Expansion of agriculture in forested areas poses significant threats and pressure to ecosystems and potentially the global climate. More specifically, expansion of oil palm (OP) plantations has been found to exert great impact on key ecosystem functions li ...
Grasslands cover similar to 30% of the Earth's terrestrial surface and provide many ecosystem services. Many grasslands are heavily managed to maximize these services for human benefit, but the outcome of management is anticipated to be increasingly inf ...
Climate change could impact strongly on cold-adapted mountain ecosystems, but little is known about its interaction with traditional land-use practices. We used an altitudinal gradient to simulate a year-round warmer and drier climate for semi-natural suba ...
Silvopastoral systems of the Swiss Jura Mountains serve as a traditional source of forage and timber in the subalpine vegetation belt, but their vulnerability to land use and climate change puts their future sustainability at stake. We coupled experimental ...
Climate models predict decreasing amounts of precipitation for future summers in Switzerland. Since grasslands cover about one quarter of the area, severe consequences might be expected for Swiss agriculture, ranging from loss of grassland productivity to ...
Wood-pastures are semi-natural, highly biodiverse systems maintained by traditional extensive agriculture. They are used for grazing and timber. The shifting mosaics of grassland, shrub thickets and woodland patches in these systems are driven by large her ...