Mid-term fertilisers and lime effect on grassland in the hilly-mountain region in Balkan

Vladimir Zornić, Vesna Đurović, Mirjana Petrović, Snežana Babić, Dalibor Tomić, Nedeljko Racić and Jasmina Milenković
Additional contact information
Vladimir Zornić: Institute for Forage Crop Kruševac, Kruševac, Serbia
Vesna Đurović: Faculty of Agronomy, University of Kragujevac, Čačak, Serbia
Mirjana Petrović: Institute for Forage Crop Kruševac, Kruševac, Serbia
Snežana Babić: Institute for Forage Crop Kruševac, Kruševac, Serbia
Dalibor Tomić: Faculty of Agronomy, University of Kragujevac, Čačak, Serbia
Nedeljko Racić: Institute for Forage Crop Kruševac, Kruševac, Serbia
Jasmina Milenković: Institute for Forage Crop Kruševac, Kruševac, Serbia

Plant, Soil and Environment, 2025, vol. 71, issue 1, 12-20

Abstract: Although the effects of fertiliser addition and liming on semi-natural grassland productivity and biomass quality are well documented, less is known about how fertilisers change plant functional groups and mean ecological values. We researched the effects of liming (no lime and lime with 1 t/ha) and mineral fertilisers (control - no fertilisers, PK-P60K60, N20PK-N20P60K60, N80PK-N80P60K60, and N140PK-N140P60K60) for nine years on the Danthonia alpina Vest. grassland community. Based on Brown-Blanquet cover abundance, we calculated Shannon-Wiener evenness and abundance of plant functional groups (based on height, canopy structure, storage organs presence and flowering duration). We also researched Landolt's ecological indicator values for nutrients, moisture, reaction, light, and temperature. Results revealed that fertilisers stimulated tall species with longer flowering duration. Shannon-Wiener evenness in control was 0.45, and N20PK increased to 0.71 but significantly decreased in treatment N140PK (0.25). Mean Landolt ecological value for nutrients and moisture increased while temperature dropped. The coverage of legumes and Landolt indicator value for nutrients increased because of the lime application, while the lime had no effect on Shannon-Wiener evenness and abundance of functional groups. Greater Shannon-Wiener evenness in treatments of PK and N20PK is a prerequisite for resistance to the effects of extreme climate events.

Keywords: fertilising; botanical composition; biodiversity; functional traits; ecological index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://pse.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/347/2024-PSE.html (text/html)
http://pse.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/347/2024-PSE.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnlpse:v:71:y:2025:i:1:id:347-2024-pse

DOI: 10.17221/347/2024-PSE

Access Statistics for this article

Plant, Soil and Environment is currently edited by Kateřina Součková

More articles in Plant, Soil and Environment from Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().