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

Journal of Applied Ecology

Volumn 55, Issue 2, 2018, Pages 852-862

  Connolly, John ^a   Sebastià, Maria Teresa ^b,c   Kirwan, Laura ^a,d   Finn, John Anthony ^e   Llurba, Rosa ^b,c   Suter, Matthias ^f   Collins, Rosemary P ^g   Porqueddu, Claudio ^h   Helgadóttir, Áslaug ⁱ   Baadshaug, Ole H ^j   Bélanger, Gilles ^k   Black, Alistair ^e   Brophy, Caroline ^l   Čop, Jure ^m   Dalmannsdóttir, Sigridur ^i,n   Delgado, Ignacio ^o   Elgersma, Anjo ^p,q   Fothergill, Michael ^g   Frankow Lindberg, Bodil E ^q   Ghesquiere, An ^r   Golinski, Piotr ^s   Grieu, Philippe ^t   Gustavsson, Anne Maj ^u   Höglind, Mats ⁿ   Huguenin Elie, Olivier ^f   Jørgensen, Marit ⁿ   Kadziuliene, Zydre ^v   Lunnan, Tor ⁿ   Nykanen Kurki, Paivi ^w   Ribas, Angela ^b,x   Taube, Friedhelm ^y   Thumm, Ulrich ^z   De Vliegher, Alex ^r   Lüscher, Andreas ^f   more..

^a UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN   (Ireland)

^b CENTRE TECNOLÒGIC FORESTAL DE CATALUNYA   (Spain)

^c UNIVERSITY OF LLEIDA   (Spain)

^d South East Technological University   (Ireland)

^e TEAGASC   (Ireland)

^f AGROSCOPE RECKENHOLZ TÄNIKON RESEARCH STATION ART   (Switzerland)

^g ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^h CNR   (Italy)

ⁱ AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY OF ICELAND   (Iceland)

^j NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES   (Norway)

^k AGRICULTURE AND AGRI FOOD CANADA   (Canada)

^l NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND   (Ireland)

^m UNIVERSITY OF LJUBLJANA   (Slovenia)

ⁿ NORWEGIAN INSTITUTE OF BIOECONOMY RESEARCH   (Norway)

^o Agrifood Institute of Aragón IA2   (Spain)

^p WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

^q Wageningen University ^*  (Netherlands)

^r INSTITUTE FOR AGRICULTURAL AND FISHERIES RESEARCH ILVO   (Belgium)

^s POZNA UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES   (Poland)

^t CEMAGREF   (France)

^u SWEDISH UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES   (Sweden)

^v INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE   (Lithuania)

^w FINNISH FOREST RESEARCH INSTITUTE   (Finland)

^x CREAF   (Spain)

^y UNIVERSITY OF KIEL   (Germany)

^z UNIVERSITY OF HOHENHEIM   (Germany)

more..

Author keywords

agro ecology; evenness; forage swards; functional diversity; generalised diversity interactions; legume grass; nitrogen acquisition; sustainable agriculture; temporal development; transgressive weed suppression

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURAL INTENSIFICATION; AGROECOLOGY; ALTERNATIVE AGRICULTURE; BIOLOGICAL INVASION; BIOMASS; CROP YIELD; EXPERIMENTAL STUDY; FORAGE; FUNCTIONAL CHANGE; GRASS; GRASSLAND; LEGUME; MONOCULTURE; NITROGEN; NUTRIENT DYNAMICS; SPECIES DIVERSITY; SPECIES EVENNESS; TEMPORAL VARIATION; WEED;

EID: 85041946024     PISSN: 00218901     EISSN: 13652664     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.12991     Document Type: Article

References (40)

1. Brophy, C., Finn, J. A., Lüscher, A., Suter, M., Kirwan, L., Sebastià, M.-T., … Connolly, J. (2017). Major shifts in species' relative abundance in grassland mixtures alongside positive effects of species diversity in yield: A continental-scale experiment. Journal of Ecology. Accepted Manuscript. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12754
2. Byun, C., Blois, S., & Brisson, J. (2013). Plant functional group identity and diversity determine biotic resistance to invasion by an exotic grass. Journal of Ecology, 101, 128–139.
3. Connolly, J., Bell, T., Bolger, T., Brophy, C., Carnus, T., Finn, J. A., … Weigelt, A. (2013). An improved model to predict the effects of changing biodiversity levels on ecosystem function. Journal of Ecology, 101, 344–355.
4. Crawley, M. J., Brown, S. L., Heard, M. S., & Edwards, G. R. (1999). Invasion-resistance in experimental grassland communities: Species richness or species identity? Ecology Letters, 2, 140–148.
5. Dooley, Á., Isbell, F., Kirwan, L., Connolly, J., Finn, J. A., & Brophy, C. (2015). Testing the effects of diversity on ecosystem multifunctionality using a multivariate model. Ecology Letters, 18, 1242–1251.
6. Emery, S. M., & Gross, K. L. (2007). Dominant species identity, not community evenness, regulates invasion in experimental grassland plant communities. Ecology, 88, 954–964.
7. Fargione, J., Brown, C. S., & Tilman, D. (2003). Community assembly and invasion: An experimental test of neutral versus niche processes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100, 8916–8920.
8. Fargione, J. E., & Tilman, D. (2005). Diversity decreases invasion via both sampling and complementarity effects. Ecology Letters, 8, 604–611.
9. Finn, J. A., Kirwan, L., Connolly, J., Sebastià, M. T., Helgadottir, A., Baadshaug, O. H., … Lüscher, A. (2013). Ecosystem function enhanced by combining four functional types of plant species in intensively managed grassland mixtures: A 3-year continental-scale field experiment. Journal of Applied Ecology, 50, 365–375.
10. Frankow-Lindberg, B. E. (2012). Grassland plant species diversity decreases invasion by increasing resource use. Oecologia, 169, 793–802.
11. Gaba, S., Lescourret, F., Boudsocq, S., Enjalbert, J., Hinsinger, P., Journet, E.-P., … Ozier-Lafontaine, H. (2015). Multiple cropping systems as drivers for providing multiple ecosystem services: From concepts to design. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 35, 607–623.
12. Godfray, H. C. J., Beddington, J. R., Crute, I. R., Haddad, L., Lawrence, D., Muir, J. F., … Toulmin, C. (2010). Food security: The challenge of feeding 9 billion people. Science (New York, N.Y.), 327, 812–818.
13. Goslee, S. C., Veith, T. L., Skinner, R. H., & Comas, L. H. (2013). Optimizing ecosystem function by manipulating pasture community composition. Basic and Applied Ecology, 14, 630–641.
14. Hoekstra, N. J., Suter, M., Finn, J. A., Husse, S., & Lüscher, A. (2015). Do belowground vertical niche differences between deep- and shallow-rooted species enhance resource uptake and drought resistance in grassland mixtures? Plant and Soil, 394, 21–34.
15. Hofer, D., Suter, M., Buchmann, N., & Lüscher, A. (2017). Nitrogen status of functionally different forage species explains resistance to severe drought and post-drought overcompensation. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 236, 312–322.
16. Husse, S., Huguenin-Elie, O., Buchmann, N., & Lüscher, A. (2016). Larger yields of mixtures than monocultures of cultivated grassland species match with asynchrony in shoot growth among species but not with increased light interception. Field Crops Research, 194, 1–11.
17. Isbell, F., Adler, P. R., Eisenhauer, N., Fornara, D., Kimmel, K., Kremen, C., … Scherer-Lorenzen, M. (2017). Benefits of increasing plant diversity in sustainable agroecosystems. Journal of Ecology, 105, 871–879.
18. Kennedy, T. A., Naeem, S., Howe, K. M., Knops, J. M. H., Tilman, D., & Reich, P. (2002). Biodiversity as a barrier to ecological invasion. Nature, 417, 636–638.
19. Kirwan, L., Connolly, J., Brophy, C., Baadshaug, O., Belanger, G., Black, A., … Finn, J. (2014). The Agrodiversity Experiment: Three years of data from a multisite study in intensively managed grasslands. Ecology, 95, 2680.
20. Kirwan, L., Connolly, J., Finn, J. A., Brophy, C., Lüscher, A., Nyfeler, D., & Sebastià, M.-T. (2009). Diversity–interaction modeling: Estimating contributions of species identities and interactions to ecosystem function. Ecology, 90, 2032–2038.
21. Kirwan, L., Lüscher, A., Sebastià, M. T., Finn, J. A., Collins, R. P., Porqueddu, C., … Connolly, J. (2007). Evenness drives consistent diversity effects in intensive grassland systems across 28 European sites. Journal of Ecology, 95, 530–539.
22. Lüscher, A., Mueller-Harvey, I., Soussana, J. F., Rees, R. M., & Peyraud, J. L. (2014). Potential of legume-based grassland-livestock systems in Europe: A review. Grass and Forage Science, 69, 206–228.
23. Maron, J. L., & Marler, M. (2008). Effects of native species diversity and resource addition on invader impact. American. Naturalist, 172, S18–S33.
24. Mwangi, P. N., Schmitz, M., Scherber, C., Roscher, C., Schumacher, J., Scherer-Lorenzen, M., … Schmid, B. (2007). Niche pre-emption increases with species richness in experimental plant communities. Journal of Ecology, 95, 65–78.
25. Nyfeler, D., Huguenin-Elie, O., Suter, M., Frossard, E., Connolly, J., & Lüscher, A. (2009). Strong mixture effects among four species in fertilized agricultural grassland led to persistent and consistent transgressive overyielding. Journal of Applied Ecology, 46, 683–691.
26. Nyfeler, D., Huguenin-Elie, O., Suter, M., Frossard, E., & Lüscher, A. (2011). Grass–legume mixtures can yield more nitrogen than legume pure stands due to mutual stimulation of nitrogen uptake from symbiotic and non-symbiotic sources. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 140, 155–163.
27. Oerke, E.-C., & Dehne, H.-W. (2004). Safeguarding production-losses in major crops and the role of crop protection. Crop Protection, 23, 275–285.
28. Pawitan, Y. (2001). In all likelihood: Statistical modelling and inference using likelihood. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 528.
29. Prieur-Richard, A.-H., Lavorel, S., Dos Santos, A., & Grigulis, K. (2002). Mechanisms of resistance of Mediterranean annual communities to invasion by Conyza bonariensis: Effects of native functional composition. Oikos, 2, 338–346.
30. R Core Team. (2014). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Retrieved from http://www.R-project.org
31. Renne, I. J., Tracy, B. F., & Colonna, I. A. (2006). Shifts in grassland invasibility: Effects of soil resources, disturbance, composition, and invader size. Ecology, 87, 2264–2277.
32. Roscher, C., Temperton, V. M., Buchmann, N., & Schulze, E.-D. (2009). Community assembly and biomass production in regularly and never weeded experimental grasslands. Acta Oecologica, 35, 206–217.
33. Sanderson, M. A., Brink, G., Ruth, L., & Stout, R. (2012). Grass–legume mixtures suppress weeds during establishment better than monocultures. Agronomy Journal, 104, 36–42.
34. Sanderson, M. A., Brink, G., Stout, R., & Leah, R. (2013). Grass-legume proportions in forage seed mixtures and effects of herbage yield and weed abundance. Agronomy Journal, 105, 1289–1297.
35. Smith, M. D., Wilcox, J. C., Kelly, T., & Knapp, A. K. (2004). Dominance not richness determines invasibility of tallgrass prairie. Oikos, 106, 253–262.
36. Suter, M., Connolly, J., Finn, J. A., Loges, R., Kirwan, L., Sebastià, M.-T., & Lüscher, A. (2015). Nitrogen yield advantage from grass-legume mixtures is robust over a wide range of legume proportions and environmental conditions. Global Change Biology, 21, 2424–2438.
37. Suter, M., Hofer, D., & Lüscher, A. (2017). Weed suppression enhanced by increasing functional trait dispersion and resource capture in forage ley mixtures. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2017.01.007
38. Tracy, B. F., & Sanderson, M. A. (2004). Forage productivity, species evenness and weed invasion in pasture communities. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 102, 175–183.
39. Tubiello, F. N., Soussana, J.-F., & Howden, S. M. (2007). Crop and pasture response to climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104, 19686–19690.
40. Verbeke, G., & Molenberghs, G. (2000). Linear mixed models for longitudinal data. New York, NY: Springer, 570.