| Popis: |
About 53 million km2, or 40% of the Earth’s land surface is grassland, containing about one-third of the global stock of terrestrial C. Grasslands are ecosystems where the dominant vegetation component is comprised of herbaceous species, with less than 10% tree cover (Jones and Donnelly 2004). Grasslands are either natural vegetation (e.g. the steppes of central Asia and prairies of North America) or anthropogenic in origin (e.g. north-western and central Europe, New Zealand, parts of North and South America and Australia). Grasslands are heavily relied upon for food and forage production, and about one-third of world milk and beef production occurs on grassland managed solely for these purposes (Conant et al. 2001). |
