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Rillig MC, Lehmann A, Orr JA, Rongstock R. Factors of global change affecting plants act at different levels of the ecological hierarchy. Plant J 2024; 117:1781-1785. [PMID: 37873939 DOI: 10.1111/tpj.16509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2023] [Revised: 10/05/2023] [Accepted: 10/10/2023] [Indexed: 10/25/2023]
Abstract
Plants and ecosystems worldwide are exposed to a wide range of chemical, physical, and biological factors of global change, many of which act concurrently. As bringing order to the array of factors is required in order to generate an enhanced understanding of simultaneous impacts, classification schemes have been developed. One such classification scheme is dedicated to capturing the different targets of global change factors along the ecological hierarchy. We build on this pioneering work, and refine the conceptual framework in several ways, focusing on plants and terrestrial systems: (i) we more strictly define the target level of the hierarchy, such that every factor typically has just one target level, and not many; (ii) we include effects above the level of the community, that is, there are effects also at the ecosystem scale that cannot be reduced to any level below this; (iii) we introduce the level of the landscape to capture certain land use change effects while abandoning the level below the individual. We discuss how effects can propagate along the levels of the ecological hierarchy, upwards and downwards, presenting opportunities for explaining non-additivity of effects of multiple factors. We hope that this updated conceptual framework will help inform the next generation of plant-focused global change experiments, specifically aimed at non-additivity of effects at the confluence of many factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthias C Rillig
- Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Altensteinstr. 6, 14195, Berlin, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), 14195, Berlin, Germany
| | - Anika Lehmann
- Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Altensteinstr. 6, 14195, Berlin, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), 14195, Berlin, Germany
| | - James A Orr
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Rebecca Rongstock
- Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Altensteinstr. 6, 14195, Berlin, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), 14195, Berlin, Germany
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Lehmann A, Zheng W, Ryo M, Soutschek K, Roy J, Rongstock R, Maaß S, Rillig MC. Fungal Traits Important for Soil Aggregation. Front Microbiol 2020; 10:2904. [PMID: 31998249 PMCID: PMC6962133 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.02904] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2019] [Accepted: 12/02/2019] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Soil structure, the complex arrangement of soil into aggregates and pore spaces, is a key feature of soils and soil biota. Among them, filamentous saprobic fungi have well-documented effects on soil aggregation. However, it is unclear what properties, or traits, determine the overall positive effect of fungi on soil aggregation. To achieve progress, it would be helpful to systematically investigate a broad suite of fungal species for their trait expression and the relation of these traits to soil aggregation. Here, we apply a trait-based approach to a set of 15 traits measured under standardized conditions on 31 fungal strains including Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Mucoromycota, all isolated from the same soil. We find large differences among these fungi in their ability to aggregate soil, including neutral to positive effects, and we document large differences in trait expression among strains. We identify biomass density, i.e., the density with which a mycelium grows (positive effects), leucine aminopeptidase activity (negative effects) and phylogeny as important factors explaining differences in soil aggregate formation (SAF) among fungal strains; importantly, growth rate was not among the important traits. Our results point to a typical suite of traits characterizing fungi that are good soil aggregators, and our findings illustrate the power of employing a trait-based approach to unravel biological mechanisms underpinning soil aggregation. Such an approach could now be extended also to other soil biota groups. In an applied context of restoration and agriculture, such trait information can inform management, for example to prioritize practices that favor the expression of more desirable fungal traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anika Lehmann
- Ecology of Plants, Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Masahiro Ryo
- Ecology of Plants, Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Berlin, Germany
| | - Katharina Soutschek
- Ecology of Plants, Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Julien Roy
- Ecology of Plants, Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Berlin, Germany
| | - Rebecca Rongstock
- Ecology of Plants, Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Stefanie Maaß
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Berlin, Germany
- Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, Institut für Biochemie und Biologie, Universität Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Matthias C. Rillig
- Ecology of Plants, Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Berlin, Germany
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