| Grassland management experiment (GrassMan) was set up in 2008 on a permanent semi-natural grassland in the Solling uplands, Germany. The main research focus is on the ecosystem functioning of the phytodiverse grassland (e.g. productivity and forage quality, water and nutrient fluxes). The aim of our study was to analyse the effects of vegetation composition and functional diversity on productivity and forage quality of the semi-natural permanent grassland. Variation in sward composition was achieved by herbicide application and resulted in three sward types: control sward type (without herbicide application), monocot-reduced and dicot-reduced. Further management factors included different nutrient input levels (without fertilizer and 180-30-100 kg/ha of... |
