Global warming: reconciling biodiversity maintenance with mountain farming economic sustainability

The global warming is one of the factors threatening the sub-Mediterranean dry grasslands by both socio-economic and environmental view. This research aims to deep our knowledge on how counteract such threat. We attempted to understand the drivers and mechanism behind the species assemblage modification, and experienced adaptative management to face climate changes and ensure a high level of animal welfare and food value. We analysed the dry grasslands functional variation under different stressors, disturbance intensities and environmental gradients to achieve predictive models of grassland modifications. We performed a trial, mainly based on animal feed supplementation, analysing the interplay between sheep and forage features, comparing milk/cheese chemical composition under different management conditions. Sensory and consumer tests were performed on cheeses to evaluate the consumer willing to pay. Findings showed the effects of increasing summer aridity on trait-related species assemblages lead to a shift from acquisitive to retentive traits and to regeneration strategies enabling plants to cope with unpredictability of climate variability. Reduction of disturbance fosters the spread of dominant tall grasses leading to decreased nutrient value of pastures and a loss of plant diversity. Productive grasslands were high negatively influenced by increasing summer aridity. Forage worsening caused the increase of rumen keratinisation degree and a decline of sheep welfare and productivity. The adaptive management experimented proved to foster the production quality. Milk and cheese showed an increase of poly-unsaturated fatty acids and Vitamins A and E. These features reflected in the cheese taste and consumer appreciation, which led to the theoretical availability of the most of consumers to pay more than the current market price for the cheese. Proper management practices proved to be a key tool in maintaining grasslands ecosystem services and to increase the quality of productions and satisfy customers' demand, respecting the animal welfare and reducing the risks of mountain farming abandonment by increasing the farm income.