Intensification of animal production from grassland and ecosystem services: a trade-off

International audienceGrasslands have to be considered not only as a means for human food production but also as a means for providing ecosystem services. Coupling of C and N cycles through soil-vegetation interactions gives grassland ecosystems a high capacity for reduction of environmental impacts. Moreover, the high biodiversity within grasslands gives them a high-adaptive capacity to changes and perturbations. Nevertheless, the C-N decoupling by grazing animals annihilates partly these ecosystem services as the intensification and hence the production increase. Research is necessary for optimizing this trade-off through spatial and temporal interactions with other land use systems at farm and landscape level