Manipulating plant community composition to steer efficient N‐cycling in intensively managed grasslands

Weed suppression greatly increased by plant diversity in intensively managed grasslands: A continental‐scale experiment

Grassland diversity can support sustainable intensification of grassland production through increased yields, reduced inputs and limited weed invasion. We report the effects of diversity on weed suppression from 3 years of a 31-site continental-scale field experiment.At each site, 15 grassland communities comprising four monocultures and 11 four-species mixtures based on a wide range of species...

Organic Farming and Landscape Structure: Effects on Insect-Pollinated Plant Diversity in Intensively Managed Grasslands

Parallel declines in insect-pollinated plants and their pollinators have been reported as a result of agricultural intensification. Intensive arable plant communities have previously been shown to contain higher proportions of self-pollinated plants compared to natural or semi-natural plant communities. Though intensive grasslands are widespread, it is not known whether they show similar patter...

Plant community composition, not diversity, regulates soil respiration in grasslands.

Soil respiration is responsible for recycling considerable quantities of carbon from terrestrial ecosystems to the atmosphere. There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that the richness of plants in a community can have significant impacts on ecosystem functioning, but the specific influences of plant species richness (SR), plant functional-type richness and plant community composition...

Relationship between Remote Sensing Data, Plant Biomass and Soil Nitrogen Dynamics in Intensively Managed Grasslands under Controlled Conditions

The sustainable use of grasslands in intensive farming systems aims to optimize nitrogen (N) inputs to increase crop yields and decrease harmful losses to the environment at the same time. To achieve this, simple optical sensors may provide a non-destructive, time- and cost-effective tool for estimating plant biomass in the field, considering spatial and temporal variability. However, the plant...

Competitive advantage of Rumex obtusifolius L. might increase in intensively managed temperate grasslands under drier climate