Background and Aims: Grassland-based livestock systems in cool maritime regions are commonly dominated by grass monocultures receiving relatively high levels of fertilizer. The current study investigated whether grass-legume mixtures can improve the productivity, resource efficiency and robustness of yield persistence of cultivated grassland under extreme growing conditions over a period of 5 years. Methods: Monocultures and mixtures of two grasses (Phleum pratense and Festuca pratensis) and two legumes (Trifolium pratense and Trifolium repens), one of which was fast establishing and the other temporally persistent, were sown in a field trial. Relative abundance of the four species in the mixtures was systematically varied at sowing. The plots were maintained under three N levels (20, 70 and 220 kg N ha-1 year-1) and harvested twice a year for five consecutive years. Yields of individual species and interactions between all species present were modelled to estimate the species diversity effects. Key Results: Significant positive diversity effects in all individual years and averaged across the 5 years were observed. Across years, the four-species equi-proportional mixture was 71 % (N20: 20 kg N ha-1 year-1) and 51 % (N70: 70 kg N ha-1 year-1) more productive than the average of monocultures, and the highest yielding mixture was 36 % (N20) and 39 % (N70) more productive than the highest yielding monoculture. Importantly, diversity effects were also evident at low relative abundances of either species group, grasses or legumes in the mixture. Mixtures suppressed weeds significantly better than monocultures consistently during the course of the experiment at all N levels. Conclusions: The results show that even in the less productive agricultural systems in the cool maritime regions grass-legume mixtures can contribute substantially and persistently to a more sustainable agriculture. Positive grass-legume interactions suggest that symbiotic N2 fixation is maintained even under these marginal conditions, provided that adapted species and cultivars are used.
Background and Aims: Grassland-based livestock systems in cool maritime regions are commonly dominated by grass monocultures receiving relatively high levels of fertilizer. The current study investigated whether grass-legume mixtures can improve the productivity, resource efficiency and robustness of yield persistence of cultivated grassland under extreme growing conditions over a period of 5 years. Methods: Monocultures and mixtures of two grasses (Phleum pratense and Festuca pratensis) and two legumes (Trifolium pratense and Trifolium repens), one of which was fast establishing and the other temporally persistent, were sown in a field trial. Relative abundance of the four species in the mixtures was systematically varied at sowing. The plots were maintained under three N levels (20, 70 and 220 kg N ha-1 year-1) and harvested twice a year for five consecutive years. Yields of individual species and interactions between all species present were modelled to estimate the species diversity effects. Key Results: Significant positive diversity effects in all individual years and averaged across the 5 years were observed. Across years, the four-species equi-proportional mixture was 71 % (N20: 20 kg N ha-1 year-1) and 51 % (N70: 70 kg N ha-1 year-1) more productive than the average of monocultures, and the highest yielding mixture was 36 % (N20) and 39 % (N70) more productive than the highest yielding monoculture. Importantly, diversity effects were also evident at low relative abundances of either species group, grasses or legumes in the mixture. Mixtures suppressed weeds significantly better than monocultures consistently during the course of the experiment at all N levels. Conclusions: The results show that even in the less productive agricultural systems in the cool maritime regions grass-legume mixtures can contribute substantially and persistently to a more sustainable agriculture. Positive grass-legume interactions suggest that symbiotic N2 fixation is maintained even under these marginal conditions, provided that adapted species and cultivars are used.
Authors: H Charles J Godfray; John R Beddington; Ian R Crute; Lawrence Haddad; David Lawrence; James F Muir; Jules Pretty; Sherman Robinson; Sandy M Thomas; Camilla Toulmin Journal: Science Date: 2010-01-28 Impact factor: 47.728
Authors: Bradley J Cardinale; Justin P Wright; Marc W Cadotte; Ian T Carroll; Andy Hector; Diane S Srivastava; Michel Loreau; Jerome J Weis Journal: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Date: 2007-11-08 Impact factor: 11.205
Authors: John Connolly; Maria-Teresa Sebastià; Laura Kirwan; John Anthony Finn; Rosa Llurba; Matthias Suter; Rosemary P Collins; Claudio Porqueddu; Áslaug Helgadóttir; Ole H Baadshaug; Gilles Bélanger; Alistair Black; Caroline Brophy; Jure Čop; Sigridur Dalmannsdóttir; Ignacio Delgado; Anjo Elgersma; Michael Fothergill; Bodil E Frankow-Lindberg; An Ghesquiere; Piotr Golinski; Philippe Grieu; Anne-Maj Gustavsson; Mats Höglind; Olivier Huguenin-Elie; Marit Jørgensen; Zydre Kadziuliene; Tor Lunnan; Paivi Nykanen-Kurki; Angela Ribas; Friedhelm Taube; Ulrich Thumm; Alex De Vliegher; Andreas Lüscher Journal: J Appl Ecol Date: 2017-09-27 Impact factor: 6.528
Authors: Eamon Haughey; Matthias Suter; Daniel Hofer; Nyncke J Hoekstra; Jennifer C McElwain; Andreas Lüscher; John A Finn Journal: Sci Rep Date: 2018-10-09 Impact factor: 4.379