MEGARICH

Managing European grasslands as a sustainable resource in a changing climate

Co-ordinator : M. Jones

The aim of this project is to investigate the long-term responses of a representative selection of European semi-natural grassland ecosystems to elevated CO₂ and climate change across a European transect which exploits the natural gradients in environmental variables.

The objectives are to test the following hypotheses:

• That global change affects the structure and botanical composition of grassland ecosystems.
• That interactions between components of global change (CO₂,temperature, drought) and management practices (nitrogen fertilisation and cutting frequency) affect the growth, development and productivity of grassland ecosystems and carbon sequestration in the soil organis matter.
• That global change affects tissue quality which impacts on the activity of grass herbivores and decomposers.
• That models can be used to simulate an predict responses to global change and furthermore they can be used on a European scale to develop sustainable management systems in a changing climate.
• That management and environmental policy can be directed towards land-use practices that mitigates effects of global change.

contact :

M. Jones
Botany Department,
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin 2
Ireland
Tel:+353 -(0)1-6081769
jonesm@tcd.ie

web site :