Summary
This review synthesises design principles for multi-species productive grasslands in temperate regions, moving beyond simple species richness metrics to examine how composition and relative abundance of species jointly influence forage yield and ecosystem service delivery. The authors propose that disentangling richness, composition, and abundance components enables more effective design of diverse grassland systems that can sustain high productivity with reduced fertiliser inputs and lower environmental impacts than conventional low-diversity intensive systems.
Regional applicability
Highly applicable to United Kingdom grassland management and policy. Multi-species leys align with UK agri-environment schemes and regenerative farming objectives; the framework for designing functional grassland communities is transferable to UK temperate conditions and support for farmer transition from intensive monoculture grazing and silage systems.
Key measures
Species richness, community composition, relative abundance, digestible forage yield, ecosystem functions
Outcomes reported
The paper addresses how to identify plant species combinations that deliver selected ecosystem functions in productive grasslands, and when species composition matters more than richness alone. It provides conceptual approaches to separate plant diversity into richness, composition, and relative abundance components.
Topic tags
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