Effect of fertilizers application on grassland ecosystems: what can tell us long-term experiments?

Abstract

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS Benefit of all present papers for current stage of knowledge is directly obvious from their text. So, I will summarize the main benefit of each paper very briefly here. Chapter 2 - From the comparison of long-term vs short-term nutritional effects, it was concluded that long-term fertilizer experiments are irreplaceable as many existing models and predictions can be validated only by means of long-term manipulation of plant communities and their continuous observation and documentation. Chapter 3 - Long-term fertilizer application can create grasslands with no overlap of plant species composition in the scale of several meters. Species indicative of low productivity grasslands (short grasses, orchids, and sedges) can survive longterm nitrogen application if phosphorus is limiting nutrient for growth of highly productive grassland species. Chapter 4 - Long-term addition of limiting nutrient can affect grassland ecosystem in three ways: 1) by change in plant species composition without significant increase in total biomass production, 2) by no change in species composition but with significant increase in total biomass production, and 3) by substantial change in plant species composition accompanied by significant increase in total biomass production. Chapter 5 - Long-term fertilizer...

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS Benefit of all present papers for current stage of knowledge is directly obvious from their text. So, I will summarize the main benefit of each paper very briefly here. Chapter 2 - From the comparison of long-term vs short-term nutritional effects, it was concluded that long-term fertilizer experiments are irreplaceable as many existing models and predictions can be validated only by means of long-term manipulation of plant communities and their continuous observation and documentation. Chapter 3 - Long-term fertilizer application can create grasslands with no overlap of plant species composition in the scale of several meters. Species indicative of low productivity grasslands (short grasses, orchids, and sedges) can survive longterm nitrogen application if phosphorus is limiting nutrient for growth of highly productive grassland species. Chapter 4 - Long-term addition of limiting nutrient can affect grassland ecosystem in three ways: 1) by change in plant species composition without significant increase in total biomass production, 2) by no change in species composition but with significant increase in total biomass production, and 3) by substantial change in plant species composition accompanied by significant increase in total biomass production. Chapter 5 - Long-term fertilizer...