Frédéric Joly

Few frameworks are currently available to assess the flows of ecosystem services (ESs) and disservices (EDSs) from and into livestock farming systems (LFSs). We estimated these flows using the Barn , a graphical tool designed to represent the integration of LFS into their surrounding landscapes. This tool uses bi-directional arrows to depict flows of multiple types of ES and EDS. Based on five contrasting lamb meat systems, we estimated that the flows of ES that support lamb meat production, such as the provision of forage and nitrogen fixation, were often associated with EDS, such as wolf predation or rodent outbreaks. These EDSs were particularly detrimental for the LFS that depended more on ES than on external inputs. We also observed that few operational indicators exist for quantifying EDS. The results show that deriving benefits from ecosystems implies interacting closely with the environment, which can generate disadvantages. This result also reveals a trade-off between ES and EDS, which has received little attention so far. This highlights the need to better assess and mitigate EDS, to prevent them from hindering the transition toward more sustainable practices that aim to reduce external inputs.

Climate change will increase average temperatures and the frequency and intensity of summertime droughts; those shifts will in turn affect forage production in grassland-based livestock farms. Farmers will accordingly likely have to implement adaptation strategies to cope with the effects of climate change. We hypothesized that farmers' resilience strategies would depend on (i) their intention to adapt to climate change, which partly results from previous climate risk exposure, (ii) how they perceive the values and disvalues of multi-species permanent grasslands (PGs), and (iii) that both of the aforementioned factors would vary according to the geographical context of each farm. We carried out 15 semi-structured interviews with dairy cattle farmers in the French Massif Central; the farms were distributed along a range of climatic and topographic conditions. We used (i) the Model of Proactive Private Adaptation to Climate Change to analyze farmers' individual process of adaptation, (ii) the Integrated Nature Futures Framework to analyze farmers' perception of multi-species PGs, and (iii) text analysis to identify the farmers' adaptation strategies. Nine of the farmers felt that they were already adapted to climate change or that they had a plan in place to implement new adaptations in the future. We observed straightforward relationships between these farmers' perception of PGs and their choice of adaptation strategy; those relationships varied, however, with the geographical context of each farm. Farmers in the northern Massif Central and southern uplands highlighted the values of PGs and considered PGs to be central to their adaption strategies. Conversely, farmers in the southern lowlands mostly referred to the disvalues of PGs; they based their adaptation strategies on temporary grasslands and forage crops. Three of the farmers believed that climate change posed a significant risk, but they foresaw little room to maneuver. Despite acknowledging the values of PGs, those individuals did not intend to use PGs to adapt to climate change. The final three farmers did not intend to adapt to climate change; their reasoning stemmed from either a mindset of fatalism or their acknowledged desire to retire soon. Extreme events such as the summertime drought of 2003 and human factors such as intergenerational transmission of farm can accordingly facilitate or inhibit climate change-related adaptation. It is accordingly important to take into account both socio-psychological and environmental factors when analyzing how grassland-based farmers transition to more climate change-resilient systems.

Temperate seminatural grasslands harbour unique biodiversity, support livestock farming through forage production, and deliver many essential ecosystem services (ESs) to human society; they are highly multifunctional. However, temperate grassland ecosystems are also among the most threatened ecosystems on earth due to land use and climate changes. Understanding how biodiversity, climate and land use intensification impact grassland multifunctionality through complex direct and indirect pathways is critical to better anticipate the future of these fragile ecosystems. Here, we evaluate how local plant species richness (SR) modulates the effect of land use intensification and climate on grassland multifunctionality (using six key ESs: biomass productivity and stability, forage quality, carbon storage, pollination and local plant rarity) in the French Massif Central, the largest grassland in Western Europe. We sampled 100 grasslands with contrasted fertilization rates and SR, over large elevational and latitudinal gradients related to variation in mean annual temperature (MAT), and drought severity (DS), two key climate change drivers predicted to increase in the future. Using a confirmatory path analysis, we found that SR was the main driver of multifunctionality. We also found significant SR × MAT and SR × fertilization interactions suggesting that warm climate and high fertilization rates alter the biodiversity–ecosystem multifunctionality relationships. Furthermore, increasing temperature and fertilization indirectly influenced multifunctionality by decreasing SR and consequent multifunctionality in warm lowland and highly fertilized grasslands compared to colder montane grasslands or less fertilized ones. DS only impacted some ES individually (e.g. forage quality). Synthesis and applications: We identified species richness (SR) as a pivotal factor mediating the effects of land use intensification and climate on multifunctionality through both direct and indirect pathways. Failing to account for changes in SR could thus bias any prediction of, or aggravate, the effects of land use intensification and climate change on ecosystem services delivery in temperate grassland ecosystems. Considering that SR, mean annual temperature and fertilization are major proxies of three main global change drivers (biodiversity loss, climate change and land use intensification) our study may help to better anticipate the effect of multiple interacting global change drivers on grassland ecosystems.

Agroecological practices can improve the functioning of livestock farming systems by optimizing their underlying biological processes. Sheep/cattle mixed-grazing is an example of such a practice in which sheep grazing with cattle can achieve a higher liveweight gain (LWG), than sheep grazing alone. We conducted an experiment to assess the relative roles of parasite dilution and forage niche complementarity in improving sheep LWGs. We used continuous grazing and compared the LWGs of 5- to 9-month ewe lambs, grazing alone or with heifers, at two contrasting sheep/cattle ratios (~50/50% and 20/80% in livestock units). The animals were not treated for strongyles (gastrointestinal parasites) before or during the experiment. We assessed parasitism by counting the number of strongyle eggs excreted per gram of feces (EPG) and evaluated the forage niche complementarity through observations of feeding behavior, combined with measurements of fecal nitrogen content (N). We observed that i) the diet was moderately improved by mixed-grazing (+4% of dicots and +11% of young vegetative grass at most, but these improvement were not statistically significant (resp. P=0.28 and P=0.35); ii) N levels were not significantly different across treatments (~2%; P=0.75); iii) EPGs were ~50% lower for mixed-grazing than for monospecific grazing (545 and 716 vs. 1278, PPP=0.91 and P=0.56). We thus attributed most of the improved ewe lamb LWGs in our experiment to parasite dilution rather than to forage niche complementarity. In addition, the similar EPGs and LWGs observed in mixed-grazing suggest that the benefits of this practice can be obtained easily, i.e. over a wide range of sheep/cattle ratios. Based on the definition of the adjective operable (‘capable of being put into use, operation or practice’), we also conclude that mixed-grazing seems an operable practice from a biological viewpoint.