Appendix 1 –Description of grassland use typologies for the Lautaret and Stubai sites
Grassland types for Lautaret
Grassland types were determined based on the three types of initial land use at the beginning of the 19th century: crops on terraces (approx. 1550-1900 m a.s.l.), mown grassland (1800-2400 m a.s.l.) and summer pasture grazed since the Middle Ages (> 2000 m a.s.l.), and on current use: mown, with or without manure fertilization, grazed during spring and autumn and grazed in summer. The combinations of these past and current land uses resulted in three grassland types on previously cultivated terraces (T1: mown and fertilized, T2: mown, T3: grazed in spring and autumn by sheep and cattle), and three on never cultivated grassland (T4: mown, T5: previously mown and currently grazed in summer by sheep and cattle, T6: never mown and grazed in summer by sheep and cattle). Figure S1 summarises the resulting states and transitions for this grassland system. The analysis of past cadastral maps, aerial photographic and interview data allowed us to map these grassland types over a time series from 1810 to the present (Figure S2). Girel et al. (2010) give a detailed account of this land use history based on multiple sources of information.
Figure S1 – State and Transition model of grassland management types for the Lautaret site. Filled boxes indicate alternative current states within each of the three past land use types (open boxes), using the same colour coding as for maps in Figure S2. Plain arrows indicate dominant historical transitions of extensification: dashed arrows indicate possible reversible transitions towards traditional management.
Figure S2 – Maps of grassland types for selected time steps at Lautaret
Grassland types for theStubai Valley
Managed and abandoned grasslandswere classified into grassland types to obtain vegetation patches that are characterized by similar plant communities due to specific environmental conditions. These grassland types were defined according to six parameters: altitude, aspect, slope, former use, fertilization, and geology (Table S1). Altitude, aspect, and slope were derived from a digital elevation model (DEM) and reclassified according to the pre-defined management categories (fertilized, unfertilized, abandoned). Geology classes were obtained from a bedrock map. To determine the history of use, we intersected land-use maps of the different years and recorded the land-use developments. Information on fertilization was obtained from fine-scale habitat maps. Information of each parameter was saved separately in a layer and subsequently combined in one map for each year (Figure S3) by overlaying all parameters. Figure S4 illustrates for the three altitudinal belts different grassland management categories (fertilized, unfertilized, abandoned) and related grassland types, as well as possible states and transitions. Grassland can also originate from other land-use types such crops or forest, while it can be transformed to settlements or, in case of abandonment, to forest.
Table S1 -Structuring factors for trajectories in the Stubai Valley. Colour coding for individual trajectories follows Figure S4 (state and transition model)
Figure S3 - Maps of grassland types for each time step in the Stubai Valley.
Figure S4 - Grassland types and land use dynamics in the Stubai Valley. Different grassland types within one management category are distinguished based on geology, aspect and slope (Table S1)