Interpreting the effects of plant species diversity and genotypic diversity within a dominant species on above- and belowground overyielding

Autor: Huayu Lu, Yujuan Xu, Xue Yang, Man Jiang, Yubao Gao, Yukun Wang, Nianxi Zhao, Yajie Xue, Jinlong Wang
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Science of The Total Environment. 786:147505
ISSN: 0048-9697
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147505
Popis: Biodiversity loss, either intraspecific or interspecific level, could alter community processes and ecosystem functioning. Exploring the mechanisms by which biodiversity at different levels influences ecosystem functioning is a major challenge in the field of ecology. In this study, by constructing plant communities with different diversity levels of both dominant species (Stipa grandis) genotype and common species in a mesocosm experiment, we analyzed the relative importance of dominant genotype diversity and common species diversity on biomass production through Fox's tripartite partition, and the relationships between community functional diversity and biomass production. For common species mixtures (G0S5), a significant positive net diversity effect on belowground biomass was found, and the net effect was contributed by a significant positive dominance effect and a significant negative trait-independent complementarity effect. For genotype mixtures of S. grandis (G5S0), a significant positive net diversity effect on aboveground biomass and a non-significant positive net diversity effect on belowground biomass were found, and both the effects were driven by positive trait-independent complementarity effects. The increases in both dominant genotype and common species diversity (G5S5) led to remarkable positive net diversity effects, with a significant positive trait-independent complementarity effect on belowground biomass and all the three biodiversity effect components on aboveground biomass being significantly positive. Only a small proportion (3/22) of relationships between community functional diversity and biomass were linear by a first order polynomial estimation. The significant positive trait-independent complementarity effect in G5S0 and trait-dependent complementarity effect in G5S5 could not be explained by the smaller intraspecific trait variation. These findings highlight the underestimated and overlooked roles of dominant genotypic diversity for ecosystem functioning, and are very important for grassland protection and management, especially in the semi-arid typical steppe.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz: