Restored legume acts as a 'nurse' to facilitate plant compensatory growth and biomass production in mown grasslands

Legume restoration was conducted in a temperate grassland in Hulunbuir, northeastern Inner Mongolia, China, by reseeding native legumes. This process was followed by annual mowing and phosphorus (P) application over a seven-year period (2014–2020). Throughout this period, we measured aboveground biomass, plant diversity, and the relative biomass of five functional plant groups each year. In 2020, we assessed six functional traits of 15 common plant species in both legume-restored and naturally-restored grasslands, respectively. Using these trait values and relative biomass data, we calculated community-weighted means and functional diversity indices for each plot.