Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Professor of Statistics at Trinity College Dublin School of Computer Science and Statistics, Caroline Brophy and PhD candidate, James O’Malley have made a major finding in a landmark, international study, with promising news for sustainability and climate adaptations in farming.
Their paper "Multispecies grasslands produce more yield from lower nitrogen inputs across a climatic gradient" has been published in the journal Science, one of the world’s most trusted and prestigious scientific journals.
At a time when farmers are under increasing pressure to produce more food for growing populations, and in a sustainable way, this research has conclusively shown a clear and cost-effective method to reduce the use of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser in farming while increasing the amount of grass we can grow to feed animals.
This research is part of the “LegacyNet” network of researchers, a large-scale international and interdisciplinary study which was founded and is co-Directed by Professor Caroline Brophy, Dr John Finn and Dr Carsten Malisch, a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark.
As part of this study, a common experiment was conducted across 26 international sites that spanned a wide gradient of temperate climates and local conditions. The “LegacyNet” sites include some in Ireland, as well as others in Europe – from Denmark to Italy, and the Netherlands to the Czech Republic – and further afield, from China to the US, Canada and New Zealand.
This research was also supported by several funding agencies, including Research Ireland (via the Frontiers for the Future programme); the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine, and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs; the European Union’s Horizon 2021 doctoral network programme under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant; and a Trinity College Dublin Postgraduate Research Studentship.
Read a summary and hear more on the research findings: https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/2025/increasing-plant-diversity/
Access the publication in the journal Science: science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady0764
https://www.tcd.ie/
https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/2025/increasing-plant-diversity/
Professor of Statistics at Trinity College Dublin School of Computer Science and Statistics, Caroline Brophy and PhD candidate, James O’Malley have made a major finding in a landmark, international study, with promising news for sustainability and climate adaptations in farming.
Their paper "Multispecies grasslands produce more yield from lower nitrogen inputs across a climatic gradient" has been published in the journal Science, one of the world’s most trusted and prestigious scientific journals.
At a time when farmers are under increasing pressure to produce more food for growing populations, and in a sustainable way, this research has conclusively shown a clear and cost-effective method to reduce the use of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser in farming while increasing the amount of grass we can grow to feed animals.
This research is part of the “LegacyNet” network of researchers, a large-scale international and interdisciplinary study which was founded and is co-Directed by Professor Caroline Brophy, Dr John Finn and Dr Carsten Malisch, a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark.
As part of this study, a common experiment was conducted across 26 international sites that spanned a wide gradient of temperate climates and local conditions. The “LegacyNet” sites include some in Ireland, as well as others in Europe – from Denmark to Italy, and the Netherlands to the Czech Republic – and further afield, from China to the US, Canada and New Zealand.
This research was also supported by several funding agencies, including Research Ireland (via the Frontiers for the Future programme); the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine, and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs; the European Union’s Horizon 2021 doctoral network programme under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant; and a Trinity College Dublin Postgraduate Research Studentship.
Read a summary and hear more on the research findings: https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/2025/increasing-plant-diversity/
Access the publication in the journal Science: science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady0764
https://www.tcd.ie/
https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/2025/increasing-plant-diversity/
