The influence of long-term fertilization on species diversity and yield potential of permanent meadow stand

Abstract

Long-term fertilization of meadow stands affects the species composition, yields, and general pratotechnics. Observations were realised on a plane meadow of a mesophyte character in 1976–2000 years. Four variants were observed in the experiments (N0, N0P40K100, N100P40K100, N200P40K100) in four replications. Species composition of grass stands was variable in the followed period in the leaf area from 66 to 95% of the dominance (Table 1). Total abundance of species with PK-fertilization was almost identical in individual pentads (24–28 species) as it is evident in Table 2. Table 3 proves the highest dominance was found at Dactylis glomerata L. in the first five years. Rhizomatous grasses had the highest leaf area with 38–55% of the dominance on variants with the higher N doses (200 kg N/ha) + PK (Table 4). Table 5 demonstrates that the variant without fertilization showed nearly stable abundance of species with the higher than 1% (11–13). Reduction of species number especially with the dominance higher than 1% (5–11) followed at the highest N-fertilization in comparison with the check variant. The mean yield of dry matter was 2.75 t/ha, the stand fertilized by 40 kg P + 100 kg K/ha gave 30.6% increased of yield (Table 7). The highest yields were recording in the second year of the N-fertilization (8.28 and 10.12 t/ha).