How does an increase in nitrogen application affect grasslands?

The PaNDiv Experiment in the small Swiss town of Münchenbuchsee, near the capital Bern. H. Vincent - The "PaNDiv" experiment, established by researchers of the University of Bern on a 3000 m2 field site, is the largest biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiment in Switzerland and aims to better understand how increases in nitrogen affect grasslands. The first article from this experiment has just been published in the scientific journal Functional Ecology after more than four years of work. Virtually all of the grasslands in Europe are managed by farmers and whilst traditional management involved periodic cutting and grazing, modern intensive management involves applications of large amounts of nitrogen fertiliser to increase grass production. Traditionally managed grasslands contained many plant species, but intensively managed ones contain only a few fast-growing ones that profit from the high nutrient levels. The number of disease-causing plant pathogens also increases with fertilisation. All of these changes are occurring simultaneously; however, ecologists do not know which are most important or what happens when several change at the same time.