Ecosystem services provided by semi-natural and improved grasslands - synergies, trade-offs and bundles

Although grasslands have an extensive global coverage and are important contributors to fodder production, they have received less attention as providers of multiple ecosystem services (ES). In this paper, we investigate the utility of the ES framework for grassland management in Europe. We focus on semi-natural grasslands (SNG) and improved grasslands (IG); both are widespread in European agriculture. We present an overview of the ES delivered by these two grassland types and their potential synergies, trade-offs and bundles. We show that SNG are able to generate a wider range of ES than IG, and that trade-offs between ES exist in both grassland types. For example, SNG are good in providing habitat for biodiversity, pollination, biological control and cultural services, but are poorer in biomass production and for increasing water infiltration, whereas IG produce higher quantities of biomass for fodder but contribute less to cultural services. Both IG and SNG are likely needed for the long-term sustainability of food production, but a larger effort towards landscape-scale management is needed to balance the provision of ES. Applying the ES concept to grasslands in farming systems could be valuable if used in an informed way, leveraging ecologically and economically grassland management for sustainable livestock farming systems in Europe.