Abstract
Tall expansive grasses act as serious weeds since they spread intensively and are a important threat to biodiversity of various plant communities. A field experiment was set up based on three sets of paired plots, where Calamagrostis epigejos and Arrhenatherum elatius dominated and a mixture of both these tall grasses occurred. Parallel plots were treated by additional amounts of nitrogen (50 kg N ha−1) for six years (2002–2007). Above-ground biomass was harvested in both wet (2004) and dry (2007) years, separated in individual fractions, and weighed to determine the above-ground biomass. We wanted to know if a higher nitrogen availability in dry year can support above-ground growth of expansive tall grasses C. epigejos and A. elatius and what their competitive ability of these tall grasses in mixture is in dry conditions. Drought resulted in a decrease in above-ground biomass production of studied tall expansive grasses, and, in a relative increase in mortality of A. elatius shoots in comparison with C. epigejos. Drought can substantially reduce the effect of applied nitrogen on above-ground growth of expansive tall grasses. However, A. elatius appears to be producing more above-ground biomass after application of N even in relatively dry conditions.
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Fiala, K., Tůma, I. & Holub, P. Effect of nitrogen addition and drought on above-ground biomass of expanding tall grasses Calamagrostis epigejos and Arrhenatherum elatius . Biologia 66, 275–281 (2011). https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-011-0001-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-011-0001-x