Grasslands and forests can be grouped under

Author links open overlay panel Alexandre Christófaro Silva a, Maurício Soares Barbosa a, Uidemar Morais Barral a , Bárbara Pereira Christófaro Silva b, José Sebastião Cunha Fernandes a, Abraão José Silva Viana a, Carlos Victor Mendonça Filho a, Diêgo Faustolo Alves Bispo b, Cristiano Christófaro a, Carla Ragonezi a, Luiz Roberto Guimarães Guilherme b Show more Tropical are important ecosystems for Planet Earth, as they store large amounts of carbon and water. A better understanding of the impact of and altitude in content, composition, and rate of accumulation of organic matter is key for assessing the current role of such environments. This study evaluated fibric and soluble fractions as well as the lignocellulosic and the 13C values. Multivariate analyses allowed grouping the peatlands by altitude and vegetation type. The chronological succession of grassland and forest clusters in tropical mountain peatlands was influenced by altitude and was related to paleoclimatic changes. Introduction Peatlands are transitional environments between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems that provide essential functions for hydrology, ecology, and biogeochemistry (Rezanezhad et al., 2016). These ecosystems are formed from plant remains in places saturated with water and subjected to accumulation of organic matter of dead plant material under conditions of low pH and oxygen scarcity, resulting in slow humification and mineralization (M.L. Silva et al., 2013). Peatlands play an important ...

Contributing Authors: • Timothy Crews (United States) • Martin Dallimer (United Kingdom) • Joris Eekhout (Netherlands) • Karlheinz Erb (Italy) • Eamon Haughey (Ireland) • Richard Houghton (United States) • Muhammad Mohsin Iqbal (Pakistan) • Francis X. Johnson (Sweden) • Woo-Kyun Lee (South Korea) • John Morton (United Kingdom) • Felipe Garcia Oliva (Mexico) • Jan Petzold (Germany) • Mohammad Rahimi (Iran) • Florence Renou-Wilson (Ireland) • Anna Tengberg (Sweden) • Louis Verchot (Colombia, United States) • Katharine Vincent (South Africa) Climate change, land degradation and land use are linked in a complex web of causality. One important impact of climate change on land degradation is that increasing global temperatures intensify the hydrological cycle, resulting in more intense rainfall, which is an important driver of soil erosion. This means that sustainable land management (SLM) becomes even more important with climate change. Land-use change in the form of clearing of forest for rangeland and cropland (e.g., for provision of bio-fuels), and cultivation of peat soils, is a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission from both biomass and soils. Many SLM practices (e.g., agroforestry, perennial crops, organic amendments, etc.) increase carbon content of soil and vegetation cover and hence provide both local and immediate adaptation benefits, combined with global mitigation benefits in the long term, while providing many social and economic co-benefits. Avoiding, redu...

László Erdős 1,2†, Péter Török 3*†, Katalin Szitár 1, Zoltán Bátori 4, Csaba Tölgyesi 4, Péter János Kiss 4,5, Ákos Bede-Fazekas 1,6 and György Kröel-Dulay 1 • 1MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Vácrátót, Hungary • 2Department of Ecology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary • 3MTA-DE Lendület Functional and Restoration Ecology Research Group, Debrecen, Hungary • 4Department of Ecology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary • 5Doctoral School of Environmental Sciences, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary • 6GINOP Sustainable Ecosystems Group, MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Tihany, Hungary Featuring a transitional zone between closed forests and treeless steppes, forest-steppes cover vast areas, and have outstanding conservation importance. The components of this mosaic ecosystem can conveniently be classified into two basic types, forests and grasslands. However, this dichotomic classification may not fit reality as habitat organization can be much more complex. In this study, our aim was to find out if the main habitat types can be grouped into two distinct habitat categories (which would support the dichotomic description), or a different paradigm better fits this complex ecosystem. We selected six main habitats of sandy forest-steppes, and, using 176 relevés, we compared their vegetation based on species composition (NMDS ordination, number of common species of the studied habitats), relative ecological indicator values (me...

• Perspective • 07 September 2021 Combatting global grassland degradation • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5131-0127 • • • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7940-2023 • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3504-3014 • • • • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7513-2006 • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2299-2525 • • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1643-6023 • • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2374-2595 • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1661-6542 • • • • • • • • … • Show authors Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 2, pages 720–735 ( 2021) Grasslands are under severe threat from ongoing degradation, undermining their capacity to support biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being. Yet, grasslands are largely ignored in sustainable development agendas. In this Perspective, we examine the current state of global grasslands and explore the extent and dominant drivers of their degradation. Socio-ecological solutions are needed to combat degradation and promote restoration. Important strategies include: increasing recognition of grasslands in global policy; developing standardized indicators of degradation; using scientific innovation for effective restoration at regional and landscape scales; and enhancing knowledge transfer and data sharing on restoration experiences. Stakeholder needs can be balanced through standardized assessment and shared understanding of the potential ecosystem service trade-offs in degraded and restored grasslands. The integration of these actions into sustainability policy will aid in h...

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. • Article • • 09 February 2021 Soil microbial diversity–biomass relationships are driven by soil carbon content across global biomes • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9958-7099 • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2191-486X • • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2374-2595 • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5131-0127 • … • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6499-576X Show authors The ISME Journal volume 15, pages 2081–2091 ( 2021) The relationship between biodiversity and biomass has been a long standing debate in ecology. Soil biodiversity and biomass are essential drivers of ecosystem functions. However, unlike plant communities, little is known about how the diversity and biomass of soil microbial communities are interlinked across globally distributed biomes, and how variations in this relationship influence ecosystem function. To fill this knowledge gap, we conducted a field survey across global biomes, with contrasting vegetation and climate types. We show that soil carbon (C) content is associated to the microbial diversity–biomass relationship and ratio in soils across global biomes. This ratio provides an integrative index to identify those locations on Earth wherein dive...

Latest Current Affairs • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Grassland Ecosystem Grasslands are areas dominated by grasses. They occupy about 20% of the land on the earth surface. Grasslands occur in both in tropical and temperate regions where rainfall is not enough to support the growth of trees. Grasslands are found in areas having well-defined hot and dry, warm and rainy seasons. This article will provide information about the Grassland Ecosystem, the classification of grasslands, other different names of grasslands, in the context of the Explore The Ultimate Guide to IAS Exam Preparation This is a part of the Geography and Environment & Ecology section of the The candidates can read more relevant information from the links provided below: Types of Natural Ecosystem A natural ecosystem is a setup of animals and plants which functions as a unit and is capable of maintaining its identity. A natural ecosystem is totally dependent on solar energy. There are two main categories of ecosystems. They are: • Terrestrial ecosystem– Ecosystems found on land e.g. forest, grasslands, deserts, tundra. • Aquatic ecosystem– Plants and animal communities that are found in water bodies. These can be furt...