Grasslands cover about one-third of the world land area, serving as a basis of the livestock industry to produce forage and food, and play significant roles in ecosystem services such as carbon storage, biodiversity, conservation of water and soil. However, a large part of the world’s grasslands has been degraded by intensive anthropogenic activity and climate change, which affect livestock production, ecosystem services, and carbon cycling. Disturbances such as fire, grazing, and harvest may favor grassland at times, but can also decrease carbon stocks of grassland systems. Meanwhile, changes in the frequency and severity of these disturbances can also impact grassland species composition and biogeochemical processes.
Good management practices of grassland ecosystems have the potential to increase livestock forage production without detriment to ecological functions and services. To develop sustainable management techniques, the state of the grassland and how they are used must be known, but this information is difficult to ascertain. It is also difficult to quantify fodder production and partition the effects of multiple disturbances on the loss of grassland production and function.
A variety of observation techniques have recently advanced very rapidly. Field measurements, tower-based instruments and spectrometers, and optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and satellites provide wide opportunities to acquire remote sensing data on vegetation and soil properties and dynamics and the utilization and management of grasslands at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Multisource data makes it possible to investigate research questions on grasslands that may otherwise not be addressed.
Here, we solicit Original Research articles and reviews about research on grasslands that uses various observation techniques to better understand changes in grasslands and develop sustainable management practices.
Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
• Monitoring or modeling changes of grassland production and ecological functions;
• Monitoring the natural and human disturbances of grasslands;
• Remote sensing for biodiversity assessment in grasslands;
• Remote sensing for utilization and management of grasslands;
• Monitoring or modeling of grassland conservation and restoration;
• Grasslands in climate change and variability: impact, mitigation, and adaptation.
Grasslands cover about one-third of the world land area, serving as a basis of the livestock industry to produce forage and food, and play significant roles in ecosystem services such as carbon storage, biodiversity, conservation of water and soil. However, a large part of the world’s grasslands has been degraded by intensive anthropogenic activity and climate change, which affect livestock production, ecosystem services, and carbon cycling. Disturbances such as fire, grazing, and harvest may favor grassland at times, but can also decrease carbon stocks of grassland systems. Meanwhile, changes in the frequency and severity of these disturbances can also impact grassland species composition and biogeochemical processes.
Good management practices of grassland ecosystems have the potential to increase livestock forage production without detriment to ecological functions and services. To develop sustainable management techniques, the state of the grassland and how they are used must be known, but this information is difficult to ascertain. It is also difficult to quantify fodder production and partition the effects of multiple disturbances on the loss of grassland production and function.
A variety of observation techniques have recently advanced very rapidly. Field measurements, tower-based instruments and spectrometers, and optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and satellites provide wide opportunities to acquire remote sensing data on vegetation and soil properties and dynamics and the utilization and management of grasslands at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Multisource data makes it possible to investigate research questions on grasslands that may otherwise not be addressed.
Here, we solicit Original Research articles and reviews about research on grasslands that uses various observation techniques to better understand changes in grasslands and develop sustainable management practices.
Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
• Monitoring or modeling changes of grassland production and ecological functions;
• Monitoring the natural and human disturbances of grasslands;
• Remote sensing for biodiversity assessment in grasslands;
• Remote sensing for utilization and management of grasslands;
• Monitoring or modeling of grassland conservation and restoration;
• Grasslands in climate change and variability: impact, mitigation, and adaptation.
