The Agrodiversity Experiment: three years of data from a multisite study in intensively managed grasslands
Author
Kirwan, LauraConnolly, John
Brophy, C.
Baadshaug, Ole
Belanger, Gilles
Black, Alistair D
Camus, Tim
Collins, Rosemary
Cop, Jure
Delgado, Ignacio
De Vliegher, Alex
Elgersma, Anjo
Frankow-Lindberg, Bodil
Golinski, Piotr
Grieu, Philippe
Gustavsson, Anne-Maj
Helgadottir, Aslaug
Hoglind, Mats
Huguenin-Elie, Olivier
Jorgensen, Marit
Kadziuliene, Zydre
Lunnan, Tor
Luscher, A.
Kurki, Paivi
Porqueddu, Claudio
Sebastia, Maria Teresa
Thumm, Ulrich
Walmsley, David
Finn, John

Keyword
Agricultural grasslandsBiodiversity
Ecosystem function
Forage quality
Mixtures
Monocultures
Overyielding
Plant community
Soecies biomass
Yield
Date
11/06/2014
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Laura Kirwan et al. 2014. The Agrodiversity Experiment: three years of data from a multisite study in intensively managed grasslands. Ecology 95:2680. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/14-0170.1Abstract
Intensively managed grasslands are globally prominent ecosystems. We investigated whether experimental increases in plant diversity in intensively managed grassland communities can increase their resource use efficiency. This work consisted of a coordinated, continental-scale 33-site experiment. The core design was 30 plots, representing 15 grassland communities at two seeding densities. The 15 communities were comprised of four monocultures (two grasses and two legumes) and 11 four-species mixtures that varied in the relative abundance of the four species at sowing. There were 1028 plots in the core experiment, with another 572 plots sown for additional treatments. Sites agreed a protocol and employed the same experimental methods with certain plot management factors, such as seeding rates and number of cuts, determined by local practice. The four species used at a site depended on geographical location, but the species were chosen according to four functional traits: a fast-establishing grass, a slow-establishing persistent grass, a fast-establishing legume, and a slow-establishing persistent legume. As the objective was to maximize yield for intensive grassland production, the species chosen were all high-yielding agronomic species. The data set contains species-specific biomass measurements (yield per species and of weeds) for all harvests for up to four years at 33 sites. Samples of harvested vegetation were also analyzed for forage quality at 26 sites. Analyses showed that the yield of the mixtures exceeded that of the average monoculture in >97% of comparisons. Mixture biomass also exceeded that of the best monoculture (transgressive overyielding) at about 60% of sites. There was also a positive relationship between the diversity of the communities and aboveground biomass that was consistent across sites and persisted for three years. Weed invasion in mixtures was very much less than that in monocultures. These data should be of interest to ecologists studying relationships between diversity and ecosystem function and to agronomists interested in sustainable intensification. The large spatial scale of the sites provides opportunity for analyses across spatial (and temporal) scales. The database can also complement existing databases and meta-analyses on biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships in natural communities by focusing on those same relationships within intensively managed agricultural grasslands.Funder
European Co-Operation in Science and Technology; Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology; Science Foundation IrelandGrant Number
852; 09/RFP/EOB2546ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/14-0170.1