A single application of fertilizer can affect semi-natural grassland vegetation over half a century

Michio Tsutsumi; Syuntaro Hiradate; Masashi Yokogawa; Eri Yamakita; Masahito Inoue; Yoshitaka Takahashi

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0275808

A single application of fertilizer can affect semi-natural grassland vegetation over half a century

PLoS One. 2022 Nov 30;17(11):e0275808. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0275808. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Michio Tsutsumi¹, Syuntaro Hiradate², Masashi Yokogawa³, Eri Yamakita², Masahito Inoue⁴, Yoshitaka Takahashi⁵

Affiliations

¹ Western Region Agricultural Research Center (Kinki, Chugoku and Shikoku Regions), National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Shimane, Japan.
² Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
³ Osaka Museum of Natural History, Osaka, Japan.
⁴ The Shimane Nature Museum of Mt. Sanbe, Shimane, Japan.
⁵ Japan Grassland Conservation Network, Shimane, Japan.

Abstract

Restoration of species-rich semi-natural grassland requires not only a seed source but also appropriate soil properties. In Europe, approximately 10 years are required for the properties of fertilized soils to reach suitable conditions and be considered successfully restored. However, restoration may require additional time in Japan because heavier precipitation causes leaching of basic cations from soils, resulting in soil acidification; volcanic ejecta also forms active Al and Fe hydroxides with high phosphate sorption. Within this context, we aimed to answer the following questions: i) whether and how the impacts of fertilization remain in the soil properties after half a century in Japan; and ii) how fertilization affects the restoration of semi-natural grasslands in Japan. We investigated the vegetation and soil properties of a Zoysia japonica pasture improved half a century ago with a single application of fertilizer and an adjacent semi-natural grassland (native pasture) in Japan, and found the following: (1) the two pastures had similar dominance of Z. japonica, but differed in the species composition; (2) the improved pasture exhibited lower species richness than the native pasture; (3) soil nutrients, including N, P, K, Mg, and Ca, were higher in the improved pasture than in the native pasture; and (4) many chemical properties of the soils were associated with species composition; namely, the vegetation on nutrient-rich soil had more alien species and fewer native species. We conclude that a single dose of fertilization can affect soil properties in semi-natural grasslands over half a century in Japan, leading to species loss and changing the species composition. We suggest that fertilized soils under grazing in Japan may require more than half a century to restore the nutrients to suitable levels for the establishment of a species-diverse grassland.

Copyright: © 2022 Tsutsumi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Fertilizers*
Grassland*
Nutrients
Poaceae
Soil

Substances

Fertilizers
Soil

Grants and funding

Initials of the authors who received each award: MT, SH, MY (see below) Grant numbers awarded to each author: 18H03415 (to MT, SH, MY) The full name of each funder: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science URL of each funder website: https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/index.html Did the sponsors or funders play any role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript?: NO - The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.