Robustness in the mineral supply from temporary grasslands

Henning Høgh Jensen, Karen Soegaard

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

The current study examined the capacity of different temporary grassland legume-grass mixtures under different N supply levels to supply similar amounts of elements in systems where the herbage is cut for feed. Mixtures showed a good robustness in supplying equal amounts of mineral elements in the combined herbage as well as equal concentrations in dry matter of mineral elements compared with the same species in monocultures. The reasons for the mixed systems to be able to buffer differences in N supply levels as well as different compositions of the mixtures were that legume leaves and stems had similar concentrations of mineral elements, whether in monocultures or in mixtures with grasses. Grasses in mixture with legumes had however higher N, Ca, S, Zn, Cu and tended to have higher Mg concentration, both in stems and leaves, while Mn were less concentrated in mixtures' dry matter. Further, the mixtures doubled their dry matter accumulation in the two weeks just around grass heading. The systems partly buffered the time-wise differences in the sense that the P accumulation paralleled dry matter but the N was diluted. This was mirrored in a decrease in N concentration and maintenance of the concentration level of P and other elements. As the stem-leaf ratio was higher (p
Original languageEnglish
JournalActa Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section B - Soil & Plant Science
Volume62
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)79-90
ISSN0906-4710
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Concentration in plant organs
  • Elements
  • Ecosystems services
  • Grasses
  • Herbs
  • Legumes
  • Minerals
  • Mixtures

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