SUSALPS III
BonaRes (Modul A, Phase 3):Sustainable use of alpine and pre-alpine grassland soils in a changing climate (SUSALPS III)
Work Package 5: Socio-Economy
- Funding: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)
- Duration Phase III: 01.02.2022 - 31.12.2025
- Researchers at PES UBT: Sylvia Helena Annuth, Thomas Koellner
- Link to the project website: https://www.susalps.de/en/
Introduction
Grassland ecosystems are widely spread in the (pre-)alpine areas of southern Germany and cover more than one third of the agriculturally used land in Bavaria. Grasslands are highly relevant as they provide fodder for dairy and cattle farming and support other important ecosystem services such as the storage of carbon and nitrogen, water retention, erosion control, and the provision of habitat for biodiversity. However, grassland ecosystems are threatened due to land-use intensification, land abandonment, and climate change. Thus, sustainable grassland management strategies need to be identified to guarantee the long-term provisioning of important ecosystem services under climate change.
Methods
In the past project phases biochemical flows have been modelled, surveys on farmers and citizens about their perceptions of ecosystems of grasslands and an Agent-based model to estimate the distribution of fertilizer (N) has been developed and applied. In the current phase we focus on estimating land use management decisions towards a more extensive or intensive direction. As influencing factors we consider political restrictions, such as nature reservoirs, water protection zones, fertilization ordinance etc., Agri-environmental schemes, individual perceptions on sustainable land use, and changing climatic conditions, such as precipitation and temperature.

Fig. 1: Framework of the bioeconomic model. The model consists of a socioeconomic agent-based model of grassland management (red) and a bio-geochemical model (blue) which are coupled to determine effects of grassland management on ecosystem services.
Expected results and discussion
Agri-environmental schemes should outweigh lower yields due to extensive management. However, depending on the local productivity based on soil, precipitation and temperatures, fixed amounts of AES do not necessarily cover the economic value of yield losses due to extensive management. Additionally, it might even increase economic costs if a farmer needs to buy additional fodder. This might affect the land use decisions of a farmer. The developed Agent-based model should show the effects of these influencing factors on land use management decisions over time. Locally, the intensity of farming and land use of grasslands, e.g. LSU/ha (livestock units per hectare), number of cuts, time of first cut, number of seeded grass species, needs to vary to meet the need of areas for a high biodiversity and habitats for e.g. insects but also areas with higher productivity. If we can find the local optimum of land use management, we can sustainably gain from the whole variety of ecosystem services provided by grasslands.

Fig. 2. Perception of grassland’s ecosystem services expressed by farmers and citizens. Significant statistical differences (p < 0.05) are marked with *