Pasture chemoscapes and their ecological services

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Ruminant livestock-production systems are between a rock and a hard place; they are experiencing increasing societal pressure to reduce environmental impacts in a world that demands increased food supply. Recent improvements in the understanding of the nutritional ecology of livestock by scientists may help livestock producers respond to these seemingly contradictory demands. Forages are nutrition and pharmacy centers with primary (nutrients) and plant secondary compounds (PSC; pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals), which can provide multiple services for the proper functioning of agroecosystems. Legumes with lower contents of fiber and higher contents of nonstructural carbohydrates, coupled with different types and concentrations of PSC (e.g., condensed tannins, terpenes), create a diverse array of chemicals in the landscape (i.e., the “chemoscape”) with the potential to enhance livestock nutrition, health and welfare relative to foodscapes dominated by grasses and other conventional feeds. These PSC-containing plants may reduce methane emissions and nitrogen (N) excretion from animals while increasing animal growth rate compared with swards dominated by grasses, and provide meat quality that appeals to consumers. Condensed tannins from sainfoin and saponins from alfalfa and manure of cattle consuming these forages also reduce N mobilization in soils, reduce nutrient leaching, and increase plant-available N stores for future use. The challenge for future pastoral production systems is to design multifunctional spatiotemporal arrangements of forages with “ideal” chemical diversity for specific ecoregions, aiming to achieve sustainability while increasing production goals and improving ecosystem services. Thus, the objective of this review is to stimulate the quest for chemically and taxonomically diverse pastoral feeding systems that optimize overall productivity; reduce environmental impacts; and enhance livestock, soil, and human health.</jats:p>

Assessment of soil surface scarification and reseeding with sulla (Hedysarum coronarium L.) of degraded Mediterranean semi-arid rangelands

“…Although this was highly desired from the biomass production and soil health perspectives, reduced biodiversity may be of a major concern. Accordingly, it may be important to designate only certain areas in rangelands for reseeding sulla and using these areas as forage banks or chemoscapes (Villalba et al 2019). An additional alternative may be reseeding rangelands extensively, but at lower seeding rate of sulla than the one applied in the current study.…”

Animal Design Through Functional Dietary Diversity for Future Productive Landscapes

“…Plant secondary compounds often increase milk and meat quality in terms of antioxidant status (Vasta and Luciano, 2011;Villalba et al, 2019). This increment is largely associated with consumption of phenolic compounds such as flavonoids, isoflavonoids and tannins, but benefits have been shown from other PSC such as terpenoids (Brogna et al, 2014).…”

“…Obviously, taxonomic diversity increases phytochemical richness; however, just because a set of plant species can have complementary plant primary compounds (PPC) does not mean that they have complementary PSC. Also, different species of plants might have similar (e.g., similar types of tannins) or synergistic types of PSC (e.g., alkaloids and condensed tannins, see Provenza et al, 2007;Lyman et al, 2011;Catanese et al, 2014;Gregorini et al, 2017;Villalba et al, 2019). Both PSC diversity and PPC, adds another dimension which must be functional.…”

Milk Production, N Partitioning, and Methane Emissions in Dairy Cows Grazing Mixed or Spatially Separated Simple and Diverse Pastures

“…Diversification of pastures through inclusion of pasture herbs can reduce the urinary N excretion through lower dietary N intake and improved utilization of N in rumen [ 7 ]. It is possible to reduce the detrimental effects of intensive dairy farming through application of novel pasture systems and use of plants with high nutritive value and secondary metabolites [ 6 , 8 , 9 ]. Chicory with its pectin content may provide a highly effective synchronization of the fermentable carbohydrates and N in the rumen leading to improved rumen fermentation and lower nitrogen excretion from ruminants [ 10 ].…”

“…While these recent studies primarily investigated combinations of simple (two- or three-species) pastures, the combined effects of diversification and spatial separation on pasture and livestock production have not been evaluated. In particular, spatial separation can enable farmers to have better control over the botanical composition of specifically designed pasture mixtures (or “chemoscapes”) with high bioactive compounds [ 9 , 17 ].…”