Enhancing Grassland Resilience to Drought Through Plant Diversity

This practice abstract examines the role of plant diversity in sown and permanent grasslands to maintain forage production under drought. It aims to understand species responses to water stress, identify traits for drought resistance and survival, and explore how these traits interact in mixtures across climatic gradients from Mediterranean to temperate regions. Recommendations include increasing species diversity under moderate drought to leverage insurance and complementarity effects, and exploiting intra-specific genetic variability to breed cultivars for severe drought. The review highlights the combined use of inter- and intra-specific diversity to boost resilience, reduce vulnerability, and create entrepreneurial opportunities.