Win-Win for Biodiversity and Carbon Storage - a case study on an alm in the Bavarian Alps

For centuries, mountain pastures have been a traditional part of the landscape and land management in the Alps. Seasonal grazing has led to species-rich and nutrient-rich alpine meadows, which are maintained with the help of domestic animals. Due to social change and economic pressure over the last 60 years, many of these Central European alpine pastures have been abandoned (e.g. our study area ‘Brunnenkopfalm’ in the Ammer Mountains, South-Bavaria). Since 2018, this approximately 7-hectare alpine pasture has been regrazed annually by Murnau-Werdenfelser cattle – after 63 years of abandonment. Thanks to the cooperation of a local farmer with an interdisciplinary research team, plant species diversity, biomass production, various animal species, and the carbon and nitrogen cycles are closely monitored. The data collected so far shows that re-grazing protects and even slightly increases the already high plant diversity, while the organic carbon in the soil increases and the nitrogen from the cattle's droppings is largely bound. A real win-win situation.