Tropentag, September 16 - 18, 2026, Göttingen "Towards multi-functional agro-ecosystems promoting climate-resilient futures"

Exploring the productivity of underutilised grassland forage C3 species under temperate and sub-tropical climatic conditions

¹Selçuk University, Dept. of Fields Crops, Türkiye
²Georg-August University Göttingen, Dept. of Crop Sciences, Grassland Science, Germany
³Santa Catarina State University, Department of Animal Production and Food Science, Brazil
⁴University of Kiel, Germany

Abstract

Temporary grasslands are not only a source of forage but also play a role in soil health, environmental protection, and sustainable agriculture. However, climate change is threatening the productivity and resilience of grasslands. Increasing interspecific and intraspecific diversity is suggested to counteract this development. In order to achieve this, the yield potential of species and accessions, including so far underutilized ones, under different climatic conditions has to be explored in order to find locally adapted functioning species. A field experiment was conducted in Germany and Brazil using a randomized block design, evaluating six forage species grown in pure stands differing in intraspecific diversity, i. e., one vs. two to three accessions. The selected species—two grasses (Dactylis glomerata and Festuca arundinacea), two legumes (Onobrychis viciifolia and Lotus corniculatus), and two non-leguminous dicotyledonous forage herbs (Achillea millefolium and Plantago lanceolata)—are representative of multispecies grasslands. Mineral fertiliser (CAN, 27% N) was applied at a rate of 120 kg N ha^-1 yr^-1 to non-legume plots in Germany and across all plots in Brazil. For Germany, the mean yield across two main production years, whereas for Brazil annual yield was derived from one experimental year. The data was analysed using linear mixed-effects models, with Tukey’s HSD tests employed for pairwise comparisons of means.
Species significantly affected productivity, with responses varying between sites (p≤0.001). In Brazil, O. viciifolia showed significantly lower productivity than all other species likely due to poor establishment. In contrast, in Gemany, O. viciifolia showed the highest production and P. lanceolata the lowest. While accessions had no main effect, its influence depended on the specific species-site combination, as indicated by the significant three-way interaction (p<0.05). More accessions significantly increased productivity of Festuca arundinacea at both sites and of Lotus corniculatus and Plantago lanceolata in Germany. In contrast, there was no significant difference among accessions in Brazil. This pattern may reflect local adaptation and environmental filtering, with less-adapted accessions diluting the performance of an otherwise superior accession and reducing productivity in mixtures with more accessions. These findings show accession diversity benefits depend on context, emphasizing region-specific selection and breeding for sustainable grasslands.

Keywords: Accessions, grasses, herbs, legumes, productivity

Contact Address: Sevgi Karaman, University of Göttingen, Dept. of Crop Sciences, Grassland Science, Von-Siebold.str 8, Göttingen, Germany, e-mail: sevgi.karamanuni-goettingen.de