Fertilization using manure minimizes the trade-offs between biodiversity and forage production in agri-environment scheme grasslands

group average, FYM and NPK+FYM showed a higher mean performance than NPK (P < 0.05) and no-fertilizer (P < 0.05). For indicators related to the insect community, we observed a significantly higher abun- dance of bumblebees in the no-fertilizer control than in NPK and NPK+FYM; and in NPK compared to NPK-FYM. In the case of percent parasitism, FYM showed higher values than the no-fertilizer control and NPK. We observed no significant differences for diversity of her- bivores, diversity of pollinators and diversity of herbivores among the different fertilizer treat- ments and there were no significant differences among treatments when comparing the group average. Fig 1. The weighted mean of the 12 indicators for each fertilizer treatment. Values are standardized and correspond to values between 0–1. Values were weighted considering that forage indicators contribute 50% of the mean value, insect community indicators (25%) and plant community indicators (25%). Colours correspond to the proportion that each group of indicators contribute to the weighted mean value. No Fe: no-fertilizer. NPK: mineral fertilizer (20:10:10), FYM: farm yard manure, NPK+FYM: mineral fertilizer and farm yard manure. Bars are mean ± standard error. Significant higher group average of a treatment vs other treatment, are indicated inside the bar of the treatment which has a higher mean. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0290843.g001 PLOS ONE Manure minimizes trade-offs between biodiversity and forage production in agri-environment scheme

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