In the Alps, grasslands have been the basis for European mountain farming systems for centuries, but nowadays agro-pastoral abandonment is among the major threats to their conservation. Grazing and ...mowing interruption favours the spread of coarse plants, such as the tall grass Brachypodium rupestre, which negatively impacts grassland agroecosystem functions and ultimately leads to grassland degradation. Practices such as nutrient addition (i.e. fertilisation) and biomass removal (i.e. mowing) have been successfully applied in several mountain environments to reverse the degradation process and restore the original species composition. However, in the Alps, experiments combining both practices have been scarce so far. We hypothesised that the benefits of fertilisation and mowing on the species composition of a B. rupestre encroached grassland could be maximised by coupling fertilisation (120 kg ha−1 N – 80 kg ha−1 P2O5 – 80 kg ha−1 K2O) and mowing. Treatments were carried out yearly over ten years and data were collected throughout the entire period to study the changes in agronomic performances (i.e. pastoral value and abundance of meso-eutrophic grassland species cover), plant diversity (i.e. species richness and effective number of species), and botanical composition. Fertiliser addition effectively enhanced meso-eutrophic grassland species after five years but did not affect either B. rupestre cover or the sward pastoral value. Instead, it slightly reduced the dry grassland species cover, which is considered of conservation interest, and the plant diversity. Mowing successfully reduced B. rupestre presence after five years while maintaining the initial dry grassland species cover and overall species diversity as well. However, it did not improve either meso-eutrophic grassland species cover or the pastoral value. The combination of fertilisation and mowing showed the most promising results. It was able to decrease B. rupestre cover (- 80 %) in the short term while increasing meso-eutrophic grassland species cover (+ 300 %) and the pastoral value (+ 6.5), without negatively impacting dry grassland species cover and plant diversity. According to our long-term study, combining biomass removal by mowing and nutrient addition by fertilisation can be a suitable strategy to achieve agronomic performances and habitat conservation targets, and successfully restore degraded mountain grasslands in the Alps.
•We studied a pasture of Alps encroached by the coarse grass Brachypodium rupestre.•Fertilisation, mowing, and their combination were applied for ten years.•Fertilisation enhanced good quality plants but did not alleviate the encroachment.•Mowing reduced B. rupestre cover but did not enhance grassland pastoral value.•The combined treatment fostered the agronomic value while preserving biodiversity.
Summer pastures in the European Alps play a crucial role in providing high quality forage for grazing livestock and encompass a wide variety of vegetation communities. The main issue of their ...management is the optimal exploitation of the available forage in relation to environmental constraints, aiming at obtaining the highest forage yield and quality from each vegetation community. In this work, we monitored six different vegetation communities characterized by contrasting topographic features and species compositions throughout the grazing season for two years. We performed botanical and phenological surveys, climate‐related measurements, and herbage samplings to assess forage quantity and quality (i.e., digestibility and proximate composition, estimated by near‐infrared reflectance spectroscopy). We analysed the influence of climatic, topographic, and vegetation variables on pasture herbage through univariate and multivariate analyses. The cover of wide‐leaf grasses primarily promoted biomass production, which was in turn lowered by increasing elevation and slope. On the other hand, a minor effect on forage yield was observed for an increasing cover of sedges and rushes and mean temperatures. Climatic variables (especially water deficit) and advanced phenological stages were the main degrading factors of forage quality in terms of crude protein and digestibility, while enhancing fibre contents. At increasing cover of legumes, fibre content declined and digestibility increased consequently, while the abundance of other non‐legume forbs played a significant role in lowering fibre content. Multivariate analysis highlighted the differing influence of single plant species on forage features even within the same functional species pool. However, attention should be paid to the toxicity and low palatability of some plants, especially forbs. Eutrophic vegetation communities, rich in wide‐leaf grasses and legumes, could be maintained and enhanced through pastoral management to increase alpine pasture production and quality.
Regardless of the issue, most of the research carried out on summer pastures of European Alps had to consider the effects of grazing management, as it is an intrinsic component of alpine environment. ...The management intensity of grazing livestock is measured in terms of livestock stocking rate, but not always a direct measure of it is easily retrievable. Therefore, the aim of the research was to test the reliability of proxies easily retrievable from open data sources (i.e. slope and distance from buildings) in approximating the pastoral site-use intensity. To test the proxies' effectiveness two different approaches were used. With the first one, the proxies' reliability was assessed in a case-study conducted at farm scale by using the number of positions gathered with GPS collars, which are a reliable measure of livestock site-use intensity. With the second, the proxies' reliability was assessed by means of five Vegetation Ecological Groups (VEGs), used as a tool for indirect quantification of livestock site-use intensity at regional scale (thirty-two alpine valleys of the Western Italian Alps, Piedmont Region-Italy). At farm scale, distance from buildings and slope were both reliable predictors of the number of GPS locations as assessed with a Generalized Additive Model. Results of Generalized Linear Models at the regional scale showed that the values of both the slope and the distance from buildings were able to separate VEGs along the same site-use intensity gradient assessed by modelling the number of GPS locations at farm scale. By testing proxies' reliability both with a direct (i.e. GPS collar positions) and indirect (i.e. VEGs) measurement of livestock site-use intensity, results indicated that slope and distance from buildings can be considered effective surrogates of site-use intensity gradient in alpine grasslands managed under livestock grazing. Therefore, when the level of site-use intensity in research carried out in alpine summer pastures is not directly available, a reliable solution consists in the use of the terrain slope and the distance from buildings, which are also easily retrievable from open data sources or computable.
•3839 vegetation surveys were carried out across pastures of Western Italian Alps.•Plant diversity (PD) and forage Pastoral Value (PV) were computed.•The effects of management intensity and ...environment on PD and PV were assessed.•PD was mostly affected by environmental factors rather than management intensity.•Management intensity had a larger effect on PV if compared to environmental factors.
Based on a wide dataset of vegetation surveys carried out across the pastures of Western Italian Alps, the objective of the research was to determine the relative importance of management intensity and environmental factors (i.e. topography, climate, bedrock type) on 1) plant diversity and 2) forage quality and productivity (Pastoral Value - PV) of alpine summer pastures. Plant diversity (i.e. Shannon diversity index and species richness) and PV were affected in different ways by both factors, but they showed a hump-shaped relationship with pastoral management intensity. Plant diversity was mainly affected by environmental factors (elevation and total annual precipitation) rather than management intensity. Shannon index and species richness were lower at higher elevations and in locations with higher precipitation, and they were higher on steep sites and calcareous bedrock. However, management intensity had a noteworthy influence on plant diversity. PV was strongly affected by management intensity, whereas environmental factors had limited importance. Differently from plant diversity, PV was not elevation dependent as several vegetation communities with either a low and a high PV occurred within a large range of altitude. PV was higher on flattest sites, in sites with a low level of precipitation, and on calcareous bedrock. Our results highlighted that environmental factors are the main drivers of plant diversity in alpine pastures. Pastures are typically located at higher elevation, are less accessible, and lay in less homogeneous areas where the environmental constraints have a predominant effect on plant community development with respect to management intensity. Contrariwise, the influence of management intensity on PV suggests that an appropriate grazing management can enhance forage productivity and quality for livestock even in harsh environments.
Machine grading is frequently required to prepare the terrain when building high‐altitude ski slopes in the Alps. However, this kind of disturbance alters the natural environment, destroying the ...vegetation and hampering its reestablishment. Thus, specific restoration plans are necessary to encourage the recovery of vegetation, which is already affected by different natural constraints in this harsh environment. One of the main critical factors affecting plant growth in high‐altitude areas is the lack of available nitrogen (N) in the soil. In this context, the addition of a slow‐release N fertilizer was carried out in an experimental revegetated ski slope between 2,800 and 2,900 m above sea level in the western Italian Alps. Both vegetation and soil were monitored during a 5‐year period in order to test the effectiveness of N addition on the restoration process. Even if effects on soil carbon and N contents were negligible, vegetation was remarkably affected by the fertilization, since the total vegetation cover and the species richness significantly increased. Against the expectations, there was a remarkable increase in spontaneous forbs, rather than in most of the sown graminoids, which slightly varied during the experimental period. Actually, graminoids responded in different ways, mostly increasing (likewise forbs), but the slight decrease of the dominant Festuca nigrescens (Chewing's Fescue) masked their spread. This study confirms the noteworthy role of N in high‐altitude alpine soils and consequently its importance to improve the restoration process of degraded ecosystems.
Abstract Proglacial vegetation communities are facing major challenges today due to fast glacier retreat and global warming, resulting in possible changes in plant colonization patterns. By ...re-surveying permanent plots along two alpine chronosequences (encompassing 5 to 165 years from deglaciation) with a 5-year time span, we aimed to (i) assess short-term vegetation changes and (ii) compare current vegetation trajectories with those predicted by the chronosequence approach. We analysed the number and cover of total, pioneer, and alpine grassland species and calculated the slopes of the trajectories of the chronosequence and observed on permanent plots. As expected, the number and cover of total, pioneer, and grassland species increased during the 5 years of the study. Moreover, we observed a significant acceleration in plant colonization (21 and 45 times faster increase in species richness and cover, respectively) compared to the chronosequence predictions. These dramatic changes in vegetation dynamics of proglacial plant communities were probably induced by the increased temperatures and longer growing seasons occurring in the Alps.
In Europe, the conservation of extensively grazed semi-natural grasslands is addressed by agricultural policies whose effectiveness is questioned. We studied sub-xerophilous Bromus erectus ...semi-natural grasslands to analyse the interactions among: i) agri-environmental payments, ii) grazing regimes, iii) environmental conditions, iv) habitat conservation state, and v) forage yield and quality.
We sampled 98 plots across 19 farms and unmanaged control areas in five regions encompassing Italy and Switzerland. We fitted two piecewise structural equation models (SEM) to infer direct and indirect effects of agri-environmental payments, grazing regimes and environmental conditions on proxies of habitat conservation state, (i.e., the number and cover of diagnostic species), and forage yield and quality (i.e., specific leaf area - SLA, leaf dry-matter content - LDMC, sward height and pastoral value).
Agri-environmental payments contributed to maintain grazing management and in turn to preserve the habitat biodiversity and functions. Payments did not affect stocking rates, but determined a more even distribution of grazing intensity, with positive effects on habitat conservation state and negative outcomes for LDMC. Conversely, LDMC increased with stocking rates. Among environmental condition, elevation and soil carbonates content had a positive effect on the habitat conservation state, while slope exerted only indirect effects on forage quality and diagnostic species by reducing fine-scale grazing intensity. Overall, the effectiveness of payments largely depended on the scale of measures' implementation. Farm-level grazing contracts and periodic field monitoring would allow to influence the fine-scale grazing intensity and to implement a result-oriented approach towards the objectives of the post-2020 CAP.
•Payments do not influence stocking rates, but fine-scale grazing intensity.•Fine-scale grazing intensity affects habitat conservation and forage provision.•Stocking rates affect forage yield and quality, but not habitat conservation state.•Elevation, soil carbonates and slope influence habitat conservation state.•Payments should include farm specific grazing contracts and habitat monitoring.
Rye is a secondary crop that is characterized by a higher tolerance to climatically less favorable conditions than other cereal species. For this reason, rye was historically used as a fundamental ...raw material for bread production and as a supply of straw in northern parts of Europe as well as in mountain environments, such as Alpine valleys, where locally adapted landraces have continued to be cultivated over the years. In this study, rye landraces collected in different valleys in the Northwest Italian Alps have been selected as the most genetically isolated within their geographical contexts and cultivated in two different marginal Alpine environments. The traits concerning their agronomy, mycotoxin contamination, bioactive content, as well as their technological and baking quality were assessed to characterize and compare rye landraces with commercial wheat and rye cultivars. Rye cultivars showed the same grain yield level as wheat in both environments. Only the genotype selected from the Maira Valley was characterized by tall and thin culms and a proneness to lodging, thereby resulting in a lower yield capacity. Among the rye cultivars, the hybrid one presented the highest yield potential, but also the highest susceptibility to the occurrence of ergot sclerotia. However, the rye cultivars, especially the landraces, were characterized by higher concentrations of minerals, soluble fibers, and soluble phenolic acids, and thus both their flours and breads had superior antioxidant properties. A 40% substitution of refined wheat flour with whole-grain rye flour led to a higher dough water absorption and a lower stability, thereby resulting in lower loaf volumes and darker products. Agronomically and qualitatively speaking, the rye landraces diverged significantly from the conventional rye cultivars, thus reflecting their genetic distinctiveness. The landrace from the Maira Valley shared a high content in phenolic acids and good antioxidant properties with the one from the Susa Valley and, when combined with wheat flour, turned out to be the most suitable for bread making. Overall, the results have highlighted the suitability of reintroducing historic rye supply chains, based on the cultivation of local landraces in marginal environments and the production of value-added bakery goods.
Climate change is leading to advanced snowmelt date in alpine regions. Consequently, alpine plant species and ecosystems experience substantial changes due to prolonged phenological seasons, while ...the responses, mechanisms and implications remain widely unclear. In this 3‐year study, we investigated the effects of advancing snowmelt on the phenology of alpine snowbed species. We related microclimatic drivers to species and ecosystem phenology using in situ monitoring and phenocams. We further used predictive modelling to determine whether early snowmelt sites could be used as sentinels for future conditions. Temperature during the snow‐free period primarily influenced flowering phenology, followed by snowmelt timing. Salix herbacea and Gnaphalium supinum showed the most opportunistic phenology, while annual Euphrasia minima struggled to complete its phenology in short growing seasons. Phenological responses varied more between years than sites, indicating potential local long‐term adaptations and suggesting these species' potential to track future earlier melting dates. Phenocams captured ecosystem‐level phenology (start, peak and end of phenological season) but failed to explain species‐level variance. Our findings highlight species‐specific responses to advancing snowmelt, with snowbed species responding highly opportunistically to changes in snowmelt timings while following species‐specific developmental programs. While species from surrounding grasslands may benefit from extended growing seasons, snowbed species may become outcompeted due to internal‐clock‐driven, non‐opportunistic senescence, despite displaying a high level of phenological plasticity.
Our study investigates the phenological responses of five typical snowbed species to advancing snowmelt using in situ monitoring, phenocam imagery and predictive modelling. Over 3 years, we found temperature to be the primary driver of phenological changes in alpine snowbeds, with varying importance of photoperiodism among species. Results suggest a potential diminishing relevance of photoperiodism in warmer conditions.
The increasing interest in healthy and natural foods has raised the attention towards uncommon or unexplored ingredients, such as edible flowers. These products are proven to be a rich source of ...bioactive compounds, for example, vitamins or polyphenols that play an important role in health promotion and disease prevention. However, plant species with edible flowers are numerous and most of them still need to be studied with this aim. The high species richness of North-Western Italy provides interesting perspectives in the use of wild edible flowers, which are currently underutilized, but can be a valuable food source or food supplement for healthy diets. In this framework, the phytochemical composition of 22 wild edible flowers was analysed and compared with that of four cultivated species (
L.,
L.,
L. and
L.) to evaluate their potentiality as sources of bioactive compounds. The total polyphenol content (TPC) and antioxidant activity of the fresh flowers were assessed, together with their phenolic profiles and vitamin C content, through spectrophotometric and chromatographic analyses. The evaluated parameters varied widely among species, with
L. and
L. showing the highest values of polyphenols (1,930 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE) · 100 g
and 1,774 mg GAE · 100 g
, respectively), followed by
L. (1,397 mg GAE · 100 g
) and
L. (1,268 mg GAE · 100 g
). The same species also showed the highest antioxidant activity, measured with three different assays ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS). The phenolic profile differed among the studied species, with
Tausch and
having the highest sum of detected polyphenols (2,522 mg · 100 g
and 2,366 mg · 100 g
, respectively). Vitamin C was identified in all but two flowers (
L. and
) and
L. had the highest amount (45 mg · 100 g
). The study showed that wild edible flowers outperformed the cultivated species, except for
, providing new insights for the use of wild edible flowers as sources of bioactive compounds.
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