Soil nitrogen: Traits: Competition and Resource Reduction for Five Grass Species Grown in Monoculture and Competition in Soils with Different Nitrogen Availabilities

This experiment was designed to determine the relationships between plant traits, successional status, and resource reduction for five grass species that were grown for three years in monoculture in replicated field plots on soils prepared to have different availabilities of nitrogen. It also determines the results of competition experiments among various combinations of these species as well as the differing feedback effects of each species on soil nitrogen mineralization rates. All of this work has motivated the desire to more fully understand the mechanisms of interactions among plants and their resources, in the belief that this might eventually allow predictions of the dynamics, diversity, and composition of plant communities.