Recent land use and management changes decouple the adaptation of livestock diversity to the environment

Responses of Diversity and Productivity to Organo-Mineral Fertilizer Inputs in a High-Natural-Value Grassland, Transylvanian Plain, Romania

Ecosystems with high natural value (HNV) have generally been maintained by agricultural practices and are increasingly important for the ecosystem services that they provide and for their socio-economic impact in the ever-changing context. Biodiversity conservation is one of the main objectives of the European Green Deal, which aims to address biodiversity loss, including the potential extinction of one million species. The aim of this research was to trace the effects of organic and mineral fertilizers on the floristic composition, but also on the number of species, of the grasslands with high biodiversity (HNV) from the Transylvanian Plain, Romania. The experiments were established in 2018 on the nemoral area and analyzed the effect of a gradient of five organic and mineral treatments. Fertilization with 10 t ha⁻¹ manure or N₅₀ P₂₅K₂₅ ensures an increase in yield and has a small influence on diversity, and it could be a potential strategy for the maintenance and sustainable use of HNV grasslands. Each fertilization treatment determined species with indicator value that are very useful in the identification and management of HNV grasslands. The dry matter biomass increases proportionally as the amounts of fertilizer applied increase and the number of species decreases.

A Dynamic Performance and Differentiation Management Policy for Urban Construction Land Use Change in Gansu, China

Making efforts to promote rationalized urban construction land change, distribution, allocation, and its performance is the core task of territory spatial planning and a complex issue that the government must face and solve. Based on the Boston Consulting Group matrix, a decoupling model, and a GIS tool, this paper constructs a new tool that integrates “dynamic analysis + performance evaluation + policy design” for urban construction land. We reached the following findings from an empirical study of Gansu, China: (1) Urban construction land shows diversified changes, where expansion is dominant and shrink cannot be ignored. (2) Most cities are in the non-ideal state of LH (Low-High) and LL (Low-Low), with a small number in the state of HH (High-High) and HL (High-Low). (3) Urban construction land change and population growth, economic development, and income increase are in a discordant relationship, mostly in strong negative decoupling and expansive negative decoupling. (4) The spatial heterogeneity of urban construction land change and its performance are at a high level, and they show a slow upward trend. Additionally, the cold and the hot spots show obvious spatial clustering characteristics, and the spatial pattern of different indexes is different to some extent. (5) It is suggested that in territory spatial planning Gansu should divide the space into four policy areas—incremental, inventory, a reduction development policy area, and a transformation leading policy area—to implement differentiated management policies and to form a new spatial governance system of “control by zoning and management by class”. The change of urban construction land, characterized by dynamics and complexity, is a direct mapping of the urban growth process. The new tools constructed in this paper will help to reveal the laws of urban development and to improve the accuracy of territory spatial planning in the new era. They are of great theoretical significance and practical value for promoting high-quality and sustainable urban development.

Disentangling the Multidimensional Relationship between Livestock Breeds and Ecosystem Services

Simple Summary

Livestock breeds represent the diversity of livestock animals. They participate in the delivery of ecosystem services (ES), i.e., the benefits to humans provided by nature. In recent years, the contribution of livestock breeds to ES has received attention in livestock research. Additionally, there is increasing interest in integrating this knowledge into policies to make agriculture more sustainable. In this work, we elaborate on livestock breed characteristics that are key to the study of livestock breed contributions to ES. Thus, we explore the natural and human factors that have produced livestock breeds as ecologically and culturally mediated entities. In addition, we review the different roles of livestock breeds as biodiversity components. Finally, we examine how livestock breeds participate in livestock system heterogeneity. By integrating these aspects, we might better understand how livestock breeds provide and modulate ES provision and, therefore, how to improve breed conservation and livestock policies toward more sustainable farming.

Abstract

There is an increasing interest in assessing livestock breed contributions to ecosystem services (ES) and including this knowledge in decision making. However, this task has been limited due to the complexity of the multidimensional relationship between livestock diversity and ecosystem services. In this work, we elaborate on the livestock breed characteristics central to developing a comprehensive approach to livestock breed inclusion in the ecosystem services framework. Thus, we explore the multidimensional nature of livestock breeds, i.e., as eco-cultural entities, biodiversity components, and drivers of livestock system heterogeneity and functioning. First, anthropogenic and natural factors have acted jointly to develop breeds as eco-cultural entities. This fact represents an opportunity to move toward farming system sustainability by Nature-Based Solutions and Nature’s Contribution to People paradigms. Second, livestock breeds are components of biodiversity, and as such, can be framed as goods, as final ecosystem services, and as regulators of ecosystem processes. Third, livestock breeds contribute to livestock system heterogeneity and resilience. By integrating these aspects, we might better understand how livestock breeds provide and modulate ecosystem service provision and, therefore, how to improve breed conservation and livestock policies toward farming system sustainability.