Park Grass Experiment
Encyclopedia
The Park Grass Experiment is a biological study that was started in 1856 at Rothamsted Experimental Station
in Hertfordshire
, England
to test the effect of fertilizers and manures on hay yield
s. It was originally designed to answer agricultural questions but has since proved an invaluable resource for studying natural selection
and biodiversity
. The treatments under study were found to be affecting the botanical make-up of the plots and the ecology of the 28,000 m² field and it has been studied ever since. In spring, the field is a colourful tapestry of flowers and grasses, some plots still having the wide range of plants that most meadows probably contained hundreds of years ago.
Over its 155 year history, Park Grass has:
Rothamsted Experimental Station
The Rothamsted Experimental Station, one of the oldest agricultural research institutions in the world, is located at Harpenden in Hertfordshire, England. It is now known as Rothamsted Research...
in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to test the effect of fertilizers and manures on hay yield
Crop yield
In agriculture, crop yield is not only a measure of the yield of cereal per unit area of land under cultivation, yield is also the seed generation of the plant itself...
s. It was originally designed to answer agricultural questions but has since proved an invaluable resource for studying natural selection
Natural selection
Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
and biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
. The treatments under study were found to be affecting the botanical make-up of the plots and the ecology of the 28,000 m² field and it has been studied ever since. In spring, the field is a colourful tapestry of flowers and grasses, some plots still having the wide range of plants that most meadows probably contained hundreds of years ago.
Over its 155 year history, Park Grass has:
- demonstrated that conventional field trials probably underestimate threats to plant biodiversity from long term changes, such as soil acidificationSoil acidificationSoil acidification is the buildup of hydrogen cations, also called protons, reducing the soil pH. This happens when a proton donor is added to the soil. The donor can be an acid, such as nitric acid and sulfuric acid . It can also be a compound such as aluminium sulfate, which reacts in the soil to...
, - shown how plant species richness, biomass and pHPHIn chemistry, pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution. Pure water is said to be neutral, with a pH close to 7.0 at . Solutions with a pH less than 7 are said to be acidic and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are basic or alkaline...
are related, - demonstrated that competition between plants can make the effects of climatic variationClimate changeClimate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
on communities more extreme, - provided one of the first demonstrations of local evolutionary change under different selection pressures and
- endowed us with an archive of soil and hay samples that have been used to track the history of atmospheric pollution, including nuclear falloutNuclear falloutFallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and shock wave have passed. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes...
.
Further reading
- Rothamsted's Classical Experiments: Park Grass Rothamsted Research. Accessed 2009-05-12.