Belowground biodiversity of grasslands – conservation needs and potential to promote sustainable agriculture

Agricultural landscapes are highly dynamic.

In Sweden, land-use has changed dramatically and generally led to a loss of biodiversity in agroecosystems over historic time scales.

This is linked to decreasing area of ancient semi-natural grassland and to a general intensification of cropping systems.

Grasslands with long continuity are biodiversity hotspots aboveground, and political actions are in place to secure conservational values of plant communities.

However, whether belowground biodiversity shows the same patterns and has the same conservational needs as plants is unknown.

Further, how above-belowground links in biodiversity and related carbon and nutrient dynamics change over management gradients is unknown, which hampers our ability to set management targets that support the multitude of services mediated by belowground communities. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are obligate and omnipresent symbionts of plants.

AMF and earthworms are important mediators of increased sustainability of agricultural systems; particularly by affecting plant nutrition and C sequestration, and by their antagonism against pathogens.

This project will investigate the distribution and drivers of plant, AMF and earthworm communities across Swedish landscapes, and inform management practices that benefit belowground biodiversity and linked functions in semi-natural grasslands, re-established permanent grassland, and potentially in productive arable land.