THE ROLE OF LONG-TERM EXPERIMENTS IN VALIDATING TRAIT-BASED APPROACHES TO ACHIEVING MULTIFUNCTIONALITY IN GRASSLANDS

doi:10.15302/J-FASE-2021438

Front. Agr. Sci. Eng.

2022, Vol. 9

Issue (2) : 187-196 https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2021438

RESEARCH ARTICLE

THE ROLE OF LONG-TERM EXPERIMENTS IN VALIDATING TRAIT-BASED APPROACHES TO ACHIEVING MULTIFUNCTIONALITY IN GRASSLANDS

Jonathan STORKEY(

), Andrew J. MACDONALD

Rothamsted Research, West Common, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, UK

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Abstract

● Data from the Park Grass Experiment shows inherent trade-offs between species richness, biomass production and soil organic carbon.

● Soil organic carbon is positively correlated with biomass production that increases with fertilizer additions.

● Variance in outcomes can be understood in terms of the dominant ecological strategies of the plant communities indicated by functional traits.

● There was an indication that data on traits associated with the spatiotemporal pattern of resource capture could be used to design species mixtures with greater resource use complementarity, increasing species richness without sacrificing productivity.

● Variance in soil organic carbon was positively correlated with pH.

Quantifying the relationships between plant functional traits and ecosystem services has been promoted as an approach to achieving multifunctional grassland systems that balance productivity with other regulating, supporting and cultural services. Establishing trade-offs and synergies between traits and services has largely relied on meta-analyses of studies from different systems and environments. This study demonstrated the value of focused studies of long-term experiments in grassland systems that measure traits and services in the same space and time to better understand the ecological constraints underlying these trade-offs and synergies. An analysis is presented that uses data from the Park Grass Experiment at Rothamsted Research on above-ground productivity, species richness and soil organic carbon stocks to quantify the relationships between these three outcomes and the power of variance in plant functional traits in explaining them. There was a trade-off between plots with high productivity, nitrogen inputs and soil organic carbon and plots with high species richness that was explained by a functional gradient of traits that are indicative of contrasting strategies of resource acquisition of resource conservation. Examples were identified of using functional traits to identify opportunities for mitigating these trade-offs and moving toward more multifunctional systems.

Keywords multifunctional grassland systems Park Grass Experiment soil organic carbon ecosystem service

Corresponding Author(s): Jonathan STORKEY

Just Accepted Date: 31 March 2022 Online First Date: 26 April 2022 Issue Date: 25 May 2022

Cite this article:

Jonathan STORKEY,Andrew J. MACDONALD. THE ROLE OF LONG-TERM EXPERIMENTS IN VALIDATING TRAIT-BASED APPROACHES TO ACHIEVING MULTIFUNCTIONALITY IN GRASSLANDS[J]. Front. Agr. Sci. Eng. , 2022, 9(2): 187-196.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fase/EN/10.15302/J-FASE-2021438
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fase/EN/Y2022/V9/I2/187

Fig.1 Effect of fertilizer treatments on above-ground productivity (sum of both cuts averaged for harvest years 1998–2002). Data are presented at the level of the main plot, averaging biomass across the subplots and omitting the strongly acid subplots with a pH of < 4.5. Three main plots did not receive any fertilizer inputs (Nil). Nitrogen was applied at increasing rates (48, 96 and 144 kg·ha⁻¹ N for N1, N2 and N3, respectively) either as ammonium sulfate (N) or sodium nitrate (N*). When applied as sodium nitrate, plots also received an additional 78 and 157 kg·ha⁻¹ S at N*1 and N*2, respectively. Phosphorus was applied at 35 kg·ha⁻¹ P as triple superphosphate, potassium at 225 kg·ha⁻¹ K as potassium sulfate, sodium at 15 kg·ha⁻¹ Na as sodium sulfate (also supplying 10 kg·ha⁻¹ S), magnesium at 10 kg·ha⁻¹ Mg as magnesium sulfate (also supplying 13 kg·ha⁻¹ S) and silicon at 135 kg·ha⁻¹ Si as water soluble sodium silicate (also supplying 63 kg·ha⁻¹ S). Organics were applied every fourth year to plots receiving farmyard manure (FYM) at 35 t·ha⁻¹ and pelleted poultry manure (PM) supplying approximately 240 and 65 kg·ha⁻¹ N, respectively.

Fig.2 Relationships between outcomes (a–c) and trade-off between soil organic carbon (SOC) and inorganic nitrogen (N) inputs (d) with 95% confidence intervals. There is a negative relationship between above-ground biomass and species richness (species richness = 35.5 – 1.89 × biomass, %var = 27.7, F prob. < 0.001) and species richness and SOC (SOC = 105 – 0.5 × species richness, %var = 4.6, F prob. = 0.04) and a positive relationship between SOC and above-ground biomass (SOC = 76.7 + 2.83 × biomass, %var = 17.9, F prob. < 0.001) and SOC and added N (SOC = 86.7 + 0.14 × added N, %var = 27.5, F prob. < 0.001).

Fig.3 Principal component analysis of traits represented by the plant species in the Park Grass Experiment.

Tab.1 Effect of individual community weighted means traits on outcomes (SOC = soil organic carbon) on the Park Grass Experiment indicating direction of response and level of significance

Tab.2 Best predictive model combining abiotic factors and functional trait data for outcomes on the Park Grass Experiment

Fig.4 Significant traits retained in most parsimonious model explaining variation in outcomes of the Park Grass Experiment, with 95% confidence intervals, using a combination of abiotic factors and functional traits, (a) relationship between community weighted means (CWM) specific leaf area and total biomass, (b) CWM allocation and species richness and (c) CWM leaf dry matter content and species richness adjusted for biomass.

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