GRASS4FUN

Introduction:

Natural grasslands and cereal fields play a fundamental role in supporting biodiversity conservation and sustainable food production. Natural grasslands (including grasslands within a protected area and unprotected grasslands) and cereal fields provide multiple ecosystem services, but also involve significant trade-offs (e.g., food production vs. soil carbon sequestration).

Yet, unlike aboveground plants and animals, the capacity of European protected areas to conserve plant and soil microbial diversity and ecosystem services in natural grasslands under global environmental changes is virtually unknown. Moreover, we know very little about how cereal fields will respond to multiple co-occurring global change stressors, such as drought, pesticides and over-fertilization, which are threatening the conservation of soil biodiversity and function as well as food production.

Aim:

Evaluate the Role of Protected Areas

Evaluate whether protected areas promote soil biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services in European natural grasslands.

Monitor Microbial Diversity and Function in Cereal Fields

Monitor the microbial diversity and function in cereal fields, supporting the monitoring that the Global Crop Microbiome Initiative started in these sites 3–5 years ago.

Assess Impacts of Global Change Stressors

Investigate whether multiple global change stressors impact the microbiome and function of European natural grasslands and cereal fields.

Methods and Approach:

European-Level Survey

To such an end, we will conduct a European-level survey across grasslands’ triplets with different land use intensities (from protected and unprotected natural grasslands to maize and wheat fields).

Integration With Existing Monitoring

The sampling in cereal fields will support the monitoring that the Global Crop Microbiome Initiative started in these sites 3–5 years ago.

Modelling and Manipulative Experiments

We will combine the modelling and mapping of soil biodiversity and function across climate and land cover change scenarios with a manipulative study using microcosms subjected to multiple global change stressors.

Stakeholder Engagement

GRASS4FUN will be performed in close collaboration with a stakeholder advisory board to facilitate engagement and uptake by end-users, policy makers and society, with the fundamental goal of providing ground-breaking knowledge to increase the resilience of grasslands to global stresses and protect European biodiversity, including organisms living in soils.

Project team

Dr. Sarah McLaughlin, University of Zurich and Agroscope

Dr. Stefanie Lutz, University of Zurich and Agroscope, Switzerland

Alain Valzano-Held, University of Zurich and Agroscope, Switzerland

Prof. Marcel van der Heijden, University of Zurich and Agroscope

Projectpartners

Manuel Delgado Baquerizo, CSIC - AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE, Spain

Pablo Garcia Palacios, CSIC, Spain

Carlos Guerra, University of Leipzig, Germany

Stefanie Lutz, University of Zurich Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, Switzerland

Marie Simonin, INRA-E French National Research Institute Fo, France

José Paulo Sousa, Departamento de Zoologia Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal

Franciska de Vries, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Contact

Dr. Sarah McLaughlin

University of Zurich

Winterthurerstrasse 190

8057 Zürich

+Tel

sarah.mclaughlin@botinst.uzh.ch

This article was taken from the SNF Site  https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/216835 and adapted by Alain Valzano-Held 18.05.2026