Factors relating to soil fertility and species diversity in both semi‐natural and created meadows in the West Midlands of England

Abstract

Metadata onlyThe post-war decline in the area and diversity of neutral meadows in Britain, resulting from agricultural intensification, has prompted schemes to restore and create new habitats. Their success relies on understanding the relations between soil fertility and species diversity. We have investigated these relations, using multivariate analysis, in 28 semi-natural meadows and eight artificially created urban meadows. Mineralizable nitrogen was the most important soil characteristic in the semi-natural sites; the more N the soil contained the fewer were the species characteristic of traditional meadows. Both potassium and total magnesium favoured diversity, perhaps because their deficiency in many traditionally managed meadows jeopardizes the survival of broad-leaved species in competition with grasses. Available lead, at sub-lethal concentrations and measured as a Pb:Ca ratio, appeared to favour diversity in the semi-natural sites, possibly by inhibiting the uptake of P by competitive grasses and allowing the less competitive species associated with diversity to flourish. The main differences between the soils of the artificial and the semi-natural meadows were that the former contained more extractable P and less mineralizable N and organic matter. It seems that large soil phosphorus concentrations may be the main reason why relatively few species colonize or survive in grassland on many urban soils

Effects of Farmyard Manure On Growth and Yield of Turmeric (Curcuma LongaL.) Cultivated in Dark-Red Soil, Red Soil andgray Soil in Okinawa, Japan

“…The manure provided nutrients and probably enhanced aeration and microbial activities, which were other causes to increase growth and yield of turmeric. Similar results were obtained in previous studies (Whalen et al, 2000(Whalen et al, , 2003Bhadoria et al, 2003;Hao and Papadopoulos, 2004;McCrea et al, 2004). Darkred soil and gray soil were greatly improved with the application of the manure than red soil (Table 4).…”

Growth, Yield and Quality of Turmeric (Curcuma longaL.) Cultivated on Dark-red Soil, Gray Soil and Red Soil in Okinawa, Japan

“…Gray soil had higher/highest NO 3 -N and NH 4 -N contents, but did not produce a large shoot biomass like dark-red soil, indicating that there was an interaction among the nutrient contents, which infl uenced plant growth. Similarly, other studies (Mazid, 1993;McCrea et al, 2004;Hao and Papadopoulos, 2004) reported that unbalanced nutrient resulted in lower growth and yield of plants. Dark-red soil was comparatively loose (apparent density was the lowest (Table 1)) and it contained optimum moisture, which resulted in greater root and vegetative growth (Table 2).…”

Plant species richness in a natural Argentinian matorral shrub-land correlates negatively with levels of plant phosphorus

“…Due to the intrinsically low N levels in Patagonian soils (Diehl et al 2003), a small difference in N availability could have a considerable effect on the productivity of the system and consequently on the species richness. It has also been shown that low P availability is a prerequisite for high diversity (Critchley et al 2002;Gilbert et al 2009;Janssens et al 1998;McCrea et al 2004;McCrea et al 2001). An essential difference between the N and P soil cycles is that the available forms of N are easily lost from the system by leaching, fires, and denitrification, while P is bound to the soil.…”