Direct and plant community mediated effects of management intensity on annual nutrient leaching risk in temperate grasslands

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Abstract
Grassland management intensity influences nutrient cycling both directly, by changing nutrient inputs and outputs from the ecosystem, and indirectly, by altering the nutrient content, and the diversity and functional composition of plant and microbial communities. However, the relative importance of these direct and indirect processes for the leaching of multiple nutrients is poorly studied. We measured the annual leaching of nitrate, ammonium, phosphate and sulphate at a depth of 10 cm in 150 temperate managed grasslands using a resin method. Using Structural Equation Modeling, we distinguished between various direct and indirect effects of management intensity (i.e. grazing and fertilization) on nutrient leaching. We found that management intensity was positively associated with nitrate, ammonium and phosphate leaching risk both directly (i.e. via increased nutrient inputs) and indirectly, by changing the stoichiometry of soils, plants and microbes. In contrast, sulphate leaching risk was negatively associated with management intensity, presumably due to increased outputs with mowing and grazing. In addition, management intensification shifted plant communities towards an exploitative functional composition (characterized by high tissue turnover rates) and, thus, further promoted the leaching risk of inorganic nitrogen. Plant species richness was associated with lower inorganic nitrogen leaching risk, but most of its effects were mediated by stoichiometry and plant community functional traits. Maintaining and restoring diverse plant communities may therefore mitigate the increased leaching risk that management intensity imposes upon grasslands.
Date Issued
2022-05
Publication Type
Article
Subject(s)
Subjects
Annual nutrient leaching
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Inorganic nitrogen
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Phosphate
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Sulphate
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Temperate grasslands
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Grassland management
Language(s)
en
Author(s)
Apostolakis, Antonios
Schöning, Ingo
Klaus, Valentin H.
Michalzik, Beate
Bischoff, Wolf-Anno
Boeddinghaus, Runa S.
Hölzel, Norbert
Kandeler, Ellen
Kleinebecker, Till
Manning, Peter
Marhan, Sven
Neyret, Margot
Oelmann, Yvonne
van Kleunen, Mark
Schwarz, Andreas
Schurig, Elisabeth
Schrumpf, Marion
Additional Credits
Journal
Nutrient cycling in agroecosystems
Publisher
Springer
ISSN
1385-1314
Access(Rights)
open.access
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