Presence of Trifolium repens Promotes Complementarity of Water Use and N Facilitation in Diverse Grass Mixtures.

ABSTRACT: Legume species promote productivity and increase the digestibility of herbage in grasslands. Considerable experimental data also indicate that communities with legumes produce more above-ground biomass than is expected from monocultures. While it has been attributed to N facilitation, evidence to identify the mechanisms involved is still lacking and the role of complementarity in soil water acquisition by vertical root differentiation remains unclear. We used a 20-months mesocosm experiment to investigate the effects of species richness (single species, two- and five-species mixtures) and functional diversity (presence of the legume Trifolium repens) on a set of traits related to light, N and water use and measured at community level. We found a positive effect of Trifolium presence and ab

SUBMITTER: Hernandez P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4845251 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature