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Liu Y, Hogan JA, Lichstein JW, Guralnick RP, Soltis DE, Soltis PS, Scheiner SM. Biodiversity and productivity in eastern US forests. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2314231121. [PMID: 38527197 PMCID: PMC10998592 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2314231121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2023] [Accepted: 02/06/2024] [Indexed: 03/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Despite experimental and observational studies demonstrating that biodiversity enhances primary productivity, the best metric for predicting productivity at broad geographic extents-functional trait diversity, phylogenetic diversity, or species richness-remains unknown. Using >1.8 million tree measurements from across eastern US forests, we quantified relationships among functional trait diversity, phylogenetic diversity, species richness, and productivity. Surprisingly, functional trait and phylogenetic diversity explained little variation in productivity that could not be explained by tree species richness. This result was consistent across the entire eastern United States, within ecoprovinces, and within data subsets that controlled for biomass or stand age. Metrics of functional trait and phylogenetic diversity that were independent of species richness were negatively correlated with productivity. This last result suggests that processes that determine species sorting and packing are likely important for the relationships between productivity and biodiversity. This result also demonstrates the potential confusion that can arise when interdependencies among different diversity metrics are ignored. Our findings show the value of species richness as a predictive tool and highlight gaps in knowledge about linkages between functional diversity and ecosystem functioning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yunpeng Liu
- Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, and Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing100871, China
- Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL32611
| | - J. Aaron Hogan
- Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL32611
| | | | - Robert P. Guralnick
- Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL32611
- Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL32610
- Biodiversity Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL32611
| | - Douglas E. Soltis
- Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL32611
- Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL32611
- Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL32610
- Biodiversity Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL32611
| | - Pamela S. Soltis
- Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL32611
- Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL32610
- Biodiversity Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL32611
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2
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Nakagawa S, Lagisz M, Yang Y, Drobniak SM. Finding the right power balance: Better study design and collaboration can reduce dependence on statistical power. PLoS Biol 2024; 22:e3002423. [PMID: 38190355 PMCID: PMC10773938 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002423] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Power analysis currently dominates sample size determination for experiments, particularly in grant and ethics applications. Yet, this focus could paradoxically result in suboptimal study design because publication biases towards studies with the largest effects can lead to the overestimation of effect sizes. In this Essay, we propose a paradigm shift towards better study designs that focus less on statistical power. We also advocate for (pre)registration and obligatory reporting of all results (regardless of statistical significance), better facilitation of team science and multi-institutional collaboration that incorporates heterogenization, and the use of prospective and living meta-analyses to generate generalizable results. Such changes could make science more effective and, potentially, more equitable, helping to cultivate better collaborations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shinichi Nakagawa
- Evolution & Ecology Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- Theoretical Sciences Visiting Program, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Onna, Japan
| | - Malgorzata Lagisz
- Evolution & Ecology Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- Theoretical Sciences Visiting Program, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Onna, Japan
| | - Yefeng Yang
- Evolution & Ecology Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Szymon M. Drobniak
- Evolution & Ecology Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
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3
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Zhang F, Wu W, Li L, Liu X, Zhou G, Xu Z. Predicting community traits along an alpine grassland transect using field imaging spectroscopy. JOURNAL OF INTEGRATIVE PLANT BIOLOGY 2023; 65:2604-2618. [PMID: 37837189 DOI: 10.1111/jipb.13572] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2023] [Accepted: 10/12/2023] [Indexed: 10/15/2023]
Abstract
Assessing plant community traits is important for understanding how terrestrial ecosystems respond and adapt to global climate change. Field hyperspectral remote sensing is effective for quantitatively estimating vegetation properties in most terrestrial ecosystems, although it remains to be tested in areas with dwarf and sparse vegetation, such as the Tibetan Plateau. We measured canopy reflectance in the Tibetan Plateau using a handheld imaging spectrometer and conducted plant community investigations along an alpine grassland transect. We estimated community structural and functional traits, as well as community function based on a field survey and laboratory analysis using 14 spectral vegetation indices (VIs) derived from hyperspectral images. We quantified the contributions of environmental drivers, VIs, and community traits to community function by structural equation modelling (SEM). Univariate linear regression analysis showed that plant community traits are best predicted by the normalized difference vegetation index, enhanced vegetation index, and simple ratio. Structural equation modelling showed that VIs and community traits positively affected community function, whereas environmental drivers and specific leaf area had the opposite effect. Additionally, VIs integrated with environmental drivers were indirectly linked to community function by characterizing the variations in community structural and functional traits. This study demonstrates that community-level spectral reflectance will help scale plant trait information measured at the leaf level to larger-scale ecological processes. Field imaging spectroscopy represents a promising tool to predict the responses of alpine grassland communities to climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Feng Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China
- China National Botanical Garden, Beijing, 100093, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Wenjuan Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Lang Li
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Xiaodi Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Guangsheng Zhou
- Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China
| | - Zhenzhu Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China
- China National Botanical Garden, Beijing, 100093, China
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4
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Chen Q, Wang S, Borer ET, Bakker JD, Seabloom EW, Harpole WS, Eisenhauer N, Lekberg Y, Buckley YM, Catford JA, Roscher C, Donohue I, Power SA, Daleo P, Ebeling A, Knops JMH, Martina JP, Eskelinen A, Morgan JW, Risch AC, Caldeira MC, Bugalho MN, Virtanen R, Barrio IC, Niu Y, Jentsch A, Stevens CJ, Gruner DS, MacDougall AS, Alberti J, Hautier Y. Multidimensional responses of grassland stability to eutrophication. Nat Commun 2023; 14:6375. [PMID: 37821444 PMCID: PMC10567679 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42081-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2023] [Accepted: 09/25/2023] [Indexed: 10/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Eutrophication usually impacts grassland biodiversity, community composition, and biomass production, but its impact on the stability of these community aspects is unclear. One challenge is that stability has many facets that can be tightly correlated (low dimensionality) or highly disparate (high dimensionality). Using standardized experiments in 55 grassland sites from a globally distributed experiment (NutNet), we quantify the effects of nutrient addition on five facets of stability (temporal invariability, resistance during dry and wet growing seasons, recovery after dry and wet growing seasons), measured on three community aspects (aboveground biomass, community composition, and species richness). Nutrient addition reduces the temporal invariability and resistance of species richness and community composition during dry and wet growing seasons, but does not affect those of biomass. Different stability measures are largely uncorrelated under both ambient and eutrophic conditions, indicating consistently high dimensionality. Harnessing the dimensionality of ecological stability provides insights for predicting grassland responses to global environmental change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qingqing Chen
- Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Puschstrasse 4, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Shaopeng Wang
- Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.
| | - Elizabeth T Borer
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA
| | - Jonathan D Bakker
- School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Eric W Seabloom
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA
| | - W Stanley Harpole
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Puschstrasse 4, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany
- Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, am Kirchtor 1, 06108, Halle (Saale), Germany
| | - Nico Eisenhauer
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Puschstrasse 4, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Ylva Lekberg
- MPG Ranch and University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA
| | - Yvonne M Buckley
- School of Natural Sciences, Zoology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Jane A Catford
- Department of Geography, King's College London, 30 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4BG, UK
| | - Christiane Roscher
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Puschstrasse 4, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Ian Donohue
- School of Natural Sciences, Zoology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Sally A Power
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia
| | - Pedro Daleo
- Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), FCEyN, UNMdP-CONICET, CC 1260 Correo Central, B7600WAG, Mar del Plata, Argentina
| | - Anne Ebeling
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Johannes M H Knops
- Health & Environmental Sciences, Xián Jiaotong Liverpool University, Suzhou, China
| | - Jason P Martina
- Department of Biology, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, 78666, USA
| | - Anu Eskelinen
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Puschstrasse 4, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany
- Ecology and Genetics, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - John W Morgan
- Department of Environment and Genetics, La Trobe University, Bundoora, 3086, VIC, Australia
| | - Anita C Risch
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Zuercherstrasse 111, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Maria C Caldeira
- Forest Research Centre, Associate Laboratory TERRA, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Miguel N Bugalho
- Centre for Applied Ecology "Prof. Baeta Neves" (CEABN-InBIO), School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
| | | | - Isabel C Barrio
- Faculty of Environmental and Forest Sciences, Agricultural University of Iceland, Hvanneyri, Iceland
| | - Yujie Niu
- Disturbance Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics, Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
| | - Anke Jentsch
- Disturbance Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics, Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
| | - Carly J Stevens
- Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK
| | - Daniel S Gruner
- Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | | | - Juan Alberti
- Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), FCEyN, UNMdP-CONICET, CC 1260 Correo Central, B7600WAG, Mar del Plata, Argentina
| | - Yann Hautier
- Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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5
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Mori AS, Suzuki KF, Hori M, Kadoya T, Okano K, Uraguchi A, Muraoka H, Sato T, Shibata H, Suzuki-Ohno Y, Koba K, Toda M, Nakano SI, Kondoh M, Kitajima K, Nakamura M. Perspective: sustainability challenges, opportunities and solutions for long-term ecosystem observations. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20220192. [PMID: 37246388 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0192] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2022] [Accepted: 04/11/2023] [Indexed: 05/30/2023] Open
Abstract
As interest in natural capital grows and society increasingly recognizes the value of biodiversity, we must discuss how ecosystem observations to detect changes in biodiversity can be sustained through collaboration across regions and sectors. However, there are many barriers to establishing and sustaining large-scale, fine-resolution ecosystem observations. First, comprehensive monitoring data on both biodiversity and possible anthropogenic factors are lacking. Second, some in situ ecosystem observations cannot be systematically established and maintained across locations. Third, equitable solutions across sectors and countries are needed to build a global network. Here, by examining individual cases and emerging frameworks, mainly from (but not limited to) Japan, we illustrate how ecological science relies on long-term data and how neglecting basic monitoring of our home planet further reduces our chances of overcoming the environmental crisis. We also discuss emerging techniques and opportunities, such as environmental DNA and citizen science as well as using the existing and forgotten sites of monitoring, that can help overcome some of the difficulties in establishing and sustaining ecosystem observations at a large scale with fine resolution. Overall, this paper presents a call to action for joint monitoring of biodiversity and anthropogenic factors, the systematic establishment and maintenance of in situ observations, and equitable solutions across sectors and countries to build a global network, beyond cultures, languages, and economic status. We hope that our proposed framework and the examples from Japan can serve as a starting point for further discussions and collaborations among stakeholders across multiple sectors of society. It is time to take the next step in detecting changes in socio-ecological systems, and if monitoring and observation can be made more equitable and feasible, they will play an even more important role in ensuring global sustainability for future generations. This article is part of the theme issue 'Detecting and attributing the causes of biodiversity change: needs, gaps and solutions'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Akira S Mori
- Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Komaba 4-6-1, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan
- Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences, Yokohama National University, 79-7 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama, Kanagawa 240-8501, Japan
| | - Kureha F Suzuki
- Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Komaba 4-6-1, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan
- Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences, Yokohama National University, 79-7 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama, Kanagawa 240-8501, Japan
| | - Masakazu Hori
- Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, 6F Technowave100, 1-1-25 Shin-urashima, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 221-8529, Japan
| | - Taku Kadoya
- National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2, Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan
| | - Kotaro Okano
- Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Komaba 4-6-1, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan
| | - Aya Uraguchi
- Conservation International Japan, 1-17 Yotsuya, Shinjuku, Tokyo 160-0014, Japan
| | - Hiroyuki Muraoka
- National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2, Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan
- River Basin Research Center, Gifu University, 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu City 501-1193, Japan
| | - Tamotsu Sato
- International Strategy Division, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI), 1 Matsunosato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8687, Japan
| | - Hideaki Shibata
- Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, N9 W9, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0809, Japan
| | - Yukari Suzuki-Ohno
- Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aoba, Aramaki-aza, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8578, Japan
| | - Keisuke Koba
- Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Hirano 2-509-3, Otsu, Shiga 520-2113, Japan
| | - Mariko Toda
- Kokusai Kogyo Co., Ltd. Shinjuku Front Tower, 21-1, Kita-Shinjuku 2-chome, Shinjukuku, Tokyo 169-0074, Japan
| | - Shin-Ichi Nakano
- Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Hirano 2-509-3, Otsu, Shiga 520-2113, Japan
| | - Michio Kondoh
- Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aoba, Aramaki-aza, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8578, Japan
| | - Kaoru Kitajima
- Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa Oiwake-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
| | - Masahiro Nakamura
- Tomakomai Experimental Forest, Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Takaoka, Tomakomai, Hokkaido 053-0035, Japan
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6
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Seabloom EW, Caldeira MC, Davies KF, Kinkel L, Knops JMH, Komatsu KJ, MacDougall AS, May G, Millican M, Moore JL, Perez LI, Porath-Krause AJ, Power SA, Prober SM, Risch AC, Stevens C, Borer ET. Globally consistent response of plant microbiome diversity across hosts and continents to soil nutrients and herbivores. Nat Commun 2023; 14:3516. [PMID: 37316485 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39179-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2022] [Accepted: 06/01/2023] [Indexed: 06/16/2023] Open
Abstract
All multicellular organisms host a diverse microbiome composed of microbial pathogens, mutualists, and commensals, and changes in microbiome diversity or composition can alter host fitness and function. Nonetheless, we lack a general understanding of the drivers of microbiome diversity, in part because it is regulated by concurrent processes spanning scales from global to local. Global-scale environmental gradients can determine variation in microbiome diversity among sites, however an individual host's microbiome also may reflect its local micro-environment. We fill this knowledge gap by experimentally manipulating two potential mediators of plant microbiome diversity (soil nutrient supply and herbivore density) at 23 grassland sites spanning global-scale gradients in soil nutrients, climate, and plant biomass. Here we show that leaf-scale microbiome diversity in unmanipulated plots depended on the total microbiome diversity at each site, which was highest at sites with high soil nutrients and plant biomass. We also found that experimentally adding soil nutrients and excluding herbivores produced concordant results across sites, increasing microbiome diversity by increasing plant biomass, which created a shaded microclimate. This demonstration of consistent responses of microbiome diversity across a wide range of host species and environmental conditions suggests the possibility of a general, predictive understanding of microbiome diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric W Seabloom
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA.
| | - Maria C Caldeira
- Forest Research Centre, Associate Laboratory TERRA, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Kendi F Davies
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80305, USA
| | - Linda Kinkel
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA
| | - Johannes M H Knops
- Health and Environmental Sciences Department, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China
| | | | | | - Georgiana May
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA
| | - Michael Millican
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA
| | - Joslin L Moore
- Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, 123 Brown Street, Heidelberg, VIC, 3084, Australia
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, 25 Rainforest Walk, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia
- School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, The University of Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia
| | - Luis I Perez
- IFEVA-Facultad de Agronomía (UBA)/CONICET, Departamento de Recursos Naturales, Catedra ´ de Ecología, Av. San Martín, 4453, Buenos Aires, C1417DSE, Argentina
| | - Anita J Porath-Krause
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA
| | - Sally A Power
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia
| | | | - Anita C Risch
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Carly Stevens
- Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK
| | - Elizabeth T Borer
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA
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7
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Van Sundert K, Leuzinger S, Bader MKF, Chang SX, De Kauwe MG, Dukes JS, Langley JA, Ma Z, Mariën B, Reynaert S, Ru J, Song J, Stocker B, Terrer C, Thoresen J, Vanuytrecht E, Wan S, Yue K, Vicca S. When things get MESI: The Manipulation Experiments Synthesis Initiative-A coordinated effort to synthesize terrestrial global change experiments. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2023; 29:1922-1938. [PMID: 36607160 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16585] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2022] [Revised: 12/22/2022] [Accepted: 12/30/2022] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Responses of the terrestrial biosphere to rapidly changing environmental conditions are a major source of uncertainty in climate projections. In an effort to reduce this uncertainty, a wide range of global change experiments have been conducted that mimic future conditions in terrestrial ecosystems, manipulating CO2 , temperature, and nutrient and water availability. Syntheses of results across experiments provide a more general sense of ecosystem responses to global change, and help to discern the influence of background conditions such as climate and vegetation type in determining global change responses. Several independent syntheses of published data have yielded distinct databases for specific objectives. Such parallel, uncoordinated initiatives carry the risk of producing redundant data collection efforts and have led to contrasting outcomes without clarifying the underlying reason for divergence. These problems could be avoided by creating a publicly available, updatable, curated database. Here, we report on a global effort to collect and curate 57,089 treatment responses across 3644 manipulation experiments at 1145 sites, simulating elevated CO2 , warming, nutrient addition, and precipitation changes. In the resulting Manipulation Experiments Synthesis Initiative (MESI) database, effects of experimental global change drivers on carbon and nutrient cycles are included, as well as ancillary data such as background climate, vegetation type, treatment magnitude, duration, and, unique to our database, measured soil properties. Our analysis of the database indicates that most experiments are short term (one or few growing seasons), conducted in the USA, Europe, or China, and that the most abundantly reported variable is aboveground biomass. We provide the most comprehensive multifactor global change database to date, enabling the research community to tackle open research questions, vital to global policymaking. The MESI database, freely accessible at doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7153253, opens new avenues for model evaluation and synthesis-based understanding of how global change affects terrestrial biomes. We welcome contributions to the database on GitHub.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin Van Sundert
- Research Group PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), Global Change Ecology Centre of Excellence, Biology Department, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
- Climate and Ecological Synthesis Lab, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Earth System Science, Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Ecological Synthesis Lab, School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
| | | | - Martin K-F Bader
- Department of Forestry and Wood Technology, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden
| | - Scott X Chang
- Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | | | - Jeffrey S Dukes
- Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, California, USA
| | - J Adam Langley
- Department of Biology and Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship, Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Zilong Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Bertold Mariën
- Research Group PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), Global Change Ecology Centre of Excellence, Biology Department, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Simon Reynaert
- Research Group PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), Global Change Ecology Centre of Excellence, Biology Department, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Jingyi Ru
- School of Life Sciences, Institute of Life Science and Green Development, Hebei University, Baoding, China
| | - Jian Song
- School of Life Sciences, Institute of Life Science and Green Development, Hebei University, Baoding, China
| | - Benjamin Stocker
- Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - César Terrer
- Climate and Ecological Synthesis Lab, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Joshua Thoresen
- Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Wildland Consultants, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Eline Vanuytrecht
- Division of Soil & Water Management, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Climate Change Adaptation, European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Shiqiang Wan
- School of Life Sciences, Institute of Life Science and Green Development, Hebei University, Baoding, China
| | - Kai Yue
- Key Laboratory for Humid Subtropical Eco-Geographical Processes of the Ministry of Education, School of Geographical Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China
- Fujian Sanming Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Sanming, Fujian, China
| | - Sara Vicca
- Research Group PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), Global Change Ecology Centre of Excellence, Biology Department, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
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8
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Garces KR, Bell-Dereske L, Rudgers JA, Emery SM. Nitrogen addition and fungal symbiosis alter early dune plant succession. Oecologia 2023; 201:1067-1077. [PMID: 36941448 PMCID: PMC10027266 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-023-05362-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2022] [Accepted: 03/12/2023] [Indexed: 03/23/2023]
Abstract
Anthropogenic nitrogen (N) enrichment can have complex effects on plant communities. In low-nutrient, primary successional systems such as sand dunes, N enrichment may alter the trajectory of plant community assembly or the dominance of foundational, ecosystem-engineering plants. Predicting the consequences of N enrichment may be complicated by plant interactions with microbial symbionts because increases in a limiting resource, such as N, could alter the costs and benefits of symbiosis. To evaluate the direct and interactive effects of microbial symbiosis and N addition on plant succession, we established a long-term field experiment in Michigan, USA, manipulating the presence of the symbiotic fungal endophyte Epichloë amarillans in Ammophila breviligulata, a dominant ecosystem-engineering dune grass species. From 2016 to 2020, we implemented N fertilization treatments (control, low, high) in a subset of the long-term experiment. N addition suppressed the accumulation of plant diversity over time mainly by reducing species richness of colonizing plants. However, this suppression occurred only when the endophyte was present in Ammophila. Although Epichloë enhanced Ammophila tiller density over time, N addition did not strongly interact with Epichloë symbiosis to influence vegetative growth of Ammophila. Instead, N addition directly altered plant community composition by increasing the abundance of efficient colonizers, especially C4 grasses. In conclusion, hidden microbial symbionts can alter the consequences of N enrichment on plant primary succession.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kylea R Garces
- Department of Biology, University of Louisville, 139 Life Sciences Bldg, Louisville, KY, 40292, USA.
| | - Lukas Bell-Dereske
- Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jennifer A Rudgers
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA
| | - Sarah M Emery
- Department of Biology, University of Louisville, 139 Life Sciences Bldg, Louisville, KY, 40292, USA
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9
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He S, Xiong K, Song S, Chi Y, Fang J, He C. Research Progress of Grassland Ecosystem Structure and Stability and Inspiration for Improving Its Service Capacity in the Karst Desertification Control. PLANTS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023; 12:770. [PMID: 36840118 PMCID: PMC9959505 DOI: 10.3390/plants12040770] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2023] [Revised: 02/04/2023] [Accepted: 02/05/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
The structure and stability of grassland ecosystems have a significant impact on biodiversity, material cycling and productivity for ecosystem services. However, the issue of the structure and stability of grassland ecosystems has not been systematically reviewed. Based on the Web of Science (WOS) and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases, we used the systematic-review method and screened 133 papers to describe and analyze the frontiers of research into the structure and stability of grassland ecosystems. The research results showed that: (1) The number of articles about the structure and stability of grassland ecosystems is gradually increasing, and the research themes are becoming increasingly diverse. (2) There is a high degree of consistency between the study area and the spatial distribution of grassland. (3) Based on the changes in ecosystem patterns and their interrelationships with ecosystem processes, we reviewed the research progress and landmark results on the structure, stability, structure-stability relationship and their influencing factors of grassland ecosystems; among them, the study of structure is the main research focus (51.12%), followed by the study of the influencing factors of structure and stability (37.57%). (4) Key scientific questions on structural optimization, stability enhancement and harmonizing the relationship between structure and stability are explored. (5) Based on the background of karst desertification control (KDC) and its geographical characteristics, three insights are proposed to optimize the spatial allocation, enhance the stability of grassland for rocky desertification control and coordinate the regulation mechanism of grassland structure and stability. This study provided some references for grassland managers and relevant policy makers to optimize the structure and enhance the stability of grassland ecosystems. It also provided important insights to enhance the service capacity of grassland ecosystems in KDC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuyu He
- School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550001, China
- State Engineering Technology Institute for Karst Desertification Control of China, 116 Baoshan North Road, Guiyang 550001, China
| | - Kangning Xiong
- School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550001, China
- State Engineering Technology Institute for Karst Desertification Control of China, 116 Baoshan North Road, Guiyang 550001, China
| | - Shuzhen Song
- School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550001, China
- State Engineering Technology Institute for Karst Desertification Control of China, 116 Baoshan North Road, Guiyang 550001, China
| | - Yongkuan Chi
- School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550001, China
- State Engineering Technology Institute for Karst Desertification Control of China, 116 Baoshan North Road, Guiyang 550001, China
| | - Jinzhong Fang
- School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550001, China
- State Engineering Technology Institute for Karst Desertification Control of China, 116 Baoshan North Road, Guiyang 550001, China
| | - Chen He
- School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550001, China
- State Engineering Technology Institute for Karst Desertification Control of China, 116 Baoshan North Road, Guiyang 550001, China
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10
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Keller AB, Walter CA, Blumenthal DM, Borer ET, Collins SL, DeLancey LC, Fay PA, Hofmockel KS, Knops JMH, Leakey ADB, Mayes MA, Seabloom EW, Hobbie SE. Stronger fertilization effects on aboveground versus belowground plant properties across nine U.S. grasslands. Ecology 2023; 104:e3891. [PMID: 36208208 PMCID: PMC10078332 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3891] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2022] [Accepted: 08/09/2022] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
Increased nutrient inputs due to anthropogenic activity are expected to increase primary productivity across terrestrial ecosystems, but changes in allocation aboveground versus belowground with nutrient addition have different implications for soil carbon (C) storage. Thus, given that roots are major contributors to soil C storage, understanding belowground net primary productivity (BNPP) and biomass responses to changes in nutrient availability is essential to predicting carbon-climate feedbacks in the context of interacting global environmental changes. To address this knowledge gap, we tested whether a decade of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilization consistently influenced aboveground and belowground biomass and productivity at nine grassland sites spanning a wide range of climatic and edaphic conditions in the continental United States. Fertilization effects were strong aboveground, with both N and P addition stimulating aboveground biomass at nearly all sites (by 30% and 36%, respectively, on average). P addition consistently increased root production (by 15% on average), whereas other belowground responses to fertilization were more variable, ranging from positive to negative across sites. Site-specific responses to P were not predicted by the measured covariates. Atmospheric N deposition mediated the effect of N fertilization on root biomass and turnover. Specifically, atmospheric N deposition was positively correlated with root turnover rates, and this relationship was amplified with N addition. Nitrogen addition increased root biomass at sites with low N deposition but decreased it at sites with high N deposition. Overall, these results suggest that the effects of nutrient supply on belowground plant properties are context dependent, particularly with regard to background N supply rates, demonstrating that site conditions must be considered when predicting how grassland ecosystems will respond to increased nutrient loading from anthropogenic activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrienne B. Keller
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSaint PaulMinnesotaUSA
| | | | - Dana M. Blumenthal
- USDA‐ARS Rangeland Resources & Systems Research UnitFort CollinsColoradoUSA
| | - Elizabeth T. Borer
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSaint PaulMinnesotaUSA
| | - Scott L. Collins
- Department of BiologyUniversity of New MexicoAlbuquerqueNew MexicoUSA
| | - Lang C. DeLancey
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSaint PaulMinnesotaUSA
| | - Philip A. Fay
- USDA‐ARS GrasslandSoil, and Water Research LaboratoryTempleTexasUSA
| | - Kirsten S. Hofmockel
- Earth and Biological Sciences DirectoratePacific Northwest National LaboratoryRichlandWashingtonUSA
- Department of AgronomyIowa State UniversityAmesIowaUSA
| | - Johannes M. H. Knops
- Health & Environmental Sciences DepartmentXi'an Jiaotong‐Liverpool UniversitySuzhouJiangsuChina
| | - Andrew D. B. Leakey
- Department of Plant Biology, Department of Crop SciencesUniversity of Illinois at Urbana‐ChampaignUrbana‐ChampaignIllinoisUSA
| | - Melanie A. Mayes
- Department of Earth and Planetary SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTennesseeUSA
- Environmental Sciences DivisionOak Ridge National LaboratoryOak RidgeTennesseeUSA
| | - Eric W. Seabloom
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSaint PaulMinnesotaUSA
| | - Sarah E. Hobbie
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSaint PaulMinnesotaUSA
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11
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Weisser W, Blüthgen N, Staab M, Achury R, Müller J. Experiments are needed to quantify the main causes of insect decline. Biol Lett 2023; 19:20220500. [PMID: 36789531 PMCID: PMC9929502 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2022.0500] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2022] [Accepted: 01/11/2023] [Indexed: 02/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Sparked by reports of insect declines of unexpected extent, there has been a surge in the compilation and analysis of insect time series data. While this effort has led to valuable databases, disagreement remains as to whether, where and why insects are declining. The 'why' question is particularly important because successful insect conservation will need to address the most important drivers of decline. Despite repeated calls for more long-term data, new time series will have to run for decades to quantitatively surpass those currently available. Here we argue that experimentation in addition to quantitative analysis of existing data is needed to identify the most important drivers of insect decline. While most potential drivers of insect population change are likely to have already been identified, their relative importance is largely unknown. Researchers should thus unite and use statistical insight to set up suitable experiments to be able to rank drivers by their importance. Such a coordinated effort is needed to produce the knowledge necessary for conservation action and will also result in increased monitoring and new time series.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wolfgang Weisser
- School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Freising, Germany
| | - Nico Blüthgen
- Ecological Networks, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Michael Staab
- Ecological Networks, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Rafael Achury
- School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Freising, Germany
| | - Jörg Müller
- Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
- Bavarian Forest National Park, Grafenau, Germany
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12
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Phillips H, Cameron E, Eisenhauer N. Illuminating biodiversity changes in the ‘Black Box’. RESEARCH IDEAS AND OUTCOMES 2022. [DOI: 10.3897/rio.8.e87143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Soil is often described as a ‘black box’, as surprisingly little is known about the high levels of biodiversity that reside there. For aboveground organisms, we have good knowledge of the distribution of the species and how they might change under future human impacts. Yet despite the fact that soil organisms provide a wide variety of ecosystem functions, we have very limited knowledge of their distribution and how their diversity might change in the future. In order to create accurate and generalisable models of biodiversity, the underlying data need to be representative of the entire globe. Yet even with our recently compiled global earthworm dataset of over 11000 sites, there are gaps across large regions. These gaps are consistent across many other datasets of both above- and belowground diversity. In order to fill the gaps we propose a sampling network (SoilFaUNa), to create a comprehensive database of soil macrofauna diversity and soil functions (e.g. decomposition rates). Building on the existing dataset of earthworm diversity and early data from the SoilFaUNa project, we will investigate changes in earthworm diversity. From our current work, we know that both climate and land use are main drivers in predicting earthworm diversity, but both will change under future scenarios and may alter ecosystem functions. We will, using space-for-time substitution models, estimate how earthworm diversity and their functions might change in the future, modelling earthworm diversity as a function of climate, land use and soil properties and predicting based on future scenarios. Previous studies of aboveground diversity changes over time using time-series analysis have found no-net-loss in richness, but analyses have criticisms. We aim to use time-series data on earthworms to move this debate forward, by using data and statistical methods that would address the criticisms, whilst increasing our knowledge on this understudied soil group. Field experiments and micro-/mesocosm experiments have been used to investigate the link between a number of soil organisms and ecosystem functions under few environmental conditions. Meta-analyses, which can produce generalisable results can only answer questions for which there are data. Thus, we have been lacking on information on the link between the entire community of soil fauna and ecosystem functions and impact of changes to the soil fauna community across environmental contexts. Using data collected from the SoilFaUNa project, we will, for the first time, synthesise globally distributed specifically-sampled data to model how changes in the community composition of soil macrofauna (due to changes in land use, climate or soil properties) impact the ecosystem functions in the soil.
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13
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Peng J, Ma F, Quan Q, Chen X, Wang J, Yan Y, Zhou Q, Niu S. Nitrogen enrichment alters climate sensitivity of biodiversity and productivity differentially and reverses the relationship between them in an alpine meadow. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2022; 835:155418. [PMID: 35472341 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155418] [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: 03/05/2022] [Revised: 04/14/2022] [Accepted: 04/17/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Biodiversity and productivity that highly determine ecosystem services are varying largely under global change. However, the climate sensitivity of them and their relationship are not well understood, especially in the context of increasing nitrogen (N) deposition. Here, based on a six-year N manipulation experiment in an alpine meadow, we quantified interannual climate sensitivity of species richness (SR) and above-ground net primary productivity (ANPP) as well as SR-ANPP relationship as affected by six N addition rate (Nrate) gradients. We found that interannual variations in ANPP and SR were mainly driven by temperature instead of precipitation. In the plots without N addition, higher temperature substantially increased ANPP but reduced SR across years, thus resulting in a negative SR-ANPP relationship. However, the negative and positive responses of SR and ANPP to temperature increased and declined significantly with increasing Nrate, respectively, leading to a shift of the negative relationship between SR and ANPP into a positive one under high Nrate. Moreover, the adverse influence of drought on SR and ANPP would be aggravated by N fertilization, as indicated by the increased positive effect of precipitation on them under N enrichment. Our findings indicate that climate sensitivity of productivity and biodiversity may be misestimated if the impact of N deposition is not considered, and the importance of biodiversity to maintain productivity would enhance as N deposition increases. This study provides a new insight to explain variation of biodiversity-productivity relationship along with environmental changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinlong Peng
- Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Fangfang Ma
- Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Quan Quan
- Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Xinli Chen
- Faculty of Natural Resources Management, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jinsong Wang
- Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Yingjie Yan
- Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Qingping Zhou
- Institute of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Southwest University for Nationalities, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Shuli Niu
- Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
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14
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Wang Y, Du J, Pang Z, Liu Y, Xue K, Hautier Y, Zhang B, Tang L, Jiang L, Ji B, Xu X, Zhang J, Hu R, Zhou S, Wang F, Che R, Wang D, Zhou C, Cui X, Eisenhauer N, Hao Y. Unimodal productivity-biodiversity relationship along the gradient of multidimensional resources across Chinese grasslands. Natl Sci Rev 2022; 9:nwac165. [PMID: 36519072 PMCID: PMC9743175 DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwac165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2022] [Revised: 08/12/2022] [Accepted: 08/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Resources can affect plant productivity and biodiversity simultaneously and thus are key drivers of their relationships in addition to plant-plant interactions. However, most previous studies only focused on a single resource while neglecting the nature of resource multidimensionality. Here we integrated four essential resources for plant growth into a single metric of resource diversity (RD) to investigate its effects on the productivity-biodiversity relationship (PBR) across Chinese grasslands. Results showed that habitats differing in RD have different PBRs-positive in low-resource habitats, but neutral in medium- and high-resource ones-while collectively, a weak positive PBR was observed. However, when excluding direct effects of RD on productivity and biodiversity, the PBR in high-resource habitats became negative, which leads to a unimodal instead of a positive PBR along the RD gradient. By integrating resource effects and changing plant-plant interactions into a unified framework with the RD gradient, our work contributes to uncovering underlying mechanisms for inconsistent PBRs at large scales.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jianqing Du
- College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100049, China,Beijing Yanshan Earth Critical Zone National Research Station, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing101408, China
| | - Zhe Pang
- College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100049, China
| | - Yali Liu
- School of Grassland Science, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing100083, China
| | - Kai Xue
- College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100049, China,Beijing Yanshan Earth Critical Zone National Research Station, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing101408, China
| | - Yann Hautier
- Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht3584CH, The Netherlands
| | - Biao Zhang
- College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100049, China
| | - Li Tang
- College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100049, China
| | - Lili Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100101, China
| | - Baoming Ji
- School of Grassland Science, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing100083, China
| | - Xingliang Xu
- Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100101, China
| | - Jing Zhang
- School of Grassland Science, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing100083, China
| | - Ronghai Hu
- College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100049, China,Beijing Yanshan Earth Critical Zone National Research Station, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing101408, China
| | - Shutong Zhou
- College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100049, China
| | - Fang Wang
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100049, China
| | - Rongxiao Che
- School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming650091, China
| | - Di Wang
- Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100101, China
| | - Chaoting Zhou
- Department of Medicine, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Xiaoyong Cui
- Beijing Yanshan Earth Critical Zone National Research Station, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing101408, China,College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100049, China
| | - Nico Eisenhauer
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig04103, Germany,Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig04103, Germany
| | - Yanbin Hao
- Beijing Yanshan Earth Critical Zone National Research Station, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing101408, China,College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100049, China
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15
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Price JN, Sitters J, Ohlert T, Tognetti PM, Brown CS, Seabloom EW, Borer ET, Prober SM, Bakker ES, MacDougall AS, Yahdjian L, Gruner DS, Olde Venterink H, Barrio IC, Graff P, Bagchi S, Arnillas CA, Bakker JD, Blumenthal DM, Boughton EH, Brudvig LA, Bugalho MN, Cadotte MW, Caldeira MC, Dickman CR, Donohue I, Grégory S, Hautier Y, Jónsdóttir IS, Lannes LS, McCulley RL, Moore JL, Power SA, Risch AC, Schütz M, Standish R, Stevens CJ, Veen GF, Virtanen R, Wardle GM. Evolutionary history of grazing and resources determine herbivore exclusion effects on plant diversity. Nat Ecol Evol 2022; 6:1290-1298. [PMID: 35879541 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01809-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2021] [Accepted: 05/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Ecological models predict that the effects of mammalian herbivore exclusion on plant diversity depend on resource availability and plant exposure to ungulate grazing over evolutionary time. Using an experiment replicated in 57 grasslands on six continents, with contrasting evolutionary history of grazing, we tested how resources (mean annual precipitation and soil nutrients) determine herbivore exclusion effects on plant diversity, richness and evenness. Here we show that at sites with a long history of ungulate grazing, herbivore exclusion reduced plant diversity by reducing both richness and evenness and the responses of richness and diversity to herbivore exclusion decreased with mean annual precipitation. At sites with a short history of grazing, the effects of herbivore exclusion were not related to precipitation but differed for native and exotic plant richness. Thus, plant species' evolutionary history of grazing continues to shape the response of the world's grasslands to changing mammalian herbivory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jodi N Price
- Gulbali Institute, Charles Sturt University, Albury, New South Wales, Australia.
| | - Judith Sitters
- Ecology and Biodiversity, Department Biology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium. .,Wageningen Environmental Research, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
| | - Timothy Ohlert
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
| | - Pedro M Tognetti
- IFEVA-CONICET, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Cynthia S Brown
- Department of Agricultural Biology and Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Eric W Seabloom
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA
| | - Elizabeth T Borer
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA
| | | | - Elisabeth S Bakker
- Department of Aquatic Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | - Andrew S MacDougall
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
| | - Laura Yahdjian
- IFEVA-CONICET, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Daniel S Gruner
- Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Harry Olde Venterink
- Ecology and Biodiversity, Department Biology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Isabel C Barrio
- Faculty of Environmental and Forest Sciences, Agricultural University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
| | - Pamela Graff
- IFEVA-CONICET, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Sumanta Bagchi
- Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
| | - Carlos Alberto Arnillas
- Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto-Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jonathan D Bakker
- School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Dana M Blumenthal
- Rangeland Resources & Systems Research Unit, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | | | - Lars A Brudvig
- Department of Plant Biology and Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Miguel N Bugalho
- Centre for Applied Ecology 'Prof. Baeta Neves' (CEABN-InBIO), School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Marc W Cadotte
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto-Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Maria C Caldeira
- Forest Research Centre, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Chris R Dickman
- Desert Ecology Research Group, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Ian Donohue
- Department of Zoology, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Sonnier Grégory
- Archbold Biological Station, Buck Island Ranch, Lake Placid, FL, USA
| | - Yann Hautier
- Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | | | - Luciola S Lannes
- Department of Biology and Animal Sciences, São Paulo State University-UNESP, Ilha Solteira, Brazil
| | - Rebecca L McCulley
- Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
| | - Joslin L Moore
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
| | - Sally A Power
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Anita C Risch
- Community Ecology, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Martin Schütz
- Community Ecology, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Rachel Standish
- Environmental and Conservation Sciences, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Carly J Stevens
- Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
| | - G F Veen
- Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | | | - Glenda M Wardle
- Desert Ecology Research Group, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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16
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Michalska-Smith M, Song Z, Spawn-Lee SA, Hansen ZA, Johnson M, May G, Borer ET, Seabloom EW, Kinkel LL. Network structure of resource use and niche overlap within the endophytic microbiome. THE ISME JOURNAL 2022; 16:435-446. [PMID: 34413476 PMCID: PMC8776778 DOI: 10.1038/s41396-021-01080-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2021] [Revised: 05/28/2021] [Accepted: 07/27/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Endophytes often have dramatic effects on their host plants. Characterizing the relationships among members of these communities has focused on identifying the effects of single microbes on their host, but has generally overlooked interactions among the myriad microbes in natural communities as well as potential higher-order interactions. Network analyses offer a powerful means for characterizing patterns of interaction among microbial members of the phytobiome that may be crucial to mediating its assembly and function. We sampled twelve endophytic communities, comparing patterns of niche overlap between coexisting bacteria and fungi to evaluate the effect of nutrient supplementation on local and global competitive network structure. We found that, despite differences in the degree distribution, there were few significant differences in the global network structure of niche-overlap networks following persistent nutrient amendment. Likewise, we found idiosyncratic and weak evidence for higher-order interactions regardless of nutrient treatment. This work provides a first-time characterization of niche-overlap network structure in endophytic communities and serves as a framework for higher-resolution analyses of microbial interaction networks as a consequence and a cause of ecological variation in microbiome function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew Michalska-Smith
- Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, USA.
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, USA.
| | - Zewei Song
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, USA
| | - Seth A Spawn-Lee
- Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
- Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Zoe A Hansen
- Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Mitch Johnson
- Department of Horticultural Science, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, USA
| | - Georgiana May
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St Paul, USA
| | - Elizabeth T Borer
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St Paul, USA
| | - Eric W Seabloom
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St Paul, USA
| | - Linda L Kinkel
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, USA
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17
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Nicholson E, Watermeyer KE, Rowland JA, Sato CF, Stevenson SL, Andrade A, Brooks TM, Burgess ND, Cheng ST, Grantham HS, Hill SL, Keith DA, Maron M, Metzke D, Murray NJ, Nelson CR, Obura D, Plumptre A, Skowno AL, Watson JEM. Scientific foundations for an ecosystem goal, milestones and indicators for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. Nat Ecol Evol 2021; 5:1338-1349. [PMID: 34400825 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01538-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2021] [Accepted: 07/15/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Despite substantial conservation efforts, the loss of ecosystems continues globally, along with related declines in species and nature's contributions to people. An effective ecosystem goal, supported by clear milestones, targets and indicators, is urgently needed for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and beyond to support biodiversity conservation, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and efforts to abate climate change. Here, we describe the scientific foundations for an ecosystem goal and milestones, founded on a theory of change, and review available indicators to measure progress. An ecosystem goal should include three core components: area, integrity and risk of collapse. Targets-the actions that are necessary for the goals to be met-should address the pathways to ecosystem loss and recovery, including safeguarding remnants of threatened ecosystems, restoring their area and integrity to reduce risk of collapse and retaining intact areas. Multiple indicators are needed to capture the different dimensions of ecosystem area, integrity and risk of collapse across all ecosystem types, and should be selected for their fitness for purpose and relevance to goal components. Science-based goals, supported by well-formulated action targets and fit-for-purpose indicators, will provide the best foundation for reversing biodiversity loss and sustaining human well-being.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily Nicholson
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia. .,IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management, Gland, Switzerland.
| | - Kate E Watermeyer
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
| | - Jessica A Rowland
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
| | - Chloe F Sato
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
| | - Simone L Stevenson
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
| | - Angela Andrade
- IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management, Gland, Switzerland.,Conservación Internacional, Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
| | - Thomas M Brooks
- IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.,World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), University of The Philippines, Los Baños, The Philippines.,Institute for Marine & Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
| | - Neil D Burgess
- UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), Cambridge, UK.,Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Climate, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Su-Ting Cheng
- School of Forestry & Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
| | - Hedley S Grantham
- Wildlife Conservation Society, Global Conservation Program, New York, NY, USA
| | - Samantha L Hill
- UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), Cambridge, UK
| | - David A Keith
- IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management, Gland, Switzerland.,Centre for Ecosystem Science, University of NSW, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.,NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, Hurstville, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Martine Maron
- Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Daniel Metzke
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Potsdam, Germany
| | - Nicholas J Murray
- College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
| | - Cara R Nelson
- IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management, Gland, Switzerland.,Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA
| | | | - Andy Plumptre
- Key Biodiversity Area Secretariat, BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK
| | - Andrew L Skowno
- South African National Biodiversity Institute, Kirstenbosch Research Centre, Cape Town, South Africa.,Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - James E M Watson
- Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
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18
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Mountain Watch: How LT(S)ER Is Safeguarding Southern Africa’s People and Biodiversity for a Sustainable Mountain Future. LAND 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/land10101024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Southern Africa is an exceptionally diverse region with an ancient geologic and climatic history. Its mountains are located in the Southern Hemisphere mid-latitudes at a tropical–temperate interface, offering a rare opportunity to contextualise and frame our research from an austral perspective to balance the global narrative around sustainable mountain futures for people and biodiversity. Limited Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) was initiated more than a century ago in South Africa to optimise catchment management through sound water policy. The South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) has resurrected many government LTER programmes and added observatories representative of the country’s heterogeneous zonobiomes, including its mountain regions. LTER in other Southern African mountains is largely absent. The current rollout of the Expanded Freshwater and Terrestrial Environmental Observation Network (EFTEON) and the Southern African chapters of international programmes such as the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA), RangeX, and the Global Soil Biodiversity Observation Network (Soil BON), as well as the expansion of the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN), is ushering in a renaissance period of global change research in the region, which takes greater cognisance of its social context. This diversity of initiatives will generate a more robust knowledge base from which to draw conclusions about how to better safeguard the well-being of people and biodiversity in the region and help balance livelihoods and environmental sustainability in our complex, third-world socio-ecological mountain systems.
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19
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Kimmel K, Dee LE, Avolio ML, Ferraro PJ. Causal assumptions and causal inference in ecological experiments. Trends Ecol Evol 2021; 36:1141-1152. [PMID: 34538502 DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.08.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2021] [Revised: 08/10/2021] [Accepted: 08/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Causal inferences from experimental data are often justified based on treatment randomization. However, inferring causality from data also requires complementary causal assumptions, which have been formalized by scholars of causality but not widely discussed in ecology. While ecologists have recognized challenges to inferring causal relationships in experiments and developed solutions, they lack a general framework to identify and address them. We review four assumptions required to infer causality from experiments and provide design-based and statistically based solutions for when these assumptions are violated. We conclude that there is no clear demarcation between experimental and non-experimental designs. This insight can help ecologists design better experiments and remove barriers between experimental and observational scholarship in ecology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaitlin Kimmel
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Laura E Dee
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
| | - Meghan L Avolio
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Paul J Ferraro
- Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, a joint department of the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
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20
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Wilfahrt PA, Asmus AL, Seabloom EW, Henning JA, Adler P, Arnillas CA, Bakker JD, Biederman L, Brudvig LA, Cadotte M, Daleo P, Eskelinen A, Firn J, Harpole WS, Hautier Y, Kirkman KP, Komatsu KJ, Laungani R, MacDougall A, McCulley RL, Moore JL, Morgan JW, Mortensen B, Ochoa Hueso R, Ohlert T, Power SA, Price J, Risch AC, Schuetz M, Shoemaker L, Stevens C, Strauss AT, Tognetti PM, Virtanen R, Borer ET. Temporal rarity is a better predictor of local extinction risk than spatial rarity. Ecology 2021; 102:e03504. [PMID: 34319599 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2021] [Revised: 05/04/2021] [Accepted: 06/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Spatial rarity is often used to predict extinction risk, but rarity can also occur temporally. Perhaps more relevant in the context of global change is whether a species is core to a community (persistent) or transient (intermittently present), with transient species often susceptible to human activities that reduce niche space. Using 5-12 yr of data on 1,447 plant species from 49 grasslands on five continents, we show that local abundance and species persistence under ambient conditions are both effective predictors of local extinction risk following experimental exclusion of grazers or addition of nutrients; persistence was a more powerful predictor than local abundance. While perturbations increased the risk of exclusion for low persistence and abundance species, transient but abundant species were also highly likely to be excluded from a perturbed plot relative to ambient conditions. Moreover, low persistence and low abundance species that were not excluded from perturbed plots tended to have a modest increase in abundance following perturbance. Last, even core species with high abundances had large decreases in persistence and increased losses in perturbed plots, threatening the long-term stability of these grasslands. Our results demonstrate that expanding the concept of rarity to include temporal dynamics, in addition to local abundance, more effectively predicts extinction risk in response to environmental change than either rarity axis predicts alone.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter A Wilfahrt
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
| | - Ashley L Asmus
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
| | - Eric W Seabloom
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
| | - Jeremiah A Henning
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA.,Department of Biology, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, 36688, USA
| | - Peter Adler
- Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, 84322, USA
| | - Carlos A Arnillas
- Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, M1C 1A4, Canada
| | - Jonathan D Bakker
- School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 98195, USA
| | - Lori Biederman
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, 50011, USA
| | - Lars A Brudvig
- Department of Plant Biology and Program in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 48824, USA
| | - Marc Cadotte
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, M1C 1A4, Canada
| | - Pedro Daleo
- Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), CONICET - UNMDP, Mar del Plata, Argentina
| | - Anu Eskelinen
- Department of Biology, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig, 04103, Germany
| | - Jennifer Firn
- School of Biology & Environmental Science, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, 4000, Australia
| | - W Stanley Harpole
- Department of Biology, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig, 04103, Germany.,Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research - UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, Leipzig, 04318, Germany.,Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, am Kirchtor 1, Halle (Saale), 06108, Germany
| | - Yann Hautier
- Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, 3584, The Netherlands
| | - Kevin P Kirkman
- School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Scottsville, 3209, South Africa
| | - Kimberly J Komatsu
- Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, Maryland, 21037, USA
| | - Ramesh Laungani
- Department of Biology, Doane University, Crete, Nebraska, 68333, USA
| | - Andrew MacDougall
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Rebecca L McCulley
- Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 40546, USA
| | - Joslin L Moore
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia
| | - John W Morgan
- Department of Ecology, Environment & Evolution, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, 3086, Australia
| | - Brent Mortensen
- Department of Biology, Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas, 66002, USA
| | | | - Timothy Ohlert
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87131, USA
| | - Sally A Power
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, New South Wales, 2751, Australia
| | - Jodi Price
- Institute of Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, Albury, New South Wales, 2678, Australia
| | - Anita C Risch
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, 8903, Switzerland
| | - Martin Schuetz
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, 8903, Switzerland
| | - Lauren Shoemaker
- Botany Department, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, 82071, USA
| | - Carly Stevens
- Lancaster Environment Center, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK
| | - Alexander T Strauss
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA.,Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, 30602, USA
| | - Pedro M Tognetti
- IFEVA, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Risto Virtanen
- Department of Biology, University of Oulu, Oulu, 90570, Finland
| | - Elizabeth T Borer
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
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21
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Seabloom EW, Batzer E, Chase JM, Stanley Harpole W, Adler PB, Bagchi S, Bakker JD, Barrio IC, Biederman L, Boughton EH, Bugalho MN, Caldeira MC, Catford JA, Daleo P, Eisenhauer N, Eskelinen A, Haider S, Hallett LM, Svala Jónsdóttir I, Kimmel K, Kuhlman M, MacDougall A, Molina CD, Moore JL, Morgan JW, Muthukrishnan R, Ohlert T, Risch AC, Roscher C, Schütz M, Sonnier G, Tognetti PM, Virtanen R, Wilfahrt PA, Borer ET. Species loss due to nutrient addition increases with spatial scale in global grasslands. Ecol Lett 2021; 24:2100-2112. [PMID: 34240557 DOI: 10.1111/ele.13838] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2020] [Revised: 12/30/2020] [Accepted: 05/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The effects of altered nutrient supplies and herbivore density on species diversity vary with spatial scale, because coexistence mechanisms are scale dependent. This scale dependence may alter the shape of the species-area relationship (SAR), which can be described by changes in species richness (S) as a power function of the sample area (A): S = cAz , where c and z are constants. We analysed the effects of experimental manipulations of nutrient supply and herbivore density on species richness across a range of scales (0.01-75 m2 ) at 30 grasslands in 10 countries. We found that nutrient addition reduced the number of species that could co-occur locally, indicated by the SAR intercepts (log c), but did not affect the SAR slopes (z). As a result, proportional species loss due to nutrient enrichment was largely unchanged across sampling scales, whereas total species loss increased over threefold across our range of sampling scales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric W Seabloom
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota. St. Paul, MN, USA
| | - Evan Batzer
- Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Jonathan M Chase
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Computer Sciences, Martin Luther University, Halle (Saale), Germany
| | - W Stanley Harpole
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany.,Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany
| | - Peter B Adler
- Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA
| | - Sumanta Bagchi
- Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
| | - Jonathan D Bakker
- School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Isabel C Barrio
- Faculty of Environmental and Forest Sciences, Agricultural University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland
| | - Lori Biederman
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames Iowa, USA
| | | | - Miguel N Bugalho
- Centre for Applied Ecology "Prof. Baeta Neves" (CEABN-InBIO), School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Maria C Caldeira
- Forest Research Centre, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Jane A Catford
- Department of Geography, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Pedro Daleo
- Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), UNMDP - CONICET, Mar del Plata, Argentina
| | - Nico Eisenhauer
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anu Eskelinen
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Ecology and Genetics, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - Sylvia Haider
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Institute of Biology / Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany
| | - Lauren M Hallett
- Department of Biology and Environmental Studies Program, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA
| | | | - Kaitlin Kimmel
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | | | | | - Cecilia D Molina
- IFEVA, Universidad de Buenos Aires, CONICET, Facultad de Agronomía, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Joslin L Moore
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
| | - John W Morgan
- Department of Ecology, Environment & Evolution, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia
| | | | - Timothy Ohlert
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Anita C Risch
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Community Ecology, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Christiane Roscher
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Martin Schütz
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Community Ecology, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | | | - Pedro M Tognetti
- IFEVA, Universidad de Buenos Aires, CONICET, Facultad de Agronomía, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Risto Virtanen
- Department of Ecology and Genetics, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - Peter A Wilfahrt
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota. St. Paul, MN, USA
| | - Elizabeth T Borer
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota. St. Paul, MN, USA
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22
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Koceja ME, Bledsoe RB, Goodwillie C, Peralta AL. Distinct microbial communities alter litter decomposition rates in a fertilized coastal plain wetland. Ecosphere 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.3619] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Megan E. Koceja
- Department of Biology East Carolina University Howell Science ComplexMail Stop 551 Greenville North Carolina27858USA
| | - Regina B. Bledsoe
- Department of Biology East Carolina University Howell Science ComplexMail Stop 551 Greenville North Carolina27858USA
| | - Carol Goodwillie
- Department of Biology East Carolina University Howell Science ComplexMail Stop 551 Greenville North Carolina27858USA
| | - Ariane L. Peralta
- Department of Biology East Carolina University Howell Science ComplexMail Stop 551 Greenville North Carolina27858USA
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23
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Van Sundert K, Arfin Khan MAS, Bharath S, Buckley YM, Caldeira MC, Donohue I, Dubbert M, Ebeling A, Eisenhauer N, Eskelinen A, Finn A, Gebauer T, Haider S, Hansart A, Jentsch A, Kübert A, Nijs I, Nock CA, Nogueira C, Porath-Krause AJ, Radujković D, Raynaud X, Risch AC, Roscher C, Scherer-Lorenzen M, Schuchardt MA, Schütz M, Siebert J, Sitters J, Spohn M, Virtanen R, Werner C, Wilfahrt P, Vicca S. Fertilized graminoids intensify negative drought effects on grassland productivity. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2021; 27:2441-2457. [PMID: 33675118 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2020] [Revised: 02/13/2021] [Accepted: 02/24/2021] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Droughts can strongly affect grassland productivity and biodiversity, but responses differ widely. Nutrient availability may be a critical factor explaining this variation, but is often ignored in analyses of drought responses. Here, we used a standardized nutrient addition experiment covering 10 European grasslands to test if full-factorial nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium addition affected plant community responses to inter-annual variation in drought stress and to the extreme summer drought of 2018 in Europe. We found that nutrient addition amplified detrimental drought effects on community aboveground biomass production. Drought effects also differed between functional groups, with a negative effect on graminoid but not forb biomass production. Our results imply that eutrophication in grasslands, which promotes dominance of drought-sensitive graminoids over forbs, amplifies detrimental drought effects. In terms of climate change adaptation, agricultural management would benefit from taking into account differential drought impacts on fertilized versus unfertilized grasslands, which differ in ecosystem services they provide to society.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin Van Sundert
- Research Group PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), Global Change Ecology Centre of Excellence, Biology Department, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Mohammed A S Arfin Khan
- Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh
- Department of Disturbance Ecology, BayCEER, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
| | - Siddharth Bharath
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA
| | | | - Maria C Caldeira
- Forest Research Centre, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Ian Donohue
- Department of Zoology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Maren Dubbert
- Ecosystem Physiology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
- Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Isotope Biogeochemistry and Gas Fluxes, Müncheberg, Germany
| | - Anne Ebeling
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Nico Eisenhauer
- Department of Experimental Interaction Ecology, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anu Eskelinen
- Department of Physiological Diversity, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Ecology and Genetics, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - Alain Finn
- Department of Zoology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Tobias Gebauer
- Geobotany, Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Sylvia Haider
- Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany
- Department of Geobotany, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Amandine Hansart
- Département de biologie, CNRS, Centre de recherche en écologie expérimentale et prédictive (CEREEP-Ecotron IleDeFrance), Ecole normale supérieure, PSL University, Saint-Pierre-lès-Nemours, France
| | - Anke Jentsch
- Department of Disturbance Ecology, BayCEER, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
| | - Angelika Kübert
- Ecosystem Physiology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Ivan Nijs
- Research Group PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), Global Change Ecology Centre of Excellence, Biology Department, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Charles A Nock
- Geobotany, Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
- Renewable Resources, Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Carla Nogueira
- Forest Research Centre, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Anita J Porath-Krause
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA
| | - Dajana Radujković
- Research Group PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), Global Change Ecology Centre of Excellence, Biology Department, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Xavier Raynaud
- Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris, UPEC, IRD, CNRS, INRA, Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, iEES Paris, Paris, France
| | - Anita C Risch
- Community Ecology Research Unit, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Christiane Roscher
- Department of Physiological Diversity, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
| | | | - Max A Schuchardt
- Department of Disturbance Ecology, BayCEER, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
| | - Martin Schütz
- Community Ecology Research Unit, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Julia Siebert
- Department of Experimental Interaction Ecology, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Judith Sitters
- Ecology and Biodiversity, Biology Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Marie Spohn
- Department of Soil and Environment, Sveriges Landbruksuniversitet (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden
| | | | | | - Peter Wilfahrt
- Department of Disturbance Ecology, BayCEER, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA
| | - Sara Vicca
- Research Group PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), Global Change Ecology Centre of Excellence, Biology Department, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
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Parreño MA, Schmid B, Petchey OL. Comparative study of the most tested hypotheses on relationships between biodiversity, productivity, light and nutrients. Basic Appl Ecol 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.baae.2021.03.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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25
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Scharnhorst VS, Fiedler K, Frank T, Moser D, Rabl D, Brandl M, Hussain RI, Walcher R, Maas B. Ant community composition and functional traits in new grassland strips within agricultural landscapes. Ecol Evol 2021; 11:8319-8331. [PMID: 34188889 PMCID: PMC8216914 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7662] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2020] [Revised: 01/31/2021] [Accepted: 03/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Ongoing intensification and fragmentation of European agricultural landscapes dramatically reduce biodiversity and associated functions. Enhancing perennial noncrop areas holds great potential to support ecosystem services such as ant-mediated pest control.To study the potential of newly established grassland strips to enhance ant diversity and associated functions, we used hand collection data and predation experiments to investigate differences in (a) ant community composition and (b) biocontrol-related functional traits, and (c) natural pest control across habitats in cereal fields, old grasslands, and new grassland transects of three years of age.Ant species diversity was similar between new and old grasslands, but significantly higher in new grasslands than in surrounding cereal fields. Contrary, ant community composition of new grasslands was more similar to cereal fields and distinct from the species pool of old grasslands. The functional trait space covered by the ant communities showed the same distribution between old and new grasslands. Pest control did not differ significantly between habitat types and therefore could not be linked to the prevalence of functional ant traits related to biocontrol services in new grasslands.Our findings not only show trends of convergence between old and new grasslands, but also indicate that enhancing ant diversity through new grasslands takes longer than three years to provide comparable biodiversity and functionality. Synthesis and applications: Newly established grasslands can increase ant species richness and abundance and provide a consistent amount of biocontrol services in agroecosystems. However, three years after their establishment, new grasslands were still dominated by common agrobiont ant species and lacked habitat specialists present in old grasslands, which require a constant supply of food resources and long colony establishment times. New grasslands represent a promising measure for enhancing agricultural landscapes but must be preserved in the longer term to promote biodiversity and resilience of associated ecosystem services.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victor Sebastian Scharnhorst
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity ResearchUniversity of ViennaViennaAustria
- Institute of ZoologyUniversity of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU)ViennaAustria
| | - Konrad Fiedler
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity ResearchUniversity of ViennaViennaAustria
| | - Thomas Frank
- Institute of ZoologyUniversity of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU)ViennaAustria
| | - Dietmar Moser
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity ResearchUniversity of ViennaViennaAustria
| | - Dominik Rabl
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity ResearchUniversity of ViennaViennaAustria
- Institute of ZoologyUniversity of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU)ViennaAustria
| | - Manuela Brandl
- Institute of ZoologyUniversity of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU)ViennaAustria
| | - Raja Imran Hussain
- Institute of ZoologyUniversity of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU)ViennaAustria
| | - Ronnie Walcher
- Institute of ZoologyUniversity of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU)ViennaAustria
| | - Bea Maas
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity ResearchUniversity of ViennaViennaAustria
- Institute of ZoologyUniversity of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU)ViennaAustria
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Ambient urban N deposition drives increased biomass and total plant N in two native prairie grass species in the U.S. Southern Great Plains. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0251089. [PMID: 33956866 PMCID: PMC8101712 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2020] [Accepted: 04/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Remnants of native tallgrass prairie experience elevated atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition in urban areas, with potential effects on species traits that are important for N cycling and species composition. We quantified bulk (primarily wet) inorganic N (NH4+-N + NO3--N) deposition at six sites along an urban development gradient (6–64% urban) in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area from April 2014 to October 2015. In addition, we conducted a phytometer experiment with two common native prairie bunchgrass species––one well studied (Schizachyrium scoparium) and one little studied (Nasella leucotricha)––to investigate ambient N deposition effects on plant biomass and tissue quality. Bulk inorganic N deposition ranged from 6.1–9.9 kg ha-1 yr-1, peaked in spring, and did not vary consistently with proportion of urban land within 10 km of the sites. Total (wet + dry) inorganic N deposition estimated using bulk deposition measured in this study and modeled dry deposition was 12.9–18.2 kg ha-1 yr-1. Although the two plant species studied differ in photosynthetic pathway, biomass, and tissue N, they exhibited a maximum 2-3-fold and 2-4-fold increase in total biomass and total plant N, respectively, with 1.6-fold higher bulk N deposition. In addition, our findings indicate that while native prairie grasses may exhibit a positive biomass response to increased N deposition up to ~18 kg ha-1 yr-1, total inorganic N deposition is well above the estimated critical load for herbaceous plant species richness in the tallgrass prairie of the Great Plains ecoregion and thus may negatively affect these plant communities.
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Hou E, Wen D, Jiang L, Luo X, Kuang Y, Lu X, Chen C, Allen KT, He X, Huang X, Luo Y. Latitudinal patterns of terrestrial phosphorus limitation over the globe. Ecol Lett 2021; 24:1420-1431. [DOI: 10.1111/ele.13761] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2020] [Revised: 03/22/2021] [Accepted: 03/25/2021] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Enqing Hou
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society Northern Arizona University Flagstaff AZ USA
| | - Dazhi Wen
- Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou China
- Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou China
| | - Lifen Jiang
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society Northern Arizona University Flagstaff AZ USA
| | - Xianzhen Luo
- Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou China
- Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou China
| | - Yuanwen Kuang
- Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou China
- Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou China
| | - Xiankai Lu
- Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou China
- Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou China
| | - Chengrong Chen
- Australian Rivers Institute, School of Environment and Science Griffith University Nathan Qld. Australia
| | - Keanan T. Allen
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society Northern Arizona University Flagstaff AZ USA
| | - Xianjin He
- Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region's Eco‐Environment, Ministry of Education Chongqing University Chongqing China
| | - Xingzhao Huang
- School of Forestry & Landscape of Architecture Anhui Agricultural University Hefei China
| | - Yiqi Luo
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society Northern Arizona University Flagstaff AZ USA
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28
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Porath‐Krause A, Campbell R, Shoemaker L, Sieben A, Strauss AT, Shaw AK, Seabloom EW, Borer ET. Pliant pathogens: Estimating viral spread when confronted with new vector, host, and environmental conditions. Ecol Evol 2021; 11:1877-1887. [PMID: 33614010 PMCID: PMC7882977 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7178] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2020] [Revised: 11/19/2020] [Accepted: 12/21/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Pathogen spread rates are determined, in part, by the performance of pathogens under altered environmental conditions and their ability to persist while switching among hosts and vectors.To determine the effects of new conditions (host, vector, and nutrient) on pathogen spread rate, we introduced a vector-borne viral plant pathogen, Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus PAV (BYDV-PAV) into hosts, vectors, and host nutrient supplies that it had not encountered for thousands of viral generations. We quantified pathogen prevalence over the course of two serial inoculations under the new conditions. Using individual-level transmission rates from this experiment, we parameterized a dynamical model of disease spread and projected spread across host populations through a growing season.A change in nutrient conditions (increased supply of phosphorus) reduced viral transmission whereas shifting to a new vector or host species had no effect on infection prevalence. However, the reduction in the new nutrient environment was only temporary; infection prevalence recovered after the second inoculation. Synthesis. These results highlight how robust the pathogen, BYDV-PAV, is to changes in its biotic and abiotic environment. Our study also highlights the need to quantify longitudinal infection information beyond snapshot assessments to project disease risk for pathogens in new environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anita Porath‐Krause
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMNUSA
| | - Ryan Campbell
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMNUSA
| | - Lauren Shoemaker
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMNUSA
- Present address:
Department of BotanyUniversity of WyomingLaramieWYUSA
| | - Andrew Sieben
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMNUSA
- Present address:
Department of BotanyUniversity of WyomingLaramieWYUSA
| | - Alexander T. Strauss
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMNUSA
- Present address:
Odum School of EcologyUniversity of GeorgiaAthensGAUSA
| | - Allison K. Shaw
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMNUSA
| | - Eric W. Seabloom
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMNUSA
| | - Elizabeth T. Borer
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMNUSA
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29
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Seabloom EW, Adler PB, Alberti J, Biederman L, Buckley YM, Cadotte MW, Collins SL, Dee L, Fay PA, Firn J, Hagenah N, Harpole WS, Hautier Y, Hector A, Hobbie SE, Isbell F, Knops JMH, Komatsu KJ, Laungani R, MacDougall A, McCulley RL, Moore JL, Morgan JW, Ohlert T, Prober SM, Risch AC, Schuetz M, Stevens CJ, Borer ET. Increasing effects of chronic nutrient enrichment on plant diversity loss and ecosystem productivity over time. Ecology 2021; 102:e03218. [PMID: 33058176 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2020] [Revised: 07/16/2020] [Accepted: 08/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Human activities are enriching many of Earth's ecosystems with biologically limiting mineral nutrients such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). In grasslands, this enrichment generally reduces plant diversity and increases productivity. The widely demonstrated positive effect of diversity on productivity suggests a potential negative feedback, whereby nutrient-induced declines in diversity reduce the initial gains in productivity arising from nutrient enrichment. In addition, plant productivity and diversity can be inhibited by accumulations of dead biomass, which may be altered by nutrient enrichment. Over longer time frames, nutrient addition may increase soil fertility by increasing soil organic matter and nutrient pools. We examined the effects of 5-11 yr of nutrient addition at 47 grasslands in 12 countries. Nutrient enrichment increased aboveground live biomass and reduced plant diversity at nearly all sites, and these effects became stronger over time. We did not find evidence that nutrient-induced losses of diversity reduced the positive effects of nutrients on biomass; however, nutrient effects on live biomass increased more slowly at sites where litter was also increasing, regardless of plant diversity. This work suggests that short-term experiments may underestimate the long-term nutrient enrichment effects on global grassland ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric W Seabloom
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
| | - Peter B Adler
- Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, 5230 Old Main, Logan, Utah, 84322, USA
| | - Juan Alberti
- Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), UNMdP-CONICET, FCEyN, CC1260, 7600, Mar del Plata, Argentina
| | - Lori Biederman
- Ecology, Evolution, & Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, 2200 Osborn Drive, Ames, Iowa, 50011, USA
| | - Yvonne M Buckley
- Zoology, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
| | - Marc W Cadotte
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto-Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario, M1C 1A4, Canada
| | - Scott L Collins
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87131, USA
| | - Laura Dee
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, 80302, USA
| | - Philip A Fay
- USDA-ARS Grassland, Soil, and Water Laboratory, 808 East Blackland Road, Temple, Texas, 76502, USA
| | - Jennifer Firn
- Science and Engineering Faculty, School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Queensland, 4001, Australia
| | - Nicole Hagenah
- Department of Zoology and Entomology, Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
| | - W Stanley Harpole
- Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, Leipzig, 04318, Germany.,German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Deutscher Platz 5e, Leipzig, 04103, Germany.,Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, am Kirchtor 1, Halle (Saale), 06108, Germany
| | - Yann Hautier
- Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, Utrecht, 3584 CH, The Netherlands
| | - Andy Hector
- Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3RB, UK
| | - Sarah E Hobbie
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
| | - Forest Isbell
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
| | - Johannes M H Knops
- Health & Environmental Sciences Department, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China
| | - Kimberly J Komatsu
- Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 647 Contees Wharf Road, Edgewater, Maryland, 21037, USA
| | - Ramesh Laungani
- Department of Biology, Doane University, 1014 Boswell Avenue, Crete, Nebraska, 68333, USA
| | - Andrew MacDougall
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Rebecca L McCulley
- Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 40536-0312, USA
| | - Joslin L Moore
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia
| | - John W Morgan
- Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, 3086, Australia
| | - Timothy Ohlert
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87131, USA
| | - Suzanne M Prober
- CSIRO Land and Water, Private Bag 5, Wembley, Western Australia, 6913, Australia
| | - Anita C Risch
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Zuercherstrasse 111, Birmensdorf, 8903, Switzerland
| | - Martin Schuetz
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Zuercherstrasse 111, Birmensdorf, 8903, Switzerland
| | - Carly J Stevens
- Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK
| | - Elizabeth T Borer
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
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30
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Kimmel K, Furey GN, Hobbie SE, Isbell F, Tilman D, Reich PB. Diversity-dependent soil acidification under nitrogen enrichment constrains biomass productivity. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2020; 26:6594-6603. [PMID: 32871613 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2020] [Accepted: 08/05/2020] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
In most plant communities, the net effect of nitrogen enrichment is an increase in plant productivity. However, nitrogen enrichment also has been shown to decrease species richness and to acidify soils, each of which may diminish the long-term impact of nutrient enrichment on productivity. Here we use a long-term (20 year) grassland plant diversity by nitrogen enrichment experiment in Minnesota, United States (a subexperiment within the BioCON experiment) to quantify the net impacts of nitrogen enrichment on productivity, including its potential indirect effects on productivity via changes in species richness and soil pH over an experimental diversity gradient. Overall, we found that nitrogen enrichment led to an immediate positive increment in productivity, but that this effect became nonsignificant over later years of the experiment, with the difference in productivity between fertilized and unfertilized plots decreasing in proportion to nitrogen addition-dependent declines in soil pH and losses of plant diversity. The net effect of nitrogen enrichment on productivity could have been 14.5% more on average over 20 years in monocultures if not for nitrogen-induced decreases in pH and about 28.5% more on average over 20 years in 16 species communities if not for nitrogen-induced species richness losses. Together, these results suggest that the positive effects of nutrient enrichment on biomass production can diminish in their magnitude over time, especially because of soil acidification in low diversity communities and especially because of plant diversity loss in initially high diversity communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaitlin Kimmel
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - George N Furey
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Sarah E Hobbie
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Forest Isbell
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - David Tilman
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Bren School of Environmental Management, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
| | - Peter B Reich
- Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith South, NSW, Australia
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31
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Ochoa-Hueso R, Borer ET, Seabloom EW, Hobbie SE, Risch AC, Collins SL, Alberti J, Bahamonde HA, Brown CS, Caldeira MC, Daleo P, Dickman CR, Ebeling A, Eisenhauer N, Esch EH, Eskelinen A, Fernández V, Güsewell S, Gutierrez-Larruga B, Hofmockel K, Laungani R, Lind E, López A, McCulley RL, Moore JL, Peri PL, Power SA, Price JN, Prober SM, Roscher C, Sarneel JM, Schütz M, Siebert J, Standish RJ, Velasco Ayuso S, Virtanen R, Wardle GM, Wiehl G, Yahdjian L, Zamin T. Microbial processing of plant remains is co-limited by multiple nutrients in global grasslands. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2020; 26:4572-4582. [PMID: 32520438 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2020] [Accepted: 03/19/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Microbial processing of aggregate-unprotected organic matter inputs is key for soil fertility, long-term ecosystem carbon and nutrient sequestration and sustainable agriculture. We investigated the effects of adding multiple nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium plus nine essential macro- and micro-nutrients) on decomposition and biochemical transformation of standard plant materials buried in 21 grasslands from four continents. Addition of multiple nutrients weakly but consistently increased decomposition and biochemical transformation of plant remains during the peak-season, concurrent with changes in microbial exoenzymatic activity. Higher mean annual precipitation and lower mean annual temperature were the main climatic drivers of higher decomposition rates, while biochemical transformation of plant remains was negatively related to temperature of the wettest quarter. Nutrients enhanced decomposition most at cool, high rainfall sites, indicating that in a warmer and drier future fertilized grassland soils will have an even more limited potential for microbial processing of plant remains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raúl Ochoa-Hueso
- Department of Biology, IVAGRO, University of Cádiz, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario (ceiA3), Cádiz, Spain
| | - Elizabeth T Borer
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA
| | - Eric W Seabloom
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA
| | - Sarah E Hobbie
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA
| | - Anita C Risch
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Scott L Collins
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Juan Alberti
- Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Mar del Plata, Argentina
| | - Héctor A Bahamonde
- Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral (UNPA)-CONICET, Rio Gallegos, Argentina
| | - Cynthia S Brown
- Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Department of Agricultural Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Maria C Caldeira
- Centro de Estudos Florestais, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Pedro Daleo
- Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Mar del Plata, Argentina
| | - Chris R Dickman
- Desert Ecology Research Group, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Anne Ebeling
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Nico Eisenhauer
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Ellen H Esch
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Anu Eskelinen
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
- Ecology and Genetics, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - Victoria Fernández
- Forest Genetics and Ecophysiology Research Group, School of Forest Engineering, Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Sabine Güsewell
- Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | | | - Kirsten Hofmockel
- Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
- Environmental and Biological Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
| | | | - Eric Lind
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA
| | - Andrea López
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Rebecca L McCulley
- Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
| | - Joslin L Moore
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton Campus, Vic., Australia
| | - Pablo L Peri
- Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral (UNPA)-CONICET, Rio Gallegos, Argentina
| | - Sally A Power
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia
| | - Jodi N Price
- Institute of Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, Australia
| | | | - Christiane Roscher
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Ecology and Genetics, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - Judith M Sarneel
- Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
| | - Martin Schütz
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Julia Siebert
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Rachel J Standish
- Environmental and Conservation Sciences, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia
| | - Sergio Velasco Ayuso
- Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA), CONICET, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Risto Virtanen
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
- Ecology and Genetics, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - Glenda M Wardle
- Desert Ecology Research Group, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Georg Wiehl
- CSIRO Land and Water, Wembley, WA, Australia
| | - Laura Yahdjian
- Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA), CONICET, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Tara Zamin
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton Campus, Vic., Australia
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Seasonality of feral horse grazing and invasion of Pinus halepensis in grasslands of the Austral Pampean Mountains (Argentina): management considerations. Biol Invasions 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s10530-020-02300-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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Sitters J, Wubs ERJ, Bakker ES, Crowther TW, Adler PB, Bagchi S, Bakker JD, Biederman L, Borer ET, Cleland EE, Eisenhauer N, Firn J, Gherardi L, Hagenah N, Hautier Y, Hobbie SE, Knops JMH, MacDougall AS, McCulley RL, Moore JL, Mortensen B, Peri PL, Prober SM, Riggs C, Risch AC, Schütz M, Seabloom EW, Siebert J, Stevens CJ, Veen GF(C. Nutrient availability controls the impact of mammalian herbivores on soil carbon and nitrogen pools in grasslands. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2020; 26:2060-2071. [PMID: 32012421 PMCID: PMC7155038 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2019] [Revised: 12/09/2019] [Accepted: 01/15/2020] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
Grasslands are subject to considerable alteration due to human activities globally, including widespread changes in populations and composition of large mammalian herbivores and elevated supply of nutrients. Grassland soils remain important reservoirs of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). Herbivores may affect both C and N pools and these changes likely interact with increases in soil nutrient availability. Given the scale of grassland soil fluxes, such changes can have striking consequences for atmospheric C concentrations and the climate. Here, we use the Nutrient Network experiment to examine the responses of soil C and N pools to mammalian herbivore exclusion across 22 grasslands, under ambient and elevated nutrient availabilities (fertilized with NPK + micronutrients). We show that the impact of herbivore exclusion on soil C and N pools depends on fertilization. Under ambient nutrient conditions, we observed no effect of herbivore exclusion, but under elevated nutrient supply, pools are smaller upon herbivore exclusion. The highest mean soil C and N pools were found in grazed and fertilized plots. The decrease in soil C and N upon herbivore exclusion in combination with fertilization correlated with a decrease in aboveground plant biomass and microbial activity, indicating a reduced storage of organic matter and microbial residues as soil C and N. The response of soil C and N pools to herbivore exclusion was contingent on temperature - herbivores likely cause losses of C and N in colder sites and increases in warmer sites. Additionally, grasslands that contain mammalian herbivores have the potential to sequester more N under increased temperature variability and nutrient enrichment than ungrazed grasslands. Our study highlights the importance of conserving mammalian herbivore populations in grasslands worldwide. We need to incorporate local-scale herbivory, and its interaction with nutrient enrichment and climate, within global-scale models to better predict land-atmosphere interactions under future climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judith Sitters
- Department of Aquatic EcologyNetherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO‐KNAW)WageningenThe Netherlands
- Department of Terrestrial EcologyNetherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO‐KNAW)WageningenThe Netherlands
- Ecology and BiodiversityDepartment BiologyVrije Universiteit BrusselBrusselsBelgium
| | - E. R. Jasper Wubs
- Department of Terrestrial EcologyNetherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO‐KNAW)WageningenThe Netherlands
- Sustainable Agroecosystems GroupInstitute of Agricultural SciencesDepartment of Environmental Systems ScienceETH ZurichZurichSwitzerland
| | - Elisabeth S. Bakker
- Department of Aquatic EcologyNetherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO‐KNAW)WageningenThe Netherlands
| | - Thomas W. Crowther
- Department of Terrestrial EcologyNetherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO‐KNAW)WageningenThe Netherlands
- Institute of Integrative BiologyDepartment of Environmental Systems ScienceETH ZurichZurichSwitzerland
| | - Peter B. Adler
- Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology CenterUtah State UniversityLoganUTUSA
| | - Sumanta Bagchi
- Centre for Ecological SciencesIndian Institute of ScienceBangaloreIndia
| | - Jonathan D. Bakker
- School of Environmental and Forest SciencesUniversity of WashingtonSeattleWAUSA
| | - Lori Biederman
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal BiologyIowa State UniversityAmesIAUSA
| | - Elizabeth T. Borer
- Department of Eology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMNUSA
| | - Elsa E. Cleland
- Ecology, Behavior & Evolution SectionUniversity of California, San DiegoLa JollaCAUSA
| | - Nico Eisenhauer
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv)Halle‐Jena‐LeipzigLeipzigGermany
- Institute of BiologyLeipzig UniversityLeipzigGermany
| | - Jennifer Firn
- Queensland University of Technology (QUT)BrisbaneQldAustralia
| | - Laureano Gherardi
- School of Life Sciences and Global Drylands CenterArizona State UniversityTempeAZUSA
| | - Nicole Hagenah
- Mammal Research InstituteDepartment of Zoology and EntomologyUniversity of PretoriaPretoriaSouth Africa
| | - Yann Hautier
- Ecology and Biodiversity GroupDepartment of BiologyUtrecht UniversityUtrechtThe Netherlands
| | - Sarah E. Hobbie
- Department of Eology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMNUSA
| | - Johannes M. H. Knops
- Department of Health & Environmental ScienceXi’an Jiaotong Liverpool UniversitySuzhouChina
| | | | | | - Joslin L. Moore
- School of Biological SciencesMonash UniversityClaytonVic.Australia
| | | | - Pablo L. Peri
- Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA)Rio GallegosArgentina
- Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral (UNPA)‐CONICETRio GallegosArgentina
| | | | - Charlotte Riggs
- Department of Soil, Water, and ClimateUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMNUSA
| | - Anita C. Risch
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape ResearchBirmensdorfSwitzerland
| | - Martin Schütz
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape ResearchBirmensdorfSwitzerland
| | - Eric W. Seabloom
- Department of Eology, Evolution, and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMNUSA
| | - Julia Siebert
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv)Halle‐Jena‐LeipzigLeipzigGermany
- Institute of BiologyLeipzig UniversityLeipzigGermany
| | | | - G. F. (Ciska) Veen
- Department of Terrestrial EcologyNetherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO‐KNAW)WageningenThe Netherlands
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Clay NA. The geography of grassland plant chemistry and productivity accounts for ant sodium and sugar usage. J Anim Ecol 2020; 89:272-275. [PMID: 32037601 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13179] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2019] [Accepted: 01/15/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
In Focus: Kaspari, M., Welti, E. A. R., & de Beurs, K. M. (2020). The nutritional geography of ants: Gradients of sodium and sugar limitation across North American grasslands. Journal of Animal Ecology, 89, 276-284. Biologically essential elements and macromolecules impact individuals to ecosystems and vary across space. Predictive frameworks for understanding community patterns across nutritional gradients are increasingly important as the nutritional landscape is continually altered by global change. Grasslands vary in the quantity and quality of essential nutrients that can impact plant consumer abundance, biomass and activity, but causes for variation, particularly across large spatial scales are poorly understood. In 53 North American grasslands spanning 16° latitude, Kaspari et al. (2020) tested three hypotheses for explaining sources of sodium (Na) limitation and five hypotheses for explaining sources of sugar limitation of ants, which are common and ecologically important omnivores that consume both plant- and animal-derived material. For both Na and sugar, over half of the variation in ant bait usage was accounted for by their predictions. Specifically, after accounting for ant activity (ant usage of sugar baits), ant Na-limitation was next best predicted by plant Na content and lastly, insect biomass, while sugar limitation after accounting for activity (ant usage of Na baits) was best predicted by growing season, then ecosystem productivity, plant potassium (K) and phosphorous (P), respectively. Kaspari et al. (2020) demonstrate the importance of plant physiology and chemistry towards a predictive framework for understanding sugar- and Na-limitation and highlights the importance of tackling ecological questions from a geographical perspective. This framework can provide a useful foundation for predicting future patterns in grassland organism nutritional ecology as plant species and physiology are altered with global change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalie A Clay
- School of Biological Sciences, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA, USA
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Cao J, Pang S, Wang Q, Williams MA, Jia X, Dun S, Yang J, Zhang Y, Wang J, Lü X, Hu Y, Li L, Li Y, Han X. Plant–bacteria–soil response to frequency of simulated nitrogen deposition has implications for global ecosystem change. Funct Ecol 2019. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13484] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Jirong Cao
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
| | - Shuang Pang
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
| | - Qibing Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
| | - Mark A. Williams
- School of Plant and Environmental Science Virginia Tech Blacksburg VA USA
| | - Xiu Jia
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
| | - Shasha Dun
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
| | - Junjie Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
| | - Yunhai Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
| | - Jing Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
| | - Xiaotao Lü
- State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology Institute of Applied Ecology Chinese Academy of Sciences Shenyang China
| | - Yecui Hu
- School of Land Science and Technology China University of Geosciences Beijing China
| | - Linghao Li
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
| | - Yuncong Li
- Tropical Research and Education Center, Soil and Water Science Department University of Florida Homestead FL USA
| | - Xingguo Han
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
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Lumibao CY, Borer ET, Condon B, Kinkel L, May G, Seabloom EW. Site-specific responses of foliar fungal microbiomes to nutrient addition and herbivory at different spatial scales. Ecol Evol 2019; 9:12231-12244. [PMID: 31832156 PMCID: PMC6854330 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.5711] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2019] [Revised: 09/04/2019] [Accepted: 09/06/2019] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The plant microbiome can affect host function in many ways and characterizing the ecological factors that shape endophytic (microbes living inside host plant tissues) community diversity is a key step in understanding the impacts of environmental change on these communities. Phylogenetic relatedness among members of a community offers a way of quantifying phylogenetic diversity of a community and can provide insight into the ecological factors that shape endophyte microbiomes. We examined the effects of experimental nutrient addition and herbivory exclusion on the phylogenetic diversity of foliar fungal endophyte communities of the grass species Andropogon gerardii at four sites in the Great Plains of the central USA. Using amplicon sequencing, we characterized the effects of fertilization and herbivory on fungal community phylogenetic diversity at spatial scales that spanned within-host to between sites across the Great Plains. Despite increasing fungal diversity and richness, at larger spatial scales, fungal microbiomes were composed of taxa showing random phylogenetic associations. Phylogenetic diversity did not differ systematically when summed across increasing spatial scales from a few meters within plots to hundreds of kilometers among sites. We observed substantial shifts in composition across sites, demonstrating distinct but similarly diverse fungal communities were maintained within sites across the region. In contrast, at the scale of within leaves, fungal communities tended to be comprised of closely related taxa regardless of the environment, but there were no shifts in phylogenetic composition among communities. We also found that nutrient addition (fertilization) and herbivory have varying effects at different sites. These results suggest that the direction and magnitude of the outcomes of environmental modifications likely depend on the spatial scale considered, and can also be constrained by regional site differences in microbial diversity and composition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Candice Y. Lumibao
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMinnesota
| | - Elizabeth T. Borer
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMinnesota
| | - Bradford Condon
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMinnesota
| | - Linda Kinkel
- Department of Plant PathologyUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMinnesota
| | - Georgiana May
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMinnesota
| | - Eric W. Seabloom
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and BehaviorUniversity of MinnesotaSt. PaulMinnesota
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37
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Passy SI, Larson CA. Niche dimensionality and herbivory control stream algal biomass via shifts in guild composition, richness, and evenness. Ecology 2019; 100:e02831. [DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2831] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2019] [Revised: 05/17/2019] [Accepted: 06/25/2019] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sophia I. Passy
- Department of Biology University of Texas at Arlington 501 S. Nedderman Drive Arlington Texas 76019 USA
| | - Chad A. Larson
- Washington State Department of Ecology Environmental Assessment Program 300 Desmond Drive SE Lacey Washington 98503 USA
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38
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Eisenhauer N, Schielzeth H, Barnes AD, Barry K, Bonn A, Brose U, Bruelheide H, Buchmann N, Buscot F, Ebeling A, Ferlian O, Freschet GT, Giling DP, Hättenschwiler S, Hillebrand H, Hines J, Isbell F, Koller-France E, König-Ries B, de Kroon H, Meyer ST, Milcu A, Müller J, Nock CA, Petermann JS, Roscher C, Scherber C, Scherer-Lorenzen M, Schmid B, Schnitzer SA, Schuldt A, Tscharntke T, Türke M, van Dam NM, van der Plas F, Vogel A, Wagg C, Wardle DA, Weigelt A, Weisser WW, Wirth C, Jochum M. A multitrophic perspective on biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research. ADV ECOL RES 2019; 61:1-54. [PMID: 31908360 PMCID: PMC6944504 DOI: 10.1016/bs.aecr.2019.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Concern about the functional consequences of unprecedented loss in biodiversity has prompted biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) research to become one of the most active fields of ecological research in the past 25 years. Hundreds of experiments have manipulated biodiversity as an independent variable and found compelling support that the functioning of ecosystems increases with the diversity of their ecological communities. This research has also identified some of the mechanisms underlying BEF relationships, some context-dependencies of the strength of relationships, as well as implications for various ecosystem services that mankind depends upon. In this paper, we argue that a multitrophic perspective of biotic interactions in random and non-random biodiversity change scenarios is key to advance future BEF research and to address some of its most important remaining challenges. We discuss that the study and the quantification of multitrophic interactions in space and time facilitates scaling up from small-scale biodiversity manipulations and ecosystem function assessments to management-relevant spatial scales across ecosystem boundaries. We specifically consider multitrophic conceptual frameworks to understand and predict the context-dependency of BEF relationships. Moreover, we highlight the importance of the eco-evolutionary underpinnings of multitrophic BEF relationships. We outline that FAIR data (meeting the standards of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) and reproducible processing will be key to advance this field of research by making it more integrative. Finally, we show how these BEF insights may be implemented for ecosystem management, society, and policy. Given that human well-being critically depends on the multiple services provided by diverse, multitrophic communities, integrating the approaches of evolutionary ecology, community ecology, and ecosystem ecology in future BEF research will be key to refine conservation targets and develop sustainable management strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nico Eisenhauer
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Holger Schielzeth
- Department of Population Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Andrew D Barnes
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Kathryn Barry
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Johannisallee 21-23, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Aletta Bonn
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Ulrich Brose
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- EcoNetLab, Institute of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Dornburger-Str. 159, 07743 Jena, Germany
| | - Helge Bruelheide
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology / Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Am Kirchtor 1, 06108 Halle (Saale), Germany
| | - Nina Buchmann
- Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zurich, Universitätstr. 2, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - François Buscot
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- UFZ - Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Soil Ecology Department, Theodor-Lieser-Straße 4, 06120 Halle Saale, Germany
| | - Anne Ebeling
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Dornburger Str. 159, 07743 Jena, Germany
| | - Olga Ferlian
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Grégoire T Freschet
- Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, UMR 5175 (CNRS - Université de Montpellier - Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier - EPHE), 1919 Route de Mende, Montpellier 34293, France
| | - Darren P Giling
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Dornburger Straße 159, 07743 Jena, Germany
| | - Stephan Hättenschwiler
- Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, UMR 5175 (CNRS - Université de Montpellier - Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier - EPHE), 1919 Route de Mende, Montpellier 34293, France
| | - Helmut Hillebrand
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute for Chemistry and Biology of Marine Environments [ICBM], Carl-von-Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Schleusenstrasse 1, 26382 Wilhelmshaven, Germany
| | - Jes Hines
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Forest Isbell
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 1479 Gortner Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
| | - Eva Koller-France
- Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Institut für Geographie und Geoökologie, Reinhard-Baumeister-Platz 1, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Birgitta König-Ries
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Computer Science, Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena, Ernst-Abbe-Platz 2, 07743 Jena, Germany
| | - Hans de Kroon
- Radboud University, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Animal Ecology and Physiology & Experimental Plant Ecology, PO Box 9100, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Sebastian T Meyer
- Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Technical University of Munich, School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354 Freising, Germany
| | - Alexandru Milcu
- Ecotron Européen de Montpellier, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Unité Propre de Service 3248, Campus Baillarguet, Montferrier-sur-Lez, France
- Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, UMR 5175 (CNRS - Université de Montpellier - Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier - EPHE), 1919 Route de Mende, Montpellier 34293, France
| | - Jörg Müller
- Field Station Fabrikschleichach, Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Glashüttenstraße 5, 96181 Rauhenebrach, Germany
- Bavarian Forest National Park, Freyunger Str. 2, 94481 Grafenau, Germany
| | - Charles A Nock
- Geobotany, Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, Schaenzlestrasse 1, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
- Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, 751 General Services Building, Edmonton, Canada, T6G 2H1
| | - Jana S Petermann
- Department of Biosciences, University of Salzburg, Hellbrunner Str. 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
| | - Christiane Roscher
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- UFZ - Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department Physiological Diversity, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Christoph Scherber
- Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Heisenbergstr. 2, 48149 Münster, Germany
| | - Michael Scherer-Lorenzen
- Geobotany, Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, Schaenzlestrasse 1, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Bernhard Schmid
- Department of Geography, University of Zürich, 190 Winterthurerstrasse, 8057, Zürich, Switzerland
| | | | - Andreas Schuldt
- Forest Nature Conservation, Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology, University of Göttingen, Buesgenweg 3, 37077 Goettingen, Germany
| | - Teja Tscharntke
- Agroecology, Dept. of Crop Sciences, University of Göttingen, Germany
- Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use (CBL), University of Göttingen, Germany
| | - Manfred Türke
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biological and Medical Imaging (IBMI), Helmholtz Zentrum München (HMGU) - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany
| | - Nicole M van Dam
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Dornburger-Str. 159, 07743 Jena, Germany
| | - Fons van der Plas
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anja Vogel
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Dornburger Straße 159, 07743 Jena, Germany
| | - Cameron Wagg
- Fredericton Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 850 Lincoln Road, E3B 8B7, Fredericton, Canada
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, 190 Winterthurerstrasse, 8057, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - David A Wardle
- Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798
| | - Alexandra Weigelt
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Johannisallee 21-23, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Wolfgang W Weisser
- Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Technical University of Munich, School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354 Freising, Germany
| | - Christian Wirth
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Johannisallee 21-23, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Malte Jochum
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013 Bern, Switzerland
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39
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Gibb H, Grossman BF, Dickman CR, Decker O, Wardle GM. Long‐term responses of desert ant assemblages to climate. J Anim Ecol 2019; 88:1549-1563. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2018] [Accepted: 05/24/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Heloise Gibb
- Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution La Trobe University Melbourne Victoria Australia
| | - Blair F. Grossman
- Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution La Trobe University Melbourne Victoria Australia
| | - Chris R. Dickman
- Desert Ecology Research Group, School of Life and Environmental Sciences The University of Sydney Sydney New South Wales Australia
| | - Orsolya Decker
- Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution La Trobe University Melbourne Victoria Australia
| | - Glenda M. Wardle
- Desert Ecology Research Group, School of Life and Environmental Sciences The University of Sydney Sydney New South Wales Australia
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40
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Seabloom EW, Condon B, Kinkel L, Komatsu KJ, Lumibao CY, May G, McCulley RL, Borer ET. Effects of nutrient supply, herbivory, and host community on fungal endophyte diversity. Ecology 2019; 100:e02758. [PMID: 31306499 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2758] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2018] [Revised: 03/21/2019] [Accepted: 04/17/2019] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
The microbes contained within free-living organisms can alter host growth, reproduction, and interactions with the environment. In turn, processes occurring at larger scales determine the local biotic and abiotic environment of each host that may affect the diversity and composition of the microbiome community. Here, we examine variation in the diversity and composition of the foliar fungal microbiome in the grass host, Andropogon gerardii, across four mesic prairies in the central United States. Composition of fungal endophyte communities differed among sites and among individuals within a site, but was not consistently affected by experimental manipulation of nutrient supply to hosts (A. gerardii) or herbivore reduction via fencing. In contrast, mean fungal diversity was similar among sites but was limited by total plant biomass at the plot scale. Our work demonstrates that distributed experiments motivated by ecological theory are a powerful tool to unravel the multiscale processes governing microbial community composition and diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric W Seabloom
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
| | - Bradford Condon
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
| | - Linda Kinkel
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
| | - Kimberly J Komatsu
- Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 647 Contees Wharf Road, Edgewater, Maryland, 21037, USA
| | - Candice Y Lumibao
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
| | - Georgiana May
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
| | - Rebecca L McCulley
- Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 40536-0312, USA
| | - Elizabeth T Borer
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA
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41
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Forbes ES, Cushman JH, Burkepile DE, Young TP, Klope M, Young HS. Synthesizing the effects of large, wild herbivore exclusion on ecosystem function. Funct Ecol 2019. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13376] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth S. Forbes
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara California
| | - J. Hall Cushman
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science University of Nevada – Reno Reno Nevada
| | - Deron E. Burkepile
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara California
| | - Truman P. Young
- Department of Plant Sciences University of California, Davis Davis California
| | - Maggie Klope
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara California
| | - Hillary S. Young
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara California
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42
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Welti EAR, Sanders NJ, de Beurs KM, Kaspari M. A distributed experiment demonstrates widespread sodium limitation in grassland food webs. Ecology 2019; 100:e02600. [PMID: 30726560 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2600] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2018] [Revised: 11/28/2018] [Accepted: 12/20/2018] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Sodium (Na) has a unique role in food webs as a nutrient primarily limiting for plant consumers, but not other trophic levels. Environmental Na levels vary with proximity to coasts, local geomorphology, climate, and with anthropogenic inputs (e.g., road salt). We tested two key predictions across 54 grasslands in North America: Na shortfall commonly limits herbivore abundance, and the magnitude of this limitation varies inversely with environmental Na supplies. We tested them with a distributed pulse experiment and evaluated the relative importance of Na limitation to other classic drivers of climate, macronutrient levels, and plant productivity. Herbivore abundance increased by 45% with Na addition. Moreover, the magnitude of increase on Na addition plots decreased with increasing levels of plant Na, indicating Na satiation at sites with high Na concentrations in plant tissue. Our results demonstrate that invertebrate primary consumers are often Na limited and track local Na availability, with implications for the geography of invertebrate abundance and herbivory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellen A R Welti
- Geographical Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 73019, USA
| | - Nathan J Sanders
- The Environmental Program, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, 05405, USA
| | - Kirsten M de Beurs
- Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 73019, USA
| | - Michael Kaspari
- Geographical Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 73019, USA
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43
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Leaf nutrients, not specific leaf area, are consistent indicators of elevated nutrient inputs. Nat Ecol Evol 2019; 3:400-406. [PMID: 30718853 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0790-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2018] [Accepted: 12/19/2018] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Leaf traits are frequently measured in ecology to provide a 'common currency' for predicting how anthropogenic pressures impact ecosystem function. Here, we test whether leaf traits consistently respond to experimental treatments across 27 globally distributed grassland sites across 4 continents. We find that specific leaf area (leaf area per unit mass)-a commonly measured morphological trait inferring shifts between plant growth strategies-did not respond to up to four years of soil nutrient additions. Leaf nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium concentrations increased in response to the addition of each respective soil nutrient. We found few significant changes in leaf traits when vertebrate herbivores were excluded in the short-term. Leaf nitrogen and potassium concentrations were positively correlated with species turnover, suggesting that interspecific trait variation was a significant predictor of leaf nitrogen and potassium, but not of leaf phosphorus concentration. Climatic conditions and pretreatment soil nutrient levels also accounted for significant amounts of variation in the leaf traits measured. Overall, we find that leaf morphological traits, such as specific leaf area, are not appropriate indicators of plant response to anthropogenic perturbations in grasslands.
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44
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Langley JA, Chapman SK, La Pierre KJ, Avolio M, Bowman WD, Johnson DS, Isbell F, Wilcox KR, Foster BL, Hovenden MJ, Knapp AK, Koerner SE, Lortie CJ, Megonigal JP, Newton PCD, Reich PB, Smith MD, Suttle KB, Tilman D. Ambient changes exceed treatment effects on plant species abundance in global change experiments. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2018; 24:5668-5679. [PMID: 30369019 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14442] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2018] [Accepted: 08/02/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
The responses of species to environmental changes will determine future community composition and ecosystem function. Many syntheses of global change experiments examine the magnitude of treatment effect sizes, but we lack an understanding of how plant responses to treatments compare to ongoing changes in the unmanipulated (ambient or background) system. We used a database of long-term global change studies manipulating CO2 , nutrients, water, and temperature to answer three questions: (a) How do changes in plant species abundance in ambient plots relate to those in treated plots? (b) How does the magnitude of ambient change in species-level abundance over time relate to responsiveness to global change treatments? (c) Does the direction of species-level responses to global change treatments differ from the direction of ambient change? We estimated temporal trends in plant abundance for 791 plant species in ambient and treated plots across 16 long-term global change experiments yielding 2,116 experiment-species-treatment combinations. Surprisingly, for most species (57%) the magnitude of ambient change was greater than the magnitude of treatment effects. However, the direction of ambient change, whether a species was increasing or decreasing in abundance under ambient conditions, had no bearing on the direction of treatment effects. Although ambient communities are inherently dynamic, there is now widespread evidence that anthropogenic drivers are directionally altering plant communities in many ecosystems. Thus, global change treatment effects must be interpreted in the context of plant species trajectories that are likely driven by ongoing environmental changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Adam Langley
- Department of Biology, Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania
| | | | | | - Meghan Avolio
- Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - William D Bowman
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Mountain Research Station, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
| | - David S Johnson
- Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, Virginia
| | - Forest Isbell
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota
| | - Kevin R Wilcox
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Fort Collins, Colorado
| | - Bryan L Foster
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Kansas Biological Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
| | - Mark J Hovenden
- Biological Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
| | - Alan K Knapp
- Department of Biology and Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Fort Collins, Colorado
| | - Sally E Koerner
- Department of Biology, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina
| | - Christopher J Lortie
- The National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, UCSB, Santa Barbara, California
| | | | | | - Peter B Reich
- Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Melinda D Smith
- Department of Biology and Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Fort Collins, Colorado
| | - Kenwyn B Suttle
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California
| | - David Tilman
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota
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45
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Dou X, Chen L, Lei M, Zellmer L, Jia Q, Ling P, He Y, Yang W, Liao DJ. Evaluating the Remote Control of Programmed Cell Death, with or without a Compensatory Cell Proliferation. Int J Biol Sci 2018; 14:1800-1812. [PMID: 30443184 PMCID: PMC6231223 DOI: 10.7150/ijbs.26962] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2018] [Accepted: 08/24/2018] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Organisms and their different component levels, whether organelle, cellular or other, come by birth and go by death, and the deaths are often balanced by new births. Evolution on the one hand has built demise program(s) in cells of organisms but on the other hand has established external controls on the program(s). For instance, evolution has established death program(s) in animal cells so that the cells can, when it is needed, commit apoptosis or senescent death (SD) in physiological situations and stress-induced cell death (SICD) in pathological situations. However, these programmed cell deaths are not predominantly regulated by the cells that do the dying but, instead, are controlled externally and remotely by the cells' superior(s), i.e. their host tissue or organ or even the animal's body. Currently, it is still unclear whether a cell has only one death program or has several programs respectively controlling SD, apoptosis and SICD. In animals, apoptosis exterminates, in a physiological manner, healthy but no-longer needed cells to avoid cell redundancy, whereas suicidal SD and SICD, like homicidal necrosis, terminate ill but useful cells, which may be followed by regeneration of the live cells and by scar formation to heal the damaged organ or tissue. Therefore, “who dies” clearly differentiates apoptosis from SD, SICD and necrosis. In animals, apoptosis can occur only in those cell types that retain a lifelong ability of proliferation and never occurs in those cell types that can no longer replicate in adulthood. In cancer cells, SICD is strengthened, apoptosis is dramatically weakened while SD has been lost. Most published studies professed to be about apoptosis are actually about SICD, which has four basic and well-articulated pathways involving caspases or involving pathological alterations in the mitochondria, endoplasmic reticula, or lysosomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xixi Dou
- Key Laboratory of Biopharmaceuticals, Shandong Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Jinan 250101, Shandong Province, P.R. China.,Technology Center, Shandong Freda Pharmaceutical Group, Jinan 250101, Shandong Province, P.R. China
| | - Lichan Chen
- College of Chemical Engineering, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361021, Fujian Province, P.R. China
| | - Mingjuan Lei
- Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota, Austin, MN 55912, USA
| | - Lucas Zellmer
- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, 435 E. River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Qingwen Jia
- Key Laboratory of Biopharmaceuticals, Shandong Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Jinan 250101, Shandong Province, P.R. China
| | - Peixue Ling
- Key Laboratory of Biopharmaceuticals, Shandong Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Jinan 250101, Shandong Province, P.R. China.,Technology Center, Shandong Freda Pharmaceutical Group, Jinan 250101, Shandong Province, P.R. China
| | - Yan He
- Key Lab of Endemic and Ethnic Diseases of the Ministry of Education of China in Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang 550004, Guizhou Province, P.R. China
| | - Wenxiu Yang
- Department of Pathology, Guizhou Medical University Hospital, Guiyang 550004, Guizhou province, P.R. China
| | - Dezhong Joshua Liao
- Key Lab of Endemic and Ethnic Diseases of the Ministry of Education of China in Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang 550004, Guizhou Province, P.R. China.,Department of Pathology, Guizhou Medical University Hospital, Guiyang 550004, Guizhou province, P.R. China
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46
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47
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Nogueira C, Nunes A, Bugalho MN, Branquinho C, McCulley RL, Caldeira MC. Nutrient Addition and Drought Interact to Change the Structure and Decrease the Functional Diversity of a Mediterranean Grassland. Front Ecol Evol 2018. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2018.00155] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
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48
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Abstract
Grasslands are a vitally important ecosystem, supporting a wide range of ecosystem services and high levels of biodiversity. As a consequence, they have long been a focus for ecologists, playing host to some of the world’s longest-running ecological experiments and providing the inspiration for many long-standing theories and debates. Because the field of grassland ecology is broad, encompassing many areas of ecology, this article picks some areas of particular debate and development to look at recent advances. The areas include relationships between diversity and productivity, ecosystem stability and ecosystem service provision, global change threats from nutrient addition, invasive species, climate change, and plant soil interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carly J Stevens
- Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
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49
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Liang M, Chen J, Gornish ES, Bai X, Li Z, Liang C. Grazing effect on grasslands escalated by abnormal precipitations in Inner Mongolia. Ecol Evol 2018; 8:8187-8196. [PMID: 30250694 PMCID: PMC6144992 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.4331] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2018] [Revised: 06/08/2018] [Accepted: 06/17/2018] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Grazing effects on arid and semi-arid grasslands can be constrained by aridity. Plant functional groups (PFGs) are the most basic component of community structure (CS) and biodiversity & ecosystem function (BEF). They have been suggested as identity-dependent in quantifying the response to grazing intensity and drought severity. Here, we examine how the relationships among PFGs, CS, BEF, and grazing intensity are driven by climatic drought. We conducted a manipulative experiment with three grazing intensities in 2012 (nondrought year) and 2013 (drought year). We classified 62 herbaceous plants into four functional groups based on their life forms. We used the relative species abundance of PFGs to quantify the effects of grazing and drought, and to explore the mechanisms for the pathway correlations using structural equation models (SEM) among PFGs, CS, and BEF directly or indirectly. Grazers consistently favored the perennial forbs (e.g., palatable or nutritious plants), decreasing the plants' relative abundance by 23%-38%. Drought decreased the relative abundance of ephemeral plants by 42 ± 13%; and increased perennial forbs by 20 ± 7% and graminoids by 80 ± 31%. SEM confirmed that annuals and biennials had negative correlations with the other three PFGs, with perennial bunchgrasses facilitated by perennial rhizome grass. Moreover, the contributions of grazing to community structure (i.e., canopy height) were 1.6-6.1 times those from drought, whereas drought effect on community species richness was 3.6 times of the grazing treatment. Lastly, the interactive effects of grazing and drought on BEF were greater than either alone; particularly, drought escalated grazing damage on primary production. Synthesis. The responses of PFGs, CS, and BEF to grazing and drought were identity-dependent, suggesting that grazing and drought regulation of plant functional groups might be a way to shape ecosystem structure and function in grasslands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maowei Liang
- School of Ecology and EnvironmentInner Mongolia UniversityHohhotChina
- Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial SciencesCenter for Global Change and Earth ObservationsMichigan State UniversityEast LansingMichigan
| | - Jiquan Chen
- Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial SciencesCenter for Global Change and Earth ObservationsMichigan State UniversityEast LansingMichigan
| | - Elise S. Gornish
- School of Natural Resources and the EnvironmentThe University of ArizonaTucsonArizona
| | - Xue Bai
- School of Forest ResourcesUniversity of MaineOronoMaine
| | - Zhiyong Li
- School of Ecology and EnvironmentInner Mongolia UniversityHohhotChina
| | - Cunzhu Liang
- School of Ecology and EnvironmentInner Mongolia UniversityHohhotChina
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50
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Jia S, Wang X, Yuan Z, Lin F, Ye J, Hao Z, Luskin MS. Global signal of top-down control of terrestrial plant communities by herbivores. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2018; 115:6237-6242. [PMID: 29848630 PMCID: PMC6004463 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1707984115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The theory of "top-down" ecological regulation predicts that herbivory suppresses plant abundance, biomass, and survival but increases diversity through the disproportionate consumption of dominant species, which inhibits competitive exclusion. To date, these outcomes have been clear in aquatic ecosystems but not on land. We explicate this discrepancy using a meta-analysis of experimental results from 123 native animal exclusions in natural terrestrial ecosystems (623 pairwise comparisons). Consistent with top-down predictions, we found that herbivores significantly reduced plant abundance, biomass, survival, and reproduction (all P < 0.01) and increased species evenness but not richness (P = 0.06 and P = 0.59, respectively). However, when examining patterns in the strength of top-down effects, with few exceptions, we were unable to detect significantly different effect sizes among biomes, based on local site characteristics (climate or productivity) or study characteristics (study duration or exclosure size). The positive effects on diversity were only significant in studies excluding large animals or located in temperate grasslands. The results demonstrate that top-down regulation by herbivores is a pervasive process shaping terrestrial plant communities at the global scale, but its strength is highly site specific and not predicted by basic site conditions. We suggest that including herbivore densities as a covariate in future exclosure studies will facilitate the discovery of unresolved macroecology trends in the strength of herbivore-plant interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shihong Jia
- Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 110016 Shenyang, China
- College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049 Beijing, China
| | - Xugao Wang
- Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 110016 Shenyang, China;
| | - Zuoqiang Yuan
- Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 110016 Shenyang, China
| | - Fei Lin
- Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 110016 Shenyang, China
| | - Ji Ye
- Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 110016 Shenyang, China
| | - Zhanqing Hao
- Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 110016 Shenyang, China
| | - Matthew Scott Luskin
- Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory-Center for Tropical Forest Science, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Washington, DC 20012;
- Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore
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