Does diversity influence soil nitrate, light availability and productivity in the establishment phase of Australian temperate grassland reconstruction?

Abstract

The successful conservation and restoration of the temperate native grasslands of south-eastern Australia is critical to reversing the decline in range and diversity of these threatened plant communities. Yet the goals of high native species diversity and weed management are difficult to achieve in grassland restoration projects. To increase our understanding of whether synergies exist between these goals (i.e. whether early introduction of a larger number of species might improve both outcomes in the reassembly of native grassland), we examined the relationships between plant species number, functional group number and resource use during the establishment phase of direct-sown grassland. We..