#Grassland diarly free#

Strong and significant links were highlighted between the four compartments through a network analysis (0.34 < r < 0.58), and were modulated by soil pH, plant diversity and elevation but also by farming practices: organic fertilization levels, cattle intensity and cow-teat care. This hypothesis was evaluated on a 44 dairy farms network across PDO Comté cheese area by characterizing prokaryotic and fungal communities of these compartments by metabarcoding analysis (16S rRNA gene: V3–V4 region, 18S rRNA gene: V7–V8 region). It is hypothesized that raw milk indigenous microbial communities may originate from permanent grazed grasslands by the intermediate of dairy cows according to the sequence soil–phyllosphere–teat–milk. Specificity of PDO Comté cheese was related to the diversity of natural raw milk bacterial communities, but their sources need to be determined. This relationship needs better understanding for efficient and sustainable productions preserving the agroecological equilibrium of agroecosystems, especially grasslands. But on a glorious afternoon like this, deep shade would seem a poor substitute for walking through these swaying grasses, surrounded by the bright wings of summer.The specificity of dairy Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) products is related to their “terroir” of production. We need more trees to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide. This urban edgeland is a legacy of a local industry that contributed to global heating.

The site is already studded with small oaks from acorns cached and forgotten by jays, hawthorns from seeds voided by berry-feeding redwings and fieldfares in autumn, and birch, alder and ash carried as winged seeds on the wind. As I cross the shallow pool they swirl around my squelching boots, a blur of frantic wings.Įventually, butterfly numbers will dwindle here, as natural succession replaces open grassland with closed canopy woodland. Forty years ago, they were uncommon in the north-east but they have moved rapidly northwards, perhaps responding to the climate crisis. They are “puddling” females, drinking mine water containing dissolved sodium salts, essential for egg laying. Where it forms a muddy puddle across the path, small skippers, wings flashing like antique gold in the sunlight, have gathered around this water hole in this butterfly Serengeti. Small heaths and meadow browns dangle from arching panicles of Yorkshire fog.Ī trickle of water rising from old mine workings runs through the site, its course traced by purple marsh thistles.

Large skippers whirl just ahead of my footsteps, settling to nectar on white clover. Ringlets, the colour of plain chocolate, spiral upwards in courtship pursuit or territorial disputes. It’s a perfect habitat for butterflies, whose caterpillars feed on grasses, here in an abundance that I can recall from childhood but nowadays rarely encounter. This revegetated site – one of the largest local collieries until 1967 – has reverted to an uncommon example of unmanaged grassland, never mown or grazed by domesticated animals. No elephants or wildebeest though voles are the most numerous mammalian herbivores here, tunnelling through a thatch of decades of dead grass.

#Grassland diarly free#

If I give my imagination free rein on this sultry afternoon, I could almost believe this shoulder-high grassland – a shimmering sea of false oat, cock’s-foot and meadow foxtail – is African savanna.