Effects of mineral addition on the establishment of grazing lawns in a nutrient poor savanna
Schroder, B.; Schroder, N.-A. H.; Van Langevelde, F.; Prins, H. H. T.
Show abstract
Nutrient poor savannas are often characterized by inedible or rarely palatable grasses, which generally provide poor nutrition for mammalian grazers. So-called grazing lawns, with short, stoloniferous edible grasses, could provide high-quality food for grazers, but these lawn grasses are rare in nutrient poor savannas. We tested whether we could use mineral addition to establish grazing lawns in a nutrient poor African savanna, in order to achieve a switch from tall, nutritionally poor to short, highly nutritional grass species. The key finding is that phosphorus and lime, nitrogen and nitrogen and lime supplementation resulted in shift from tall to short grasses within three years, with a higher overall nutrient concentration in the grass leaf, than without supplementation. When grazed, the cover of lawn grasses was higher compared to the other grasses when not grazed, demonstrating the role of grazers in maintaining and expanding lawn grass patches. We conclude that local fertilisation in nutrient poor savannas is a viable method of increasing mineral levels in the soil and grass leaf. We also concluded that grazing results in an increase in lawn grass cover and a combination of fertilisation and grazing can improve forage quality to ensure higher nutrient availability to herbivores.
Matching journals
The top 8 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
- Distinct microbial communities alter litter decomposition rates in a fertilized coastal plain wetland 93%
- Researcher effects on the biological structure and edaphic conditions of field sites and implications for management. 92%
- The shrub Ephedra californica facilitates arthropod communities along a regional desert climatic gradient. 91%
Similar papers in this journal
- Forest fragmentation and impacts of intensive agriculture: responses from functional groups of the tree community 93%
- Ecological stoichiometric characteristics of Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) in leaf, root, stem, and soil in four wetland plants communities in Shengjin Lake, China, 93%
- Water requirement and growth indicators of forest tree species seedlings produced with automated irrigation management 93%
Similar papers in this journal
- Opportunities and challenges in using remote sensing for identifying grassland restoration sites and invasive tree species management in a global biodiversity hotspot 94%
- Frass fertilizers from mass-reared insects: species variation, heat treatment effects, and implications for soil application 93%
- Impacts Of Deforestation And Land Use/Land Cover Change On Carbon Stock And Dynamics In The Jomoro District, Ghana 93%
Similar papers in this journal
- Exploitation of neighbouring subsoil for nutrient acquisition under annual-perennial strip intercropping systems 95%
- Tensions in tillage: Reduction in tillage intensity associates with lower wheat growth and nutritional grain quality despite enhanced soil biological indicators 94%
- Pasture age impacts soil fungal composition while bacteria respond to soil chemistry 93%
Similar papers in this journal
- Intra and inter-annual climatic conditions have stronger effect than grazing intensity on root growth of permanent grasslands 96%
- Field margins as substitute habitat for the conservation of birds in agricultural wetlands 94%
- Comparative responses of legume vs. non-legume tropical trees to biochar additions 92%
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.