Semi‐natural grasslands represent ecosystems with high biodiversity. Their conservation depends on the removal of biomass, for example, through grazing by livestock or wildlife. For this, spatially explicit information about grassland forage quantity and quality is a prerequisite for efficient management. The recent advancements of the Sentinel satellite mission offer new possibilities to support the conservation of semi‐natural grasslands. In this study, the combined use of radar (Sentinel‐1) and multispectral (Sentinel‐2) data to predict forage quantity and quality indicators of semi‐natural grassland in Germany was investigated. Field data for organic acid detergent fibre concentration (oADF), crude protein concentration (CP), compressed sward height (CSH) and standing biomass dry weight (DM) collected between 2015 and 2017 were related to remote sensing data using the random forest regression algorithm. In total, 102 optical‐ and radar‐based predictor variables were used to derive an optimized dataset, maximizing the predictive power of the respective model. High R² values were obtained for the grassland quality indicators oADF (R² = 0.79, RMSE = 2.29%) and CP (R² = 0.72, RMSE = 1.70%) using 15 and 8 predictor variables respectively. Lower R² values were achieved for the quantity indicators CSH (R² = 0.60, RMSE = 2.77 cm) and DM (R² = 0.45, RMSE = 90.84 g/m²). A permutation‐based variable importance measure indicated a strong contribution of simple ratio‐based optical indices to the model performance. In particular, the ratios between the narrow near‐infrared and red‐edge region were among the most important variables. The model performance for oADF, CP and CSH was only marginally increased by adding Sentinel‐1 data. For DM, no positive effect on the model performance was observed by combining Sentinel‐1 and Sentinel‐2 data. Thus, optical Sentinel‐2 data might be sufficient to accurately predict forage quality, and to some extent also quantity indicators of semi‐natural grassland.

In agriculture, both valuable ecosystem services and unwanted ecosystem disservices can be produced by the same organism group. For example, small rodents can provide biological control through weed seed consumption but may also act as pests, causing crop damage. We studied the hypothesized causal relationships between ecosystem services (removal of weed seeds) and disservices (removal of wheat grains and crop damage) derived by small rodents (voles and mice) at multiple spatial scales. At the landscape scale, we studied the effects of landscape compositional and configurational heterogeneity on the abundance of voles and mice and their related ecosystem services and disservices along the former inner German border in east and west Germany. At the local scale, we studied how abundance and ecosystem functions are affected by management intensity (organic vs. conventional winter wheat), associated differences in crop characteristics and edge effects. Linear mixed‐effects models and path analysis show that voles drove ecosystem disservices, but not ecosystem services, in agricultural fields. Daily wheat seed removal by voles was influenced by increasing wheat height and was almost three times higher than weed seed removal, which was not related to local‐ or landscape‐scale effects. Abundance of voles and associated crop damage decreased with lower crop density and higher wheat height, which were associated with organic farming. Abundance of voles and crop damage were highest in conventional fields in west Germany. Synthesis and applications. As the ecosystem disservice of wheat seed consumption by small rodents must be considered mainly during crop sowing, management before crop harvest should focus on decreasing the pest potential of voles but not mice. Our results suggest that densities of voles and their ecosystem disservices could be reduced by having fields with low crop density and high wheat height, practices associated with organic farming. Surrounding landscapes with low compositional and configurational heterogeneity could further reduce voles’ pest potential, but with probable negative effects on farmland biodiversity.

Background: Increased soil phosphorus (P) caused by agricultural intensification has been associated with decreased plant species richness (SR) in central Europe. How plant communities and soil P gradients are related in unimproved open habitats remains unclear. Aims: The aim of this article was to characterise the relationship between soil chemical parameters and plant species composition and richness in unimproved open habitats. Methods: The influence of soil chemical parameters (pH, P, K, Mg) on species composition was assessed, using data from 40 heathland and 54 grassland plots, by non-metric multidimensional scaling and permutational multivariate analysis of variance. The relationship between soil chemical parameters and SR was tested by linear mixed effects models. Results: A direct relationship between heathland community composition and pH was observed, explaining 10% of variation in species composition, while P, Mg and pH together explained 17% of variation in grassland composition. In heathlands, SR increased with increasing pH, whereas in grasslands, SR decreased with increasing soil P. Conclusions: Soil chemical parameters were substantially related to plant community composition and richness. In an area spared from a century of agricultural intensification, reduced pH appeared to constrain SR in heathlands, while even slight P increases (<10 mg kg⁻¹) depressed plant SR in semi-natural grasslands.