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Large-scale manipulation of plant litter and fertilizer in a managed successional temperate grassland

Plant Ecology volume 197, pages 183–195 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Plant litter may play an important role in herbaceous plant communities by limiting primary production and influencing plant species richness. However, it is not known how the effect of litter interacts with fertilization. We tested for the role of litter and fertilization in a large-scale experiment to investigate effects on diversity and biomass of plant species, growth forms, native vs. non-native groups, and abiotic ecosystem components (e.g., soil moisture, PAR). We manipulated plant litter (removed vs. left in situ) and nutrient availability (NPK-fertilized vs. unfertilized) for 4 years in 314-m2 plots, replicated six times, in an old-field grassland. While many of our species-level results supported previously published studies and theory, our plant group results generally did not. Specifically, grass species richness and forb biomass was not affected by either fertilization or plant litter. Moreover, plant litter removal significantly increased non-native plant species richness. Relative to native plant species, all of our experimental manipulations significantly increased both the biomass and the species richness of non-native plant species. Thus, this grassland system was sensitive to management treatments through the facilitation of non-native plant species. We coupled biotic and abiotic components within a nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMS) analysis to investigate treatment effects, which revealed that specific treatments altered ecosystem development. These results suggest that fertilization and plant litter may have larger impacts on plant communities and on ecosystem properties than previously understood, underscoring the need for larger-scale and longer-term experiments.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank J. Yao, W. Cook, and R. Holt for helpful comments on an early draft of this paper. We also thank C. Carlyle, C. Picard, T. Miletti, J. Karnezis, S. Carty, E. Madson, A. Landau, E. Lawrence, several other graduate and undergraduate students for their help in the field and laboratory, B. Andreas for help identifying some plant species, and The University of Akron and the Bath Township Trustees for allowing us to use the BNP. A Research Initiative II grant to L. Fraser from the University of Akron helped fund the project and a Canada Research Chair awarded to L. Fraser provided the time to finish the writing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH, 44242, USA

    L. Brian Patrick & Mark W. Kershner

  2. Department of Natural Resource Sciences, Thompson Rivers University, 900 McGill Road, PO Box 3010, Kamloops, BC, Canada, V2C 5N3

    Lauchlan H. Fraser

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  1. L. Brian Patrick
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Correspondence to Lauchlan H. Fraser.

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Patrick, L.B., Fraser, L.H. & Kershner, M.W. Large-scale manipulation of plant litter and fertilizer in a managed successional temperate grassland. Plant Ecol 197, 183–195 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-007-9369-7

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