Ecosystem service multifunctionality data from Colt Park grassland restoration experiment

Our study was based on a long-term grassland management experiment at Colt Park Meadows, Ingleborough National Nature Reserve (Latitude 54°12’N, Longitude 2°21’W, 350 m.a.s.l.) in northern England, United Kingdom. The experiment was established in 1989 and provides a range of management relevant experimental restoration treatments at a field scale. The soil is a shallow brown-earth of moderate-high residual fertility over limestone, and the plant community, when the experiment was established, was described as an agriculturally improved, plant species-poor grassland dominated by Lolium perenne and Cynosurus cristatus. These agriculturally improved grasslands are widespread across northern Europe and are the target of various Environmental Land Management Schemes aimed at enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem service multifunctionality. This restoration experiment included four treatments with their respective controls, namely: low amount of inorganic fertiliser addition (nitrogen: phosphorus: potassium = 20:10:10) at 25 kg nitrogen ha-1y-1 farmyard manure addition at 12 t ha-1 y-1; addition of both commercial and locally sourced mixed seeds of 19 species to increase plant diversity; and, the promotion of the nitrogen-fixing leguminous herb Trifolium pratense (red clover) by seed addition, which has been shown to increase soil nitrogen and soil carbon sequestration38. The inorganic fertiliser and mixed seed addition treatments were established in 1990, the farmyard manure addition treatment in 1998, and the clover seed addition treatment was added in 2004 and repeated in 2011. Combined in a fully factorial design, this gave 16 different restoration treatment plots, each repeated in 3 blocks in a split plot design to give a total of 48 sampling plots (each 3 × 3m). This design provides a gradient of the number of restoration interventions, ranging from 0 (i.e., control) to a maximum of 4 interventions, along with all possible combinations, allowing for the exploration of the effect of the number of interventions on ecosystem service multifunctionality. Measurements were made over a period of 4 years (2011-2014) to investigate the effects of the 4 restoration treatments, and all their combinations, on a comprehensive range of ecosystem service indicators, including forage production (i.e., hay yield and quality-adjusted hay yield), carbon stocks and sequestration (i.e., aboveground and root biomass, litter and soil carbon stock, microbial carbon content, and net ecosystem exchange), plant diversity conservation value (i.e., plant species richness and Simpson index), pollination (i.e., the abundance of the main taxa of pollinators, namely bumblebees, hoverflies, and other flies), the maintenance of soil nutrients (i.e., soil nitrogen content, microbial nitrogen and phosphorus content, fungal and bacterial biomass) and soil physical stability (i.e., soil aggregation stability and water holding capacity), the regulation of water quality (i.e., leaching from soil of nitrogen and phosphorus), and aesthetic value (i.e., flower abundance and diversity). For those ecosystem service indicators that are greatly influenced by the difference in biotic and abiotic conditions between seasons and years, such as forage production, net ecosystem exchange, and flower abundance and diversity, we conducted multiple measurements in the field.