Brief description: The project investigates how woody encroachment influences soil carbon storage and biodiversity in mountain grassland ecosystems. The research examines mountain grasslands with and without woody encroachment in the Berchtesgaden National Park and recorded plant and insect diversity and measured key soil parameters to quantify carbon storage. A reduction in carbon storage and biodiversity can reduce the resilience of grassland ecosystems and affect the long-term value of grassland to livestock farmers.

Background: Over the last 150 years, the decline in mountain grazing led to abandonment and ecological succession of many mountain grasslands. The consequences are the loss of centuries-old cultivated landscapes and the associated unique biodiversity and ecosystem services that are important to society. Currently, the more productive and easily accessible mountain grasslands near the mountain huts are managed relatively intensively, while the more remote mountain grasslands are grazed less frequently and are therefore more susceptible to abandonment, shrub encroachment and, ultimately, reforestation. The trend towards a decline in mountain agriculture is partly due to a lack of staff, but also increasingly due to the accelerating effects of climate change. 

According to experts, adaptation measures are therefore urgently needed. Biogeochemical processes in mountain ecosystems are more sensitive to temperature than in temperate lowland regions. Rising temperatures and an extended growing season lead to an upward movement of species, which in turn results in changes in species composition as well as nutrient stocks and fluxes. However, it is not clear how climate change and grazing affect the productivity of mountain grasslands. To avoid the invasion of woody plants, farmers want to start the grazing season earlier in mountain grasslands, which may be an adaptation strategy. This adapted grazing regime could in turn significantly alter biogeochemical cycles, biodiversity and ecosystem services.