Summary
This 10-year field experiment in temperate grasslands quantifies the complete greenhouse gas budget across contrasting management regimes, systematically isolating the contributions of management decisions from climate variability to emissions outcomes. The work demonstrates that both management intensity and inter-annual weather patterns significantly influence grassland greenhouse gas balances. The findings suggest potential trade-offs between productivity and climate mitigation in intensively managed grassland systems, with implications for evidence-based mitigation strategy development.
UK applicability
Findings from Swiss temperate grasslands are directly applicable to UK grassland farming systems, which operate under similar climatic and edaphic conditions. The long-term (10-year) quantification of management–weather interactions provides evidence useful for UK agricultural climate change mitigation policy and grassland management guidance.
Key measures
Greenhouse gas fluxes (CO₂, CH₄, N₂O); management intensity (grazing pressure, fertilisation); weather variables; annual and cumulative emissions budgets
Outcomes reported
The study quantified complete greenhouse gas budgets (CO₂, CH₄, N₂O) across contrasting grassland management regimes over 10 years, isolating the contributions of management intensity and inter-annual weather variability to annual and cumulative emissions outcomes.
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