Weed suppression greatly increased by plant diversity in intensively managed grasslands : a continental-scale experiment
Connolly, John 1968- (University College Dublin. School of Mathematics and Statistics)
Sebastià, Ma.T (Universitat de Lleida. Escola Tècnica Superior d'Enginyeria Agrària)
Kirwan, Laura (Waterford Institute of Technology (Ireland))
Finn, John Anthony (Teagasc Environment Research Centre (Ireland))
Llurba, Rosa (Centre Tecnològic Forestal de Catalunya)
Suter, Matthias (Agroscope, Forage Production and Grassland Systems (Switzerland))
Collins, Rosemary P. (Aberystwyth University. Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences)
Porqueddu, Claudio (Istituto per il Sistema Produzione Animale in Ambiente Mediterraneo)
Helgadóttir, Áslaug (Agricultural University of Iceland)
Baadshaug, Ole H. (Norwegian University of Life Sciences)
Bélanger, Gilles (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada)
Black, Alistair (Teagasc, Beef Research Centre (Ireland))
Brophy, Caroline (Maynooth University. Department of Mathematics and Statistics)
Čop, Jure (Univerza V Ljubljani)
Dalmannsdóttir, Sigridur (Agricultural University of Iceland)
Delgado Enguita, Ignacio (Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria de Aragón)
Elgersma, Anjo (Wageningen University. Plant Sciences Group (The Netherlands))
Fothergill, Michael (Aberystwyth University. Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences)
Frankow Lindberg, Bodil E. (Department of Crop Production Ecology (Sweden))
Ghesquiere, An (Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (Belgium))
Golinski, Piotr (Poznan University of Life Sciences. Department of Grassland and Natural Landscape Sciences (Poland))
Grieu, Philippe (French National Institute for Agricultural Research (France))
Gustavsson, Anne-Maj (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Department of Agricultural Research for Northern Sweden)
Höglind, Mats (Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research)
Huguenin Elie, Olivier (Agroscope, Forage Production and Grassland Systems (Switzerland))
Jørgensen, Marit (Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research)
Kadziuliene, Zydre (Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry)
Lunnan, Tor (Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research)
Nykanen Kurki, Paivi (Agrifood Research Finland, Ecological Production)
Ribas Artola, Àngela (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Taube, Friedhelm (University of Kiel. Institute of Crop Science and Plant Breeding (Germany))
Thumm, Ulrich (University of Hohenheim. Institute of Crop Sciences (Germany))
Vliegher, Alex De (Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (Belgium))
Lüscher, Andreas (Agroscope, Forage Production and Grassland Systems (Switzerland))

Data:	2018
Resum:	1. 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. 2. At each site, 15 grassland communities comprising four monocultures and 11 four-species mixtures based on a wide range of species' proportions were sown at two densities and managed by cutting. Forage species were selected according to two crossed functional traits, "method of nitrogen acquisition" and "pattern of temporal development". 3. Across sites, years and sown densities, annual weed biomass in mixtures and monocultures was 0. 5 and 2. 0 t DM ha−1 (7% and 33% of total biomass respectively). Over 95% of mixtures had weed biomass lower than the average of monocultures, and in two-thirds of cases, lower than in the most suppressive monoculture (transgressive suppression). Suppression was significantly transgressive for 58% of site-years. Transgressive suppression by mixtures was maintained across years, independent of site productivity. 4. Based on models, average weed biomass in mixture over the whole experiment was 52% less (95% confidence interval: 30%-75%) than in the most suppressive monoculture. Transgressive suppression of weed biomass was significant at each year across all mixtures and for each mixture. 5. Weed biomass was consistently low across all mixtures and years and was in some cases significantly but not largely different from that in the equiproportional mixture. The average variability (standard deviation) of annual weed biomass within a site was much lower for mixtures (0. 42) than for monocultures (1. 77). 6. Synthesis and applications. Weed invasion can be diminished through a combination of forage species selected for complementarity and persistence traits in systems designed to reduce reliance on fertiliser nitrogen. In this study, effects of diversity on weed suppression were consistently strong across mixtures varying widely in species' proportions and over time. The level of weed biomass did not vary greatly across mixtures varying widely in proportions of sown species. These diversity benefits in intensively managed grasslands are relevant for the sustainable intensification of agriculture and, importantly, are achievable through practical farm-scale actions.
Ajuts:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2006-13555-C03-01 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2013-49142-C2-1-R European Commission 266018
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	Agro-ecology ; Evenness ; Forage swards ; Functional diversity ; Generalised diversity-interactions ; Legume-grass ; Nitrogen acquisition ; Sustainable agriculture ; Temporal development ; Transgressive ; Weed suppression
Publicat a:	Journal of applied ecology, Vol. 55 Núm. 2 (march 2018) , p. 852-862, ISSN 0021-8901

DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.12991
PMID: 29540935

11 p, 833.7 KB

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