Grass Traits for Ecosystem Service and Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

Grasslands cover around 70% of the global agricultural land, of which temperate grasslands, both natural and from anthropogenic origins, are a major part. Their management in ways that are economically, environmentally, and culturally sustainable faces various and frequently conflicting external pressures that threaten their perpetuity. Whilst temperate grasslands are major providers of healthy fodder for livestock, serving the meat and milk industries, they are multifunctional and also provide a vital ecosystem service to mitigate climate change, including carbon sequestration and the regulation of the rate of rainfall acquisition and its subsequent release. Perennial grasslands provide a habitat for vast and diverse biotic communities, shape much of our landscape, support fragile rural communities, and aid tourism, amenity, and leisure in many countries. Plant breeding, leading to the introduction of synthetic grass varieties, commenced one hundred years ago, but it has recently become more holistic than before so as to not only encompass traditional forage production for livestock agriculture but also to achieve further positive impacts in terms of the ecosystem service and economic and cultural sustainability. The principal grassland species used in agriculture are in the main outbreeding, perennial, and highly heterogeneous and harbor within their numbers a vast resource of genetic and trait diversity which can, if selected, be used in breeding programs in order to develop novel varieties for a range of important objectives. Where intraspecific variation is not sufficient to generate a required benefit, it may more easily be achieved through species hybridization or use of species mixtures. This Special Issue reviews some of the most important advances in grass trait selections for use in ecosystem service and the opportunities to acquire the range of benefits certain grass communities may provide to seek win-win scenarios and to note the various challenges that grasslands must resist in order to persist and achieve their full potential.

Prof. Em. Mike Humphreys
Guest Editor

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• the roles of natural and seminatural grasslands;
• targets for grass and legume breeding;
• range of available grassland ecosystem services;
• challenges to grasslands in a changing climate;
• grassland resilience;
• alternative functions of grasslands;
• importance of grasslands in marginal locations