Table 3.
15N (δ 15N) abundance, N concentration and N accumulation of the two components (forage and woody material) of L. leucocephala and the M. maximus forage associated in an SPS and in MMM at two cutting intervals (35 and 50 days).
| Legumes | Forage | Woody Material | Whole Plant | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| δ 15N | %N | Total N | δ 15N | % | Total N | Mean a δ15N | Ndfa | Total BNF | |
| (‰) | % | kg ha−1 | (‰) | N | kg ha−1 | (‰) | % | kg ha−1 | |
| L. leucocephala (35) | +0.67 | 4.38 | 80.14 | −1.11 | 1.06 | 10.89 | +0.15 | 89 | 80.9 |
| L. leucocephala (50) | +0.35 | 4.23 | 81.57 | −1.47 | 1.05 | 2.61 | +0.33 | 95 | 80.0 |
| Grass | Forage | ||||||||
| δ 15N (‰) | %N | Total N kg ha−1 | |||||||
| M. maximus associated (35) | +3.31 a | 1.56 a | 69.34 | ||||||
| M. maximus associated (50) | +2.19 b | 1.23 b | 60.90 | ||||||
| M. maximus monoculture (35) | +5.49 b | 1.33 a | 83.76 | ||||||
| M. maximus monoculture (50) | +5.62 a | 1.18 b | 127.27 | ||||||
a Weighted mean of δ15N of edible forage and woody material. Different lower case letters in the same column indicate differences between means by the Tukey test at p < 0.05.