Europe’s grasslands are much more than a source of feed for livestock. They support food production and rural livelihoods while providing essential ecosystem services, from carbon sequestration and water purification to biodiversity conservation and landscape maintenance.
But how can these different benefits be maintained together? This question lies at the heart of ecosystem multifunctionality, a concept that is central to the GrassConnect project.
What is ecosystem multifunctionality?
Ecosystem multifunctionality describes the ability of ecosystems to sustain multiple ecological functions and provide a range of benefits simultaneously. Manning et al. (2018) distinguish between two dimensions: ecosystem function multifunctionality, which concerns ecological processes such as plant growth and nutrient cycling, and ecosystem service multifunctionality, which considers the provision of services in relation to human needs and priorities.
For grasslands, these services include livestock feed production, carbon storage, water regulation, biodiversity conservation and the maintenance of valued landscapes.
Understanding multifunctionality means recognising not only these individual contributions, but also the relationships between them.
The challenge: balancing multiple benefits
Different ecosystem services do not always reinforce one another. Some can develop together, creating synergies. Others may involve trade-offs, where improving one service can come at the expense of another. For example, increasing grassland productivity through intensive management may, under certain conditions, affect biodiversity or other environmental benefits.
The challenge is therefore not simply to maximise every service, but to find management approaches that balance different objectives.
These choices also depend on whose priorities are considered. Farmers, environmental organisations and local communities may value ecosystem services differently. Understanding these different priorities is essential for assessing ecosystem service multifunctionality and informing management decisions that reflect their needs.
Why does it matter for GrassConnect?
Across Europe, grass-based livestock systems face growing pressures from agricultural intensification, land abandonment and climate change. Maintaining their multiple benefits while supporting viable farming activities is an increasingly important challenge.
GrassConnect aims to address this by strengthening the multifunctionality of grass-based livestock systems through improved ecosystem-service monitoring, informed decision-making and collaboration. Through 13 Multi-Actor Grassland Hubs (MAGHubs) across 11 European countries, the project will connect farmers, researchers, advisers and other stakeholders to exchange knowledge and jointly develop practical solutions. It will also work on tools and approaches that help assess ecosystem services, support grassland management decisions and explore how the wider benefits provided by grasslands can be better recognised and incentivised.
By connecting scientific knowledge with real-world needs, GrassConnect seeks to support grass-based livestock systems that combine agricultural production with environmental and societal benefits.
Because the future of Europe’s grasslands depends not on a single benefit, but on recognising and sustaining the many roles they play.
Reference
Manning, P., van der Plas, F., Soliveres, S. et al. (2018). Redefining ecosystem multifunctionality. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2, 427–436.
