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Kou L, Yang N, Yan H, Niklas KJ, Sun S. Insect root feeders incur negative density-dependent damage across plant species in an alpine meadow. Ecology 2024; 105:e4285. [PMID: 38523437 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.4285] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2023] [Revised: 12/07/2023] [Accepted: 02/01/2024] [Indexed: 03/26/2024]
Abstract
Although herbivores are well known to incur positive density-dependent damage and mortality, thereby likely shaping plant community assembly, the response of belowground root feeders to changes in plant density has seldom been addressed. Locally rare plant species (with lower plant biomass per area) are often smaller with shallower roots than common species (with higher plant biomass per area) in competition-intensive grasslands. Likewise, root feeders are often distributed in the upper soil layers. We hypothesized, therefore, that root feeders would incur negative density (biomass)-dependent damage across plant species. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the diversity and abundance of plant and root feeder species in an alpine meadow and determined the diet of the root feeders using metabarcoding. Across all species, root feeder load decreased with increasing aboveground plant biomass, root biomass, and total plant biomass per area, indicating a negative density dependence of damage across plant species. Aboveground plant biomass per area increased with increasing individual plant biomass and root depth per area across species, suggesting that rare plant species were smaller in size and had shallower root systems compared to common plant species. Both root biomass per area and root feeder biomass per area decreased with soil depth, but the root feeder biomass decreased disproportionately faster compared to root biomass with increasing root depth. Root feeder load decreased with increasing root depth but was not correlated with the feeding preference of root feeder species. Moreover, the prediction derived from a random process incorporating vertical distributions of root biomass and root feeder biomass significantly accounted for interspecific variation in root feeder load. In conclusion, the data indicate that root feeders incur negative density-dependent damage across plant species. On this basis, we suggest that manipulative experiments should be conducted to determine the effect of the negative density-dependent damage on plant community structure and that different types of plant-animal interactions should be concurrently examined to fully understand the effect of plant density on overall herbivore damage across plant species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lixuan Kou
- Department of Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
| | - Nan Yang
- Department of Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
| | - Han Yan
- Department of Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
| | - Karl J Niklas
- School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
| | - Shucun Sun
- Department of Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
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Barberis D, Lombardi G, Ravetto Enri S, Pittarello M, Viglietti D, Freppaz M, Lonati M. Nitrogen fertilizer enhances vegetation establishment of a high‐altitude machine‐graded ski slope. Restor Ecol 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/rec.13777] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Davide Barberis
- Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences University of Turin, Largo Paolo Braccini 2 10095 Grugliasco TO Italy
| | - Giampiero Lombardi
- Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences University of Turin, Largo Paolo Braccini 2 10095 Grugliasco TO Italy
| | - Simone Ravetto Enri
- Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences University of Turin, Largo Paolo Braccini 2 10095 Grugliasco TO Italy
| | - Marco Pittarello
- Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences University of Turin, Largo Paolo Braccini 2 10095 Grugliasco TO Italy
| | - Davide Viglietti
- Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences University of Turin, Largo Paolo Braccini 2 10095 Grugliasco TO Italy
| | - Michele Freppaz
- Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences University of Turin, Largo Paolo Braccini 2 10095 Grugliasco TO Italy
| | - Michele Lonati
- Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences University of Turin, Largo Paolo Braccini 2 10095 Grugliasco TO Italy
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Piccini I, Pittarello M, Di Pietro V, Lonati M, Bonelli S. New approach for butterfly conservation through local field‐based vegetational and entomological data. Ecosphere 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.4026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Irene Piccini
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology (DBIOS) University of Turin Turin Italy
| | - Marco Pittarello
- Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA) University of Turin Turin Italy
| | - Viviana Di Pietro
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology (DBIOS) University of Turin Turin Italy
- Department of Biology KU Leuven Leuven Belgium
| | - Michele Lonati
- Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA) University of Turin Turin Italy
| | - Simona Bonelli
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology (DBIOS) University of Turin Turin Italy
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Evidence for the importance of land use, site characteristics and vegetation composition for rooting in European Alps. Sci Rep 2021; 11:11246. [PMID: 34045598 PMCID: PMC8159984 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-90652-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2020] [Accepted: 05/13/2021] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Plant rooting strongly affects most hydrological, biogeochemical and ecological processes in terrestrial ecosystems, as it presents the main pathway for carbon, water and nutrient transfer from soil to the atmosphere and is a key factor in stabilizing the soil layer. Few studies have actually investigated the link between phytosociological and structural vegetation composition and diversity in soil rooting parameters. Our study provides a comprehensive evaluation of plant cover and diversity effects on rooting parameters dependent on different land-use types along a north-south transect in the Eastern Alps. We conducted field studies of root biomass, rooting density and rooting depth for the six main land-use types: intensively and lightly used hay meadows, pastures, arable land, agriculturally unused grasslands and forests. The variation in rooting parameters was explained by different aspects of species and functional richness, species and functional composition, functional traits, abundance of key species and site variables depending on the land-use types. Our results showed that different characteristics of biodiversity explained the variance in root parameters (mass, density and depth) to a high degree (determination coefficient R2 values varied between 0.621 and 0.891). All rooting parameters increased with increasing plant species richness, as well as with a higher diversity of plant functional traits. The inclusion of site parameters significantly increased the explained variance, while we could not find evidence for key species and their abundance to provide additional explanatory power. Allowing the effects to vary depending on land-use types turned out to be a necessity supporting the importance of considering land-use types for rooting. The findings indicate that vegetation composition has a clear relationship with rooting parameters across different habitats in the European Alps. As the effect of plant composition differs with respect to the land-use type, rooting can be monitored by land management to achieve the desired benefits. For example, intensified rooting through extensive management decreases erosion risk and increases carbon uptake.
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Lavorel S, Grigulis K, Leitinger G, Kohler M, Schirpke U, Tappeiner U. Historical trajectories in land use pattern and grassland ecosystem services in two European alpine landscapes. REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE 2019; 17:2251-2264. [PMID: 31427884 PMCID: PMC6699994 DOI: 10.1007/s10113-017-1207-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Land use and spatial patterns which reflect social-ecological legacies control ecosystem service (ES) supply. Yet, temporal changes in ES bundles associated with land use change are little studied. We developed original metrics to quantify synchronous historical variations in spatial patterns of land use and ES supply capacity, and demonstrated their use for two mountain grassland landscapes. Consistent with other European mountains, land use dynamics from the nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth century resulted in increased landscape heterogeneity, followed by homogenisation. In the persistently grassy landscape of Lautaret in France, landscape multifunctionality-the provision of multiple ES-coincided with greatest landscape heterogeneity and within-patch diversity in ecosystem services in the 1950-1970s. In the more complex Austrian landscape, where since the nineteenth century intensive production has concentrated in the valley and steep slopes have been abandoned, grassland landscape-level multifunctionality and spatial heterogeneity across grasslands have decreased. Increasing spatial heterogeneity across grasslands until the 1970s was paralleled at both sites by increasing fine-grained spatial variability for individual ES, but subsequent landscape simplification has promoted coarse-grained ES patterns This novel analysis of landscape-scale turnover highlighted how spatial patterns for individual ES scale to multiple grassland ES, depending on the nature of land use spatial variability. Under current socio-economic trends, sustaining or re-establishing fine-grained landscapes is often not feasible, thus future landscape planning and policies might focus on managing landscape and regional-scale multifunctionality. Also, the trends towards decreasing cultural ES and increasing regulating ES suggest a contradiction with current social demand and regional policies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandra Lavorel
- Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, UMR 5553 CNRS–Université Grenoble Alpes, CS 40700, 38058 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
| | - Karl Grigulis
- Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, UMR 5553 CNRS–Université Grenoble Alpes, CS 40700, 38058 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
| | - Georg Leitinger
- Institute of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Sternwartestr. 15, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Marina Kohler
- Institute of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Sternwartestr. 15, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Uta Schirpke
- Institute of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Sternwartestr. 15, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
- Institute for Alpine Environment, EURAC research, Drususallee 1, 39100 Bozen, Italy
| | - Ulrike Tappeiner
- Institute of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Sternwartestr. 15, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
- Institute for Alpine Environment, EURAC research, Drususallee 1, 39100 Bozen, Italy
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Influence of ungulates on the vegetation composition and diversity of mixed deciduous and coniferous mountain forest in Austria. EUR J WILDLIFE RES 2017. [DOI: 10.1007/s10344-017-1087-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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Nervo B, Caprio E, Celi L, Lonati M, Lombardi G, Falsone G, Iussig G, Palestrini C, Said-Pullicino D, Rolando A. Ecological functions provided by dung beetles are interlinked across space and time: evidence from 15
N isotope tracing. Ecology 2017; 98:433-446. [DOI: 10.1002/ecy.1653] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2016] [Accepted: 10/31/2016] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Beatrice Nervo
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology; University of Torino; Torino 10123 Italy
| | - Enrico Caprio
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology; University of Torino; Torino 10123 Italy
| | - Luisella Celi
- Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences; University of Torino; Grugliasco 10095 Italy
| | - Michele Lonati
- Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences; University of Torino; Grugliasco 10095 Italy
| | - Giampiero Lombardi
- Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences; University of Torino; Grugliasco 10095 Italy
| | - Gloria Falsone
- Department of Agricultural Sciences; University of Bologna; Bologna 40127 Italy
| | - Gabriele Iussig
- Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences; University of Torino; Grugliasco 10095 Italy
| | - Claudia Palestrini
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology; University of Torino; Torino 10123 Italy
| | - Daniel Said-Pullicino
- Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences; University of Torino; Grugliasco 10095 Italy
| | - Antonio Rolando
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology; University of Torino; Torino 10123 Italy
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Leitinger G, Ruggenthaler R, Hammerle A, Lavorel S, Schirpke U, Clement J, Lamarque P, Obojes N, Tappeiner U. Impact of droughts on water provision in managed alpine grasslands in two climatically different regions of the Alps. ECOHYDROLOGY : ECOSYSTEMS, LAND AND WATER PROCESS INTERACTIONS, ECOHYDROGEOMORPHOLOGY 2015; 8:1600-1613. [PMID: 26688705 PMCID: PMC4681121 DOI: 10.1002/eco.1607] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2014] [Revised: 01/19/2015] [Accepted: 01/19/2015] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
This study analyzes the impact of droughts, compared with average climatic conditions, on the supporting ecosystem service water provision in sub-watersheds in managed alpine grasslands in two climatically different regions of the Alps, Lautaret (French Alps) and Stubai (Austrian Alps). Soil moisture was modelled in the range of 0-0.3 m. At both sites, current patterns showed that the mean seasonal soil moisture was (1) near field capacity for grasslands with low management intensity and (2) below field capacity for grasslands with higher land-use intensity. Soil moisture was significantly reduced by drought at both sites, with lower reductions at the drier Lautaret site. At the sub-watershed scale, soil moisture spatial heterogeneity was reduced by drought. Under drought conditions, the evapotranspiration to precipitation ratios at Stubai was slightly higher than those at Lautaret, indicating a dominant 'water spending' strategy of plant communities. Regarding catchment water balance, deep seepage was reduced by drought at Stubai more strongly than at Lautaret. Hence, the observed 'water spending' strategy at Stubai might have negative consequences for downstream water users. Assessing the water provision service for alpine grasslands provided evidence that, under drought conditions, evapotranspiration was influenced not only by abiotic factors but also by the water-use strategy of established vegetation. These results highlight the importance of 'water-use' strategies in existing plant communities as predictors of the impacts of drought on water provision services and related ecosystem services at both the field and catchment scale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Georg Leitinger
- Institute of EcologyUniversity of InnsbruckInnsbruckAustria
- Institute for Alpine EnvironmentEuropean Academy of Bolzano/BozenBolzano/BozenItaly
| | | | - Albin Hammerle
- Institute of EcologyUniversity of InnsbruckInnsbruckAustria
| | - Sandra Lavorel
- Laboratoire d'Ecologie AlpineUniversité Joseph FourierGrenobleFrance
| | - Uta Schirpke
- Institute for Alpine EnvironmentEuropean Academy of Bolzano/BozenBolzano/BozenItaly
| | | | - Pénélope Lamarque
- Laboratoire d'Ecologie AlpineUniversité Joseph FourierGrenobleFrance
| | - Nikolaus Obojes
- Institute for Alpine EnvironmentEuropean Academy of Bolzano/BozenBolzano/BozenItaly
| | - Ulrike Tappeiner
- Institute of EcologyUniversity of InnsbruckInnsbruckAustria
- Institute for Alpine EnvironmentEuropean Academy of Bolzano/BozenBolzano/BozenItaly
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Tappeiner U, Tasser E, Leitinger G, Cernusca A, Tappeiner G. Effects of Historical and Likely Future Scenarios of Land Use on Above- and Belowground Vegetation Carbon Stocks of an Alpine Valley. Ecosystems 2008. [DOI: 10.1007/s10021-008-9195-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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10
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Deckmyn G, Verbeeck H, Op de Beeck M, Vansteenkiste D, Steppe K, Ceulemans R. ANAFORE: A stand-scale process-based forest model that includes wood tissue development and labile carbon storage in trees. Ecol Modell 2008. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2008.04.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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