The role of plant traits and their plasticity in the response of pasture grasses to nutrients and cutting frequency

MethodsMonocultures of the grass species were grown in a fully factorial block design combining plant species, cutting frequency and N supply as factors.ConclusionsVariations in ANPP of species in response to an increase in cutting frequency and a decrease in N supply are controlled by a group of traits, rather than by one individual trait. Incorporating plasticity of the individual traits into these trait combinations was the key to explaining species'' productivity responses, accounting for up to 89 % of the total variability in response to the changes in N supply.