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Wojciechowski AA, Blair JM, Collins SL, Baer SG. Heterogeneity promotes resilience in restored prairie: Implications for the environmental heterogeneity hypothesis. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2024:e3006. [PMID: 39030911 DOI: 10.1002/eap.3006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2023] [Revised: 03/04/2024] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 07/22/2024]
Abstract
Enhancing resilience in formerly degraded ecosystems is an important goal of restoration ecology. However, evidence for the recovery of resilience and its underlying mechanisms require long-term experiments and comparison with reference ecosystems. We used data from an experimental prairie restoration that featured long-term soil heterogeneity manipulations and data from two long-term experiments located in a comparable remnant (reference) prairie to (1) quantify the recovery of ecosystem functioning (i.e., productivity) relative to remnant prairie, (2) compare the resilience of restored and remnant prairies to a natural drought, and (3) test whether soil heterogeneity enhances resilience of restored prairie. We compared sensitivity and legacy effects between prairie types (remnant and restored) and among four prairie sites that included two remnant prairie sites and prairie restored under homogeneous and heterogeneous soil conditions. We measured sensitivity and resilience as the proportional change in aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) during and following drought (sensitivity and legacy effects, respectively) relative to average ANPP based on 4 pre-drought years (2014-2017). In nondrought years, total ANPP was similar between remnant and restored prairie, but remnant prairie had higher grass productivity and lower forb productivity compared with restored prairie. These ANPP patterns generally persisted during drought. The sensitivity of total ANPP to drought was similar between restored and remnant prairie, but grasses in the restored prairie were more sensitive to drought. Post-drought legacy effects were more positive in the restored prairie, and we attributed this to the more positive and less variable legacy response of forb ANPP in the restored prairie, especially in the heterogeneous soil treatment. Our results suggest that productivity recovers in restored prairie and exhibits similar sensitivity to drought as in remnant prairie. Furthermore, creating heterogeneity promotes forb productivity and enhances restored prairie resilience to drought.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashley A Wojciechowski
- Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research and Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
| | - John M Blair
- Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, USA
| | - Scott L Collins
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
| | - Sara G Baer
- Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research and Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
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2
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Eckhoff KD, Scott DA, Manning G, Baer SG. Persistent decadal differences in plant communities assembled under contrasting climate conditions. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2023; 33:e2823. [PMID: 36808677 DOI: 10.1002/eap.2823] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2022] [Revised: 01/11/2023] [Accepted: 01/18/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Plant community assembly outcomes can be contingent upon establishment year (year effects) due to variations in the environment. Stochastic events such as interannual variability in climate, particularly in the first year of community assembly, contribute to unpredictable community outcomes over the short term, but less is known about whether year effects produce transient or persistent states on a decadal timescale. To test for short-term (5-year) and persistent (decadal) effects of establishment year climate on community assembly outcomes, we restored prairie in an agricultural field using the same methods in four different years (2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016) that captured a wide range of initial (planting) year climate conditions. Species composition was measured for 5 years in all four restored prairies and for 9 and 11 years in the two oldest restored prairies established under average precipitation and extreme drought conditions. The composition of the four assembled communities showed large and significant differences in the first year of restoration, followed by dynamic change over time along a similar trajectory due to a temporary flush of annual volunteer species. Sown perennial species eventually came to dominate all communities, but communities remained distinct from each other in year five. Precipitation in June and July of the establishment year explained short-term coarse community metrics (i.e., species richness and grass/forb cover), with wet establishment years resulting in a higher cover of grasses and dry establishment years resulting in a higher cover of forbs in restored communities. Short-term differences in community composition, species richness, and grass/forb cover in restorations established under average precipitation and drought conditions persisted for 9-11 years, with low interannual variability in the composition of each prairie over the long term, indicating persistently different states on a decadal timescale. Thus, year effects resulting from stochastic variation in climate can have decadal effects on community assembly outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathryn D Eckhoff
- Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
| | - Drew A Scott
- USDA - Agricultural Research Service - Northern Great Plains Research, Mandan, North Dakota, USA
| | | | - Sara G Baer
- Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
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Zinnert JC, Nippert JB, Rudgers JA, Pennings SC, González G, Alber M, Baer SG, Blair JM, Burd A, Collins SL, Craft C, Di Iorio D, Dodds WK, Groffman PM, Herbert E, Hladik C, Li F, Litvak ME, Newsome S, O’Donnell J, Pockman WT, Schalles J, Young DR. State changes: insights from the U.S. Long Term Ecological Research Network. Ecosphere 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.3433] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Julie C. Zinnert
- Department of Biology Virginia Commonwealth University 1000 West Cary Street Richmond Virginia23284USA
| | - Jesse B. Nippert
- Division of Biology Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas66506USA
| | - Jennifer A. Rudgers
- Department of Biology University of New Mexico Albuquerque New Mexico87131USA
| | - Steven C. Pennings
- Department of Biology and Biochemistry University of Houston Houston Texas77204USA
| | - Grizelle González
- International Institute of Tropical Forestry United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Jardín Botánico Sur, 1201 Ceiba St.‐Río Piedras San Juan00926Puerto Rico
| | - Merryl Alber
- Department of Marine Sciences University of Georgia Athens Georgia30602USA
| | - Sara G. Baer
- Kansas Biological Survey and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Kansas Lawrence Kansas66047USA
| | - John M. Blair
- Division of Biology Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas66506USA
| | - Adrian Burd
- Department of Marine Sciences University of Georgia Athens Georgia30602USA
| | - Scott L. Collins
- Department of Biology University of New Mexico Albuquerque New Mexico87131USA
| | - Christopher Craft
- School of Public and Environmental Affairs Indiana University Bloomington Indiana47405USA
| | - Daniela Di Iorio
- Department of Marine Sciences University of Georgia Athens Georgia30602USA
| | - Walter K. Dodds
- Division of Biology Kansas State University Manhattan Kansas66506USA
| | - Peter M. Groffman
- City University of New York Advanced Science Research Center at the Graduate Center New York New York10031USA
- Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies Millbrook New York12545USA
| | | | - Christine Hladik
- Department of Geology and Geography Georgia Southern University Statesboro Georgia30460USA
| | - Fan Li
- Department of Biology and Biochemistry University of Houston Houston Texas77204USA
| | - Marcy E. Litvak
- Department of Biology University of New Mexico Albuquerque New Mexico87131USA
| | - Seth Newsome
- Department of Biology University of New Mexico Albuquerque New Mexico87131USA
| | - John O’Donnell
- Department of Biology Creighton University Omaha Nebraska68178USA
| | - William T. Pockman
- Department of Biology University of New Mexico Albuquerque New Mexico87131USA
| | - John Schalles
- Department of Biology Creighton University Omaha Nebraska68178USA
| | - Donald R. Young
- Department of Biology Virginia Commonwealth University 1000 West Cary Street Richmond Virginia23284USA
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4
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Baer SG, Adams T, Scott DA, Blair JM, Collins SL. Soil heterogeneity increases plant diversity after 20 years of manipulation during grassland restoration. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2020; 30:e02014. [PMID: 31587410 DOI: 10.1002/eap.2014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2018] [Revised: 07/09/2019] [Accepted: 08/30/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The "environmental heterogeneity hypothesis" predicts that variability in resources promotes species coexistence, but few experiments support this hypothesis in plant communities. A previous 15-yr test of this hypothesis in a prairie restoration experiment demonstrated a weak effect of manipulated soil resource heterogeneity on plant diversity. This response was attributed to a transient increase in richness following a post-restoration supplemental propagule addition, occasionally higher diversity under nutrient enrichment, and reduced cover of a dominant species in a subset of soil treatments. Here, we report community dynamics under continuous propagule addition in the same experiment, corresponding to 16-20 yr of restoration, in response to altered availability and heterogeneity of soil resources. We also quantified traits of newly added species to determine if heterogeneity increases the amount and variety of niches available for new species to exploit. The heterogeneous treatment contained a factorial combination of altered nutrient availability and soil depth; control plots had no manipulations. Total diversity and richness were higher in the heterogeneous treatment during this 5-yr study due to higher cover, diversity, and richness of previously established forbs, particularly in the N-enriched subplots. All new species added to the experiment exhibited unique trait spaces, but there was no evidence that heterogeneous plots contained a greater variety of new species representing a wider range of trait spaces relative to the control treatment. The richness and cover of new species was higher in N-enriched soil, but the magnitude of this response was small. Communities assembling under long-term N addition were dominated by different species among subplots receiving added N, leading to greater dispersion of communities among the heterogeneous relative to control plots. Contrary to the deterministic mechanism by which heterogeneity was expected to increase diversity (greater variability in resources for new species to exploit), higher diversity in the heterogeneous plots resulted from destabilization of formerly grass-dominated communities in N-enriched subplots. While we do not advocate increasing available soil N at large scales, we conclude that the positive effect of environmental heterogeneity on diversity can take decades to materialize and depend on development of stochastic processes in communities with strong establishment limitation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara G Baer
- Kansas Biological Survey and Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 66047, USA
| | - Tianjiao Adams
- Department of Plant Biology and Center for Ecology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois, 62901, USA
| | - Drew A Scott
- Department of Plant Biology and Center for Ecology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois, 62901, USA
| | - John M Blair
- Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 66506, USA
| | - Scott L Collins
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87131, USA
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Flint SA, Olofson D, Jordan NR, Shaw RG. Population source affects competitive response and effect in a C
4
grass (
Panicum virgatum
). Restor Ecol 2019. [DOI: 10.1111/rec.13022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Shelby A. Flint
- University of Minnesota, Conservation Biology Graduate Program, 135B Skok Hall, 2003 Upper Buford Circle St. Paul MN 55108 U.S.A
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of Minnesota, 140 Gortner Laboratory, 1479 Gortner Avenue St. Paul MN 55108 U.S.A
| | - Dana Olofson
- University of Minnesota, University Honors Program, 390 Northrop, 84 Church Street SE Minneapolis MN 55455 U.S.A
- Mayo Clinic, Translational Research, Innovation, and Test Development Office, 200 First Street Southwest Rochester MN 55905 U.S.A
| | - Nicholas R. Jordan
- Department of Agronomy and Plant GeneticsUniversity of Minnesota, 411 Borlaug Hall, 1991 Upper Buford Circle St. Paul MN 55108 U.S.A
| | - Ruth G. Shaw
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of Minnesota, 140 Gortner Laboratory, 1479 Gortner Avenue St. Paul MN 55108 U.S.A
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Flint SA, Jordan NR, Shaw RG. Plant community response to switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) population source in establishing prairies. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2018; 28:1818-1829. [PMID: 29956868 DOI: 10.1002/eap.1772] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2017] [Revised: 05/22/2018] [Accepted: 06/13/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Ecological restoration and revegetation efforts entail the translocation of native plant populations. Risks associated with these efforts include failure of translocated populations to establish or, conversely, such strong establishment that they excessively dominate the recipient community. The role that selective breeding plays in mediating these risks is unclear but of increasing importance as efforts to restore and establish multifunctional grasslands also increase. In a three-year, spatially replicated study, we seeded experimental prairie communities with either domesticated (cultivar) or undomesticated strains of Panicum virgatum (switchgrass), a North American C4 species under development as a biomass crop. We evaluated the composition, performance, and diversity of the recipient plant communities and compared the performance of cultivar and undomesticated switchgrass in those communities. We found little evidence that switchgrass population source affected community response. Switchgrass cultivars modestly exceeded undomesticated strains with respect to stand establishment, third-year stand density, and aboveground biomass; effect size and significance differed among sites. Our results suggest that including cultivars in ecological restorations and multifunctional grasslands may enhance success of switchgrass establishment with little risk of impairing the composition or diversity of plant communities for up to three years, as reflected in the measures used here. However, the incorporation of undomesticated switchgrass into multifunctional grasslands may enhance landscape-scale genetic variation and mitigate risks associated with gene flow between translocated and local wild switchgrass populations; more research on these dynamics is needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shelby A Flint
- Conservation Biology Graduate Program, University of Minnesota, 135 B Skok Hall, 2003 Upper Buford Circle, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 140 Gortner Laboratory, 1479 Gortner Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
| | - Nicholas R Jordan
- Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, University of Minnesota, 411 Borlaug Hall, 1991 Upper Buford Circle, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
| | - Ruth G Shaw
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 140 Gortner Laboratory, 1479 Gortner Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
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Khalil MI, Gibson DJ, Baer SG, Willand JE. Functional diversity is more sensitive to biotic filters than phylogenetic diversity during community assembly. Ecosphere 2018. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2164] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Mohammed I. Khalil
- Department of Plant Biology and Center for Ecology Southern Illinois University Carbondale 1263 Lincoln Drive Carbondale Illinois 62901 USA
| | - David J. Gibson
- Department of Plant Biology and Center for Ecology Southern Illinois University Carbondale 1263 Lincoln Drive Carbondale Illinois 62901 USA
| | - Sara G. Baer
- Department of Plant Biology and Center for Ecology Southern Illinois University Carbondale 1263 Lincoln Drive Carbondale Illinois 62901 USA
| | - Jason E. Willand
- Biology Department Missouri Southern State University 3950 Newman Road Joplin Missouri 64801 USA
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8
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Wilson LR, Gibson DJ, Baer SG, Johnson LC. Plant community response to regional sources of dominant grasses in grasslands restored across a longitudinal gradient. Ecosphere 2016. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.1329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Laurel R. Wilson
- Department of Plant Biology; Center for Ecology; Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Carbondale Illinois 62901-6509 USA
| | - David J. Gibson
- Department of Plant Biology; Center for Ecology; Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Carbondale Illinois 62901-6509 USA
| | - Sara G. Baer
- Department of Plant Biology; Center for Ecology; Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Carbondale Illinois 62901-6509 USA
| | - Loretta C. Johnson
- Division of Biology; Kansas State University; Manhattan Kansas 66506 USA
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