore aimed at restoring plant and insect communities through semi-natural grassland management, but little is known of whether the role of soil diversity affects restoration success. The purpose of the project is to examine how broken and continuous grassland management affect soil diversity across Swedish landscapes, and to evaluate if soil diversity and functioning are of importance for successful grassland restoration. To achieve this aim, we will use a space-for-time substitution approach, combined with carefully designed experiments and novel molecular identification methods. In particular, we will establish field experiments in grassland and forest habitats along gradients from highly disturbed to restored and to undisturbed conditions, by using already established forest and grassland experiments to address three main objectives:
1 – To determine long-term responses of soil microbial diversity and functioning to semi-natural grassland management
2 – To determine whether soil microbial diversity and functioning affect indicators of grassland conservation values and restoration characteristics
3 – To quantify trade-offs between soil health indicators and ecosystem functions across managed and abandoned grasslands at a national scale.
The results will elucidate how human interventions alter the diversity and ecosystem functioning of soil microbes in both short- and long-term periods. The proposed project also represents important steps towards developing basic knowledge for policies related to sustainable use of resources. In particular, management and retention of semi-natural grasslands is presently financially supported by EU and national polices through agri-environmental schemes and subsidies, but this mainly applies to grasslands with high biodiversity values in terms of plants and other aboveground indicators. Our project will help to elucidate the importance of soil microbial for grassland conservation and restoration.
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