Ancient grasslands once destroyed can take 100 years to grow back: Global study

Pune: Grasslands that are ploughed for agriculture or cleared for development may never fully return to their original ecological state, even after centuries of regrowth, a new global study has found.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on August 24 and involving researchers from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, analysed 742 plant species across grasslands on six continents to understand why secondary grasslands remain different from ancient ones.

Researchers compared old-growth grasslands that had never been ploughed with secondary grasslands at varying stages of regrowth — from recently abandoned farmland to landscapes recovering for up to 300 years.

The key finding: the difference is remarkably consistent worldwide, whether in North America, South America, Africa or Asia.”Differences between old-growth and secondary grasslands are remarkably consistent around the globe,” said Lars Brudvig, professor at Michigan State University and co-author of the study.