Land use for grassland is recognised to have some beneficial effects for biodiversity and the environment: (i) regulation of the water cycle and protection of soils against erosion, (ii) accumulation of organic matter in soil and sequestration of atmospheric C, (iii) regulation of the N cycle and attenuation of the risk for N leaching, (iv) recycling of nutrients and improvement of soil quality, (v) improvement of biodiversity of vegetation, soil microbes and micro- and meso-fauna. All these effects depend upon the management of the grassland: cutting vs. grazing, stocking density, level of N inputs. Management decisions often result from short- term objectives, whereas the soil-vegetation interactions are long-term processes. Therefore, a steady state is usually not reached, which makes it difficult to determine the overall environmental effects of changes in land use and in grassland management
