The application for this fellowship followed the attendance by Professor Yongguan Zhu at the International Grassland Congress held in Dublin in July 2005. The visit to Dublin re-established a previous link between Professor Zhu and Dr Peter Christie of Queens University Belfast and the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland (DARD). During the Congress both Dr Christie and Professor Zhu felt that a DARD long-term slurry experiment would provide an excellent opportunity to investigate the influence of soil nutrient management on grassland diversity and productivity, particularly from the point view of ecological stoichiometry following long-term inputs of different nutrient sources and levels. 土壤快速粉碎儀