What yields most: 4-species mixtures or the best monoculture?




One of our experimental sites with a clear checkerboard pattern illustrating the different plant communities that varied in richness (monocultures, 4-species mixtures) and evenness (relative abundance of the four species).

What yields most in intensive grassland systems: the best of four monocultures or a four-species mixtures? We undertook a major multi-site, multi-year experiment that investigated this question (among others)...

Mixture evenness improves agronomic forage yield

This research investigated the relationship between species diversity (measured as evenness) and ecosystem function (measured as yield of aboveground biomass ). We used a large-scale experiment (28 sites) and an innovative methodology to quantify the relationship between diversity of agricultural grassland species (richness, evenness) and aboveground biomass (yield). This post discusses the results from the first year of data as reported in Kirwan et al. 2007.

Review of environmental evidence and REPS

What was the environmental benefit of the Irish Rural Environmental Protection Scheme?

For several years, people have regularly asked about the extent to which there has been a positive environmental effect of the Irish agri-environment scheme (REPS, Rural Environment Protection Scheme). This is an important question to answer, for a number of reasons.

Pilot project: The Farmland Wildlife Survey



 

This pond was voluntarily created in 2003 (Co. Louth), and represents a
considerable level of interest in farmland habitats by farmers. How can we stimulate this interest?

Communicating the wildlife value of different farmland elements is crucial first step in supporting conservation of wildlife. This pilot project provided farmers and farm advisors with a wildlife survey of this farm, and was valued by participants as a method to improve their communication to visiting groups of farmers.