Abstract
A prolonged snow cover is an unpredictable event in mountain regions of the Alps. is can have detrimental effects on newly established leys, resulting in damage to sown species. To explore the effect of diversity in mitigating such damage during establishment, we used the data set from a field experiment set up in the mountain environment of South Tyrol (NE Italy). Six forage species belonging to three different functional groups were combined in different proportions according to a simplex design. Following extensive damage due to a prolonged persistence of the snow cover during the first winter, strong losses of Plantago lanceolata and, to a lesser extent, of Trifolium repens and Trifolium pratense occurred. e yield proportion of non-sown species was used to explore the effects of diversity of sown species on weed establishment and growth. Increasing diversity was found to reduce the yield proportion of weeds, as shown by species-specific convex functions and further decreases caused by most pairwise interactions between sown species. No significant change of the yield proportion of non-sown species was observed depending on the growth cycles.