Plant controls on Late Quaternary whole ecosystem structure and function.

Autor: Jeffers ES; Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK., Whitehouse NJ; School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK., Lister A; Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum London, London, SW7 5BD, UK., Plunkett G; School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, UK., Barratt P; School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK., Smyth E; School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, UK., Lamb P; School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK., Dee MW; Research Laboratory for Archaeology & the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK., Brooks SJ; Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum London, London, SW7 5BD, UK., Willis KJ; Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK.; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, TW9 3AE, UK., Froyd CA; Department of Biosciences, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK., Watson JE; School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, UK., Bonsall MB; Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Ecology letters [Ecol Lett] 2018 Jun; Vol. 21 (6), pp. 814-825. Date of Electronic Publication: 2018 Mar 30.
DOI: 10.1111/ele.12944
Abstrakt: Plants and animals influence biomass production and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems; however, their relative importance remains unclear. We assessed the extent to which mega-herbivore species controlled plant community composition and nutrient cycling, relative to other factors during and after the Late Quaternary extinction event in Britain and Ireland, when two-thirds of the region's mega-herbivore species went extinct. Warmer temperatures, plant-soil and plant-plant interactions, and reduced burning contributed to the expansion of woody plants and declining nitrogen availability in our five study ecosystems. Shrub biomass was consistently one of the strongest predictors of ecosystem change, equalling or exceeding the effects of other biotic and abiotic factors. In contrast, there was relatively little evidence for mega-herbivore control on plant community composition and nitrogen availability. The ability of plants to determine the fate of terrestrial ecosystems during periods of global environmental change may therefore be greater than previously thought.
(© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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