Savage, J. et al

Impact of grassland management on biomass production and nutritional quality, invertebrate communities, and soil health in Berkshire (UK) 2009-2012

Name: Impact of grassland management on biomass production and nutritional quality, invertebrate communities, and soil health in Berkshire (UK) 2009-2012
Published: 2019-03-29

https://doi.org/10.5285/984b1001-82f1-4ba0-aa1e-412f85d9d24f Cite this dataset

The dataset describes the effects of different management techniques on grassland biomass production (dry matter yield), nutritional quality (herbage nitrogen content), pollinator communities (abundance and species richness), predatory beetle communities (abundance, species richness and biomass), and soil health (bulk density, total soil carbon and nitrogen). Data was collected from a site in Berkshire (UK), where a field-scale, randomised block experiment had been implemented to investigate how the establishment of a variety of plant functional groups (grasses, legumes, and other flowering forbs) using different cultivation (minimum tillage and deep ploughing) and management (cutting, grazing and their intensity) techniques, affected the provision of various ecosystem services.

Publication date: 2019-03-29

Where/When

Study area
Temporal extent: 2009-01-01 to 2012-12-31

Supplemental information

Other useful information regarding this dataset:

Woodcock, B.A., Savage, J., Bullock, J.M., Nowakowski, M., Orr, R., Tallowin, J.R.B., & Pywell, R.F. (2014). Enhancing floral resources for pollinators in productive agricultural grasslands. Biological Conservation, 171, 44–51.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.01.023

Woodcock, B.A., Savage, J., Bullock, J.M., Nowakowski, M., Orr, R., Tallowin, J.R.B., & Pywell, R.F. (2013). Enhancing beetle and spider communities in agricultural grasslands: The roles of seed addition and habitat management. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 167, 79–85.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2013.01.009

Provenance & quality

All surveyors and laboratory workers were trained and followed standardised protocols in all cases. Specific forms were used for recording data in the field and in the lab. The data were checked for anomalous entries. Details of the methodologies have been published (see “other useful information regarding this dataset”).