Integrated Responses of Grassland Biodiversity and Ecosystem Properties to Hay Management: A Field Experiment

We examined effects of fertilization and haying on grassland biodiversity, primary production and other ecosystem properties in a hay management experiment conducted in northeastern Kansas. We examined relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem productivity across our experimental landscape and evaluated relationships of biodiversity and ecosystem properties to a remotely-sensed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Fertilization increased production, measured as standing crop biomass and seasonally integrated NDVI and altered a range of ecosystem traits above- and belowground. Shifts at the ecosystem level in response to fertilization were accompanied by declines in plant and arthropod diversity, and negative relationships of both to gradients of standing crop and NDVI, the magnitude of which was altered by haying disturbance in the case of plants. Bacterial diversity showed no response to fertilization, but was increased by haying. In contrast to plants and arthropods, bacterial diversity...