This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: During the heat wave of 2018, meadows and pastures also suffered from drought. Are grasslands in diverse landscapes more resilient to yield losses than those in monotonous regions?
Researchers at the University of Bonn, led by Marco Ferro and Dr. Jan Börner from the Institute for Food and Resource Economics (ILR), investigated the influence of landscape diversity on the drought tolerance of grasslands as part of Collaborative Research Center 1502 DETECT. The work is published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
We investigated how agricultural landscapes respond to extreme drought events. Our goal was to determine the impact of crop species diversity and the proportion of green infrastructure—such as small trees and orchards—on the drought tolerance of grasslands. We compared landscapes in eastern and western Germany.
In the east, due to agricultural restructuring after 1945, there are many large farms and large, contiguous areas that are used in similar ways. In western Germany, farms are generally smaller, and the land is used in a more diverse range of ways. We found that the more uniform use of agricultural land in eastern Germany meant that, during the drought, a greater share of green spaces could no longer be used effectively.
Plant biomass yields also declined. One reason for this is that landscapes with less diverse land uses are less able to store water during a drought. We investigated how droughts affect green spaces and what role landscape structure plays in this process.
To do this, we used satellite and other remote sensing data and applied a method that allows for a clearer distinction between cause and effect. This enabled us to examine whether monotonous landscape structures actually cause more green spaces to become unproductive during a drought—and not just whether both phenomena occur simultaneously. To better assess what these results mean for farms, we also used a model that calculates plant growth under various conditions.
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