Ecosystem Services of Grazed Grasslands in the Flooding Pampa

The Flooding Pampa grasslands are the last remnant of the Rio de la Plata grasslands in Argentina.Anthropo-genic interventions have led to severe degradation and,as a result,the ecosystem services provided by the grass-lands are declining,in terms of provisioning,regulating,and supporting services.We synthesized the existing literature on the ecosystem goods and services provided by these grasslands under grazing in different conditions and conservation status.We found that plant and animal diversity and primary production are the most studied ecosystem services,while climate regulation,water supply,nutrient cycling,meat production and erosion control,in that order,are less studied.Cultural services are under-researched.Continuous grazing and glyphosate spraying are the main drivers of grassland degradation.Controlled grazing and conservative stocking rates have been shown to reverse degradation and demonstrate that livestock production is compatible with ecosystem conserva-tion by maintaining regulating and provisioning services.As these management strategies are poorly integrated,improving their implementation will require important changes in farmers’decisions and the development of policies that create the economic conditions for this to happen.Research is needed to understand the conditions that prevent the knowledge generated from being transferred to producers and translated into practices that would improve the provision of ecosystem services.

Integrated transcriptome and proteome analyses reveal potential mechanisms in Stipa breviflora underlying adaptation to grazing

Background:Long-term overgrazing has led to severe degradation of grasslands,posing a significant threat to the sustainable use of grassland resources.Methods:Based on the investigation of changes in functional traits and photosynthetic physiology of Stipa breviflora under no grazing,moderate grazing,and heavy grazing treatments,the changes in expression patterns of genes and proteins associated with different grazing intensities were assessed through integrative transcriptomic and proteomic analyses.Results:Differentially expressed genes and proteins were identified under different grazing intensities.They were mainly related to RNA processing,carbon metabolism,and secondary metabolite biosynthesis.These findings suggest that long-term grazing leads to molecular phenotypic plasticity,affecting various biological processes and metabolic pathways in S.breviflora.Correlation analysis revealed low correlation between the transcriptome and the proteome,indicating a large-scale regulation of gene expression at the posttranscriptional and translational levels during the response of S.breviflora to grazing.The expression profiles of key genes and proteins involved in photosynthesis and phenylpropanoid metabolism pathways suggested their synergistic response to grazing in S.breviflora.Conclusions:Our study provides insight into the adaptation mechanisms of S.breviflora to grazing and provides a scientific basis for the development of more efficient grassland protection and utilization practices.