Leaf Dry Matter Content of Native Grassland Species Under Contrasting N and P Supply

The management of native grasslands - herbaceous vegetation with a broad diversity of flora and a large range of uses - must meet the requirements of environmental conservation and improvement of the quality of agricultural production. For this purpose we need tools for diagnosing the state of the vegetation in order to design, evaluate, and apply management practices to attain these objectives. These tools must be simple and quick to use and should not require botanical skills. Leaf dry matter content (LDMC) has been proposed as a good indicator of both fertility gradients and species preference for habitats (Cruz et al., 2002). The aim of this work was to test the robustness of this leaf trait to rank species for differences in their growth strategies and nutrient acquisition