The Admont Grassland Experiment
This experiment has been added by the GLTEN Curators using existing published sources.
- Objective
- Effect of fertilizers on grassland yield and species composition.
- Description
- The Admont Grassland Experiment in Austria is one such resource for helping further our understanding of the mechanisms and relationships in alluvial meadows under management with long-term fertilizer application. Established in 1946, and still running, it is one of the oldest well-designed long-term experiments with different fertilizer application treatments in Continental Europe.
- Data Access Statement
- Don't know
- Data license
- Don't know
- Data policy
- Don't know
- Organization
- Agricultural Research & Education Centre Raumberg-Gumpenstein, Austriamaintains the long-term experiment
- People
Site: The Admont Grassland Experiment
- Location
- AdmontStyriaAustria
- Geographic location
- 47.576794, 14.441721
- Visits permitted?
- No
- History
- The experimental field had previously been used for cereal experiments in the 1930s and later reverted to an unsown grassland vegetation. In spring 1946 the field was ploughed and resown (24th May) with a grass-clover mixture.
- Soil type
- Gleyic Fluvic Dystric Cambisol
- Soil properties
Variable Depth Value (range) Units Ref year Estimated? Baseline? soil pH 6.05 1946 P 23 mg per kg-1 K 323 mg per kg-1 - Climate properties
Variable Time period Value (range) Units long-term average annual precipitation 1277 millimeter long-term mean annual air temperature 6.8 millimeter
Design period: (1946—)
- Design Type
- Randomized complete block design
- Description
- The Admont Grassland Experiment with 23 treatments and a non-fertilized control was established in four permanent randomized blocks (replications), using rectangular plots of 2.9 m × 7.1 m each with a buffer zone between plots of 17 cm, and 30 cm between blocks. All treatments are cut regularly three times a year ( May, June, September). Cutting is carried out with a finger-bar mower, and the height of cut is about 5 cm above the soil surface. Twenty three different fertilizer treatments with various combinations of N, P and K and non-fertilized control.
- Crop
Crop Years grown grass - Factors
- Factor name
- Factor levels
- nitrogen fertilizer exposure
N40 (40 kgN/ha)
N80 (80 kgN/ha)
- phosphate fertilizer exposure
P35 (35 kgP/ha)
P17.5 (17.5 kgN/ha)
- potassium fertilizer exposure
K50 (50 kgK/ha)
K100 (100 kgK/ha)
- calcium nutrient exposure
Ca 923 (923 kg calcium per hectare)
- natural fertilizer exposure
farmyard manure (15 t/ha)
slurry (40 t/ha)
- Factor combinations
- 1 non fertilized
- 2 923 Ca kg ha-1 every third year
- calcium nutrient exposure: Ca 923
- 3 35 P kg ha-1 per year
- phosphate fertilizer exposure: P35
- 4 100 K kg ha-1 per year
- potassium fertilizer exposure: K100
- 5 80 N kg ha-1 (40 + 40) per year
- nitrogen fertilizer exposure: N80
- 6 100 K + 80 N kg ha-1 per year
- potassium fertilizer exposure: K100nitrogen fertilizer exposure: N80
- 7 35 P + 80 N kg ha-1 per year
- phosphate fertilizer exposure: P35nitrogen fertilizer exposure: N80
- 8 35 P + 100 K kg ha-1 per year
- phosphate fertilizer exposure: P35potassium fertilizer exposure: K100
- 9 17.5 P + 50 K kg ha-1 per year
- phosphate fertilizer exposure: P17.5potassium fertilizer exposure: K50
- 10 17.5 P + 50 K + 40 N kg ha-1 per year
- phosphate fertilizer exposure: P17.5nitrogen fertilizer exposure: N40
- 11 35 P + 100 K + 40 N kg ha-1 per year
- phosphate fertilizer exposure: P35nitrogen fertilizer exposure: N40
- 12 35 P + 100 K + 80 N kg ha-1 per year
- phosphate fertilizer exposure: P35potassium fertilizer exposure: K100nitrogen fertilizer exposure: N80
- 13 17.5 P + 50 K + 80 N kg ha-1 per year
- phosphate fertilizer exposure: P17.5potassium fertilizer exposure: K50nitrogen fertilizer exposure: N80
- 14 35 P + 100 K kg ha-1 per year and 923 Ca every third year
- phosphate fertilizer exposure: P35potassium fertilizer exposure: K100calcium nutrient exposure: Ca 923
- 15 35 P + 100 K + 80 N kg ha-1 per year and 923 Ca every third yea
- phosphate fertilizer exposure: P35potassium fertilizer exposure: K100nitrogen fertilizer exposure: N80calcium nutrient exposure: Ca 923
- 16 15 t ha-1 stable manure every year
- 17 15 t ha-1 stable manure every third year
- 18 15 t ha-1 stable manure one year/ 35 P + 100 K kg ha-1 second year / 35 P + 100 K kg ha-1 third yea
- natural fertilizer exposure: farmyard manurephosphate fertilizer exposure: P35potassium fertilizer exposure: K100phosphate fertilizer exposure: P35potassium fertilizer exposure: K100
- 19 15 t ha-1 stable manure first year / 35 P + 100 K + 80 N kg ha-1 second year / 35 P + 100 K + 80 N kg ha-1 third year
- natural fertilizer exposure: farmyard manurephosphate fertilizer exposure: P35potassium fertilizer exposure: K100nitrogen fertilizer exposure: N80
- 20 40 t ha-1 slurry (20 + 20) every year
- natural fertilizer exposure: slurry
- 21 35 P kg ha-1 one year / 40 t ha-1 slurry second year
- phosphate fertilizer exposure: P35natural fertilizer exposure: slurry
- 22 15 t ha-1 stable manure one year/ 40 t ha-1 slurry second year
- natural fertilizer exposure: farmyard manurenatural fertilizer exposure: slurry
- 23 35 P + 100 K + 923 Ca kg ha-1 first year / 15 t ha-1 stable manure second year/ 35 P + 100 K + 80 N kg ha-1 third year / 40 t ha-1 t slurry fourth year
- phosphate fertilizer exposure: P35potassium fertilizer exposure: K100calcium nutrient exposure: Ca 923natural fertilizer exposure: farmyard manurenatural fertilizer exposure: slurry
- 24 35 P + 100 K + 923 Ca kg ha-1 first year / 15 t ha-1 stable manure + 17.5 P + 50 K kg ha-1 second year/ 17.5 P + 50 K + 40 N kg ha-1 third year
- phosphate fertilizer exposure: P35potassium fertilizer exposure: K100calcium nutrient exposure: Ca 923natural fertilizer exposure: farmyard manure
- 1
- Measurements
Variable Material Units Frequency Scale Comment plant species composition Not specified dry matter biomass yields Not specified soil chemical properties Not specified sward height Not specified
Related publications
- The Admont Grassland Experiment: 70 years of fertilizer application and its effects on soil and vegetation properties in an alluvial meadow managed under a three-cut regime (2022) Pavlu et al. Science of The Total Environment https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152081 [In English]