The Effect of Timing of Grassland Management on Plant Reproduction

Figure 1

Mean production of reproductive units (see text for explanation) in two grazed semi-natural grasslands, Harpsund (a) and Pustnäs (b), and mean (per m² and per species) relative fruit production (proportion of inflorescences developing to mature fruit stage) in Harpsund (c) and Pustnäs (d). Two grazing regimes were compared, continuous stocking from mid-May to early October (white bars) and late onset of grazing (grazing from mid-July to early October, dashed bars). Error bars show one SE. Asterisks indicate significant differences between grazing regimes within site (*𝑃<0.05, **𝑃<0.01, ***𝑃<0.001, Mann-Whitney 𝑈-test, N (Harpsund) = 20 per grazing regime, N (Pustnäs) = 7 per grazing regime).

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(b)

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