Agroscope researchers' publications can be found in the Institutional Repository. If the PDF of the publication is freely available, it can be downloaded. Otherwise, the publication reference will inform you of where the paper was published.
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Agriculture in Alpine regions plays an important role for multiple ecosystem services (ES) supplied from permanent grassland (PG). This paper investigates the feasibility of sward renewal, overseeding, and rising plate meters on PG for the Swiss Alpine region and analyses their expected effects on ES supply. Sward renewal and overseeding are man-agement options implemented in response to a decline of grassland yields and nutritive value or sward damage. Rising plate meters focus on increased grass utilisation for improving profitability of grassland farms in a sustainable manner. The aim was to improve the understanding which of these three PG management practices could be promoted to deliv-er a wide range of agricultural and non-agricultural ESs in the Swiss Alpine region. Through interviews with 75 farmers (including organic and intensive/extensive non-organic farmers) and a Delphi-methodology on a panel of experts (N=10 experts with different expertise), we found that sward renewal is perceived to have negative effects on biodiver-sity, carbon storage, flood control, prevention of soil erosion, and prevention of loss of organic matter in Alpine regions. Therefore, sward renewal should not be promoted, although about half of the farmers interviewed had already carried out the practice on plots following severe sward damage in Alpine regions. Overseeding is perceived to have positive effects on biodiversity, prevention of soil erosion, and grass production. Thus, the high level of overseeding that is cur-rently practiced in the Swiss Alpine region is probably sustainable and should be promoted. Rising plate meters do not play a significant role in PG management in the Alpine region because calibration in PG with diverse grassland botani-cal composition in the alpine region is too difficult.
