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Sasaki T, Berdugo M, Kinugasa T, Batdelger G, Baasandai E, Eisenhauer N. Aridity-dependent shifts in biodiversity-stability relationships but not in underlying mechanisms. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2024; 30:e17365. [PMID: 38864217 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.17365] [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: 09/16/2023] [Revised: 05/09/2024] [Accepted: 05/12/2024] [Indexed: 06/13/2024]
Abstract
Climate change will affect the way biodiversity influences the stability of plant communities. Although biodiversity, associated species asynchrony, and species stability could enhance community stability, the understanding of potential nonlinear shifts in the biodiversity-stability relationship across a wide range of aridity (measured as the aridity index, the precipitation/potential evapotranspiration ratio) gradients and the underlying mechanisms remain limited. Using an 8-year dataset from 687 sites in Mongolia, which included 5496 records of vegetation and productivity, we found that the temporal stability of plant communities decreased more rapidly in more arid areas than in less arid areas. The result suggests that future aridification across terrestrial ecosystems may adversely affect community stability. Additionally, we identified nonlinear shifts in the effects of species richness and species synchrony on temporal community stability along the aridity gradient. Species synchrony was a primary driver of community stability, which was consistently negatively affected by species richness while being positively affected by the synchrony between C3 and C4 species across the aridity gradient. These results highlight the crucial role of C4 species in stabilizing communities through differential responses to interannual climate variations between C3 and C4 species. Notably, species richness and the synchrony between C3 and C4 species independently regulated species synchrony, ultimately affecting community stability. We propose that maintaining plant communities with a high diversity of C3 and C4 species will be key to enhancing community stability across Mongolian grasslands. Moreover, species synchrony, species stability, species richness and the synchrony between C3 and C4 species across the aridity gradient consistently mediated the impacts of aridity on community stability. Hence, strategies aimed at promoting the maintenance of biological diversity and composition will help ecosystems adapt to climate change or mitigate its adverse effects on ecosystem stability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takehiro Sasaki
- Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences, Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
- Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan
| | - Miguel Berdugo
- Department of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Department of Environment Systems Science, Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | | | - Gantsetseg Batdelger
- Information and Research Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment (IRIMHE) of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
| | - Erdenetsetseg Baasandai
- Information and Research Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment (IRIMHE) of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
| | - Nico Eisenhauer
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
- Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan
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Zhang YS, Meiners SJ, Meng Y, Yao Q, Guo K, Guo WY, Li SP. Temporal dynamics of Grime's CSR strategies in plant communities during 60 years of succession. Ecol Lett 2024; 27:e14446. [PMID: 38814284 DOI: 10.1111/ele.14446] [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: 02/21/2024] [Revised: 05/02/2024] [Accepted: 05/03/2024] [Indexed: 05/31/2024]
Abstract
Grime's competitive, stress-tolerant, ruderal (CSR) theory predicts a shift in plant communities from ruderal to stress-tolerant strategies during secondary succession. However, this fundamental tenet lacks empirical validation using long-term continuous successional data. Utilizing a 60-year longitudinal data of old-field succession, we investigated the community-level dynamics of plant strategies over time. Our findings reveal that while plant communities generally transitioned from ruderal to stress-tolerant strategies during succession, initial abandonment conditions crucially shaped early successional strategies, leading to varied strategy trajectories across different fields. Furthermore, we found a notable divergence in the CSR strategies of alien and native species over succession. Initially, alien and native species exhibited similar ruderal strategies, but in later stages, alien species exhibited higher ruderal and lower stress tolerance compared to native species. Overall, our findings underscore the applicability of Grime's predictions regarding temporal shifts in CSR strategies depending on both initial community conditions and species origin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yan-Song Zhang
- Zhejiang Tiantong Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Zhejiang Zhoushan Island Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, Institute of Eco-Chongming, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Scott J Meiners
- Department of Biological Sciences, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois, USA
| | - Yani Meng
- Zhejiang Tiantong Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Zhejiang Zhoushan Island Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, Institute of Eco-Chongming, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Qi Yao
- Zhejiang Tiantong Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Zhejiang Zhoushan Island Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, Institute of Eco-Chongming, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Kun Guo
- Zhejiang Tiantong Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Zhejiang Zhoushan Island Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, Institute of Eco-Chongming, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Wen-Yong Guo
- Zhejiang Tiantong Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Zhejiang Zhoushan Island Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, Institute of Eco-Chongming, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Shao-Peng Li
- Zhejiang Tiantong Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Zhejiang Zhoushan Island Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, Institute of Eco-Chongming, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
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Parmentier T, Bonte D, De Laender F. A successional shift enhances stability in ant symbiont communities. Commun Biol 2024; 7:645. [PMID: 38802499 PMCID: PMC11130137 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06305-3] [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: 02/09/2024] [Accepted: 05/08/2024] [Indexed: 05/29/2024] Open
Abstract
Throughout succession, communities undergo structural shifts, which can alter the relative abundances of species and how they interact. It is frequently asserted that these alterations beget stability, i.e. that succession selects for communities better able to resist perturbations. Yet, whether and how alterations of network structure affect stability during succession in complex communities is rarely studied in natural ecosystems. Here, we explore how network attributes influence stability of different successional stages of a natural network: symbiotic arthropod communities forming food webs inside red wood ant nests. We determined the abundance of 16 functional groups within the symbiont community across 51 host nests in the beginning and end stages of succession. Nest age was the main driver of the compositional shifts: symbiont communities in old nests contained more even species abundance distributions and a greater proportion of specialists. Based on the abundance data, we reconstructed interaction matrices and food webs of the symbiont community for each nest. We showed that the enhanced community evenness in old nests leads to an augmented food web stability in all but the largest symbiont communities. Overall, this study demonstrates that succession begets stability in a natural ecological network by making the community more even.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Parmentier
- Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Department of Biology, University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium.
- Research Unit of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, naXys, ILEE, University of Namur, Namur, Belgium.
| | - Dries Bonte
- Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Department of Biology, University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Frederik De Laender
- Research Unit of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, naXys, ILEE, University of Namur, Namur, Belgium
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Li Y, Chen Z, Wagg C, Castellano MJ, Zhang N, Ding W. Soil organic carbon loss decreases biodiversity but stimulates multitrophic interactions that promote belowground metabolism. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2024; 30:e17101. [PMID: 38273560 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.17101] [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: 10/10/2023] [Revised: 12/01/2023] [Accepted: 12/02/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2024]
Abstract
Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays an essential role in mediating community structure and metabolic activities of belowground biota. Unraveling the evolution of belowground communities and their feedback mechanisms on SOC dynamics helps embed the ecology of soil microbiome into carbon cycling, which serves to improve biodiversity conservation and carbon management strategy under global change. Here, croplands with a SOC gradient were used to understand how belowground metabolisms and SOC decomposition were linked to the diversity, composition, and co-occurrence networks of belowground communities encompassing archaea, bacteria, fungi, protists, and invertebrates. As SOC decreased, the diversity of prokaryotes and eukaryotes also decreased, but their network complexity showed contrasting patterns: prokaryotes increased due to intensified niche overlap, while that of eukaryotes decreased possibly because of greater dispersal limitation owing to the breakdown of macroaggregates. Despite the decrease in biodiversity and SOC stocks, the belowground metabolic capacity was enhanced as indicated by increased enzyme activity and decreased enzymatic stoichiometric imbalance. This could, in turn, expedite carbon loss through respiration, particularly in the slow-cycling pool. The enhanced belowground metabolic capacity was dominantly driven by greater multitrophic network complexity and particularly negative (competitive and predator-prey) associations, which fostered the stability of the belowground metacommunity. Interestingly, soil abiotic conditions including pH, aeration, and nutrient stocks, exhibited a less significant role. Overall, this study reveals a greater need for soil C resources across multitrophic levels to maintain metabolic functionality as declining SOC results in biodiversity loss. Our researchers highlight the importance of integrating belowground biological processes into models of SOC turnover, to improve agroecosystem functioning and carbon management in face of intensifying anthropogenic land-use and climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ye Li
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Zengming Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
| | - Cameron Wagg
- Fredericton Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
| | | | - Nan Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
- School of Applied Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, China
| | - Weixin Ding
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
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